National Guard Boss Warns of Potential ‘Critical’ Fighter Shortage

May 1, 2024 | By David Roza

The head of the National Guard warned that a shortage of fighter jets, pilots, and maintainers in the reserve components could leave the military short-handed in a possible conflict.

“We’ve got a 60 fighter squadron requirement,” across the Air Force, Army Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson, the Chief of the National Guard Bureau, said April 30 at a House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing. “We have 25 of those in the National Guard, and our ability to retain that capability when we’re already short fighter pilots and maintainers will be critically important in the next coming years as we start to modernize our fleet.”

The Air Force is retiring several of the Guard’s aging A-10 and F-15C/D squadrons in an effort to fund modernization, but lawmakers worry there are not enough new replacement aircraft to make up the difference.

“I’m very concerned about the lack of, frankly, assets within the reserve components, especially on the Air National Guard side, to be that complementary force to the Active duty right now,” Rep. Mike Garcia (R-Calif.) said. “I think we’ve gotten below or are approaching below critical mass on some of the platforms that are being allocated to y’all.”

Garcia emphasized the importance of “getting the right equipment at the right levels to the Guard, to the Reserve units,” so that “you’re not just seen as the ugly stepchild to the Active duty side.”

A U.S. Air Force pilot assigned to the 158th Fighter Wing, Vermont Air National Guard, performs pre-flight procedures in an F-35 Lightning II during William Tell 2023 at the Air Dominance Center located at the Savannah Air National Guard base in Savannah, Georgia, Sept. 12, 2023. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Morgan R. Whitehouse

But achieving that balance has proven difficult. Last year, both chambers of Congress introduced bills that would have required a minimum of 25 fighter squadrons in the Air National Guard, developed a plan to modernize and recapitalize the entire Guard fighter fleet by the end of fiscal year 2034, and a plan to field Next-Generation Air Dominance fighters in the Guard.

Neither bill passed into law, but a bipartisan group of lawmakers pushed the Air Force to transfer Active fighters into Guard and Reserve units until the defense industry can produce more new fighters. Not doing so, they argued, could result in losing experienced, expensively-trained pilots and maintainers if reserve component squadrons are shuttered.

“Fleet leveling temporarily balances fighters across Active duty, ANG, and AFRC squadrons to allow time for industry production capacity to catch up with demand,” members of Congress wrote in a December letter to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall. “Most importantly, fleet leveling prevents the closure of fighter squadrons across the Total Force, thereby preserving critical capacity that would otherwise be forever lost.”

Hokanson advocated for the same strategy at the April 30 hearing.

“With significant fighter pilot and maintainer shortages in the Air Force, we believe through temporary cross-component aircraft transfers, we can retain the critical fighter capability in all 25 of our existing fighter squadrons until aircraft procurement efforts can replenish them,” he said.

In the meantime, the general is pushing for F-15EX and F-35s to help the Guard fleet keep pace with its Active counterparts. The National Guard’s fiscal year 2025 unfunded priorities list includes six F-15EXs and six F-35s that the Air Force cut from its own budget request.

The 12 new jets will help “make sure that we can continue to field these units so that we don’t create what we call a bathtub where we don’t have enough capability at the most critical time as we face challenges from our competitors around the globe,” Hokanson said. “We’re working everything we can to get those airframes as fast as we can.”

The head of Air Force Reserve Command, Lt. Gen. John P. Healy, took a similar view, arguing that the Reserves need to have “proportionally modernized and concurrently fielded” platforms to serve as an effective back-up for the Active force.

“We absolutely want to see that continue … so that we’re able to have fifth-gen aircraft participating as a surge capacity in a fifth-gen fight in the future,” he said at the hearing.

MH-139 Suffers ‘Critical’ Cost Breach; Sentinel ‘Halfway’ Through Its Review

April 30, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

While the Pentagon is halfway through its review of the Air Force’s new Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) program in the wake of “critical” cost and schedule overruns, the service has declared a similar issue for the helicopters meant to provide security and transport across those ICBM fields.

The Air Force recently notified Congress of a “critical” Nunn-McCurdy breach on the MH-139 Grey Wolf program, a spokesperson confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine. The Nunn-McCurdy Act requires the Pentagon to inform lawmakers if a program incurs a cost or schedule overrun of more than 15 percent.

Any breach over 15 percent is considered “significant,” while a breach of 30 percent is considered “critical.” Programs with a critical breach require certification from the Secretary of Defense to continue.

Rep. Ken Calvert (R-Calif.), chair of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, first revealed the MH-139 breach during an April 30 hearing, noting the ongoing Sentinel breach as well.

“We need to understand the implications of both of these breach reviews for fiscal year 2025 and beyond,” he said.

While the Sentinel breach was related to ballooning costs and years of delays, the MH-139 breach was caused by the Air Force’s decision in its 2025 budget request to slash the projected fleet from 80 to 42 aircraft—which caused the price per aircraft to rise significantly. Overall procurement costs, however, dropped $1.1 billion.

The cuts to the MH-139 came “due to fiscal pressures and considering remaining service life of the UH-1N Huey,” an Air Force spokesperson previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The Air Force had planned to have the MH-139 provide transport for senior leaders, executive airlift in the National Capital Region, and aircrew survival training in addition to its ICBM patrol duties. With the cuts, the service now says the Grey Wolf will only be used by nuclear security forces.

A militarized version of the AW139 helicopter, the MH-139 can fly faster, higher, farther, and with more weight than the UH-1N, which Air Force budget documents say have “significant capability gaps in the areas of speed, range, endurance, payload capacity, and aircraft self-protection.”

However, issues with Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) certification several years ago caused the Air Force to delay purchases, and the Pentagon’s Office of the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) has warned in its annual report that the Grey Wolf might fall shore of “operational effectiveness requirements.”

Now, the office of the undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment must conduct a review of the program to certify that:

The program is essential to national security.

The root cause of the overrun is clearly understood.

New cost estimates are validated by the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation shop as reasonable.

There are no lower-cost alternatives to the program.

The program is a higher priority than other programs that must be reduced or eliminated to pay for the overrun.

Sentinel Review to Finish by July

While the MH-139 Nunn-McCurdy process is just beginning, the Sentinel ICBM program has been in it since January and is now “halfway” done, Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment William LaPlante told lawmakers in a separate April 30 hearing.

Under the law, LaPlante noted, his office has 120 days after the submission of the President’s budget to complete its review.

“So that deadline for us, roughly is July 10 or so,” he said.

While Air Force leaders have repeatedly said they believe Sentinel must continue to replace the aging Minuteman III missiles that have been in service since the 1970s, LaPlante said no outcomes are being ruled out of the review process, including the program being canceled or certified to continue with modifications.

LaPlante declined to share any preliminary findings from the review, but he did note that, in his own opinion, the Sentinel program suffered from poor communication between the prime contractor Northrop Grumman and its subcontractors, a lack of competition for the contract, and massive costs associated with the ground element. On the last point, Air Force officials have also noted that because Minuteman was put into service so long ago, its basic infrastructure needs to be massively overhauled, and the Air Force and industry have no recent experience with a project of that size.

LaPlante also noted issues with Sentinel’s integrated master schedule, or lack thereof. When he started in the summer of 2022, he visited Hill Air Force Base and determined the program lacked a reliable master schedule, nearly two years after the Air Force had awarded an Engineering and Manufacturing Development contract to Northrop.

“By the time you’re six months after a Milestone B [decision], you should have an integrated master schedule,” LaPlante said.

Kendall: Air Force Expects 100 CCAs Operating Within Five Years

April 30, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Though the Air Force plans to buy as many as 2,000 Collaborative Combat Aircraft through the late 2030s, only about 100 will be built by 2029, Secretary Frank Kendall told lawmakers April 30. After an initial award last week, more CCA contracts will follow on a roughly two-year tempo, he said.

During a House Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing, Kendall was asked how many CCAs will be in service and how soon.

“We’ll have over 100 on order or delivered by the end of the [Future Years Defense Program]; that’s for Increment 1,” Kendall said. The FYDP covers the next five years, ending in fiscal 2029.

Kendall noted that he has provided a “planning figure” of 1,000 CCAs. “That’s just really to reflect the fact that we’re serious about this, it’s going to be a significant part of our force structure,” he said.

The Air Force announced Anduril and General Atomics as the finalists for the first increment of CCAs on April 24. The two companies beat out aircraft primes Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman for the award, but the service said those companies can compete for the second increment on their own dime. The Air Force has declined to disclose details of the Increment 1 contracts, including their dollar value.

Kendall has said up to 2,000 CCAs might be in the Air Force’s long-term plans. But he told lawmakers that the “ultimate number is going to depend upon all the costs, portability [of technology to and from other platforms] and a number of other factors.”

Regardless, Kendall called CCAs a “fairly transformative change to going away from the individual fighter pilots all out there at risk together, to giving our fighter pilots a wingman.

“It can be attrited to a degree—it’s intended to be survivable—but attritable,” he added, meaning the drones can be lost in acceptable numbers. “That will give us a wide range of tactics and techniques that we currently can’t utilize.”

Asked how many CCAs will be acquired for every crewed fighter, Kendall said two to five is a likely range, but that “we won’t do it for every single fighter, probably, at least not initially.”

Kendall’s desired cost of a CCA will top out at about $25 to $30 million, he said; a “fraction” of the price of a crewed fighter. That would be about a third of the cost of an F-35, which came in at about $80 million each under the most recently-negotiated lot.

Air Force officials have said a contract for Increment 2 is expected to be awarded in 2025 or 2026, but that platform has not yet been defined. Service officials said it started out as being an “exquisite,” high-end, stealthy platform, but the service went back to the drawing board after wargames showed that large numbers of low-end CCAs were more valuable in a Pacific conflict than small numbers of high-end versions.

“The way the program is structured, it has multiple increments; they’re about two years apart,” Kendall explained in the hearing. Increment 1 is meant to go “quickly to production,” he said.

“We expect to have those aircraft in production within a few years and have deliveries before the end of the five-year plan,” he said.

Those first aircraft will “allow us to learn a lot; they’ll give us an operational capability,” Kendall said. “There’ll be a second increment coming along a couple of years behind that one. And we are particularly looking for international cooperation with that second increment.”

Boeing developed its MQ-28 Ghost Bat—also called the Airpower Teaming System—with Australia, and the Air Force has shown interest in that modular, uncrewed aircraft. The U.K. and other international partners are also working on their own autonomous aircraft. Kendall said he and Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin have discussed cooperation with several allies.

Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante has noted that producing the same platforms or munitions in multiple countries would enhance coalition surge capability and interoperability, and provide a powerful deterrent if such items were produced at scale.

The “secret sauce” that will “enable us to be more rapidly integrating with our allies and partners” is the fact that the CCA will generate a “government-owned reference architecture that we control,” said Allvin at the hearing.

“And so, as we are seeing advancements in the technology, we can maybe set the pace for how we can integrate and work with our allies and partners.”

Pilot Ejects from F-16 Crash at Holloman Air Force Base

April 30, 2024 | By David Roza

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated with details on the pilot’s condition.

An Air Force pilot ejected from an F-16 fighter jet assigned to the 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., when it crashed April 30, the base announced. The crash happened at about 11:50 a.m. local time, west of the base near White Sands National Park.

The only person on board the jet, the pilot “was transported by ambulance for medical care,” the base said in a Facebook post. Later that evening, officials said in a release that the pilot was in good condition and had been released from a local hospital.

Certain areas of the park were closed to the public to allow for emergency response. The wing commander, Col. Justin Spears, thanked a long list of agencies including local and state police, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, and a U.S. Army Air Flight Detachment for helping out.

“They were vital in the response efforts,” he said in a statement. “On days like today, we are incredibly proud to be part of this amazing community.”

“An investigation conducted by a board of qualified officers is underway to determine the cause of the incident,” the base wrote. “Additional details will be released as they become available.”

The mishap comes about three months after an F-16 crashed in South Korea on Jan. 31, the third such crash on the Korean peninsula in nine months. All of the pilots of the downed aircraft ejected safely. The last time an F-16 crashed in the continental U.S. was on March 23, 2022, when an Oklahoma Air National Guard F-16 came down in western Louisiana. The pilot ejected safely from that crash, too.

From 2010 to 2021—the latest year for which the Air Force Safety Center has published statistics—33 F-16s have been destroyed in mishaps, or 2.75 per year.

Holloman is one destination where rated Air Force pilots learn how to fly the F-16 in a 37-week Basic Course, also known as the B-Course. Graduates of the B-Course go on to operational assignments across the service.

Austin Pushes Back on Lawmaker’s F-35 Criticism: Not a ‘Paperweight’

April 30, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III rebuffed criticism from lawmakers on April 30 that the F-35 program has proved too costly and unreliable to serve as the viable backbone of America’s and allies’ future fighter fleet.

“I would not categorize the F-35 as a paperweight,” Austin said in response to questioning from Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-Fla.) during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the Department of Defense’s fiscal 2025 budget. “It is one of the best aircraft in the inventory.”

Concerns about the F-35 program have once more come to the fore recently following a Government Accountability Office report that said sustainment costs for F-35 would rise to over $1.5 trillion over the program’s life.

The F-35 Joint Program Office took issue with the title of that report—“F-35 Sustainment: Costs Continue to Rise While Planned Use and Availability Has Decreased”—because it said a main driver of that increase was a fleet that would be in service longer, rather than new unforeseen issues, noting that the Department of Defense now plans to fly the F-35 through 2088 instead of 2077. Indeed, the GAO report stated that a key “reason for the increase in cost estimates is the extension of the service life of the aircraft.” Overall, the JPO said the report accurately highlighted known “affordability and readiness challenges.”

Austin said he did not disagree with the findings of the GAO report.

Gaetz took particular issue with the F-35’s mission-capable rate, a point he previously raised with Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David W. Allvin during an April 17 hearing. In response to Gaetz, Kendall said the “operational availability” rate for Air Force F-35s is 55 percent, which he acknowledged was “not a good number.” But Kendall and Allvin disputed that the program was “failing,” as Gaetz claimed. Asked on April 30 by Gaetz whether the F-35 was a “failure,” Austin also said it was not.

“It’s a complex airframe,” said Austin, who testified alongside Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and DOD comptroller Michael McCord. “There are a number of reasons why a platform could be not operational at any one given time.”

A major criticism of the F-35 program is contractor Lockheed Martin’s control over the intellectual property related to aircraft, the contractor’s struggle with delivering aircraft on time, and the massive cost of the program. Kendall—the former chief Pentagon weapons buyer—has been a vocal critic of how the program was originally envisaged years ago, and Allvin also noted those concerns earlier this month.

“Lockheed Martin has more power than in some other weapons systems,” Allvin said.

The Department of Defense is currently waiting on the Technology Refresh 3 upgrade to the jet, which Lockheed Martin executives said recently has been pushed back until 2025. The DOD has not been accepting new F-35s until TR-3 is ready, though Lockheed Martin and F-35 Joint Program Office head Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt have said the Pentagon may begin taking delivery of jets with a “truncated” version of TR-3 later this year. In his written testimony to the committee, Austin noted the fiscal 2025 budget contains over $61 billion to “assure U.S. air dominance,” including for the F-35.

“This includes continued funding for the modernization and sustainment of the F-35 and F-22 fleets while developing the next-generation fighters and autonomous collaborative combat aircraft critical to maintaining superiority in the skies,” Austin wrote.

During the hearing, Austin acknowledged that the program has had issues but indicated that he supported long-term plans for the F-35.

“I agree in the future we should take [and] we should have a different approach,” Austin said. “We continue to work to make sure that we get our aircraft operational.”

SDA Awards Contract for Eight New ‘FOO Fighter’ Fire Control Satellites

April 30, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Development Agency has awarded a $414 million contract for eight new “FOO Fighter” satellites to Millennium Space Systems.

Not to be confused with the popular rock band or the World War II term for unidentified aerial phenomena, these satellites will provide advanced experimental fire control sensors for SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture, with the first launches projected in the final quarter of 2026.

SDA has already launched some missile warning/missile tracking satellites as part of its “Tranche 0,” and it has awarded contracts for dozens more in Tranches 1 and 2.

The FOO Fighter program—which stands for Fire-control On Orbit-support-to-the-war Fighter—will be “separate from, but complementary to, our missile warning/missile tracking and missile defense efforts already underway in the tranches,” SDA Director Derek M. Tournear said in a statement.

With fire control, the satellites will be able to help shooters track, target, and take down missile threats, a step beyond detecting and tracking those missiles’ launches and flight paths.

Tranche 2, slated to start launching four to six months after FOO Fighter, will include six missile defense satellites with mix of wide- and medium-field-of-view infrared sensors to generate fire control tracks to help ground forces intercept missiles. Those satellites will cost $52 million each, an SDA official previously said—in line with the cost of the FOO Fighter satellites.

FOO Fighter satellites will be designed to counter advanced missile threats, including hypersonic missiles. The Missile Defense Agency is also working on that problem with its Hypersonic and Ballistic Tracking Space Sensors program, and the two agencies are working together.

“We’re looking to proliferate in future tranches, working with MDA so that we can get that fire control fidelity to support programs like Glide Phase Interceptor and other programs that could use that data to intercept threats,” an SDA official said in January.

This marks Millennium Space Systems’ first time as a prime contractor with SDA, but it was selected as one of the builders for Space Systems Command’s own medium-Earth orbit constellation of missile warning/missile tracking satellites. It has earned other work for the Space Force through its Tactically Responsive Space program.

“Our deep knowledge and understanding of this mission enabled us to engineer the right solution at the right cost, taking advantage of our common sensing vehicle and core components,” CEO Jason Kim said in a release. “The mission engineering we’ve done is grounded in modeling and simulation exercises, allowing us to understand the payload and its applicability to mission execution.”

SDA’s low-Earth orbit constellation, meanwhile, continues to grow. The agency has either launched or awarded contracts for more than 450 satellites, all slated to go into orbit in the next five years.

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 (approx.)	TBA
	Tracking	54	L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, Sierra Space
	Demonstration and Experimentation System	20 (approx.)	TBA
Other	FOO Fighter	8	Millennium Space Systems

PHOTOS: Airmen, F-22s Scatter to Austere ‘Spokes’ for Pacific Exercise

April 29, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

A recent seven-day exercise sent Air Force F-22s—along with other USAF aircraft—to austere, challenging environments across Guam and the Northern Mariana Islands.

Agile Reaper, taking place for the second time after its inaugural edition last year, featured 800 Airmen and 29 aircraft across five different locations from April 10-16, training on the Agile Combat Employment concept that leaders say will define the service in the years to come.

The 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, conducted simulated combat situations and tested agility in deploying combat air power across the expansive Indo-Pacific region.

“The goal is to develop resilient warfighters who are confident in their ability to execute using mission-type orders, generate airlift sorties in a contested environment with limited resources and grow together as a diverse team while gaining familiarity with other career fields,” Lt. Col. Logan Sutton, 535th Airlift Squadron commander, said in a release.

The exercise used a hub-and-spoke model: Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, served as the central hub, while Saipan and Tinian of the Northern Mariana Islands, the Japanese island of Iwo To, and Andersen’s Northwest Field served as the spokes for the exercise.

Many of the spokes have limited resources and bare-bones facilities. While the Northwest Field is on Guam, it is separated from the rest of the base.

An F-22 Raptor assigned to the 90th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, arrives at Tinian International Airport during Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 at Tinian Forward Operating Site, Northern Mariana Islands, April 10, 2024. AR 24-1 is a 3rd Wing-sponsored Exercise that focuses on Agile Combat Employment and employs a hub-and-spoke concept of operations with Tinian FOS serving as one of the five disaggregated spokes and a hub situated at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. The exercise employs combat-representative roles and processes to deliberately target all participants as a training audience and stress the force’s capability to generate combat air power in an expeditious manner across the Indo-Pacific Region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Curt Beach)

U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Ricardo Chavez, F-22 crew chief, 90th Fighter Generation Squadron, 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing, conducts an inspection for an F-22 Raptor, April 9, 2024, Anderson Air Force Base, Guam. The 90th Fighter Generation Squadron is part of the 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing, a force package made of personnel in the 3rd Wing, 673rd Air Base Wing, 176th Wing, 477th Fighter Group, all from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, as well as units from the 15th Wing, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; and the 168th Wing, Eielson AFB, Alaska. (Alaska Air National Guard photo by Staff Sgt. Kelly Willett)

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors assigned to the 90th Fighter Squadron take off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, April 7, 2024, for Agile Reaper 24-1. AR 24-1 is an effort from JBER’s 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing to exercise Agile Combat Employment. The exercise will use combat-representative roles and processes to deliberately target all participants as a training audience and stress the force’s capability to generate combat air power across the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Patrick Sullivan)

A U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor assigned to the 90th Fighter Squadron takes off from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, April 7, 2024, for Agile Reaper 24-1. AR 24-1 is an effort from JBER’s 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing to exercise Agile Combat Employment. The exercise will use combat-representative roles and processes to deliberately target all participants as a training audience and stress the force’s capability to generate combat air power across the Indo-Pacific region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Patrick Sullivan)

F-22s from Elmendorf-Richardson and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, flew across the Pacific for the exercise. Elmendorf-Richardson also sent an HC-130 Combat King II for air refueling and a C-12 Huron for transport, a base spokesperson to Air & Space Forces Magazine. KC-46 and KC-135 tankers came from McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., and Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, respectively.

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, break down an expeditionary tent during the reaggregation phase of Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 at Northwest Field spoke, Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, April 15, 2024. AR 24-1 serves as an Air Force Force Generation (AFFORGEN) certifying training event for the 3rd AEW, a requirement for the deployment of forces. AFFORGEN is an evolving concept that allows the Department of the Air Force to ensure force presentation and force generation models are aligned to the way the service intends to operate in the future high-end fight. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Curt Beach)

U.S. Air Force Airmen from the 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, set up an expeditionary tent during Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 at Tinian Forward Operating Site, Northern Mariana Islands, April 8, 2024. The expeditious build-up of the Tinian FOS was made possible through the employment of the Air Force concept of Mission-Ready Airmen. MRA optimizes wartime operational mission generation through Airmen working side-by-side with Airmen outside their Air Force Specialty Code and applying those core skills when needed, in order to make the mission happen. In a wartime environment, ensuring redundancies with Airmen understanding and being able to act outside their core specialty will increase the survivability and effectiveness of forces in the Pacific. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Curt Beach)

U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Cole Durand, a 3rd Expeditionary Operations Support Squadron Survival, Evasion, Resistance and Escape specialist out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, gives direction to Airmen from the 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing on using bamboo to build a shelter during Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 at Tinian Forward Operating Site, Northern Mariana Islands, April 9, 2024. The expeditious build-up of the Tinian FOS was made possible through the employment of the Air Force concept of Mission-Ready Airmen. MRA optimizes wartime operational mission generation through Airmen working side-by-side with Airmen outside their Air Force Specialty Code and applying those core skills when needed, in order to make the mission happen. In a wartime environment, ensuring redundancies with Airmen understanding and being able to act outside their core specialty will increase the survivability and effectiveness of forces in the Pacific. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Curt Beach)

U.S. Air Force aerial porters from the 176th Logistics Readiness Squadron out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and the 734th Air Mobility Squadron out of Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, prepare cargo for airlift during the reaggregation phase of Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 at Tinian spoke, Northern Mariana Islands, April 17, 2024. AR 24-1 is a 3rd Wing-led exercise that focuses on Agile Combat Employment and a hub-and-spoke concept of operations with an operations center, or hub, located at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and four disaggregated locations serving as spokes. The exercise employs combat-representative roles and processes to deliberately target all participants as a training audience and stress the force’s capability to generate combat air power in an expeditious manner across the Indo-Pacific Region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Curt Beach)

A U.S. Air Force C-130 Hercules out of Yokota Air Base, Japan, prepares for takeoff to transport service members and cargo back to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, during the reaggregation phase of Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 at Tinian spoke, Northern Mariana Islands, April 17, 2024. AR 24-1 is an effort from the 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing, composed of several units from JBER; Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska; Yokota AB; and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, coming together as the 3rd AEW to exercise Agile Combat Employment, rehearse capabilities in an operationally relevant environment and to provide air dominance, global mobility and command and control with a hub-and-spoke system of operations based out of Andersen AFB. The 3rd AEW Airmen are training as Mission-Ready Airmen (MRA), focusing on a mix of skills needed to optimize wartime operational mission generation. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Curt Beach)

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 3rd Air Expeditionary Squadron out of Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, board a C-130 Hercules out of Yokota Air Base, Japan, during the reaggregation phase of Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 at Tinian spoke, Northern Mariana Islands, April 17, 2024. Approximately 800 U.S. Air Force Airmen flew, maintained and supported 29 aircraft operating at five disaggregated locations during AR 24-1. The exercise employed combat-representative roles and processes to deliberately target all participants as a training audience and stress the force’s capability to generate combat air power in an expeditious manner across the Indo-Pacific Region. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Curt Beach)

U.S. Air Force Airmen assigned to the 36th Airlift Squadron out of Yokota Air Base, Japan, prepare a C-130J Hercules for takeoff to Tinian spoke during Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, April 8, 2024. AR 24-1 is an effort from the 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing, composed of several units from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska; Yokota Air Base, Japan; and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, coming together as the 3rd AEW to exercise Agile Combat Employment, rehearse capabilities in an operationally relevant environment and to provide air dominance, global mobility and command and control with a hub-and-spoke system of operations based out of Andersen AFB. The 3rd AEW Airmen are training as Mission-Ready Airmen (MRA), focusing on a mix of skills needed to optimize wartime operational mission generation. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Curt Beach)

Travis Air Force Base, Calif., dispatched its C-5 Galaxy, and Yokota Air Base, Japan, contributed a C-130 Hercules to transport service members and cargo back and forth between Guam.

“The Airmen landed in Saipan with limited resources and quickly worked to secure food, water, shelter and operational necessities,” Sutton said. “These competencies have been exercised routinely in specialized military units. However, doing so at scale with Mission Ready Airmen increases the flexibility and effectiveness of joint maneuver forces throughout the theater.”

Airman 1st Class Freddy Reynaga, Security Response Team, 647th Security Forces Squadron stands guard outside a C-17 Globemaster III during Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 in Saipan, North Mariana Islands, 6 April 2024. Approximately 250 personnel from three locations traveled to participate in training within an environment where they can operate at the level of stress that will increase responsiveness to natural disasters and other challenges to better support the Pacific. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Tarelle Walker)

New arrivals deplane from a C-17 Globemaster III during Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 in Saipan, North Mariana Islands, 6 April, 2024). Approximately 250 personnel from three locations traveled to participate in training within an environment where they can operate at the level of stress that will increase responsiveness to natural disasters and other challenges to better support the Pacific. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Tarelle Walker)

The Air Transportation team from the 647th Logistics Readiness Squadron, prepare to unload cargo from a C-17 Globemaster III during Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1 in Saipan, North Mariana Islands, 6 April, 2024. Approximately 250 personnel from three locations traveled to participate in training within an environment where they can operate at the level of stress that will increase responsiveness to natural disasters and other challenges to better support the Pacific. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Tarelle Walker)

The Air Transportation team with the 647th Logistics Readiness Squadron, operates a Forklift to unload cargo from the back of a C-17 Globemaster III during Exercise Agile Reaper 24-1, 6 April, 2024. Approximately 250 personnel from three locations traveled to participate in training within an environment where they can operate at the level of stress that will increase responsiveness to natural disasters and other challenges to better support the Pacific. (Photo by U.S. Air Force Technical Sgt. Tarelle Walker)

Col. Kevin Jamieson, 3rd Wing and 3rd Air Expeditionary Wing commander of the Elmendorf-Richardson said this year’s training was to test “the limits of what a cohesive 3rd AEW is capable of in a combat-representative environment” based on the experience on Guam and Tinian last year. The training also served as the Air Force Force Generation (AFFORGEN) certification for the wing, a requirement for the service’s deploying forces.

Significant support operations were provided from Pearl Harbor-Hickam and Elmendorf-Richardson. While the main exercise concluded earlier this month, the rest of the forces continued to provide support until April 29, the spokesperson added.

Nearly Every Governor Opposes Guard Units Moving into the Space Force

April 29, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Governors from nearly every U.S. state and territory signed a letter sent to Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on April 29 asking him to withdraw an Air Force proposal to transfer Air National Guard units to the Space Force.

While the letter does not endorse the creation of a separate Space National Guard, it does mark a clear pushback against Department of the Air Force plans to move all its space professionals into one service component. All told, the letter has 53 signatories—48 state governors, and five governors of territories. Only the leaders of Florida and Texas did not sign.

The Air Force proposal, submitted to Congress this spring, would waive federal law requiring “no change in the branch, organization, or allotment of a [Guard] unit located entirely within a state may be made without the approval of its governor.”

The proposal “disregards gubernatorial authorities regarding the National Guard and undermines over 100 years of precedent as well as national security and military readiness,” the governors’ letter states.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has argued the move would not weaken governors’ control over their Guard units because the situation is a unique one-off, affecting a tiny portion of the Guard’s personnel. There are approximately 14 space units in seven states with 1,000 Air National Guardsmen. The Army and Air National Guard combined have more than 430,000 personnel with hundreds of units.

“We’re talking about a few hundred people,” Kendall told reporters April 10. “The numbers for any state are less than, I think, 2 percent of their Guard people and there are only a handful of states are affected.”

But the 53 governors—most of whom do not have any space units in their Guard—argued that the move would carry wider implications.

“Legislation that sidesteps, eliminates, or otherwise reduces governors’ authority within their states and territories undermines long-standing partnerships, precedence, military readiness and operational efficacy,” they wrote. “This action also negatively affects the important relationships between governors and DOD at a time when we need to have full trust and confidence between the two to meet the growing threats posed by the era of strategic competition as well as natural disasters.”

Of the two states that did not sign the letter, Florida has space Guard units, while Texas does not.

The debate over the space-focused Guard units has been raging for years now.

Proponents of a Space National Guard say the Air National Guard units who do space missions are “orphaned” under the current arrangement, that creating a separate Space Guard would mostly be an administrative move with few costs, and that Guard members want to remain available for state-level missions like humanitarian relief or natural disaster response.

Kendall, other Department of the Air Force leaders, and the White House have argued a separate Guard would create unnecessary and costly bureaucracy and that space is inherently a federal mission, so Guards have no need for space units. Recent legislation allows the Space Force to have part-time personnel, and leaders say that unique setup will ease the transition for Guard members.

A third option is to leave the Air National Guard units as they are, with minimal changes to better formalize their relationships with the Space Force.

Congress directed the Air Force to study all three options and deliver a report with recommendations by March 1. Kendall said April 10 that the report will be delivered soon but the results were clear: folding Guard units into the Space Force is the preferred solution; creating a separate Space National Guard would be the worst option.

“It doesn’t make any sense,” Kendall argued. “It’s going to cost to administer. There is not in my mind, any expectation that it will grow. And it’s going to be administratively difficult. So I don’t think that that’s a very attractive option for a number of reasons.”

While the vast majority of governors disagree with Kendall, what Congress will do remains unclear. Seventeen senators have cosponsored a bill that would create a Space National Guard. Corresponding legislation in the House also garnered 17 cosponsors.

However, at least one influential lawmaker is on Kendall’s side: Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee. According to a report from Breaking Defense, Rogers said he was “fully supportive” of the Air Force proposal.

The issue is likely to come up again in the 2025 National Defense Authorization Act—the Senate Armed Services Committee is scheduled to begin work on the annual policy bill in June.

Houthis Shoot Down Third MQ-9; Five Now Lost to Hostile Fire in Just Over a Year

April 29, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Houthi rebels claim to have shot down an MQ-9 drone over Yemen on April 25, releasing nighttime intercept footage and daytime video of what appears to be MQ-9 wreckage. If confirmed, it would mark the third MQ-9 shot down by the Houthis in the past six months and the the sixth Reaper damaged in various Middle East conflicts within the 13 months.

The nighttime footage shows what appears to be the launch of a surface-to-air missile, followed by an explosion and falling wreckage. The daytime footage shows the aftermath: the apparent remains of an MQ-9 tail section, propellers and engine, and portions of a wing. Some of the parts are labeled “General Atomics.” A Houthi spokesman did not say what kind of surface-to-air missile was used in the attack.

A Pentagon spokesperson acknowledged that an MQ-9 went down in Yemen but said the crash is under investigation.

Since Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, sparking a regional crisis, the Houthis and other Iran-backed militias have repeatedly attacked U.S. forces and commercial shipping in the Red Sea.

All told, the Houthis have threatened or attacked more than 100 commercial vessels in the waters off Yemen, saying the attacks, which have killed two merchant sailors, are showing solidarity with Gaza, where Israel has been prosecuting a retaliatory war against Hamas. They have also fired on U.S. intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance assets, to include Reapers, operating in the region of Yemen.

In November 2023, the Houthis shot down an MQ-9 off the coast of Yemen

In January 2024, an MQ-9 crashed in Iraq, believed to have been shot down by the Islamic Resistance in Iraq, a group of Iranian-backed Iraqi Shia militias. The Pentagon said the missile used was likely provided by Iran.

In February 2024, Houthis shot down an MQ-9 over the Red Sea, again using weaponry provided by Iran.

In the latest incident in April 2024, Houthis claim to have shot down a Reaper operating over Yemen.

Before the Oct. 7 conflict began, a Russian fighter collided with an MQ-9 in March 2023 while intercepting it over the Black Sea, causing the Reaper to crash. In July 2023, Russian fighters interfered with two MQ-9s over Syria over the course of several days. They dropped flares in the path of the Reapers; damaging but not destroying them.

The U.S. and Britain have launched four joint airstrikes at Houthi targets in Yemen associated with the attacks on commercial shipping.

The Reaper has been operational since 2008. With a persistence of up to 24 hours and a ceiling of 50,000 feet, the Reaper has been valuable in ISR missions in a number of conflicts and saw heavy use in Afghanistan, Iraq and Syria. The Air Force has employed more than 320 Reapers operationally. The remotely-piloted aircraft, valued at about $30 million apiece, are operated by a rated pilot and sensor systems operator. The type is headquartered at Creech Air Force Base, Nev.

The Air Force has stopped buying the MQ-9, saying that while the type was useful in conflicts where the threat was minimal, the non-stealthy aircraft is not survivable in theaters where the opposition possesses even moderately sophisticated anti-air capabilities. The service has been intermittently pursuing an “MQ-X” replacement for a number of years, but plans to keep the MQ-9s for use in low-threat operations through 2035.