How a B-1 Bomber Task Force ‘Pushed the Envelope’ on ACE

Dec. 12, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

A “light and lean” bomber task force deployed from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., to Guam for a month, operating from non-traditional locations alongside regional partners.

The test force deployment exercised Agile Combat Employment, counter-maritime operations with the Long Range Anti-ship Missile, and projected force in response to North Korean missile tests, the wing and task force leaders said in a Dec. 12 “Warfighters in Action” webcast hosted by the Air & Space Forces Association.

Col. Joseph L. Sheffield, commander of the 28th Bomb Wing, and Lt. Col. Christopher McConnell, commander of the 37th Bomb Squadron, called the mid-October-to-late November deployment a key training opportunity.

“From the squadron’s perspective, it’s just an amazing opportunity to get out there and show the B-1s’ long-range strike capabilities,” McConnell said. “It’s an opportunity for us to train, to integrate with allies and partners, and then get out there and actually do the mission in a theater away from home station.”

Sheffield said the mission enabled the wing to “push the envelope” on Agile Combat Employment, in which Air Force units counter threats to central operating bases by dispersing and operating instead from numerous locations locations.

“We’re trying to focus a little bit more on our Agile Combat Employment capabilities—what does that mean for a bomber, what does it mean for the B-1? And how would we do that?” Sheffield said.

In this case, that meant deploying four B-1s and some 200 Airmen to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, then flying 26 sorties for some 363 hours of flight.

“When we did the continuous bomber presence, or the counter-terrorist fight, we’d go to a base that’s well established, well set-up,” Sheffield said. “But here, we want our aviators, the maintainers, and logistic personnel to experience the challenges of being away from that type of establishment, away from our home station.”

That’s a contrast to earlier in McConnell’s career, he said. “We didn’t have that much dynamic employment,” he explained. “It was a very continuous present to the location that we were going. … Now it’s a global challenge. We’re all over the place. We have young aviators and aircrew that have literally flown almost across the entire world.”

Among the dynamic situations the task force experiened was hot-pit refueling at Misawa Air Base, Japan, “an opportunity for us to take a small maintenance footprint [and] deploy them to a non-traditional bomber location,” McConnell noted.

To do that, McConnell’s Airmen had “to do things that may not necessarily be in their primary duties,” he said. Airmen have to have multiple capabilities, not just the ones in their narrow job description. “They’re going to have to adapt to whatever environment they show up in and be able to execute,” he said.

The 37th Bomb Squadron didn’t stop with its own Airmen. “We used the opportunity while we were out at Anderson to train up some of the other folks that were on the base as well,” McConnell said. “‘Hey, just in case, let’s show you how to refuel a B-1. Let’s show you how to do some minor maintenance on it.’ Just in case we needed them and there may not be a maintenance team there in place at the time that we would need them. So it’s taking that proactive mindset of, ‘Where can we gain either efficiencies or gain advantages?’”

After North Korea launched a barrage of missile tests, escalating tensions in the region in early November, the Task Force sent two B-1s alongside U.S. and South Korean fighter aircraft over the Korean peninsula—the first such flight in five years.

“We provided the combatant commander a response option to some of the real-world events that occurred while we were there,” McConnell said. “And so, … we were able to, within hours of it occurring, launch two B-1s, which was a phenomenal job by our maintenance and ops personnel, because this was all in addition to the already busy scheduled flight ops that we had going on.”

The maneuvers demonstrated solidarity with a key ally and demonstrated interoperability and experience, McConnell added.

“We start to establish what those communication links are going to be like in that theater, so that we’re familiar with the operating environment, and we’re exposing our aircrew to how those operations are going to occur,” he said.

In addition to pushing ACE concepts, the deployment was also aimed at boosting the 28th BW’s proficiency with maritime missions, McConnell added. Early in the deployment, Airmen and Sailors practiced loading and releasing naval mines from the B-1s.

At other points, Airmen worked with the Navy to practice their skills with the Long Range Anti-ship Missile, a stealthy ballistic missile “designed to detect and destroy specific targets within groups of surface warships.”

“We are the threshold platform for the Air Force for LRASM. We’ve got some of the best LRASM experts right here in the B-1 community and right here at the 28th Bomb Wing,” McConnell said. “And we’ve focused a lot of our training plans on becoming those LRASM experts, working along with the Navy and trying to develop the [tactics, techniques, and procedures] to perfect those capabilities

Col. Joe Kittinger—Fighter Pilot, POW, Longtime Freefall Record Holder—Dies at 94

Dec. 12, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Col. Joseph W. Kittinger, Jr., a Vietnam-era fighter pilot, prisoner of war, and recipient of the Harmon Trophy whose freefall jump records earned him a place in the National Aviation Hall of Fame, died Dec. 9 at the age of 94.

Kittinger, who was also awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross and two Silver Star medals, was most widely known for Project Excelsior, a series of freefall jumps from research balloons that he made to both test the effects of high altitude on the human body and to improve the safety of pilots ejecting from aircraft at very high altitudes.

His records stood for 52 years until 2012, when he helped daredevil Felix Baumgartner break most of them.

Kittinger was born in Tampa, Fla., in July 1928. He entered the Air Force through the aviation cadet program at age 21, earning his wings in 1950. He flew P-51 fighters in Germany until 1953, when he joined the Air Force Missile Development Center. There he flew experimental aircraft and conducted aeromedical research. He made the switch because of the allure of more flying time and potential “adventure,” he later told an interviewer.

Among his activities at the center, Kittinger flew zero-gravity missions and flew “chase” for high-speed rocket sled runs made by fellow researcher John Stapp.

He joined Projects Man High and Mile High to study the effects of cosmic radiation on human physiology in preparation for U.S. manned space missions. As the pilot of a balloon dubbed “Mile High One,” Kittinger achieved an altitude of 96,000 feet, about a quarter of the way to outer space. For this work, he received the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Project Excelsior, which ran from 1959 to 1960, was meant to study the ability of a human being to survive an extremely-high altitude ejection. Kittinger, in a space suit, jumped from Excelsior I, II and III, from 76,000 feet, 74,000 and 102,800 feet, respectively—the last being about 20 miles above the surface of the Earth. The Excelsior I mission was disastrous and nearly killed him, as the drogue line wrapped around his body and he blacked out from spinning in descent, enduring 22Gs. He was saved by an automatic back-up chute.

Joseph Kittinger next to the Excelsior gondola on June 2, 1957. USAF

On the final record ascent, he discovered that his right glove had not been properly pressurized, and he told Air & Space Forces Magazine in 2014 that his hand had “doubled in size” due to the low atmospheric pressure. He also nearly suffocated, as his air hose pushed against the helmet neck midway through the ascent but became freed near the apex of the flight. The ambient temperature at the time of his jump was -94 degrees Fahrenheit.

On the last mission, he set records for highest balloon ascent, longest parachute freefall—about 16 miles—and fastest speed by a human moving through the atmosphere without an aircraft: 614 miles per hour.

The missions were also meant to test improved parachute design for ejections in atmospheric regions of low air density and at high velocity.

“One of the objectives,” Kittinger told an interviewer in 2014, “was to devise a means of escape from very high altitude.” Reserarch and experience had shown that pilots ejecting at high altitude or extreme speed went into dangerous spins. He said the drogue chute design resulting from the research “is still in use today; every ejection seat has it. That makes me and my team very proud because we made a contribution.”

A photo of Kittinger, automatically taken after he made his record jump, was featured on the cover of Life Magazine. He also appeared on TV on “The Ed Sullivan Show” and “What’s My Line,” discussing his exploits.

In 1960, Kittinger received the Harmon Trophy directly from President Dwight Eisenhower for “outstanding accomplishments in aeronautics.” His final high-altitude balloon flight was with Project Stargazer in 1962, in which he explored the feasibility of performing astronomical research from high-altitude balloons as part of a two-man crew.

Returning to the combat air forces in 1963, Kittinger deployed to Vietnam, where he flew the A-26 Invader for two tours. After a stint as a fighter pilot with US Air Forces, Europe in Germany, he returned to Southeast Asia in 1971, flying F-4 Phantoms out of Udorn Royal Thai Air Force Base. He commanded the 555th Fighter Squadron.

Kittinger shot down a MiG-21 in combat on March 1, 1972, engaging a “superior number of enemy aircraft” which were attacking friendly ground forces, according to his Silver Star commendation. Two months later, however, he was shot down, along with his backseater, 1st Lt. William Reich, and taken prisoner.

He spent 321 days as a POW in the infamous “Hanoi Hilton,” enduring repeated torture and serving for a time as the commander of the prisoners. Kittinger became skilled at catching rats for additional protein and led the other prisoners in defiant religious services and exercises. He was repatriated in 1973 after the Paris Peace Accords, as part of Operation Homecoming.

“We never doubted we would get released,” Kittinger said in 2014. “It made us better Americans, to appreciate what we had. Being a POW was life-changing.” He received a second Silver Star for his heroism as a POW.

Returning to duty, he attended the Air War College and then served as a Vice Wing Commander in USAFE. He retired from the Air Force as a Colonel in July, 1978, with 29 years of service, having accrued more than 7,600 flying hours and 483 combat missions.

Kittinger continued to fly aircraft and balloons in retirement, accumulating a further 9,100-plus flying hours. In September 1984, he became the first person to make a solo crossing of the Atlantic Ocean in a helium balloon, flying from Maine to Italy, where making a crash landing, he broke his foot. That year, he was elected to the National Aviation Hall of Fame.

At the time, he told U.S. News and World Report: “Life is an adventure, and I’m an adventurer. You just have to go for it. That is the American way.”

In 2008, he received the National Air and Space Museum Award for his lifetime of achievements.

After turning down requests for assistance from many seeking to break his parachuting records—because they were either not prepared for the attempt or not able to make the requisite investment in equipment—Kittinger agreed to help Felix Baumgartner of Red Bull fame. Besides consulting on the design of the 2012 attempt, Kittinger served as the “capsule communicator” for Baumgartner, talking him through the ascent in the gondola and ensuing 24-mile jump, during which Baumgartner exceeded the speed of sound, traveling at 833.9 mph.

Although Baumgartner fell a greater distance than Kittinger, he popped his parachute a few seconds shy of Kittinger’s freefall record, which still stands.

Joe Kittinger Park in Orlando, Fla. is named for him; it is decorated with an F-4 on a pole that is painted as Kittinger’s aircraft in Vietnam.

He published an autobiography in 2011, “Come Up and Get Me,” co-authored with Craig Ryan. The book’s forward was written by Apollo moonwalker Neil Armstrong.

First Test of All-Up ARRW Hypersonic Missile Deemed a Success

Dec. 12, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The first operationally-configured AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) flew a successful test flight Dec. 9, the Air Force reported, marking three successful powered flights in a row for the hypersonic air-to-ground missile.

The test, conducted from a B-52 off the southern California coast, was “the first launch of a full prototype operational missile,” the service said. The all-up round was released from the bomber, accelerated to hypersonic speed, separated from its booster, and continued to fly at speeds “greater than five times the speed of sound,” according to a release the 96th Test Wing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

The ARRW then “completed its flight path and detonated in the target area.”

The Air Force declined to provide further details to Air & Space Forces Magazine. “Hypersonic” speed is in excess of Mach 5, or five times the speed of sound.

The mission was flown by the 412th Test Wing out of Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. Hypersonic flights of the ARRW took place in May and July of this year.

“The ARRW team successfully designed and tested an air-launched hypersonic missile in five years,” Brig. Gen. Jason Bartolomei, Armament Directorate Program Executive Officer, said in a statement, adding that he’s proud of the “tenacity and dedication this team has shown to provide a vital capability to our warfighter.”

Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control is the developer and builder of the ARRW. The test program had a rocky start with multiple launch failures, but the success of the December test indicates the program is on more solid footing.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said early this year he wants to see more consistent performance from the missile before discussing its future service with Global Strike Command. Congress trimmed $161 million from ARRW production funding in fiscal year 2022 citing program delays and launch failures. Kendall has also said hypersonic missiles are not as high a priority for USAF as they are for China, due to different force employment operational concepts. China is considered ahead of the U.S. in developing and fielding hypersonic weapons.

The air-to-ground ARRW “is designed to enable the U.S. to hold fixed, high-value, time-sensitive targets at risk in contested environments,” the Air Force said.

A Lockheed spokesperson said the test “demonstrates the missile’s operational end-to-end capability at hypersonic speeds, validating the design and production” of the system.

“We are on the cusp of an operational capability that can be deployed to the men and women in uniform,” Jay Pitman, vice president of air dominance and strike weapons at Lockheed MFC, said in a statement. The test shows the “commitment, rigor, and dedication of the joint U.S. Government and Lockheed Martin team to develop hypersonic weapons on accelerated timelines to meet critical national security needs,” he said.

The ARRW program has carried out numerous developmental steps including “captive carriage flights, sled testing, warhead qualification, solid rocket motor qualification, and two consecutive hypersonic-boosted flight tests,” Lockheed added.

Last week, Airmen at the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., ironed out the procedures for loading and unloading the ARRW in an operational setting, the Air Force said. Thus far, the missile had only been loaded onto test aircraft.

The ARRW is one of two hypersonic missiles being developed by USAF to attack urgent, time-sensitive targets. The ARRW is boosted to hypersonic speed by a rocket, then glides to its target—hence its name “boost glide”—whereas the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, is an air-breathing system that uses a scramjet to sustain hypersonic flight. Raytheon was selected in September as the prime contractor for HACM.

B-2 Damaged Following Emergency Landing and Fire at Whiteman

Dec. 12, 2022 | By Chris Gordon

Editor’s Note: This story was updated the evening of Dec. 12 to include details about the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.

A B-2 Spirit was damaged Dec. 10 after the crew was forced to make an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., the Air Force said. The stealth bombers cost over $1 billion per plane and fewer than two dozen were produced, making any incident a potentially significant event for the service’s bomber fleet. The incident shut down the lone runway at Whiteman, which is the home base for the entire fleet of B-2s.

“A U.S. Air Force B-2 Spirit experienced an in-flight malfunction during routine operations Dec. 10 and was damaged on the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base after it successfully completed an emergency landing,” a spokesperson for the 509th Bomb Wing said in a statement to Air & Space Forces Magazine. “There were no personnel injuries. There was a fire associated with the aircraft after landing, and the base fire department extinguished the fire. The incident is under investigation.”

News of the incident and an accompanying photo appeared on the popular unofficial Air Force amn/nco/anco page Facebook page, suggesting the B-2 left the runway at Whiteman and there was a possible fire.

The 509th Bomb Wing confirmed the B-2 suffered damage in an incident and there was a fire. But the spokesperson did not address specific questions about whether the B-2 itself caught fire or how the aircraft was damaged on the runway.

In September 2021, a B-2 was involved in an incident at Whiteman. An Air Force accident investigation found that the aircraft’s landing gear collapsed, causing the aircraft’s left wing to drag across the ground until the plane came to a rest in the grass about a mile from the touchdown point. The pilots were uninjured, but the aircraft incurred a minimum of $10 million in damage, according to the Air Force.

The crew declared an in-flight emergency before attempting to land due to an issue with the B-2’s hydraulic system when they tried to deploy the landing gear on approach to Whiteman, the Air Force’s investigation found. The report said that the left main landing gear collapsed on touchdown despite cockpit indicators showing the landing gear was locked after the crew conducted an emergency extension.

The Air Force only has 20 B-2s in its inventory, and it is unclear how many are operational daily. A B-2 was destroyed in a crash in 2008, and Air Force has gone to great lengths to keep its remaining inventory airworthy after incidents, including major repairs to the aircraft involved in the 2021 incident at Whiteman and a four-year effort to restore an aircraft damaged in a fire in Guam.

The 509th Bomb Wing did not provide details on the extent of the damage to the aircraft that suffered the mishap on Dec. 10. The incident was significant enough base’s sole runway remained closed as of the evening of Dec. 12.

“At this time, the Whiteman Air Force Base runway is closed, and recovery teams are working around the clock to minimize further disruptions,” the 509th Bomb Wing said in a statement.

Air Force Global Strike Command, which is in charge of the Air Force’s fleet of B-2s, said there was “no impact on AFGSC operations” due to the incident.

Whiteman, the home base for the Air Force’s entire fleet of B-2s, recently conducted an “elephant walk” exercise with eight B-2s.

The B-2 is set to be replaced with the newly-unveiled B-21 Raider in the 2030s. However, the B-21 has yet to fly and is still years from entering service, making the small fleet of B-2s precious to the Air Force as the service’s only stealth strategic bombers.

Space Lab Construction Continues at Kirtland—Newest to Test Electronics

Dec. 11, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

A new lab building at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., will house some of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s “irreplaceable” equipment for testing how electronic spacecraft parts will likely stand up against radiation in space.

The FORTRESS lab—short for Facility for Radiation Tolerance Research on Electronics for Space and Strategic Systems—will contain testing equipment such as the sources of radiation with which the lab douses the electronic parts. It will be part of the Space Vehicles Directorate’s larger Radiation Effects Laboratory.

Some 95 percent of U.S. spacecraft are “enabled by electronics produced or researched by this team,” said Erin Pettyjohn, deputy director of the Space Vehicles Directorate, in an announcement.

Several “irreplaceable” pieces of testing equipment made in the 1960s to 1980s will go into the new FORTRESS lab, Kenneth Bole, acting chief of AFRL’s Spacecraft Technology Division, said in an email to Air & Space Forces Magazine. The manufacturers that made the precious articles have since gone out of business, been acquired, or stopped making parts needed to upgrade, maintain, or calibrate the apparatuses.

Researchers availed themselves of some of the equipment in the MISSE series of 16 orbital tests. In the Materials International Space Station Experiment, they first evaluated building materials on the ground, exposing the samples to radiation then analyzing them with processes such as spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and electrical conductance before sending them to the space station for testing in space.

Bole said AFRL doesn’t anticipate any new equipment for the FORTRESS lab right now but that the building can accommodate potential future needs such as “additional accelerated space lifetime sources, a linear accelerator, and wafer probe stations.”

The new $4.5 million, 6,200-square-foot building is going in next to the Deployable Structures Laboratory. That $4 million, 7,000-square-foot lab opened in 2020 to test other spacecraft elements besides electronics.

Also this year at Kirtland, the Space Vehicles Directorate opened the 72-acre Skywave Technology Laboratory including a $3.5 million, 3,500-square-foot office and indoor lab facility near existing radio antennas on a remote part of the base. The Skywave lab studies conditions in the near-Earth space environment.

Meanwhile the new simulation-focused RAPID lab for small satellites—Rapid Architecture Prototyping and Integration Development—will offer a collaborative venue for internal and external organizations. The $7.3 million, 14,000-square-foot facility opened this year as well.

Bole said the frequent openings haven’t been part of a larger strategy but instead “driven entirely by mission need and building construction.” He said the “AFRL facilities team has been extremely successful in seeking various sources of funding, such as FLEX-4 and the MILCON process.”

Cotton Takes Command at STRATCOM, Citing ‘New Perils’ in Nuclear Security

Dec. 9, 2022 | By Chris Gordon

OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb.—Air Force Gen. Anthony J. Cotton assumed command of U.S. Strategic Command (STRATCOM) in a ceremony here on Dec. 9, putting an Air Force general in charge of America’s nuclear forces at a time of rising nuclear threats around the globe.

“Today, STRATCOM faces new challenges,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd L. Austin III told those gathered for the change of command. “The United States is on the verge of a new phase—one where, for the first time, we face two major nuclear powers as strategic competitors. The People’s Republic of China is expanding, and modernizing, and diversifying its nuclear forces. And Russia is also modernizing and expanding its nuclear arsenal.”

STRATCOM representatives echoed concerns over the state of global nuclear competition. They cited Russia’s war in Ukraine and threats to use nuclear weapons, as well as China’s rapid expansion of its nuclear forces.

“The stakes and the assumptions have changed,” one STRATCOM representative said.

Austin flew into Offutt Air Force Base aboard the E-4B National Airborne Operations Center operated by STRATCOM. The plane is designed to serve as the nation’s nerve center in the event of a catastrophic nuclear attack—underscoring the important role the Department of Defense placed on the occasion.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III arrives at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. on Dec 9, 2022 to participate in the change of command ceremony at U.S. Strategic Command. Staff photo by Chris Gordon.

Cotton took over command from Navy Adm. Charles “Chas” A. Richard, an outspoken leader who often opines on nuclear issues. But Cotton, who previously led Air Force Global Strike Command, has a low profile. Most of Cotton’s public remarks have come during Senate confirmation hearings.

After taking command, Cotton outlined his vision in a speech at STRATCOM’s gleaming, glass-enclosed headquarters, which provided respite from the grey, biting Nebraska weather.

“New perils are ahead of us,” Cotton said. “While the post-Cold War era is over, the competition is underway among major powers to try shape what comes ahead.”

An Air Force general is taking over STRATCOM at a time when the service is charged with extensive modernization of its nuclear enterprise. In the Department of Defense’s recent Nuclear Posture Review, an emphasis was placed on Air Force nuclear-capable programs such as the brand-new B-21 Raider, which the DOD says will eventually number more than 100 aircraft in the Air Force inventory, and the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile to replace the aging Minuteman III. Navy programs that Richard championed, such as the sea-launched cruise missile-nuclear (SCLM-N), are set to be canceled.

The Air Force’s key role in supporting two legs of the nuclear triad was highlighted by Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall’s appearance at the change of command.

“The Air Force is moving fast in the right direction thanks to your leadership,” Cotton said, addressing Kendall in his speech. “Thank you for the confidence and support in me and the steadfast support of the modernization of the two legs of the nuclear triad, which I was responsible for until a couple of days ago. Now I get it all.”

Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere assumed Cotton’s previous position as head of Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) on Dec. 7. AFGSC forms the majority of America’s deployable nuclear forces and is responsible for the land-based Minuteman III, the current generation ICBM, and America’s strategic bombers, including the nuclear-capable B-52 and B-2 as well as the conventionally-armed B-1. Bussiere will usher in a new era for the Air Force major command, as the U.S. will field its first new strategic bomber in three decades in B-21, which is set to replace the B-2 and B-1, while the Sentinel replaces the Minuteman III.

“To safeguard our status and our capabilities, we can’t settle on the status quo,” Cotton said. “We’re taking actions now. Our mission cannot fail.”

Austin and Cotton reiterated America’s nuclear arsenal ultimately relies on people to make decisions, from intelligence, detection, launch, and targeting. And it requires service members to operate in harm’s way.

“So let us always ensure that the most dangerous weapons ever produced by human science are managed with the greatest responsibility ever produced by human government,” Austin said.

STRATCOM, with its massive nuclear arsenal, embraces the motto “Peace is our profession.” Cotton, a missileer by training who met his wife while serving at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., has spent much of his career around the nuclear enterprise.

“Everything we do is foundational to national and international security,” Cotton said. “It’s not just our nation that’s counting on us.”

USAF Picks Oklahoma Guard Base for New Sky Warden Schoolhouse

Dec. 9, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force selected Will Rogers Air National Guard Base, Oklahoma, to host its formal training unit for the AT-802U Sky Warden—the converted turboprop crop duster aircraft that won U.S. Special Operation Command’s Armed Overwatch contract.

The Oklahoma City base will receive the new Sky Warden, replacing the MC-12W Liberty and its Formal Training Unit currently based there, the service announced Dec. 9. The new Total Force Integration schoolhouse will include 28 aircraft and about 80 personnel as part of the 310th Special Operations Squadron.

The 310th SOS is currently based at Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., and flies the U-28A Draco. When it relocates, it will create an active association with the 185th Special Operations Squadron, the Oklahoma Air National Guard unit that has flown the MC-12.

The 185th SOS is part of the 137th Special Operations Wing, one of only two special operations wings in the Air National Guard—it has flown the unarmed MC-12 since 2015.

Sky Warden is a rugged, single-engine turboprop intended to replace the U-28A. It will be both an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft and one that is capable of conducting light strikes in permissive environments—officials have spoken of its ability to “collapse the stack” of up to 20 ISR and armed defense aircraft that are sometimes called in to support missions, providing a broad range of capabilities and needing a very small footprint to operate in austere locations.

In particular, the aircraft will play a key role in SOCOM’s efforts to counter violent extremist organizations, Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife previously told Congress.

“The idea of the Armed Overwatch platform is [that] it’s a modular capability and so you can outfit the aircraft with a robust suite of sensors that will exceed what is available with most dedicated ISR platforms today. Or you can outfit the platform with a robust suite of precision munitions,” Slife said. “It really depends on the mission, and so clearly, the Armed Overwatch platform is not a panacea for every tactical situation that a ground force might find themselves in. But for what we envision the enduring counter-[violent extremist organization] mission looking like, we think it’s a prudent investment.”

SOCOM selected Sky Warden over four other finalists for the Armed Overwatch contract in August, in a deal worth $3 billion that could include up to 75 aircraft. The aircraft will first be built by contractor Air Tractor in Texas, then modified for military use by L3 Harris at its facility in Oklahoma.

Initial operating capability is expected in fiscal year 2026.

For Will Rogers, there are still several steps left before a final basing decision is made for the Sky Warden FTU. First, a site survey has been scheduled for spring 2023 to assess “operational requirements, potential impacts to existing missions, housing, infrastructure and manpower,” the Air Force said in a release. Then, an environmental impact analysis will follow in the fall. Officials have said they want to officially stand up the unit by the second quarter of 2024.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 12 p.m. Dec. 12 to clarify that the 185th Special Operations Squadron is part of the 137th Special Operations Wing.

More Pay, More Flexible BAH Lay Ahead in 2023 NDAA

Dec. 9, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The 2023 National Defense Authorization bill passed the House Dec. 8 and the Senate is poised to pass it in the next few weeks, paving the way for a 4.6 percent pay raise, a housing allowance increase, the elimination of the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, and more.

But the authorization bill only directs policy; it takes a Defense Appropriations Act to fund those programs. Lawmakers are still negotiating an omnibus spending bill that would give the federal government a budget. As long as the government continues to operate under a continuing resolution, funding levels are frozen at the previous year’s level and raises to basic pay, BAH, and other accounts are impacted, as Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall outlined in a recent letter to Congress.

What is clear from the 2023 NDAA is that lawmakers want to put more money in troops’ pockets to combat soaring inflation.

Pay and Allowances

At 4.6 percent, the 2023 pay raise is the largest in 20 years and in line with the President’s budget request. On top of that, the NDAA authorizes the Defense Department to increase Basic Allowance for Housing payments by an extra 2 percent. The 2023 rates for BAH have yet to be released.

The bill also would expand eligibility for the new Basic Needs Allowance, which will supplement the pay of junior service members with large families. The initial BNA legislation authorized the payment to service members whose gross family income was up to 130 percent of the federal poverty rate based on the family’s size; under the 2023 NDAA, eligibility would expand to those whose gross family income is up to 150 percent of the federal poverty guidelines. To receive the supplement, members must apply.

The NDAA also renews the Pentagon’s authority to temporarily adjust BAH rates in response to soaring prices. DOD used this authority in both 2021 and 2022 to adjust rates in places where housing costs exceeded established BAH rates by 20 percent or more, but that authority expired Sept. 30, 2022; under the 2023 NDAA, it is extended through fiscal 2024.

The NDAA also includes a proviso that would require the Pentagon to produce a report on the “efficiency and accuracy of the current system used to calculate BAH.” That system entails surveying roughly 400 rental markets across the country, determining the median price of rent and utilities for six different housing options.

Lawmakers also directed the Pentagon to consider alternatives to the way BAH is now calculated, perhaps including data from local school districts or recalculating BAH more frequently than once a year, and potentially being more transparent in how the BAH formulas are calculated or contracting those calculations out to a civilian vendor.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass has pushed for similar ideas as part of her call for a “holistic” review of military compensation.

In addition to BAH, the NDAA also calls for Pentagon leaders to conduct a review of the allowances given to troops for dislocation and relocation when they temporarily or permanently change assignments.

The bill also would require an external study on “the value of basic pay for members of the Armed Forces,” including an assessment of the underlying model used to determine basic pay and whether it needs to be changed. The provision calls for Pentagon officials to provide three briefings to Congressional committees, first in April 2023, then one year after the NDAA is passed, and again a year later.

COVID-19 Vaccine

The NDAA, if passed, will direct the Pentagon to rollback its COVID-19 vaccine requirement, which has been in place since Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III ordered the measure in August 2021. Thousands of service members were discharged or retired because they declined to be vaccinated.

While President Joe Biden and Austin have argued in favor of the vaccine mandate, Congressional Republicans had pressed the issue and Democrats in Congress bowed to the pressure. HASC Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said the situation had changed with the general easing of COVID-19 protocols across the country.

The NDAA also extends a requirement that any service member kicked out for refusing the vaccine receive no less than a general discharge, and requires the Secretary of Defense to submit data quarterly to Congress on religious and medical exemptions to its vaccine requirement until the requirement is dropped.

Recruiting and Retention

The NDAA responds to military recruiting woes with several directives. Lawmakers want a broad review of recruiting data from the services, an evaluation by the Comptroller General on each service’s marketing and recruiting practices, and a report on how DOD advertises itself to racial and ethnic minorities. It also re-authorizes the service secretaries to develop up to three new incentives for new recruits.

In addition to attracting new service members, the NDAA contains sections aimed at improving retention. Specifically, it calls for each department to conduct reviews and share best practices for improving retention for female service members and for special operations forces, a career field that is in constant need of more recruits and can ill afford to lose too many people.

The Air Force in particular could be affected by another provision included in the bill that would require a “study to identify opportunities to provide more support services to, and greater recognition of combat accomplishments” of drone pilots and crew members.

That review would cover everything from the special duty and combat pay available to UAV crew members, to mental health support, safety policies, and career advancement opportunities.

Kendall Warns Congress: Continuing Resolution Stopping 61 New Programs

Dec. 8, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

With a little more than a week to go before the continuing resolution funding the federal government expires, lawmakers in Congress still have yet to reach an agreement on spending—and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall is warning that dozens of programs and projects could be affected if no long-term agreement is reached, according to a letter obtained by Air & Space Forces Magazine.

While lawmakers continue to negotiate a spending bill, they have made progress on the National Defense Authorization Act, the annual defense policy bill—the House passed a compromise version of the NDAA on Dec. 8, setting it up for passage in the Senate. The NDAA can authorize maximum spending limits, but it cannot appropriate funds.

All told, a yearlong CR could cost the Department of the Air Force up to $12 billion in buying power, Kendall wrote in the letter to members of Congress.

Even a short-term continuing resolution “threatens DAF readiness, delays military construction projects, reduces aircraft availability and maintenance, hinders the Space Force, and curbs modernization efforts,” Kendall added.

Specifically, Kendall wrote that as long as the government continues to operate under a CR, 61 new programs and 28 military construction projects are unable to start, impacting more than $6 billion worth of efforts.

Those military construction projects include facilities for some of the Air Force’s most important modernization efforts, including the KC-46 tanker, the new B-21 bomber, and the LGM-35 Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile.

Facilities for the European Deterrence Initiative, aimed at combatting Russian aggression, are also affected, as are funds for “Indo-Pacific presence activities,” Kendall wrote. Flight hours and weapons system sustainment are cut, decreasing aircraft fleets’ mission capable rates.

Transfers into the Space Force are delayed, and eight new Space Deltas cannot be activated. Pay raises and increases to allowances cannot go into effect. And production of the Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellite is delayed.

The number of new starts and military construction projects affected by the CR exceed what the department faced last year, when 16 new programs and seven construction projects were affected.

Congress didn’t pass a full budget for 2022 until mid-March, nearly six months into the fiscal year. For fiscal 2023, the legislature passed a CR just before the Sept. 30 deadline, funding the government until Dec. 16. Now, with just a few days to go until that expires, Pentagon officials are ramping up pressure on lawmakers to act—Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III sent a letter similar to Kendall’s last week, saying a CR costs the DOD at least $3 billion every month.

Yet Republicans and Democrats remain at odds and seemingly unable to reach an agreement on a so-called “omnibus” spending bill. Indeed, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and other Democratic leaders threatened Dec. 8 to put forward a yearlong CR—exactly the kind of scenario Austin, Kendall, and other officials have warned would deeply damage the military.

“We may just have to go to a CR, which would be most unfortunate, but we have to weigh it against how unfortunate it would be if they cannibalized the domestic budget at the expense of the defense budget,” Pelosi reportedly said. “We need them both.”

CRs have become standard for Congress over the past quarter of a century, with one getting passed every year since 1997. Yearlong CRs, on the other hand, are rare but have occurred before—2007, 2011, and 2013 all saw yearlong CRs for at least part of the federal government.