Surging Demand Has Airmen Interpreters Feeling the Pinch

Aug. 12, 2024 | By David Roza

Philippine Marine Corps Brig. Gen. Jimmy Larida has partnered with the U.S. Marine Corps in 34 exercises over the course of his career, but something special happened in 2022 during the large-scale exercise called Kamandag 6.

Unlike previous editions, this one featured Language-Enabled Airman Program (LEAP) scholars, a program in the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC) where Airmen and Guardians with significant experience in a foreign language can serve as cultural and linguistic experts for their fellow service members.

At Kamandag 6, LEAP scholars helped bridge the cultural gap between the American and Filipino Marines and translate military jargon so the two camps could work more closely together. Larida said the LEAP scholars “are truly one of us.”

“It has made a huge difference,” he said in an October press release. “My marines trust them, and my marines are drawn to them. This needs to happen, every single time from here on out.”

That kind of connection not only helps at a tactical exercise, it is also an essential part of the U.S. National Defense Strategy, which notes integration with partners and allies as a cornerstone of deterring near-peer rivals such as Russia and China, especially considering the vast areas of the Pacific and Europe that the U.S. cannot secure alone.

“Mathematically, I’m not sure that any of this actually works if we’re not able to work at the highest levels of integration with our partners and allies,” said AFCLC head and retired Air Force Col. Walter Ward.

The program is in high demand; there are 3,750 LEAP scholars across 101 languages, and 2,000 of those scholars are fully trained in the program while the rest are in development. About 70 percent of those 2,000 scholars have used their skills in work with allies and partners, according to AFCLC data.

“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 after Kamandag 6.

The problem is that there are only so many LEAP scholars to go around, especially in Japanese and Ukrainian, the demand for which “has gone through the roof in the last couple of years,” Ward said. While AFCLC has new mechanisms to track demand and stretch the capability of LEAP scholars, the best long-term solution may be to accelerate LEAP’s growth.

“Do we need to get bigger and do we need to get bigger faster? Yes,” Ward said, acknowledging the Air Force has a long list of priorities to juggle. “If we have a strategy that hinges on incorporating partners and allies, at every stage of planning, campaigning and force development … I can’t see a pathway without those skills.”

Constant Conversations

Back at AFCLC headquarters at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., about 20 employees manage nearly 4,000 LEAP scholars around the world. The center came up with its own system for military units to request LEAP assistance and for AFCLC to fill those requests without tasking authority or owning forces. Under the training partnership request process (TPR), requesting units fill out a form online specifying the rank and language of the LEAP scholar they need and how long they need the scholar for. Then the center matches a scholar to the request.

Besides streamlining the process, the system also helps track LEAP demand: AFCLC fills a request from combatant commands every 1.19 days said Chris Chesser, chief of the center’s language division. On top of that, LEAP scholars use a self-reporting utilization tool to document how they use their language and culture skills outside of the TPR process.

“From just the past two years, LEAP scholars have self-reported utilization in 123 countries and 79 languages,” Chesser said.

But some languages have fewer scholars to meet the demand than others. There are just 241 Japanese LEAP scholars helping build a partnership with Japan, a bond that U.S. Indo-Pacific Command leaders say is crucial to security in the region. As Russia’s war in Ukraine drags on, so too does the demand for the 64 Ukrainian LEAP scholars who can help.

“There’s just no shortage of demand,” said Ward, to the extent that AFCLC is cross-training Russian speakers with some Ukrainian skills to try to swell the ranks.

The Air Force could hire more interpreters, but they may not speak aircraft maintenance, acquisition, medicine, or other military subjects the U.S. needs to work on with partners.

“Contract interpreters speak the target language and presumably English, but every LEAP scholar speaks at least three languages: English, the target language, and Air Force,” Ward said. “Your typical dinnertime conversation probably didn’t involve words like fragmentary warhead or load-bearing capacity. So even if you speak a language, it can fall apart quickly when a conversation is technical and time-compressed.”

To try to stretch the capability of existing LEAP scholars, AFCLC is developing a flight lead/wingman concept, where a trained-up LEAP scholar oversees two colleagues who took the Defense Language Proficiency Test in Ukrainian, for example, but who may not have passed through LEAP’s language and culture mentorship or immersion programs.

“Take the expert that has specialized training to others who are willing and able and have some talent,” Ward explained. “They can coach them up and make the same assets go a lot further.”

Next Steps

Interest in joining LEAP is high: every year the program gets about four applications for each one of the roughly 400 new spots it can support. Speaking in early July in the middle of the year’s application window, Ward said the program had received 20 percent more applications in 2024 than it had the year before with two weeks still left to go.

The program’s current mandate is to grow to about 4,000 LEAP scholars by 2026, but Ward said their model is highly scalable, “and we could grow that to whatever number that you want.”

In the meantime, AFCLC hopes to establish better metrics for tracking language and culture competencies across the service. Today, the system does not track those skills for Airmen and Guardians after they graduate basic military training, Ward explained.

“If we mean what we say about interoperability with partners and allies, we can’t let that talent be dormant out there,” he said. “We’ve got to find it and deliberately develop it.”

The retired colonel made a business case for LEAP: where a contract interpreter can cost more than $100 per hour on top of the logistics of moving them to the requesting unit’s location, a LEAP scholar “will recover every penny that we will ever spend on their development and then some.”

Language and culture skills, he added, “is as essential to the application of lethal effects as it is to basic partnership-building and coming to the agreements that we need to go apply them,” he said. “This is the asymmetric capability that our adversaries can’t match and can’t counter.”

Chinese Rocket Breaks Up in Orbit, Scattering Debris

Aug. 9, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

A Chinese rocket carrying the first satellites in a planned communications constellation intended to rival Starlink broke up in low-Earth orbit this week, spreading debris across the orbital regime and worrying experts.

The Long March 6A rocket launched Aug. 6 had successfully deployed 18 satellites for the Qianfan, or “Thousand Sails,” communications constellation when it broke up in space. The China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation said the launch was a complete success, but observers noted that the rocket’s second stage appeared to break apart.

SPACECOM and U.S. Space Forces-Space both confirmed the reports, with SPACECOM saying it was tracking 300 pieces of debris. LeoLabs, a collision avoidance and space tracking company, said on social media that the breakup resulted in “at least 700 debris fragments and potentially more than 900.”

#USSPACECOM statement on the break-up of a Chinese Long March 6A rocket: pic.twitter.com/Kf5cz0iZky
— U.S. Space Command (@US_SpaceCom) August 8, 2024

SPACECOM reported “no immediate threats” from the debris. But the altitude of the rocket when it broke up—between 700 and 800 kilometers above the Earth—is a cause for concern, retired Air Force Col. Jack Anthony told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“Whatever they create, debris-wise, is going to stick around for a very, very long time as it slowly, ever so slowly, descends towards the atmosphere,” Anthony said. “We’re talking tens of decades of this stuff. … As it comes down, it’s charging through other orbital regimes where there are productive satellites operating, or other pieces of debris, perhaps a big rocket stage. And if they [collide] at these velocities—what we call hyper velocity—it will create a lot more debris.”

Particularly troubling is that the rocket was ferrying satellites into a polar orbit, said retired Maj. Gen. Thomas D. Taverney, former vice commander of Air Force Space Command. “We don’t have a lot of debris in polar orbits,” Taverney said. “Most of the debris we’ve had are in nonpolar orbits. Polar orbits are an important orbit, and these debris pieces are going into polar orbit,” dirtying a formerly clean regime.

The Long March 6A is a new system, and experts say problems are to be expected with any new rocket. But after seven launches, a pattern is now emerging: The upper stage of the 6A has released debris in four of those launches, with the number of pieces ranging from 50 or so hundreds.

“It appears that on every one of those launches, that rocket has had … multiple pieces of debris created out there,” Taverney said. “And that’s got to be a concern not just to us, but to China too, I would think.”

China reportedly has more launches planned using Long March 6A and the Qianfan constellation is designed to eventually comprise14,000 satellites.

“They’re going to launch a huge constellation, right? Lots and lots of launches. They start throwing 50 pieces of debris up every launch, it’s going to be a concern,” Taverney said.

Worries about space debris continue to grow as the number and scale of satellite constellations increase, particularly in low-Earth orbit. The more satellites and debris, the greater the likelihood of collisions, which Anthony said risk a chain reaction that could produce debris on a scale never seen before.

The Space Force, NASA, and commercial companies are studying the idea of debris removal, and the U.S. has pledged to follow “tenets of responsible behavior” in space, including limiting the amount of debris it generates in the first place. But it’s not clear if China will follow suit.

Taverney said it’s more likely China will simply stick with the 6A through its early struggles.

“The Chinese are much more risk tolerant,” he said. “They’re willing to go and take risks because they’re a different kind of society. Crashing and burning is not as big a deal to them. It is a big deal to them—don’t get me wrong. But they go earlier in the risk profile than, say, a U.S. company.”

Even so, the challenges China has experienced so far must be worrying to them, Taverney said. “Even with China’s risk tolerance, I can’t believe that they’re not concerned.”

US and Australia Making ‘Significant Progress’ on New Hypersonic Weapon

Aug. 9, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

After more than 15 years of collaboration, the U.S. and Australia are now gaining ground in perfecting a new air-breathing cruise missile traveling five times the speed of sound that will be launched from a fighter aircraft. This hypersonic munition is designed to target high-value, time-sensitive objectives, with the Pentagon seeking to close the gap on China and Russia’s technology development.

“We’re … working collaboratively on cutting edge hypersonic technologies that will provide critical advantage to the warfighter,” a senior defense official told reporters at the Pentagon on Aug 5. “Australia and the U.S. are making significant progress in design and ground testing to develop an air-launched hypersonic weapon under the Southern Cross integrated flight research experiment, or SCIFiRE.”

The two countries agreed to collaborate on hypersonic research in 2007, kicking off the Hypersonic International Flight Research Experimentation (HIFiRE) program. By 2020, the program evolved into SCIFiRE, focusing on advancing the new air-breathing system. This new weapon is poised to have a “Mach 5-class precision strike missile powered by scramjet engine.”

Scramjet, a type of air-breathing engine that uses oxygen from air to burn fuel, represents a “significant leap” for hypersonic weapons, John Venable, senior resident fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, said. The missile’s Mach 5 speed makes it much harder for air defenses to intercept due to the reduced response time.

“Anybody can hit a fastball if they know it’s coming; the problem arises when you don’t know it’s coming,” Venable told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “That’s the great gift of this scramjet cruise missile—the speed. At Mach 5, or 50 miles a minute, a missile launched from 25 miles away gives you less than 30 seconds to detect and intercept it, and that’s pretty heady expectations.”

The U.S. Air Force was previously developing hypersonic missiles under two programs: the AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) and the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM). Due to inconsistent test results, the ARRW program was scrapped last year, and the focus is now solely on HACM. This shift adds weight to the current U.S.-Australia partnership, as HACM collaborates with SCIFiRE for flight testing.

“Looking forward, the U.S. and Australia are working towards expanding this deep collaboration and transitioning the partnership on SCIFiRE and HACM to a fielded combat capability,” noted the joint statement of the two countries’ ministerial consultations on Aug 6. “Australia will consider HACM as a potential pathway to field its first air-launched hypersonic weapon.”

A Government Accountability Office report from June revealed that several of HACM’s planned missile tests will be held in Australia, using the country’s F/A-18 Hornets. The Pentagon has previously struggled to find hypersonic test ranges due to limited airspace and unexpected aircraft or ships appearing in the range.

“For air testing, you need a vast expanse of airspace, either over water or land, that allows you to conduct tests when and where you need to,” said Venable. “Australia has that space, and many of their ranges are over land. That alone is a major reason for wanting to develop this program in collaboration with Australia, the ability for us to use their facilities.”

The munitions will be launched from fighters such as the F-35A Lightning II, EA-18G Growler, and P-8A Poseidon, according to the Royal Australian Air Force. Venable, a long-time fighter pilot with 25 years in the USAF, added that the F-15E, F-15EX, and F-16 should also be capable of firing these missiles.

These high-speed, highly maneuverable air-breathing weapons can achieve longer ranges compared to traditional rocket-based systems, which carry both fuel and oxidizer. China And Russia are known to be “well ahead” of this scramjet technology, almost across the board.

“We were ahead of the world around 2010, but funding cuts stalled our progress for nearly a decade,” said Venable. “During that time, China and Russia made some significant advancements on the technology development.”

Despite the countries’ recent progress, though, there is currently no evidence that they have fielded the scramjet capabilities yet.

With the U.S. and Australia’s partnership, the Pentagon now expects to begin fielding munitions starting in fiscal 2027. Once Australia is also equipped, the two allies’ closest partners, including the U.K., Canada, and New Zealand, could be expected to purchase them.

“I would imagine that once this is developed, the Five Eyes nations will probably have access to it and may acquire it in the future,” said Venable. “But because it’s such high-end technology, it will be closely held, and will be kept under tighter control from other nations.”

Lack of Parts Hurting C-5 Mission Capable Rate Even After $10 Billion in Upgrades

Aug. 9, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

A recent $10 billion fleetwide upgrade to the Air Force’s largest aircraft, the C-5M Galaxy, has not resulted in a higher mission capable rate—the huge airlifter was at 46 percent in 2023, down from 52 percent in 2022. Officials say the struggles are mostly due to a dried-up parts stream.

“We’re recovering from … budget decisions that were made on the C-5,” Kevin Stamey, program executive officer for mobility and training aircraft, told reporters at the recent Life Cycle Industry Days conference.

“When you cut the budget on a program, and you essentially advertise that, hey, we’re going to retire the system, unfortunately, the supply chain is challenged by getting restarted. I would say that is the singular greatest contributor to the hole we had to dig out [of].”

The C-5 fleet underwent a massive dual upgrade called the Avionics Modernization Program (AMP) and Reliability Enhancement and Re-engining Program (RERP), both of which were completed in 2018. The C-5’s problem-prone GE TF-39 engines were changed out for four GE CF6-80C2 turbofans, which in addition to being more reliable, added 22 percent more thrust, a one-third shorter takeoff roll and a 58 percent improvement in rate of climb. Avionics improvements included cockpit displays, communications, and navigation upgrades.

The upgrades, which collectively cost about $10 billion, were intended to keep the resulting 52 C-5Ms operating at about a 75 percent mission capable rate into the early 2040s. After some initial success in the late 2010s, the C-5’s readiness has continued to decline. The cavernous airlifter constitutes some 21 percent of the Air Force’s organic strategic lift capacity.

“We’re making great progress” with the C-5, Stamey asserted. Air Force Materiel Command has a program called “Drive to 55,” which is meant to get the type back above a 55 percent mission capable rate, and “we are getting really close to hitting that.”

“Kudos to our depot, DLA (Defense Logistics Agency) and program office teams to get us there,” Stamey said, though he did not say when he expected the 55 percent MC rate goal to be achieved.

An AFMC official later said that more funds are being applied to the C-5 Weapon System Sustainment, and that another depot line has been added to the C-5 depot at Robins Air Force Base, Ga. Metrics of how the changes have boosted C-5 reliability performance are not yet available.

Although the C-5 is slated to start retiring in 16 years, there is as yet no formal “C-X” replacement program contemplated for it. Air Force officials have recently said a follow-on mega-airlifter in the C-5’s class may not be in the cards, as Air Mobility Command is looking at low-observable capabilities that may dictate a smaller aircraft.

At Life Cycle Industry Days, officials also said there is currently no plan for a Service Life Extension Program for the C-17, the service’s other large airlifter.

“We are looking at the things that would be necessary to keep the C-17 out past 2050,” Stamey said. “But right now, it is just an analysis. There’s nothing on the books right now for a SLEP program, other than looking at the necessary things it would take to keep that aircraft” another 25 years.

The C-17 succeeded the C-141, which during its lifetime not only underwent a major life extension, but much of the fleet was actually stretched with a fuselage plug that added as much as 25 percent capacity to its lifting power.

The C-17 entered service in the 1990s, but in fiscal 2023 averaged a 77.5 percent mission capable rate. The average age of the 222-strong fleet is just over 20 years.

US ‘Ill-Equipped’ to Handle Nuclear Escalation with China: Experts

Aug. 9, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The U.S. is currently “ill-equipped” to manage nuclear escalation scenarios in the Indo-Pacific with China, both in the current security environment and in a potential conflict, experts argue in a new report.

Andrew Metrick, Philip Sheers, and Stacie Pettyjohn from the Center for a New American Study authored the research report, funded by the Pentagon’s Defense Threat Reduction Agency.

“The United States is currently ill-equipped in its concepts and capabilities to manage escalation risks in the emerging Indo-Pacific era,” the authors write in the report. “Relying on submarines and dual-capable fighters and bombers for signaling and employment, the U.S. may encounter issues related to platform vulnerability, signaling visibility, and conventional warfighting.”

Tensions in the region remain high—China is building up its nuclear arsenal at a rapid rate and continues to claim it will take Taiwan by force if necessary.

In the event of conflict, especially a protracted one, Metrick, Sheers, and Pettyjohn warn that conditions could be such that “nonstrategic nuclear weapons use is both appealing to the PRC and difficult to manage for the United States.”

So-called tactical nuclear exchanges may not lead to full-scale nuclear war, with smaller, less devastating nuclear weapons used in precision strikes rather than widespread destruction. In this scenario, it is crucial for the U.S. to demonstrate a strong commitment through something “incredibly visible” by effectively deploying nuclear assets to maintain deterrence, the authors argued.

“When we’re talking about intra-war deterrence, you need to be willing and able to use theater non-strategic nuclear arms to show your adversary that you have skin in the game, to demonstrate credibility,” Metrick said during an Aug. 8 event. “What that probably looks like is working with the Air Force and others, to think about how you put the right platforms with the right capabilities in the right places.”

Such moves would be difficult, however, given China’s regional advantages and the fact that one of its allies, North Korea, has its own nuclear weapons to complicate the strategic landscape. This complexity makes effective nuclear signaling difficult, according to Justin Anderson, Senior Policy Fellow at the Center for the Study of Weapons of Mass Destruction, National Defense University.

“Various forms of national-level signals to include attempts at nuclear signaling often have not been successful, at least not successful in communicating the signal that was intended,” said Anderson, adding that it is “very concerning.”

Fighter aircraft from the U.S., Japan, and the Republic of Korea conducted a trilateral escort flight of a U.S. B-52H Stratofortress Bomber operating in the Indo-Pacific, 22 Oct, 2023. By U.S. Indo-Pacific Command Public Affairs

The Pentagon has made several moves aimed at signaling deterrence in the Indo-Pacific this year. It is rotating advanced fighter aircraft to bases in Japan and adjusting its force posture, temporarily relocating F-16s closer to North Korea, and boosting cooperation with nations like the Philippines and Australia. The U.S. also often deploys bomber aircraft and nuclear-powered submarines for joint multilateral exercises with regional allies. While calling these efforts “important,” Anderson said more is needed to effectively convey nuclear deterrence messages.

“You see the bomber sometimes accompanied by allied fighter aircraft, and that sends a really strong and useful signal,” said Anderson. “But beyond capabilities, I would just also note … the importance of mechanisms like the MO link—the Moscow-Washington hotline, something that we don’t have an exact equivalent of with the Chinese.”

The hotline, created during the Cold War, helps prevent nuclear conflicts by enabling swift resolution of misunderstandings. Washington lacks such system with Beijing, as China has long avoided nuclear arms talks with the U.S.

In recent months, there were signs of developing discussions with China. Last month however, Beijing announced it was suspending nuclear talks with the U.S., in retaliation for the nation’s ongoing arms sales to Taiwan. This development adds to existing tensions, especially since Russia also halted discussions on renewing the New START treaty last year. The current agreement with Moscow is set to expire in February 2026.

“I don’t think actually the Russians themselves have fully thought through the implications of what that could mean over the long term,” said Anderson.

This shift would reshape how countries and states approach and manage their nuclear forces, likely making the world even more uncertain. These risks underscore the need for renewed arms control discussions, according to Anderson.

“Major powers at various points have recognized the arms control negotiations and agreements can be a win-win for both sides or all sides involved, and that’s something that can bring them to the negotiating table,” said Anderson. “So, will the U.S.-Russia or U.S.-China, or some other combination of major powers be able to have a mutual realization again that arms control may be beneficial? I certainly think it could happen again in the future, and that’s just based on reading a history, but we’re in a bad place now.”

Anduril Unveils Plans for Huge ‘Arsenal’ Factory to Build Autonomous Weapons Like CCA

Aug. 8, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Anduril Industries—one of the two companies selected by the Air Force to develop the first increment of Collaborative Combat Aircraft—announced it will soon build a factory designed to produce a variety of autonomous weapons, including CCAs, “at scale.”

Anduril has not yet settled on a site for its factory, dubbed “Arsenal,” but it will be in the U.S. and a rapidly-reconfigurable facility designed to swiftly build “autonomous systems and weapons of all classes,” company chief strategy officer Chris Brose told reporters. He characterized the weapons to be built as not “exquisite” all-in-one systems but complementary capabilities for other platforms.

The company is “never going to focus on building exquisite weapons systems. We are going to focus on building what we believe is the sort of supplementary capabilities that we can get quickly,” Brose said.

The company’s offering in the CCA competition—the “Fury”—was originally intended to be a stealthy, jet-powered sparring partner for Air Combat Command’s fifth-generation F-22s and F-35s. It will be one of the products to be built at Arsenal, along with loitering munitions, electronic warfare systems, and autonomous submarine vehicles. All of the company’s products will be built “under one roof,” Brose said.

The factory will rely heavily on software to speed processes and attract workers. It is intended to employ “thousands of people” across “more than five million square feet of production space,” he said.

“Moving to larger-scale production is a journey that Anduril has been on for the past few years,” Brose said. A second factory is meant to follow in close order, he said; it may be located in an allied country such as Australia.

Brose said the factory—named to echo the “Arsenal of Democracy” of World War II—is being undertaken because “America and our allies don’t have enough stuff, right? We don’t have enough vehicles, we don’t have enough platforms, we don’t have enough weapons. This has been true for a long time.” The war in Ukraine has highlighted that the U.S. is “struggling to do basic things like replace Stingers and Javelins.” Wargames focused on a Pacific conflict “have suggested for years that we would run out of critical munitions in the first week of a conflict,” and the weapons used are not easily or quickly replaced.

“We have been building and sort of sizing the military around a relatively small number of things,” Brose said. “And over time, we have made those things effectively irreplaceable, because of how exquisite we have defined the requirements, the manufacturing processes that go into producing them, the highly specialized labor that is required to produce them.”

The Arsenal factory is meant to reverse that trend.

“Our view on this is we need those exquisite platforms in some number, but we just don’t have the time, the money, the specialized workforce, and all of the other things that would be required to scale it to the degrees that we actually require to generate deterrence against great power competitors,” Brose said.

The explanation closely follows Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks’ description of her “Replicator” effort, launched last year and focused on things the Pentagon is already buying.

Brose said the company has raised $1.5 billion for Arsenal and related efforts.

He noted there are traditional benefits to distributing military manufacturing across a number of congressional districts, but the “benefits we can achieve from a manufacturing standpoint through consolidation outweigh whatever kind of political benefits we might get” from a distributed strategy.

The company aims to build “not just … shorter-range systems that are so commonplace in Ukraine, but longer-range, larger-payload sort of more survivable autonomous systems and weapons that are going to be more appropriate for INDOPACOM contingencies,” Brose said.

The U.S. military need these “in the tens of thousands” and that is the scale the company envisions, citing the example of commercial companies like Tesla, SpaceX, and and Apple.

That manufacturing “revolution” has “passed the defense industrial base by,” but Anduril believes it can work for the military as well, Brose said.

Using the company’s Lattice open software architecture, “we can actually own the architecture of everything that we are building and control it. This is very different than how traditional defense production is, where software is broken up across lots of different subcomponents and balkanized across the platform,” Brose said.

“What Lattice gives us is the ability to start with a mature software platform, and then build modular, producible weapons from it, where we can control how all of the different subsystems interface into the overall platform, whether its mission systems, radios, computers.”

The manufacturing process won’t focus on additive manufacturing or any one new method but instead hone in on automated processes, Brose said.

“A core lesson that we take out of the commercial manufacturing revolution is that it’s succeeding not because they automated everything, or they AI their way out of it, or advanced manufactured their way out of these traditional problems. It’s actually that they stood up production lines to take advantage of manufacturing products as simply as possible with the broadest commercial supply chains available, utilizing the broadest workforce possible,” he said.

Agile Cash Employment Funds the Fight at Massive Air Force Exercise

Aug. 8, 2024 | By David Roza

The Air Force concept of Agile Combat Employment often involves forward arming and refueling points, rapid runway repairs, and other techniques for generating airpower at remote airstrips. But what happens when aircraft maintainers run out of water, or their electric generator needs more gas, or the food resupply flight is delayed?

Enter the contingency contracting officer (CCO), an Airman trained and authorized to spend taxpayer money on whatever the Air Force needs to accomplish its mission.

“Any time there are large-scale movements, something goes unaccounted for, something wasn’t immediately identified as a need,” said Staff Sgt. Milton Vasquez, a CCO with the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at the massive Bamboo Eagle exercise being held across the West Coast this week. “What I do is step in and find in the local economy what is available to support the mission set.”

By Aug. 5, the third day of the exercise, Vasquez had already driven hours to bring parts and supplies to Airmen working from airfields across the southern California desert. When an air conditioner for an operations room broke down, Vasquez and three civil engineers ran to Home Depot and bought another. When a field headquarters ran low on ice to cool its water tanks, Vasquez helped modify their contract so they could get more.

The list extends to rental cars, RVs, and even single-use serving utensils after the heating coil for a field kitchen sanitation unit went out.

“They were unable to sanitize their serving implements, and so they were unable to serve hot food, and that’s a huge hit to morale,” Vasquez said. “I just grabbed a ton of single-use serving utensils so they can continue to serve hot food without running afoul of health and safety.”

A deployed U.S. Air Force expeditionary contracting squadron contracting officer ensures financial regulations are followed in every request and purchase he processes in the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility March 4, 2024. U.S. Air Force courtesy photo

CCOs also free up cargo space aboard mobility aircraft; why bring in a ton of gravel and sand when you can buy it locally?

“That means the weight that we carry whenever we’re going to these locations can be more mission-focused as opposed to more sustainment-focused,” the staff sergeant explained.

CCOs must follow a long list of rules and regulations designed to prevent misuse of taxpayer money. For example, as a contractor, Vasquez can authorize the expenditure of funds, but a purchasing agent from a finance unit is responsible for actually handling the money, which may come in the form of U.S. dollars, or local currency.

The money is kept in a “cash cage” which may be a safe, an actual cage, or some other secure container, Vasquez said. At Bamboo Eagle, he used a government purchase card—basically a credit card for the government—arranged by finance Airmen. The regulation books for using that money are thousands of pages long, each with dense supplements.

“Government acquisitions are a beast and a half to work through,” Vasquez said. “While a civilian can just run a credit card … there are layers of bureaucracy and, for lack of a better term, red tape, that I have to navigate in order to do that above-board.”

Much of the red tape is waived in a state of emergency, such as a natural disaster, or a declared contingency, such as a war, but because Bamboo Eagle takes place in a non-contingency, non-emergency environment, Vasquez has to figure out a way to follow all the rules and regulations of peacetime procurement but also get Airmen the supplies they need quickly enough to perform in a fast-changing exercise.

“It’s proved to be a very interesting dilemma to work through,” he said.

On the other hand, CCOs have “a lot of trust and faith” from the Air Force to be responsible stewards of taxpayer dollars, Vasquez said. When a purchase costs more than the dollar amount a CCO is authorized to spend, there are rapid response teams available 24/7 at higher headquarters around the world ready to help authorize that spending.

From a strictly contracting perspective, the kind of work CCOs do on a regular basis is the same work they would do in a near-peer ACE environment, Vasquez said. The only wrinkle is that there are not enough CCOs to cover all the austere locations the Air Force may hope to operate in a near-peer conflict. For example, at Bamboo Eagle, Vasquez alone was responsible for three spoke locations: Edwards Air Force Base, Victorville, and March Air Reserve Base, spread over more than 100 miles of southern California.

“I’ve been going back and forth across all those locations the past several days to make sure everyone has exactly what they need,” he said.

The distances in a Pacific fight would be even greater, without a nearby Home Depot or roads to get between island airstrips. But Bamboo Eagle is proving difficult even with those luxuries.

The exercise is an extension of Red Flag, where large-scale air wargames begin and end at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. Bamboo Eagle forces Airmen to project that same airpower from unfamiliar, unequipped airfields across the west coast. That means air and ground crews for fighter and bomber aircraft have to work closer than ever with mobility aircraft and support staff in order to stand up airfields, then quickly relocate if targeted by a missile strike.

“Traditionally a Red Flag or a Red Flag-like exercise stresses aircraft, aircrew, maintainers, and flightline-adjacent capabilities like munitions, fuels, avionics, et cetera,” Lt. Gen. Adrian L. Spain, deputy chief of staff of operations, said at an Aug. 1 media roundtable.

Bamboo Eagle, by contrast, “is designed to stress the entire ecosystem,” he said. “From all the support forces up to and including a wing commander and their staff in their ability to command and control a wide array of force elements under their command across dispersed locations.”

On a day-to-day level, that means working on the nitty-gritty details that make airpower possible: are the bomb carts and power generators loaded properly so that C-17s can safely fly them to a spoke? Once it gets there, are there enough forklifts to quickly download cargo before the C-17 can be targeted by a missile? If the spoke is targeted, how do Airmen request C-130s to take them and their equipment to a new one?

Airmen at all levels have to step outside their usual roles to make it work. Maintainers may have to marshal a C-130 on the runway, and cyber Airmen may have to learn how to pitch a tent or repair an HVAC unit. Meanwhile, wing commanders and headquarters staff have to morph from thinking like reconnaissance wings or fighter wings to air expeditionary wings that control fighters, tankers, airlift, drones, and other assets.

“I brought a bunch of reconnaissance Airmen into a situation where they are being asked to think like a fighter wing or a mobility wing,” said Col. Keagan McLeese, commander of the 9th Reconnaissance Wing. “It’s so far outside the box … that’s the point of the exercise, find our failings and learn from them.”

In the exercise, the 9th RW acted as the 9th Air Expeditionary Wing controlling several spokes from a hub at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. When spoke leaders need anything, they know who to call.

“Some of the location commanders have my number on speed-dial, calling me any time they need something,” Vasquez said.

“We’re practicing all of this to get the ability to rapidly set up a base at a moment’s notice and to just as quickly tear it all down and move it someplace else,” the CCO added. “That way we stay effective and avoid any hostile intentions.”

Whiting Calls for ‘Space Fires’ in Rare Hint About Offensive Weapons

Aug. 8, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

U.S. Space Command needs “space fires,” its commander said this week, the latest indication that the Pentagon is growing more comfortable talking about offensive weapons in space.

“We need space fires to enable us to establish space superiority,” said Gen. Stephen N. Whiting, speaking Aug. 6 at the Army Space and Missile Defense Symposium in Huntsville, Ala.

The term “fires” refers to “available weapons and other systems to create a specific lethal or nonlethal effect on a target” in joint doctrine. In space, that means weapons that could either destroy, deny, disrupt, deceive, or degrade adversaries’ satellites.

Whiting listed space fires as the top of his Integrated Priorities List, which SPACECOM submitted to the Pentagon to help frame requirements for the fiscal 2027 budget. The list summarizes the operational needs of his combatant command.

“The purpose of it is to inform the services and defense agencies of our warfighting needs as they prepare their budget and acquisition plans,” Whiting said, part of SPACECOM’s larger push to “pivot” and prepare for 2040.

“Integrated space fires” was also in the command’s fiscal 2026 list, submitted last year but only quietly disclosed in public. By speaking out, Whiting signaled that talking about offensive space weapons is no longer completely taboo.

Retired Air Force Col. Jennifer Reeves, a senior fellow at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies’ Space Center of Excellence (MISpaCE), said this should not be a surprise to anyone thinking seriously about modern warfare. “Fires happen in all warfighting domains, and space has been declared a warfighting domain,” Reeves said. “Yet there is this sort of moratorium still that we are not talking about offensive action in space. So in my opinion, [Whiting is] using very doctrinal terms to sort of broach a subject that is wildly uncomfortable.”

A few counterspace systems are already in the Pentagon’s arsenal, mostly jamming and other electronic warfare solutions that can limit space capability for a time in a given place, said retired Space Force Col. Charles Galbreath, another senior fellow at Mitchell’s Space Center.

“But that’s not what [Whiting is] talking about,” he added. “He’s talking about expanding the envelope of that capability set to address the no-kidding threats that are coming from adversaries’ use of space and adversaries’ growth of counterspace capabilities.”

Whiting added no detail on what kinds of space fires he wants. But the command’s continued push for more suggests that existing systems aren’t enough to counter growing capabilities and threats posed by China, Russia, and others.

Whiting has called China’s advances a “strategic breakout” in space, and Russia’s war in Ukraine, despite its expense, has not stopped Russian President Vladimir Putin from investing in counterspace weapons.

“Their aggressive actions in space directly threaten our systems,” Whiting said.

China is rapidly expanding its counterspace capabilities, including ground-launched anti-satellite missiles, as shown in this illustration. **Mike Tsukamoto/staff and Pixabay**

Those growing threats have also led Pentagon space leaders to talk more and more about the actions the U.S. must take to deter conflict in space. Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman made “responsible counterspace campaigning” a central tenet of his “Competitive Endurance” theory. And then-Maj. Gen. David N. Miller, director of operations, training, and force development for U.S. Space Command said in 2023 that the command needs to “demonstrate our capability to win.”

Part of that is having capabilities to provide “precision tracking, custody, and, if necessary, targeting information in order to disrupt space-enabled threats,” said Miller at the time, before moving on to become head of Space Operations Command, where he provides forces to Whiting.

On Aug. 6, Whiting listed “enhanced battlespace awareness for space operations” as another priority, specifically “in support of space fires.”

Galbreath said a range of new weapons are possible, both kinetic and non-kinetic. “There are different levels of capability that might be achievable even within kinetic,” he said. “It’s not necessarily ‘all kinetic is bad in space all the time.’ We’ve got to look at all these options. There are certainly some advantages to some non-kinetics. Jamming and lasers, you can get more shots per craft, plus it doesn’t potentially generate any form of debris, and it can also be reversible. So there are some definite advantages from an escalation perspective to non-kinetic, nonlethal forms of fire.”

But kinetic weapons may also have their place, he said. What Whiting did in raising the specter of space fires was to help spark a “long overdue” conversation, Galbreath and Reeves agreed.

F-22s Land in Middle East, Countering Iran and its Proxies

Aug. 8, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

Air Force F-22 Raptors are now in the Middle East “to address threats posed by Iran and Iranian-backed groups” against Israel and American troops in the region, U.S. Central Command announced Aug. 8.

The Pentagon added U.S. forces in the region after Iran vowed to avenge the Jan. 30 killing of Hamas political leader Ismail Haniyeh by a bomb smuggled into the house in Tehran where he was staying. Iran says the attack was carried out by Israel, which has not publicly claimed responsibility.

Iran’s promised retaliation could include direct strikes from its territory and indirect attacks through its proxy forces. Iranian-backed Lebanese Hezbollah, which controls southern Lebanon and the Lebanese border with Israel, may also launch attacks. In recent weeks, U.S. forces in Iraq and Syria have experienced a rocket attacks from Iranian-aligned militias there.

The F-22s are the most advanced fighter aircraft among a rapid infusion of fresh forces to the region, including U.S. warships capable of shooting down ballistic missiles. The U.S. may also bolster land-based ballistic missile defenses in the region.

Around a dozen F-22s arrived at a base in the Middle East from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, U.S. officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Covering a distance of more than 5,600 nautical miles, the F-22s made the trek across North America and the Atlantic Ocean, stopped at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., and then traveled across the Mediterranean Sea. They reached their temporary home in the region with the help of tanker aircraft on Aug. 8.

A spokesperson for Air Forces Central (AFCENT) declined to say where the F-22s or any other U.S. fighters in the region are based, citing operational security.

The additional military firepower is intended to fend off or deter an attack from Iran and its proxies on Israelis. It is also intended to better defend U.S. troops.

“The United States will not tolerate attacks on our personnel in the region,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III during a press conference on Aug. 7. “We’ve adjusted our military posture to strengthen our force protection and to reinforce our ironclad commitment to the defense of Israel and to remain prepared to respond to any contingency.” Austin said an additional fighter squadron to the Middle East would “reinforce our defensive air support capabilities there.”

The F-22 is the Air Force’s premier, fifth-generation air superiority fighter.

“They can be a very invaluable defensive platform,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh said of the deployment of F-22s to the Middle East. “They add a maneuverability [and] additional systems that allow the commander to have more versatile options. And I think it sends a very clear signal to the region that we want to see tensions de-escalate. And it sends a really powerful message of deterrence.”

A rocket attack on Al Asad Air Base, Iraq, on Aug. 5 injured four U.S. service members and one U.S. contractor, Singh said Aug. 8. U.S. defense officials originally said seven Americans were injured. The Pentagon has attributed the attack on Al Asad to an Iranian-aligned Shia militia group.

Since October, when Hamas launched its attack on Israel, there have been 180 attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan, according to the Pentagon. Three Soldiers were killed in an attack on Tower 22 in Jordan, which supports the Al Taft Garrison in Eastern Syria. The U.S. conducted an airstrike in Iraq on a one-way attack drone facility used by an Iranian-aligned militia on July 30.

Hamas’ Oct. 7 attack on Israel killed 1,200 people and the group took 250 hostages. Israel responded with a prolonged attack on Hamas in Gaza with the stated purpose of destroying Hamas. The campaign has resulted in the deaths of nearly 40,000 Palestinians in Gaza, according to Palestinian health officials, whose numbers do not distinguish between combatants and civilians.

The F-22s’ arrival in the Middle East comes days after the U.S. Navy flew about a dozen F/A-18 Super Hornets from the aircraft carrier the USS Theodore Roosevelt to an air base in the region, bringing the fighters closer to Israel and to U.S. forces stationed in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan. The F/A-18s’ relocation is temporary, U.S. officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine, and the jets will return to the Theodore Roosevelt before it plans to depart the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) operating theater in roughly a week. The aircraft carrier USS Abraham Lincoln is en route from the Pacific and will replace the Roosevelt, the Pentagon says.

F/A-18s can operate from either land or an aircraft carrier. The advantage is that land bases support flight operations around the clock, while aircraft carriers typically conduct air operations just 12 hours a day. The Roosevelt has been operating in the Gulf of Oman, a much greater distance from Israel and U.S. ground troops than the air bases in the region.

The F-22s add to substantial U.S. Air Force assets already in the region, including:

F-15Es from the 335th Fighter Squadron deployed from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

F-16s from the 510th Fighter Squadron deployed from Aviano Air Base, Italy.

A-10s from the 107th Fighter Squadron at Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich.

The U.S. has also moved more aerial refueling tankers to the Middle East to support the bulked-up airpower, U.S. officials said.

Austin and Israeli Minister of Defense Yoav Gallant discussed the deployment of the F-22s in a call on Aug. 8, the Pentagon said.

“Secretary Austin made clear that while a war is not inevitable and that de-escalation is the preferred course of action, the U.S. would defend Israel if it were attacked,” Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said in a readout of the call.

In April, U.S. Air Force fighters shot down more than 80 drones launched by Iran against Israel, contributing to a highly successful allied defense that neutralized some 300 missiles and drones launched by Iran. Among the U.S. jets in the April 13-14 operation were F-15Es from the 335th Fighter Squadron. The A-10s now in the region have only limited air-to-air capability, but they can threaten surface forces on land and even ships at sea.

“These posture adjustments add to our already broad range of capabilities in the region, and we remain ready to deploy on short notice to meet evolving threats to our security, our partners or our interests,” Austin said.

The Theodore Roosevelt has been in the region for the past month having diverted from the Pacific. The USS Wasp, an amphibious assault ship that also carries fixed-wing aircraft, along with its Amphibious Ready Group and onboard Marine Expeditionary Unit, is operating in the eastern Mediterranean.

“I’ve been focused on is making sure that we’re doing everything we can to put measures in place to protect our troops and also make sure that we’re in a good position to aid in the defense of Israel if called upon to do that, so you’ve seen us do a number of things to strengthen our force posture,” Austin said. “I’m in constant communications with my commanders in the region and also with our allies as well. So we’ll see how this evolves.”