In a First, Air Guardsmen and Reservists Take on JROTC Instructor Duty

Aug. 21, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

As schools come back into session for the fall, drilling Guardsmen and Reservists will take up Air Force JROTC instructor duty for the first time ever.

“I’m not really done with my uniform,” explained Maj. Dawn Longfellow, an intelligence analyst in the Air National Guard who will be a JROTC instructor at Effingham County High School near Savannah, Ga. “I can add more to … my points for retirement. I can finish [Air Command and Staff College]. I can promote to lieutenant colonel if I find a position. And to tell you the truth, all of that advanced professional military education and training is so relevant to leading in the classroom—you’re a great role model because of all that.”

Longfellow, who just completed a tour as an AFJROTC instructor recruiter, said her experience has made her helpful to potential applicants trying to navigate the system. She identified issues and emailed applicants to share insights. Having also completed a tour at Officer Training School, she hopes that experience will prove valuable in the high school environment.

Col. Johnny R. McGonigal, director for Air Force JROTC, said having instructors with recent military experience will make JROTC more relatable to students.

Air Force Reserve Master Sgt. Cynthia Webster, the Reserve’s first drilling JROTC instructor, also agreed.

“I think it’s a win-win for everyone involved,” Webster said in a release. “Serving as a JROTC Instructor while simultaneously serving in the reserves helps senior NCOs relate to the junior members of their units. This will benefit the integration and fit of newly assigned personnel and allow unit leaders to develop deeper, more effective relationships with their workforce. It’s a win for currently serving reservists like me because it broadened the range of opportunities available in the area.”

Webster started as an aerospace science instructor at Mae Jemison High School in Huntsville, Ala., in July.

MSgt Cynthia Webster, the Senior Air Reserve Technician with the 908th Aerospace Staging Squadron, poses for a portrait at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala. Webster is the first drilling reservist to serve as an Air Force Junior ROTC instructor. (Courtesy photo)

Instructor Shortage

If Webster, Longfellow, and their cohort are successful, the Guard and Reserve could be the answer to the long-term instructor shortage plaguing JROTC. While every AFROTC unit is supposed to have two instructors—one officer and one enlisted—close to one in five jobs is empty. Last spring, McGonigal told Air & Space Forces Magazine that 160 of 870 units had just one or no instructors.

“We are at all-time lows right now,” he said.

One year later the problem is worse: Some 240 billets are still vacant, according to the Air Force JROTC website. Vacancies run the gamut, from Alaska to Florida.

The pipeline for Guardsmen and Reservists is still new. Congress included a provision in the 2023 National Defense Authorization Ac, but it took the Pentagon until until April of this year to finalize pay tables and other details.

Since then, 84 Guard and Reserve members have applied, with nine accepted so far, an Air Force spokesperson said. Even more have expressed interest, the spokesperson added, “but we typically don’t start formally tracking them until they’ve initiated the application process.” In addition, nine veterans have applied. Under the new rules, veterans are also now eligible, while in the past, only retired members could get these jobs.

Pay and Eligibility

Junior ROTC started in 1911, and the first Air Force units stood up in 1966. Envisioned as a voluntary youth citizenship and self-discipline program, JROTC is not a recruiting program. But it does expose youth to the Air Force. In recent years, the program has been roiled by controversy, however, with reports of some schools automatically enrolling students, and also a few cases of sexual assault and abuse.

Meanwhile, stagnating pay and the demographics of military retirees has also changed the applicant pool and with fewer applicants, some locations are at risk of shutting down. Congress authorized expansion of eligibility for instructors to include any Guardsman, Reservist, or veteran with at least eight years of service.

The Air Force implementation of those rules is even stricter. Air Force JROTC instructor requirements call for:

At least 10 years of military service

Enlisted members at the rank of technical sergeant or higher

Officers at the rank of captain through colonel or prior enlisted officers at any rank

At least an associate’s degree (no exceptions allowed)

Pay is now more complicated. Under the old system, JROTC instructors were paid what they would earn if still on Active duty, including housing and subsistence allowances, with DOD and the local school splitting the cost. Now there is a Standardized Instructor Pay Scale, with set minimums baed on location, rank, and educational attainment.The school pays the salary, and the Air Force reimburses the school for half the pay. Schools are not limited to paying the minimum; instructors can negotiate beyond that with the school.

Longfellow said the pay will be less than she made before, but the duty makes that worthwhile, she said. “It’s super rewarding,” she said. “And I don’t have to deal quite so much with the layers of bureaucracy that are in the military.”

The Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps patch at Salisbury, Maryland, August 10, 2022. Cadets have the opportunity to take an eight week course where they earn their private pilots license. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Greydon Furstenau)

Northrop Finishes Round of Flight Tests on New Sensor That Can Do Radar, Comms, and EW

Aug. 20, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Northrop Grumman has completed “dozens” of flight tests in a “first flight campaign” with its new Electronically-Scanned Multifunction Reconfigurable Integrated Sensor, which it wants to field on multiple platforms to include Collaborative Combat Aircraft drones and potentially the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter, the company said Aug. 20.

The company announced EMRIS in February 2023, saying the technology could simultaneously conduct radar operations, communications, and electronic warfare, and would be small enough to be applicable to a wide range of airborne systems. An ultra-wideband system, it is intended to be rapidly reconfigurable, and employ software updates inflight, Northrop said.

“These flights, completed in partnership with government partners and on a government-provided aircraft, are the next stage of technology maturation for EMRIS,” Northrop said. The flight demonstrated “the open architecture nature of EMRIS by using third-party integration and operation.” The company could not immediately identify the test aircraft.

New software “was rapidly deployed during flights, demonstrating the reconfigurable nature of the sensor,” Northrop added. Northrop developed the technology in partnership with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

The company has previously said the aperture and related hardware is compact enough to be mounted in the nose or on the wings of an aircraft or even a munition.

Krys Moen, Northrop’s vice president for advanced mission capabilities, said the “dozens of successful flights with EMRIS demonstrated the ability to reduce development timelines and lower program costs” by leveraging the company’s partnerships with all the U.S. military services. The applications include “crewed and uncrewed platforms.”

The radar sensor in the system is an active, electronically-scanned array radar developed under DARPA’s “Arrays on Commercial Timescales” program, combined with government open architecture standards. This allows it to perform multiple radio frequency (RF) functions simultaneously. Northrop said it was designed using “common building blocks and software containerization” which will allow for “rapid, cost-effective production.”

AESA radars are already fielded on several kinds of U.S. Air Force aircraft, including the F-35, F-22, and F-16. Northrop also builds the Multirole Electronically Scanned Array radar that goes on the back of the E-7 Wedgetail, which will become the Air Force’s new airborne early warning and control aircraft.

The company said it is proceeding with testing on a second EMRIS array, and this phase will “demonstrate its scalable nature by fabricating two smaller EMRIS apertures for lower cost and size-constrained application demonstrations.” It was not immediately able to say whether a further flight test campaign is planned or whether the system is being configured for a particular platform or launch customer.

“As part of EMRIS’ flights, Northrop Grumman demonstrated the ability to quickly leverage technologies developed for other programs to adapt multiple fielded capabilities into EMRIS,” the company said, but it did not disclose what those adapted systems were.

Northrop said EMRIS demonstrates “the value of a product line designed from the beginning to leverage open, scalable software along with modular digital building blocks to enable a common sensor baseline.” The technology is applicable to “a wide range of existing platform upgrades as well as new, emerging opportunities.”

Do Air Task Force Leaders Need a Language and Culture Expert?

Aug. 20, 2024 | By David Roza

As the Air Force prepares the first six versions of its Air Task Forces, the head of the Air Force Culture and Language Center is pitching an idea that he believes will help ATFs be ready to generate sorties as soon as they deploy: a dedicated expert to help each ATF learn how to work with its host nation long before they arrive there.

“No one is better than our Air Force at generating sorties and prosecuting targets,” said AFCLC head and retired Air Force Col. Walter Ward. “But there’s vulnerabilities and host nation dependencies when it comes to operating a base, which is our core power projection platform.”

Those vulnerabilities and dependencies include infrastructure, utilities, logistics, security, local acquisition, air traffic control, and other factors which may vary wildly between deployment locations and “can easily degrade sortie production and tempo” if interrupted, Ward pointed out.

But if an Air Task Force can sort out those details and begin integrating with the host nation beforehand, it can hit the ground running when it’s finally time to deploy.

“The ATF construct provides an opportunity to build partnerships and address those types of things before deployments, so when it’s time to go, you’re at 100 percent,” Ward said. “You put the learning curve behind you.”

The Air Task Force is a new deployment model that the Air Force believes is a more efficient and effective way of going to war. Each ATF is commanded by an A-Staff, made up of department heads who oversee personnel, intelligence, operations, logistics, and other areas.

Under them falls the combat air base squadron, which covers base protection, engineering, airfield management, and other support functions. The pointy end of the ATF is handled by the mission generation force elements, which may consist of a fighter squadron or special warfare squadron, for example. Maintaining the MGFE aircraft falls to the ATF’s mission sustainment teams.

In May, the Air Force announced the first six locations where ATFs will be headquartered:

Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

Scott Air Force Base, Ill.

Joint Base San Antonio, Texas

Dyess Air Force Base, Texas

Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.

Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

The ATF pairs with an overhaul of the Air Force’s deployment schedule, where units train, deploy, and return home together under a new concept called Air Force Force Generation. AFFORGEN creates a 24-month cycle broken into four six-month segments: prepare, certify, available (meaning available to deploy), and reset.

Ward thinks the prepare stage could be the perfect time for a dedicated A-staff position to begin helping the unit integrate with its host nation-to-be. AFCLC has a long history of achieving such integration through its Language Enabled Airman Program (LEAP), where Airmen and Guardians with significant experience in a foreign language serve as cultural and linguistic experts for their fellow service members.

LEAP scholars bridge the culture and language gap between American troops and their foreign counterparts, and they also translate military jargon so the two camps can work more closely together. Many LEAP scholars work in the maintenance, aviation, intelligence, or whatever career field they are translating about, which gives them an edge over civilian or non-specialized translators.

“I will never do another bilateral exercise without requesting the language and cultural expertise that LEAP was able to provide,” U.S. Marine Corps Col. Thomas Siverts said in a press release after an exercise with Philippine Marines in 2022.

The Air Force should use that expertise to get ATFs and their host nations on the same page early, Ward suggested. It could be particularly useful under Agile Combat Employment, an Air Force strategy where small groups of Airmen launch sorties from smaller, more spread-out locations to avoid being targeted by enemy missiles. As a result, they may have to operate out of unfamiliar airfields run by unfamiliar partners.

“There’s an opportunity in that prepare phase to bring in LEAP talent on the Air Staff to really start to build that partner integration, particularly when it comes to operating the base, on all the things that we would have to learn on the fly otherwise,” he said.

Beyond LEAP scholars, ATFs could also consult AFCLC’s academic faculty or its free mobile app, which offers culture briefings for more than 80 countries. That kind of background knowledge can help with the non-technical aspects of integration: for example, what an American might consider acceptable forms of humor, gift-giving, and etiquette may not work in a host nation’s culture.

“There are many different languages and cultures that are not ‘plug and play,’” Ward said. “We have to know the languages, we have to understand where the flashpoints between cultures of our partners and allies are, in order to multiply the number of credible teams that can operate at a greater speed and without loss of capability.”

That understanding is not just a nice-to-have, the director said, it’s a key part of the U.S. National Defense Strategy, which calls on integrating with partners and allies as a means to deter rivals such as Russia and China from the Arctic to the western Pacific, while still fighting extremism in the Middle East.

“The only way that math works is through highly-effective partner integration,” Ward said.

In October 2025, two of the six ATFs will deploy to the Middle East, while a third will deploy to the Pacific. The other three ATFs will replace the first batch in April 2026. Ward said the response has been favorable in the two ATFs his team has briefed so far, with another one scheduled in September.

“The message on incorporating LEAP scholars into the A-Staffs and using AFCLC content to enhance readiness, mitigate risk in coalition operations, and increase operating tempo has been very well received and more importantly, being put into action,” he said. “It’s resonating loud and clear to our tip-of-the-spear commanders that culture plus language equals speed.”

REFORPAC: Allvin Details New Indo-Pacific Exercise Debuting in 2025

Aug. 20, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force will flood Airmen and aircraft into the Indo-Pacific next summer for a major two-week exercise that will coincide with the multinational Talisman Sabre training event, Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said last week.

Dubbed REFORPAC, short for Return of Forces to the Pacific, the exercise draws its name from the Cold War REFORGER wargames, named for Return of Forces to Germany. Just as REFORGER was designed to prepare for combat with USSR pouring across the German border, REFORPAC seeks to better prepare the Air Forcefor the “galvanizing threat” of war against the People’s Republic of China.

The summer 2025 exercise was first announced in February as part of the Department of the Air Force’s re-optimization for great power competition projecdt. But few details were known then. Speaking Aug. 16 The summer 2025 exercise was first announced in February as part of the Department of the Air Force’s re-optimization for great power competition projecdt. But few details were known then. Speaking Aug. 16 at the Hudson Institute, Allvin shared the exercise’s name and intent.

“We’re integrating it into INDOPACOM’s campaign plans and our Pacific Air Forces’ approach to supporting those,” Allvin said. “And so we’re integrating it into the combatant commander’s piece. But we’re doing it in a way that’s more robust and it’s for a longer period of time. So we’ll be deploying from Alaska, Hawaii, Guam, the continental U.S., and it’s going to be for about 14 days overall.”

Leaders previously said the exercise would involve multiple combatant commands and Air Force components, including elements from U.S. Strategic Command; U.S. Northern Command; U.S. Indo-Pacific Command; and Air Mobility Command, which hosted its massive Mobility Guardian exercise last summer in the Pacific.

“One of the issues that will be addressed—that we’re starting to address, we saw a little bit of this most recent Bamboo Eagle—is how mission-ready are we to deploy in a complex environment and sustain operations and be able to do logistics under attack?” Allvin said. “To be able to generate and maneuver within the environment, to sustain the mobility fleet that can get around, make sure the munitions and fuel and everything gets to the right place.”

As with last summer’s Mobility Guardian, allies will be key participants. “We’re rolling it in with Talisman Sabre, because we understand we’re going to fight with allies and partners,” Allvin said. That makes it “more of an international exercise,” he added.

Talisman Sabre started as a joint U.S-Australia exercise but now includes about a dozen countries and 30,000 service members, and is expected to be even bigger in 2025. In 2023, USAF F-22s, KC-46s, and C-17s all participated.

Officials have said REFORPAC will not be a one-off, but rather the start of a renewed focus on large-scale exercises that has seen numerous Air Force organizations expand exercises to be more “combat representative.”

Mobility Guardian 23 set the tone, bringing together 70 aircraft and 3,000 personnel and tying the exercise’s operations into Air Force and international exercises in the Pacific. Allvin praised the effort for highlighting and testing the complexities of surging forces to the Indo-Pacific for a future fight.

REFORPAC will similarly seek to expose seams and challenges to ensure greater preparedness in advance of a real conflict.

“Until you’re there, doing it over a period of time, you’re not really going to uncover the warts that you might not have discovered by doing it in pieces,” Allvin said. That’s the purpose of large-scale exercises. “You have to do in a realistic scenario.”

Part of that realism is finding a way to replicate the sheer size and difficulty of a potential fight with China in the largest geographic combatant command.

“When it gets really complex and you have different injects into the exercises, that’s where you can really test it. It just really is the scale of it, because there are things that you can’t really pick out until you have a longer sustained agitation, if you will, or something where you can’t really replicate on a small scale,” he said.

USAF Plans to Relocate B-1 Bombers from Ellsworth to Grand Forks in 2025

Aug. 19, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Air Force is planning to relocate 17 B-1 bombers from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., to Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., for 10 months starting early next year, as Ellsworth gears up to host the incoming B-21 Raider.

Air Force Global Strike Command is proposing the move from February to November 2025, a spokesman said in an email statement to Air & Space Forces Magazine on Aug 19.

The final relocation decision hinges on an ongoing environmental review that is evaluating the impact of moving the aircraft and personnel to Grand Forks. If the review is favorable, Elllsworth plans to send around 800 Airmen along with the Lancers to Grand Forks to provide maintenance and support for the bomber operations.

“The B-1s will continue to fill their operational requirements to the President and the Secretary of Defense while at Grand Forks,” the spokesman noted in the statement.

A U.S. Air Force B-1B Lancer assigned to the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, sits on the flightline at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, May 21, 2024, in support of a Bomber Task Force mission. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jake Jacobsen

The proposal hints at progress in the Air Force’s plan to start fielding the new B-21 Raider. After Ellsworth was selected as the initial operating base and training unit for the new stealthy bombers, the base began construction on a new 95,000-square-foot Low Observable Restoration Facility in 2022 to support the bomber. According to budget documents, additional facilities at the base are expected to be completed by the end of this year.

Last month, Lt. Gen. Andrew Gebara, deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, confirmed that B-21s are coming to Ellsworth “very soon” and that the program remains on schedule.

“The good news is the B-21 is succeeding, it’s in flight test,” Gebara said during an event with the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies on July 15. “I always caution people to say it’s early in flight test, so I will be happy when I see it flying into Ellsworth for the first time. I have these visions in my head of B-21 flying over Mount Rushmore and circling to land, and I can see it happening. It’s going to happen before we know it, very soon, but it isn’t there yet.”

The B-21 Raider continues to conduct flight tests at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., with the B-21 Combined Test Force, including ground testing, taxiing, and flying operations. The Raider continues to make progress toward becoming the backbone of the U.S. Air Force bomber fleet. **Edwards Air Force Base/Facebook**

In May, the Air Force and Northrop Grumman unveiled new photos of the B-21, providing the first official images of the highly secretive bomber in flight. These photos, offering some new detail about the aircraft, show the bomber at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Since its initial flight at the manufacturer’s California facility in November, the bomber has been conducting test flights from the base.

The service recently told Air and Space Forces Magazine that the new bomber aircraft will not necessarily replace the B-1 and B-2 on a one-for-one basis as new bombers become available. However, Global Strike Command has indicated it does not expect to have the resources to field four different types of bombers simultaneously. The goal is to narrow down to a fleet of only B-21s and B-52Js after the B-1s and B-2s retire.

Grand Forks has previously served as a cornerstone of U.S. bomber operations. Beginning in 1963, the base housed B-52 bombers under the 319th Bomb Wing until it transitioned to B-1 missions in 1986. It played a key role in the nation’s nuclear deterrent until 1994, when the last B-1s departed and the wing was re-designated as the 319th Reconnaissance Wing. The base today focuses on ISR missions with unmanned aerial vehicle operations including the RQ-4 Global Hawk.

NATO Signs First Contract for Its Largest Space Program Ever

Aug. 19, 2024

NATO and satellite imagery firm Planet Labs have signed a contract for a “virtual” constellation of surveillance, intelligence, and reconnaissance space assets—the latest sign of NATO’s growing reliance on commercial space capabilities.

The contract is the first under the Alliance Persistent Surveillance from Space (APSS) program, launched by NATO early in 2023, in which 17 member states including the U.S. agreed to pool and distribute intelligence and surveillance data culled from both from national and commercial satellites. Described by NATO officials as as the largest space project in its history, APSS will be worth a combined $1 billion over the next five years.

But APSS includes no NATO-owned or -operated space assets. Rather, it is a gathering operation, combining data from existing and future space sensors to create a common operating picture allies can use for “persistent surveillance … on any location at any given time,” according to a NATO fact sheet. The so-called virtual constellation has been dubbed “Aquila.”

The Planet Labs deal is the first publicly known contract to emerge from the program.

“Planet’s tasking capabilities will empower NATO decision-makers by providing imagery for use with detailed tracking and analysis of foreign military capabilities and activities, monitoring of military infrastructure, detecting movements, assessing threats effectively, filling missing intelligence gaps and helping provide an unclassified common operating picture between allies,” the company said in a release.

Planet has around 200 active satellites, among the largest constellations in orbit.

“Planet’s sub-daily tasking brings new capabilities which enable monitoring of large areas of NATO interest, bolstering our technological advantage, and fulfilling our mission of preserving peace and security for nearly one billion people,” said Laryssa Patten, head of space technology adoption and resilience at NATO’s Communications and Information Agency, in a statement.

NATO published an “overarching” space policy in January 2022, expressing its intent not to become an autonomous space actor, but that it would seek instead to integrate space into its core functions and facilitate interoperability among allies. Russia’s subsequent invasion of Ukraine and China’s growing ambitions in the arctic and Pacific have since led NATO to warn of risks in space—and to consider how member states can bolster their capabilities in space.

Planet Labs, meanwhile, is slowly growing its defense portfolio. The firm has already signed contracts with the U.S. Navy and the National Reconnaissance Office for imaging data. The U.S. Space Force released its commercial space strategy earlier this year in which it detailed its interest in leveraging commercial capabilities wherever that made sense. Planet Labs hosted a government-focused space event with USSF speakers earlier this summer, but has not yet inked a deal with the U.S. Space Force.

Tactical ISR and environmental monitoring, missions where Planet Lab’s satellites could prove useful, are among the missions the Space Force strategy cites where “hybrid architectures” combining military, allied, and commercial satellites could prove useful.

Three B-2 Bombers Land in Australia for First Rotation There in Two Years

Aug. 19, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Three B-2 stealth bombers landed at Royal Australian Air Force Base Amberley this weekend to begin a Bomber Task Force deployment—showcasing U.S. presence in the region and conducting exercises with allied nations. The bombers were accompanied by two KC-135R tankers from the Illinois National Guard.

The last time B-2s were in Australia was in the summer of 2022. More recently, the stealth bomber deployed to the Indo-Pacific earlier this summer, landing in Guam for the first time in five years.

Neither Air Force Global Strike Command nor Pacific Air Forces announced how long the trio of B-2s will stay in Australia, but Bomber Task Forces typically last two to three weeks, with training events with allies in the area to practice interoperability and secondary deployments to other locations to gain experience operating from airfields unaccustomed to supporting a bomber presence.

The B-2 deployment is just the latest display of U.S. airpower in the region. Last week, Air Force F-22 stealth fighters deployed to Brunei, Indonesia and the Philippines, making a similar show-of-force in the region. All three countries have long-simmering disputes with China over boundaries in the South China Sea.

The deployment was not announced in advance, but Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin did hint at it earlier this month after the U.S.-Australian defense ministerial conference.

“We’re increasing the presence of rotational U.S. forces in Australia” Austin said at the time, to include “more maritime patrol aircraft and reconnaissance aircraft operating from bases across northern Australia. It will also mean more frequent rotational bomber deployments.”

RAAF Amberley is on Australia’s east coast, near Brisbane.

Pacific Air Forces released a statement saying the bombers are from the Active-Duty 509th Bomb Wing and Guard 131st Bomb Wing, both of Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo. A video posted by the DOD identified two of the aircraft as being the Spirit of Arizona and Spirit of Indiana, both from the 393rd Bomb Squadron.

A third B-2 arrived later, according to an Air Force official, and was not immediately photographed or identified by the DOD. PACAF did not say how many Airmen traveled to Australia to support the task force.

“This deployment is in support of Pacific Air Forces’ training efforts with allies, partners, and joint forces and strategic deterrence missions to reinforce the rules-based international order,” PACAF said.

The last time B-2s deployed to Australia was in July 2022, when they also operated from RAAF Amberley. The bombers took part in the bilateral “Koolendong 22” exercise and conducted drills with Australian F-35As.

The RAAF’s F-35As also exercised with B-2s at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., in January, when both types participated in a Red Flag exercise. That event marked the first time RAAF F-35As participated in a Red Flag at Nellis.

Reuters has reported the U.S. and Australia may be seeking to build facilities at RAAF Tindal, in the Northern Territories, to support deployments of up to six B-52 bombers and associated refueling aircraft.

At the U.S.-Australian defense ministerial, the two countries also announced plans to expand defense cooperation, exercises and production of weapons. At a May meeting which included Japanese defense officials, the three countries announced plans for new trilateral joint exercises, to include Bushido Guardian—an F-35 wargame which will be held in Japan—and Pitch Black, a regular large-force exercise in Australia. They also agreed to conduct live-fire exercises in Australia in 2027.

In the Indo-Pacific, F-35s are operated by the U.S., Australia, Japan, South Korea, and Singapore.

New F-22 Sensors Could Help Extend the Raptor’s Service Life

Aug. 19, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is successfully testing a number of classified sensor systems on the F-22 with technology that will be applicable to the Next-Generation Air Dominance system, officials said. The new technology could also extend the Raptor’s service life.

“The F-22 team is working really hard on executing a modernization roadmap to field advanced sensors, connectivity, weapons, and other capabilities,” Air Force fighters and advanced aircraft program executive officer Brig. Gen. Jason D. Voorheis told reporters last month at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference in Dayton, Ohio.

“The Raptor team recently conducted six flight test efforts to demo advanced sensors,” Voorheis said, and the service is planning a rapid prototyping effort to get them on the jet, he said.

“We’re executing that successfully, and that will lead to … a rapid fielding [Middle Tier of Acqusition program] in the near future,” Voorheis said.

Service officials have said that slender, chisel-like pods seen on a test F-22 last year are advanced infrared search-and-track (IRST) systems—which may include other sensors—that will expand the F-22’s ability to detect low-observable aircraft. The Air Force’s fiscal 2025 budget request for the F-22 describes ongoing test efforts with IRST. It’s part of an F-22 improvement campaign that calls for $7.8 billion in investments—$3.1 billion for research and development and $4.7 billion in procurement—before 2030.

Several years ago, Air Force leaders said the F-22 would likely retire around 2030. In recent months, however, officials have walked that back, and Voorheis said “from an F-22 sunsetting perspective, I don’t have a date for you.”

“What I can tell you is that we are hyper-focused on modernization to sustain that air superiority combat capability for a highly contested environment for as long as necessary,” he added.

That’s a notable shift from 2021, when then-Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. revealed his “4+1” fighter plan that called for the F-22 to be supplanted by NGAD circa 2030, while retaining the F-35, F-15E and EX, and F-16. The “plus 1” was the A-10, but in March 2023, Brown said the A-10s were being divested faster than expected and will probably be all retired by 2030.

The F-22’s planned 2030 retirement raised eyebrows when Brown revealed the fighter plan, as the type is expected to have sufficient structural life to last into the 2040s. Service officials said at the time that the F-22’s 1980s-vintage stealth, though it has been updated, is being overtaken by new sensors in the hands of peer adversaries like China.

Voorheis offered one key to the F-22’s potentially extended longevity: a new government reference architecture compute environment, or “GRACE.” It is an open architecture software which will “enable non-traditional F-22 software” to be installed on the fighter, he said. It will permit “additional processing and pilot interfaces,” he added.

Voorheis is not the only official to suggest the F-22 could stick around longer than expected. In July, Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, head of Air Combat Command, said he thinks the Air Force should not only retain the F-22, but keep the 32 older Block 20 Raptors the Air Force has twice asked Congress to retire.

The F-22 is “a fantastic aircraft,” Wilsbach said at the time. “We’re actually planning several upgrades to the jet as we speak,” and even those Block 20s that are not up to current standard are valuable for training.

“If we had to—in an emergency—use the Block 20s in a combat situation, they’re very capable,” he said.

Meanwhile, Air Force leaders have started to push back the timeline on the sixth-generation NGAD, long considered the F-22’s successor as the Air Force’s premier air superiority fighter. Wilsbach noted in July that until an NGAD contract is awarded, “there isn’t an F-22 replacement,” and just a few weeks later, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced the service was “taking a pause” on NGAD.

The new technology modernizing the F-22 “supports all future programs,” Voorheis said, such as NGAD. “And we will leverage all of that technology as we go forward, on any platform.”

Collectively, the modernization effort “will ensure the F-22 remains the world’s [premiere] air superiority fighter, and retains that first-look, first-shot, first-kill advantage,” Voorheis said. The F-22 “is our bridge to NGAD,” and the technologies going into the Raptor will port to the NGAD “to ensure our ability to achieve air superiority in the future, highly-contested environment.”

SDA Hands Out $424 Million for Advanced Comms Satellites

Aug. 16, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Development Agency awarded contracts for the final 20 satellites in the second tranche of its proliferated low-Earth orbit constellation on Aug. 16, setting the stage for hundreds of satellites to launch in the next several years.

York Space Systems and Tyvak Nano-Satellite Systems, a subsidiary of Terran Orbital, each received contracts to build the “enhanced tactical SATCOM” spacecraft. York’s contract is for $170 million, while Tyvak’s is for $254 million

All told, the agency has now awarded contracts for more than 430 satellites across Tranche 1 and Tranche 2 of what it calls the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture. The PWSA will provide satellite communications, transport data, and help with missile warning and tracking.

Already, there are 27 satellites in orbit as part of Tranche 0, what leaders have described as a “demonstration” tranche meant to show off the constellation’s capabilities. Tranche 1 will make the constellation operational, and Tranche 2 will provide global coverage and persistent regional coverage. Tranche 1 is slated to start launching later this year, and Tranche 2 will follow beginning in 2026.

The satellites contracted on Aug. 16 are for the “Gamma” portion—the most advanced of three parts of the Tranche 2 Transport Layer. According to SDA officials and documents, these satellites will have a “payload specifically designed to close future kill chains via the PWSA” called Warlock, as well as four optical terminals for laser communications.

The Gamma satellites won’t start launching until the late summer or early fall of 2027, according to an SDA release.

“With these T2TL-Gamma awards, we are closing out the hardware procurement phase for Tranche 2 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture to support delivery beginning in 2026 to achieve our full warfighting capability,” SDA Director Derek Tournear said in the release. “The T2TL-Gamma space vehicles will demonstrate global communications access and operationalize persistent global encrypted connectivity to support missions like beyond-line-of-sight targeting.”

The SDA release also noted that this is the first time Tyvak will be a prime contractor for the agency. However, Lockheed Martin announced this week it plans to buy Tyvak’s parent company, Terran Orbital. Lockheed, the largest defense company, built some of the Transport satellites in Tranche 0 and is contract to build more for Tranche 1.

York is also a regular contributor to the agency, having built or been awarded contracts to build satellites in Tranches 0 and 1.

According to SDA, there were eight proposals to build the Gamma satellites.

Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture

TRANCHE	LAYER	# OF SATELLITES	CONTRACTORS
0	Transport	20	York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin
	Tracking	8	SpaceX, L3Harris
1	Transport	126	York Space Systems, Lockheed Martin, Northrop Grumman
	Tracking	35	L3Harris, Northrop Gumman, Raytheon
	Demonstration and Experimentation System	12	York Space Systems
2	Transport (Beta)	90	Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin, Rocket Lab
	Transport (Alpha)	100	York Space Systems, Northrop Grumman
	Transport (Gamma)	20	York Space Systems, Tyvak
	Tracking	54	L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Sierra Space
	Demonstration and Experimentation System	20 (approx.)	TBA
Other	FOO Fighter	8	Millennium Space Systems