The Fighter Pilot Factory: USAF School Forges Pilots and Friendship

The Fighter Pilot Factory: USAF School Forges Pilots and Friendship

Oct. 21, 2024 | By David Roza

They fly U.S. Air Force aircraft at a U.S. Air Force base in north Texas, but the student and instructor pilots at the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program (ENJJPT) hail from more than a dozen countries across Europe and North America.

“It’s completely normal to fly with two different instructors on the same day and five different instructors through a five-day work week, and it’s completely normal for all of those instructors to be from different countries,” U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Mark Reyes, who finished the 55-week undergraduate pilot training program at ENJJPT on Oct. 18, told Air & Space Forces Magazine recently. “It’s something that’s very unique to ENJJPT, and it’s something that I was very attracted to when coming here.”

With 207 aircraft flying about 250 missions per day, ENJJPT makes Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, one of the busiest airfields in the Air Force. It is a pilot factory, churning out about 190 undergraduate pilot training (UPT) graduates and about 180 graduates of its Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals and Pilot Instructor Training programs every year. ENJJPT trains half of all U.S. Air Force fighter pilots and is the sole source of fighter pilot training for several NATO allies such as Belgium, Denmark, and Germany.

“What that does for freedom and strategic deterrence just can’t be understated,” said USAF Col. Jeffrey Shulman, commander of the 80th Flying Training Wing, ENJJPT’s host unit. “And it’s done here in Wichita Falls, Texas, of all places, because of the great weather and blue sky.”

Thanks to ENJJPT, some of Reyes’ earliest memories as a military aviator are forever linked to the allies he shared them with, whether it was the German instructor pilot who taught him to fly the T-38 trainer jet, or the Italian student pilot who flew his wing on their first formation solo flight. 

The same goes for Reyes’ American classmate, 1st Lt. Benjamin Bayless, who snapped photos of the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains from a T-6 trainer while flying his first cross-country sorties alongside about a dozen instructors and student pilots from all over Europe.

“It was just an incredible experience, and we got to do it with a smattering of NATO partners, which just really put the cherry on top,” Bayless said.

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Pilots from the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program sit in victory circle at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina, May 28, 2021. The team flew a four-ship of T-38 Talons in support of the Memorial Day ceremony held at the speedway at the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race. (U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. Ebony Bryant)

That bonding serves a strategic purpose: bringing allies closer together so they can fight well together in a future conflict, Shulman said.

“When there’s a bureaucracy roadblock and they need a quick answer, they have a friend they can call,” said the colonel, who flew F-16s over Afghanistan alongside allied pilots and in support of allied ground troops.

Shulman recalled how quickly NATO pilots had to come together for Operation Odyssey Dawn, the 2011 bombing campaign of Libya, or the air policing mission in response to Russia launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Flying together is the easy thing, but the intangible thing about ENJJPT is the leadership that we teach here, the relationships,” he said.

Back at the Forefront

ENJJPT started almost exactly 43 years ago on Oct. 23, 1981, to improve interoperability of NATO air forces, reduce training costs, and offer an alternative training location to the cloudy skies often found over Europe. Fourteen NATO countries participate: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.

“I think what a lot of people look forward to here at Sheppard is working with all the nations together,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Bourdiaudhy, the Belgian Air Force Senior National Representative at ENJJPT.

“A lot of us have worked together in exercises in Europe,” he added. “If you can come do that for three, four years in a row with this great team here at Sheppard, with a lot of blue skies, sun, and less rain than in Belgium, I think there’s a lot of motivation right there.”

More than 8,300 pilots have graduated ENJJPT’s various programs since 1981. But the program’s relevance appeared to wane in the early 2000s, according to a framed letter in Shulman’s office written in 2005 by a four-star general, who described the program as “a Cold War relic,” the colonel said.

Now, two and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ENJJPT seems anything but.

“I think ENJJPT is back on the forefront of importance, just based on what’s going on in the world,” Shulman said. “We’re getting a lot more attention, a lot more limelight.”

Case in point: representatives from Finland, which joined NATO in 2023, visited ENJJPT recently and flew with the Airmen there, and Shulman plans to visit Finland’s flight schools in return. That’s not to say Finland plans on joining ENJJPT, but it does indicate a growing partnership.

“It’s opening the lines of communication so we can steal ideas” from each other, the colonel said.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Tyler “Rico” Parker, right, an instructor pilot assigned to the 90th Flying Training Squadron, conducts preflight inspections on a U.S. Air Force T-38C Talon aircraft at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, July 21, 2022. (U.S Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph Pick)

Growing Pains

Interest in ENJJPT is high, but meeting the demand of 14 nations with growing defense budgets is a challenge. Shulman said ENJJPT is operating at capacity at the moment thanks to two limiting factors: aircraft spare parts and simulator instructors.

“It’s not that I don’t have enough airplanes, I just don’t have parts to put in my airplanes,” he said.

Some of the wing’s T-38 jets were built in the early 1960s, and the average age across the fleet is about 57 years old. Aircraft availability generally declines as planes get older and factories that originally built parts shut down. In 2022, the school reduced its UPT class size from 24 students to 18 because of its contract for maintaining the J85 engine, which powers the T-38. That means it takes longer for NATO allies to put trained pilots in operational seats.

“For our partners and allies, if they don’t get one or two slots graduating, it has a massive impact on them for how they program out F-35 slots, for example,” Shulman explained.

With that in mind, U.S. Air Force officials moved the school to the front of the line in terms of J85 engine maintenance, allowing class sizes to return to 24 students in May.

“Senior Air Force leadership has recognized that we need to make sure our partners and allies have stability and predictability when they’re going to graduate their pilots,” Shulman said.

“That’s a huge win for ENJJPT,” he added. “Some of the other bases are still struggling a bit, but we’re doing pretty healthy on the T-38. It’s still a great airplane.”

That still leaves the T-6 and T-38 simulator instructor shortage, which is tough to fill when competing with juicy airline contracts. 

“I need [students] to go through the simulator before they hit the airplane, and if I don’t have somebody to teach them, it kind of messes up the flow of the pipeline,” Shulman said. 

Generally, if a country wants to send more students to ENJJPT, it has to send more instructors to match, Bourdiaudhy explained, but it can take a while to find experienced instructors willing to move to north Texas for a few years.

“It’s a lengthy process, but from what I’ve seen, the nations that want to increase their students are slowly bringing those instructors, and they will be able to have those slots in the future,” he said.

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Lt. Col. Jason Turner, right, 80th Flying Training Wing director of Strategic Initiatives, helps Massachusetts Institute of Technology Reserve Officer Training Corps Cadet Ian Palmer guide a T-38C Talon through a mixed reality environment during a training session at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, Feb. 1, 2019. (U.S. Air Force photo by John Ingle)

ENJJPT is trying to work smarter with its existing instructor pilot staff. In the past, the 80th FTW used a time-intensive Excel document to track their flying hours and other work metrics, which made it a challenge for Shulman to gauge where to make adjustments. But a few computer scientists at the wing came up with a user-friendly digital tool that uses artificial intelligence to give leaders a better picture of instructor resource management in real-time.

“I can really see a pulse on how hard am I working my people, which as the wing commander, that’s what I really care about; am I burning my people out, or are they not working enough,” the colonel explained.

Have Each Others’ Backs

One of U.S. Air Force Capt. James Egelston’s fondest memories at ENJJPT was an around-the-world party where students and instructors got together in a hangar to share the food and culture of their home countries.

“I haven’t been to many countries in Europe, and that made it a very special experience,” said the F-15E weapons systems officer who graduated UPT on Oct. 18 on his way to becoming an F-15C pilot.

The ENJJPT community really came together in May after instructor pilot Capt. John Robertson died when the ejection seat of his T-6 fired while the aircraft was still on the ground. 

“We’re all pretty closely knit here, the students and IPs,” said Reyes. “It was awful.”

Robertson died the same day Shulman landed in Texas to take command. The colonel saw the school and the local Wichita Falls community come together, holding a memorial service, a formation flyover, and a piano burn, a fighter pilot tradition. Roberton’s unit, the 80th Operations Support Squadron, put up a small memorial for him that’s still standing.

“The team rapidly planned this within hours, and it was flawlessly executed,” Shulman said, adding that the top general of the German Air Force, himself an ENJJPT grad, wrote a condolence letter to the school.

“JR happened to be an American, but he was an ENJJPT instructor, he was no different than any other partner,” Shulman said.

For Egelston, Robertson’s death highlighted the real reason why ENJJPT is so important.

“Being a combat aviator is great and all, but what really makes the Air Force so lethal, from my perspective, is your fighter community’s ability to take care of each other and always have each other’s backs,” he said.

Bourdiaudhy made a similar point.

“When the times get rough, the solidarities are even stronger,” he said. “I saw people come together and support each other. Nations mixed in small groups, not just a few Americans there, a few Germans there, a few Belgians there. No, all mixed, all together, all in one big room.”

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Instructor pilots assigned to the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program operate U.S. Air Force T-38C Talon aircraft above Wichita Falls, Texas, July 21, 2022. (U.S Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph Pick)
New Report: Maintainer Faulted for Runaway Bomb Lift Hitting F-16, Sparking Fire

New Report: Maintainer Faulted for Runaway Bomb Lift Hitting F-16, Sparking Fire

Oct. 21, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

A runaway bomb lift rammed into a parked U.S. Air Force F-16 deployed to the Middle East last November, sparking a blaze that caused $30 million in damages, according to a new USAF report. 

The accident investigation board report, released by U.S. Air Forces in Europe last week, faults a maintainer for losing situational awareness and panicking, causing him to hit the accelerator on the weapons loader instead of the brake, as the main cause of the mishap. The investigation also found a lack of proper documentation for the bomb lift vehicle fleet at the installation, as well as “a loose culture of adherence to Air Force standards and technical procedures” among maintainers there. 

The report comes on the heels of the Air Force rolling out new “privileged safety information” training to maintainers, citing an increase in ground mishaps involving maintenance, aircraft towing, and other flight line work. The new training gives maintainers access to the full picture of mishap events—including factors, findings, causes, and recommendations—so long as they sign a nondisclosure agreement. 

The Nov. 17, 2023 mishap took place at an undisclosed location in the Middle East, involving an F-16 from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy, and maintainers and an F-15E from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, U.K. Around a month earlier, the Air Force deployed F-15Es and other fighters to the region to bolster its presence after Hamas’ attack on Israel. 

The incident took place as a three-person crew of maintainers were swapping out munitions on the F-15E due to new mission requirements. As the crew was preparing to load new munitions, the crew chief instructed the weapons loader to move the bomb lift, also called a jammer. After disengaging the parking brake and shifting into reverse, the maintainer stated he only went five feet before he realized he could not stop the vehicle.  

As the maintainer tried to hit the brakes and engage the parking brake, the bomb lift kept going backward and hit a sniper pod on the F-15E. The impact knocked the maintainer unconscious, and the loader then hit the aircraft’s landing gear and started heading towards a toolbox. The maintainer fell off the loader, and after hitting the toolbox, the vehicle redirected again and traveled 60 feet before hitting the F-16 on its right external fuel tank. A fuel leak sparked a blaze that destroyed the loader and significantly damaged the fighter.

Source: Air Force Accident Investigation Board report

Investigators found numerous maintenance issues leading up to the accident: 

  • The crew attempted to use two other weapons loaders; one did not start, and the other had gear shifting issues halfway through the munitions swap, leading them to swap out for the mishap vehicle. 
  • A lack of required documentation for inspections and needed safety fixes 
  • A trend of maintainers taking better care of weapons loaders that they brought with them when deployed than the weapons loader stationed permanently at the location. The loader involved in this mishap was permanently stationed at the location.
  • The maintainer driving the loader at the time of the mishap was fully qualified but not proficient at operating that particular model during a live loading operation and did not know all steps of the emergency shutdown procedures. 
  • Miscommunication about a new takeoff time led to the crew rushing “under quicker than anticipated time constraints.” 

As for the mishap itself, investigators noted that different models of the MJ-1 jammer have different configurations for their brake and accelerator pedals. Given the maintainer’s lack of current proficiency, the fact that he did not recall what model he was operating, and analysis of the vehicle determining a catastrophic failure of the brakes was unlikely, they found it “more likely than not that [the maintainer] was engaging the accelerator pedal when he thought he was engaging the brake pedal.” 

As he traveled backward, the maintainer could have stopped the loader by engaging the brake, pressing the ignition button, or pushing the throttle cable all the way in—all procedures outlined for an emergency shutdown. Instead, he kept hitting the accelerator, thinking it was the brake pedal. 

From there, officials surmised that the impact of the loader on the F-15E’s landing gear likely caused the jammer’s hydrostatic drive pump to get stuck in the reverse position, citing impact marks on the pump. This caused it to keep going even after the maintainer fell off the vehicle. The drive pump’s issues were not helped by the fact that investigators found “significant and extensive corrosion” on the part. 

An MJ-1 lift truck, during an integrated combat turn training, Nov. 25, 2022, Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Shannon Bowman

Investigators noted that the F-16 sustained “extensive” damage and that its external fuel tank was destroyed in the fire. The F-15E escaped major damage, with only an external scratch on its sniper pod. 

Several accident investigation board reports in recent months have noted issues with maintainers contributing to mishaps, though air crew have often been cited for mistakes in those same incidents. 

In September 2023, a contractor walked into the moving propeller of an MQ-9 drone during ground tests last year, and an investigation found she was not properly trained on how to approach a running aircraft, had received conflicting guidance about the no-enter zones around the drone, and was unfamiliar with the handheld device she was operating at the time of the accident. 

In August 2023, ground crew assigned to marshal a CV-22 failed to use standardized language or signals or the necessary daylight-fluorescent wands, while the co-pilot misjudged the distance to another parked Osprey, causing them to collide. 

In May 2023, maintainers were cited for failing to prevent an F-15’s hydraulic failure, which led to an in-flight emergency and ended with pilot and air traffic controller errors causing the aircraft to crash into a ditch at the end of a runway. 

Austin Makes Surprise Visit to Ukraine with a Focus on Air Defense

Austin Makes Surprise Visit to Ukraine with a Focus on Air Defense

Oct. 21, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

KYIV—Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III huddled with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Oct. 21 and unveiled a $400 million military aid package to help sustain Ukrainian forces through a challenging winter.

The military support includes munitions for HIMARS rocket systems, artillery ammunition, mortar systems and rounds, armored vehicles, and anti-tank weapons.

But the U.S. move fell short of Zelenskyy’s appeal that the U.S. lift restrictions on American long-range ATACMS missiles and allow Ukraine to use them to strike targets inside Russia.

Air & Space Forces Magazine is traveling with Austin on his surprise trip to Kyiv. The visit is Austin’s fourth and likely last trip to Ukraine as Pentagon chief.

During a long meeting with Zelenskyy and top Ukrainian officials, Austin discussed the military situation Ukrainian forces face in the east, where Russian President Vladimir Putin’s armed forces have been grinding out gains while Ukrainian troops try to hold a small stretch of Russian territory seized near Kursk, Russia.

They also conferred over Ukraine’s efforts to recruit troops and regenerate its forces so Ukrainian forces can contend with their larger adversary, a U.S. Defense Department official said.

Zelenskyy and Austin spoke one-on-one for around 15 minutes, the official said, describing the talks as “freewheeling and open.”

A particular priority for Ukraine, which Zelenskyy has stressed publicly and privately, is acquiring more air defense interceptors, which have been all the more important as the war has devolved into a battle of attribution, both on the ground and in the air.

“During the meeting, we discussed critical defense priorities, including Ukraine’s air defense capabilities,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on social media.

Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s energy grid, critical infrastructure, and troops with missiles, glide bombs, and drones, creating a wave of destruction just as winter approaches. As Austin stepped off an overnight train from Poland in Kyiv, the temperature was a few degrees above freezing, a reminder of the cold Russia aims to weaponize in the months to come. In the overnight hours before Austin’s arrival, Russia launched drones at the Ukrainian capital.

“We’ve been pretty consistent throughout saying that one of the key systems on the battlefield is air defense,” Austin said. “We will continue to push to get them the air defense systems and the interceptors that they need to protect their territory. It’s the second largest country in Europe, and so a big space to protect, a lot of cities and populated areas that they need to protect.”

Zelenskyy also has had to contend with American politics and sustaining political support in other countries in the West.

After an unsuccessful counteroffensive last year, Zelenskyy has offered a new “Victory Plan” in recent months, which calls for NATO to formally invite Ukraine to join NATO and frees the Ukrainian military to use ATACMS and other Western-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia.

The Biden administration has declined to give Ukraine that latitude out of apparent concern that doing so could give Russia an excuse to escalate the conflict. Austin indicated no change is yet in sight. “We don’t have any change to our policy,” Austin told reporters before arriving here.

Former President Donald Trump has said that, if elected, he would swiftly negotiate a deal to end the war, but has not offered any details of how that would be accomplished. His running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), said in September that a deal could require a pledge of neutrality by Ukraine and the establishment of a demilitarized zone, but Ukraine’s leaders worry the arrangement would enable Russia to retain land seized during the conflict.  

Austin also visited the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. He was joined by U.S. European Command boss Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli and the head of Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, which runs a multinational coordination cell to provide equipment, training, and aid to Ukraine, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Curtis A. Buzzard.

Their Ukrainian counterparts included Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustern Umerov, who was positioned around a circular table with Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, who commands Ukrainian forces, and other top officials, including the military spy chief and the minister responsible for defense production. Cavoli and Syrskiy also jointed Austin and Zelenskyy’s discussion earlier in the day.

Umerov promised updates on the “operational zone,” Army, Air Force, Navy, and defense production. The DOD official said the sides also discussed recruiting and retention with Zelenskyy and the military leaders. Zelenskyy signed a law in April to lower the conscription age to 25 to shore up manpower shortages.

“We have a good team from both sides,” Umerov said before the meeting.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 21, 2024. DOD photo by Chad J. McNeeley

Speaking to reporters before arriving in Kyiv, a senior defense official said that one point of discussion would be how Ukraine can use its resources against the Russian military’s larger mass to have a “concentrated effect.”

“Russia is not ready to call it quits and so that does place a steep burden on the Ukrainians to continue to field forces, to continue to train those forces, to employ vast amounts of equipment they’re receiving on a continual basis,” the senior defense official said. “It’s important for the Ukrainians to be able to take advantage of opportunities as they arise on the battlefield.”

During a speech at Ukraine’s Diplomatic Academy—yards from burned-out wrecks of Russian armored vehicles in the square outside—Austin sought to reassure the Ukrainians that the West would stand by them. “The Kremlin’s malice has not broken Ukraine’s spirit,” he said. 

Austin also appeared to send a message to the U.S. public and Congress.

“For anyone who thinks that American leadership is expensive—well, consider the price of American retreat,” he said.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zeleynskyy in Kyiv, Oct. 21, 2024. DOD photo by Chad J. McNeeley
SpaceX Wins New Launches; USSF Continues to Press for Competition

SpaceX Wins New Launches; USSF Continues to Press for Competition

Oct. 18, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

SpaceX secured orders for Phase 3 launches under the National Security Space Launch program, the first provider to do so, even as the Space Force continues its push to increase its launch options.

Space Systems Command awarded two task orders to SpaceX Oct. 18, covering seven launches for the Space Development Agency’s data transport satellites and an undisclosed number of launches for the secretive National Reconnaissance Office. 

SpaceX is one of three companies selected for “Lane 1” of NSSL’s third phase, conceived as commercial-like missions carrying a higher tolerance for risk. But the other two—United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin—are still certifying their new rockets for NSSL requirements. That leaves SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets as the only proven workhorses, which is why SpaceX accounted for 90 percent of U.S. launches in 2023. 

“We are excited to kick off our innovative NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 effort with two task orders that support critical NRO and SDA missions,” said Lt. Col. Douglas Downs, SSC’s materiel leader for Space Launch Procurement. “Industry stepped up to the plate and delivered on this competition.” 

ULA and Blue Origin did compete for the task orders, SSC officials said, even though their rockets have not yet been certified. The task order covers missions that are still months away—the NRO launch window will run from summer 2025 to summer 2026 and the SDA launches, timed for 2026, are to send into orbit Tranche 2 of its proliferated low-Earth orbit constellation. 

“In this era of Great Power Competition, it is imperative to not leave capability on the ground,” Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program executive officer for Assured Access to Space, said in a statement. “The Phase 3 Lane 1 construct allows us to execute launch services more quickly for the more risk-tolerant payloads, putting more capabilities on orbit faster in order to support national security.” 

In its release, SSC continued to stress the importance of competition for launch, noting that more providers will be able to compete for Lane 1 with an “on-ramp” opening up later this year. More task orders are expected after that in the spring of 2025. All told, Lane 1 is expected to include at least 30 missions. 

Nine other potential launch providers are part of the Space Force’s Orbital Services Program-4, meant for fast-turnaround launches and small payloads. Firefly Aerospace, Astra Space, and Rocket Lab have all launched military satellites before. 

SSC plans contract awards for Lane 2 launches, as well, comprising critical missions with low tolerance for risk. Panzenhagen told reporters last month that the command anticipates making three contract awards before the end of the year, but without a new budget from Congress, those awards are likely to be delayed. 

Air Force Safety Czar Says New NDA Plan ‘Really Is Protecting’ Airmen

Air Force Safety Czar Says New NDA Plan ‘Really Is Protecting’ Airmen

Oct. 18, 2024 | By David Roza

A new effort that requires aircraft maintainers to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) so they can access more information about costly accidents will not change the level of transparency surrounding those events, the Air Force’s top safety officer said Oct. 18.

“The truth is, there’s no change in the status of the availability of access to the public, to the private, or to Congress through the [Freedom of Information Act] program, and anything that is not safety privilege,” Maj. Gen. Sean M. Choquette, the Air Force Chief of Safety and commander of the Air Force Safety Center, told reporters.

Earlier this week, news broke that the Air Force is rolling out new annual privileged safety information (PSI) training for maintainers across the service so they can receive the full picture of mishap events–—including factors, findings, causes, and recommendations—and thereby gain a better understanding of what caused them. After the training, maintainers would have to sign an NDA, a contract not to share confidential information.

The move is in response to a bump last year in ground mishaps involving maintenance, aircraft towing, and other flight line work, Choquette explained. The general said it was not a “marked increase or a significant increase, but we saw an upward trend.”

Two types of investigations take place when a mishap occurs. One is an accident investigation board (AIB), a monthslong legal proceeding where the final report is available to the public and can be used for disciplinary and other actions. The other is a safety investigation board (SIB), where the goal is to conduct a root cause analysis and get lessons learned out to the rest of the force as soon as possible.

Since the only goal of the SIB is mishap prevention, safety investigators keep their findings confidential so that people involved in the accident can speak freely about what went wrong, Choquette said. That protection is called safety privilege, meaning the information discussed can’t be released or used for disciplinary action, and the Air Force uses NDAs to maintain it.

“In order for [Airmen] to talk in a fulsome way about what occurred, we don’t want to put them in a situation where they feel like they can’t tell the whole story, because it’s going to come out in an article that’s going to be read by their family or their superiors or their subordinates,” the general said.

Maj. Gen. Sean Choquette, Department of the Air Force Chief of Safety, addresses students in the Air Force Safety Course at the 344th Training Squadron June 13, 2024, at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. (U.S. Air Force photo by Christa D’Andrea)

For decades, Air Force aircrew have signed NDAs so that when a mishap occurs, aviators across the service can quickly pick up lessons learned from privileged SIB information. Often that information-sharing takes the form of wing commanders bringing all aviators on a base into an auditorium to discuss the issue. But historically, maintainers were not part of those meetings.

“It was purely operations,” Choquette said. “And I can’t tell you why that was the case, but we said, ‘hey, they need to be brought into the fold here, because ground operations mishaps were increasing, and they need to be better trained on where mistakes are being made.’”

In the past, when a mishap occurred, any maintainers involved would be brought into the SIB and sign an NDA afterwards. But because maintainers writ large did not receive privileged safety information training or sign NDAs, the lessons from the SIBs never percolated to the wider force until the AIB came out months later, which does not include all the relevant information because AIBs are for public release.

“The difference now is, instead of just signing an individual or multiple individuals who are involved in a mishap, every maintainer out there will be [provided] the capability to sign that NDA, become a part of the safety privilege system,” Choquette said. 

The goal is for all 80,000 maintainers across the Air Force to sign onto the privileged safety information training and NDA requirements so that they can access SIB findings and be better positioned to prevent future mishaps.

“Our hope is that all of them will do that, because it really is protecting them and protecting the system so that will increase our readiness,” Choquette said.

The NDA would be the same one that aviators currently fill out. If maintainers see problems on the flight line, the hope would be for them to notify their chain of command, but if they share safety privilege information to the public, they could face administrative action, just like anybody else who does so, the general said.

One general area that might benefit from privileged safety information training is towing aircraft around the flightline, which has seen “a real increase in mishaps,” the general said. 

Towing aircraft may sound simple, but maneuvering in and out of hangars and around other expensive aircraft while adhering to a range of spotter and clearance requirements is a complicated task.

“Those things are written into regulations, but, as in most things, a picture is worth a thousand words,” Choquette said. “If we can take an actual towing mishap, the information that came out of that safety investigation board, put a small group of people or a unit in a room and actually talk through the lessons learned out of that investigation, that drives home the concepts and how important they are and why they’re important.”

Airmen from the 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and 2nd Maintenance Squadron, take a break while working on B-52 Stratofortresses assigned to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, at Navy Support Facility, Diego Garcia in support of a Bomber Task Force mission, March 23, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Staci Kasischke)

At least one crew chief thinks the effort could help maintainers stay safe.

“I think it will aid in obtaining the full picture as a lot comes with a mishap,” the maintainer told Air & Space Forces Magazine on the condition of anonymity. “By that I mean major mishaps being a ‘Swiss cheese’ effect, and usually not due to one major misstep but an accumulation of events or missteps that can build into a perfect storm.”

Wider Reform

The new training is part of a larger safety center campaign to integrate risk and readiness, which aims to better prepare Airmen to make risk-informed decisions. 

Officials say the campaign, as well as a wider safety center strategic plan unveiled in April, is meant to ready the force for Agile Combat Employment, a concept where small teams of Airmen launch and recover aircraft at remote or austere airfields, then relocate to avoid being targeted by enemy missiles. Airmen will likely have to carry out those operations without support and without connection to higher command, which is forcing a wider recalculation of risk across the service.

What does that look like in practice? Choquette pointed to the preflight risk assessments aviators perform, where they discuss aircrew qualifications, weather, aircraft conditions, threats, and other factors that affect the mission risk.

The general hopes to translate that practice to maintainers, so that production superintendents or other flight line leaders have a standard process by which they can assess the qualifications of their maintainers, the weather on the flight line, the state of the aircraft, and other risk factors.

That way, “they can make a better risk-informed decision, to execute smartly, or make some mitigations, [such as] ‘hey, I have a three-level supervisor out there, I really could use a five-level today because this is a complex operation we’re doing here, let’s swap these two NCOs out to better execute today,’” the general said.

The risk management could even apply to Airmen’s personal lives, such as whether or not to go skiing in bad weather or take a road trip on Memorial Day weekend.

On an even broader level, as the chair of the Joint Safety Council, Choquette is working with his counterparts to promote similar practices across the services and share best practices for common platforms such as the H-60 helicopter and V-22 tiltrotor transport.

“We share information out so that we’re not just learning from our own information and our own safety prevention systems, but we’re learning from each other,” he said.

Photos: NATO Wraps Up First-Ever ‘Ramstein Flag’ Exercise in Greece

Photos: NATO Wraps Up First-Ever ‘Ramstein Flag’ Exercise in Greece

Oct. 18, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

To the likes of Red Flag, Green Flag, and Black Flag, now you can add Ramstein Flag. 

NATO Allied Air Command wrapped up its first ever “Flag” event at Andravida Air Base, Greece, last week, after more than 130 fighters and other aircraft from 12 countries took part in a large-scale, live-fly, first-of-its-kind European exercise. 

From Sept. 30 to Oct. 11, NATO fighters conducted around 1,100 sorties, primarily focused on counter anti-access/area denial and integrated air and missile defense missions, according to a release from U.S. Air Forces in Europe. Among the participants: USAF F-35 fighters from RAF Lakenheath, U.K., and KC-135 tankers from RAF Mildenhall, U.K.  

The U.S. Air Force hosted its first Red Flag exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., in 1975—49 years ago— with the goal to “train as you fight,” using large-scale, realistic environments and adversaries to help hone Airmen’s aerial combat skills. 

Over the years, the concept expanded around the world, with Pacific Air Forces hosts Red Flag-Alaska exercises multiple times per year. NATO and its members regularly conduct air exercises, but Ramstein Flag took things up a notch, designing the exercise “to provide realistic combat settings,” according to a NATO Allied Command release.

“Ramstein Flag signifies the future of NATO exercises, focusing on current and future threats,” said Gen. James B. Hecker, head of USAFE and NATO Allied Air Command. 

In addition to the U.S., the exercise included participants from Canada, Hungary, Poland, Romania, United Kingdom, Spain, Italy, France, Portugal, Greece, and Sweden. Fighters included F-35s, F-16s, Gripens, Eurofighter Typhoons, F-4E Phantoms, and Dassault Rafales. 

Ramstein Flag will now become a “routine” event—the next one is already scheduled for spring 2025, a USAFE spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. Whether that event will also focus on counter-A2/AD and IAMD is not yet clear, but Hecker has said he considers both missions crucial, drawing upon lessons learned from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, where neither side has been able to obtain air superiority, leading to a brutal war of attrition.  

Both the U.S. Air Force and NATO are investing more in large-scale, realistic exercises . USAF made building up such events part of its “re-optimization” for great power competition initiative, with the intent to practice “complex, large-scale military operations.” But allies are also in on the push. Last summer’s German-led Air Defender 2023 was the largest air exercise in NATO’s history, and this summer, NATO held its first ever one-on-one fighter competition at Ramstein.

NATO Scrambles Fighters, Ups AWACS Flights to Protect Romania from Russian Incursions

NATO Scrambles Fighters, Ups AWACS Flights to Protect Romania from Russian Incursions

Oct. 18, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

BRUSSELS—NATO is stepping up its air defense efforts on its Eastern Flank, top alliance officials said Oct. 18, just one day after allied warplanes scrambled in response to an incursion into Romania’s airspace.

“Allies agreed that air and missile defense remains an alliance priority,” NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte told alliance defense ministers at NATO’s glass-enclosed headquarters. “This is all the more important given Russia’s war against Ukraine, which has resulted in multiple NATO airspace violations, including just yesterday in Romania.”

Fighter aircraft from multiple NATO countries were scrambled after what was likely a drone breached Romania’s airspace, an allied official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“This is all part and parcel of our enhanced vigilance,” the official said.

There was another airspace incursion on Oct. 19. Two Spanish F-18s and two Romanian F-16s were scrambled.

The airspace violations represent a continual challenge for the alliance as missile fragments and other projectiles have landed in alliance territory and cut through its airspace as Russia wages a full-scale war just to NATO’s east.

NATO Allied Air Command, led by U.S. Air Force Gen. James B. Hecker, has stepped up the alliance’s air policing efforts since 2022, the year Russia launched its invasion of Ukraine. The U.S. has also deployed fighters on NATO’s eastern flank and conducted exercises with allied forces aimed at more realistically confronting a Russian aerial threat.

Recently, NATO began conducting additional flights of its E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) aircraft to better surveil the Romanian airspace against Russian threats. The E-3s, one of the few platforms NATO owns as an alliance, began their increased presence Sept. 29, NATO said.

The “reinforcement of NATO air surveillance” in Romania came at the direction of U.S. Army Gen. Christopher Cavoli, NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe, who also heads U.S. European Command, to “monitor Russian military” activity, Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin said.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III speaks with NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte, Oct. 17, 2024, at NATO headquarters in Brussels, Belgium. Photo by Chris Gordon/Air & Space Forces Magazine

The flights “strengthened Romania’s ability to respond to the increased air activity in the vicinity of its border,” NATO said in a release.

The E-3s are operating over alliance territory out of Preveza air base in Greece and NATO’s air base in Geilenkirchen, Germany, where the E-3s are headquartered.

“We’re forging NATO’s most robust defense plans since the end of the Cold War, and that will help ensure that we have the forces and capabilities to any contingency—that includes air and missile defense, which are crucial for defending the allied airspace,” Austin told reporters at the conclusion of the summit before departing to Italy for a meeting of the Group of 7’s ministers of defense.

Space-Based Targeting Challenges Nothing New for NRO, Deputy Director Says

Space-Based Targeting Challenges Nothing New for NRO, Deputy Director Says

Oct. 17, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The scale and pace of providing intelligence to military forces is changing, but the deputy director of the National Reconnaissance Office said Oct. 17 that the agency is drawing on decades of experience to meet the challenge.

Speaking at an event hosted by the Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies, Troy Meink frequently cited the NRO’s history when describing how the intelligence organization is tackling new challenges. 

Established in 1960 to manage Air Force, Navy, and CIA reconnaissance efforts, the NRO’s very existence remained classified until 1992. Even after that, many of its activities remained shrouded in mystery, but in recent years, the agency has taken a more public role in the Pentagon’s growing space enterprise. 

Perhaps the NRO’s most high-profile effort is teaming up with the Space Force to provide ground moving target indication (GMTI) and replace legacy Air Force platforms with new satellites. Exactly who will control the satellites and how fast the intelligence community can provide data to service members is still up for debate, but Meink argued the NRO is uniquely positioned to support the mission. 

“We’ve been looking at operational support, looking for moving targets, really, almost since the first Gulf War,” Meink said. “ … This is just an extension of, to be honest, what we’ve been doing for many years. And we’re working closely with, obviously, [Air Force Secretary Frank] Kendall, [Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance] Saltzman, and the entire Space Force staff to deliver that capability.” 

Specifically addressing concerns about whether the NRO can provide targeting information at tactically relevant speeds, Meink said the agency has experience moving fast. 

“I think it’s important to note that many of the timelines we’re talking about today, the NRO was already supporting. This is a new phenomenology, this is new capability, but it’s not new mission for the NRO,” he said. “The timelines that we’re talking about here is not something the NRO has not been worrying about for many decades.” 

Particularly since being declassified, Meink added, the NRO has worked on tighter timelines. 

“The good thing is, we’re not starting from scratch. The NRO’s been around for a long time. We’re a highly classified organization. The last 30 years, it’s been more open, and that’s come with a lot more direct support for those missions that require that timeline,” he said. 

Still, Meink acknowledged that the GMTI mission his agency is working on with the Space Force will require speed and scale on a whole new level, to encompass everything from how the new satellites are tasked, how the data is processed and fused with other sources, and how to manage the sheer volume of information coming in. 

To address some of those issues, the NRO has invested in cyber and artificial intelligence, increasing its computing power and hiring data scientists to identify what levels of AI it will need at different points in the process. Commercial industry will also play a role. 

“A big part of us is now we don’t have to develop [AI technologies] from scratch. In many cases, we’re just adapting them to our environment,” Meink said. 

Another major challenge is just how rapidly the NRO needs to adapt to keep up with the state of the world. 

“The rate of change, given the threats we face, how fast that threat is evolving, how fast the demands for capability that not only the NRO but the entire space industry is seeing, requires a rate of change that’s really faster than maybe almost since the beginning of the NRO,” Meink said. 

Many of these challenges are not unique to the GMTI mission. Meink cited similar lessons from another joint NRO-Space Force venture, SILENTBARKER, a new space situational awareness satellite that launched in September 2023. 

“You’re integrating a new capability into a very large enterprise. How does that data flow to everybody who needs it, on timelines? … It’s one of those things, as you field new capability, how do you incorporate that into a very large, diverse ground infrastructure? That’s probably been some of the biggest lessons learned there.” 

Headbands That Can Take Vital Signs: Air Commandos Try Out High-Tech Fabrics

Headbands That Can Take Vital Signs: Air Commandos Try Out High-Tech Fabrics

Oct. 17, 2024 | By Shaun Waterman

High-Altitude, Low-Opening (HALO) parachute jumpers from Air Force Special Operations Command are sporting new headbands, woven from advanced fibers that measure and report the wearers’ vital signs, transmitting the data to a tablet or other device nearby. 

“We can measure body temperature, heart rate, and SpO2 [blood oxygen saturation] and wirelessly transmit that data to the team leader,” said Alexander “Sasha” Stolyarov, CEO of Advanced Functional Fabrics of America (AFFOA), a Defense Department-supported nonprofit manufacturing innovation institute.

It’s potentially life-saving information for HALO jumpers, who can suffer from hypoxia and hypothermia due to the intense cold and thin air at high altitudes. 

It’s also the product of “a beautiful marriage” between the Department of Defense and the private sector, said Tracy Frost, director of the DOD’s Manufacturing Technology Program. 

To be clear, explained Stolyarov, there is no widget buried in the headband.  

“We integrated the sensors in a distributed way within the fabric that makes up the headband itself,” he said. “So if you’re looking at the headband, it looks just like a regular headband. It stretches and twists.” But that fabric, and some flexible plastic strips inside, comprise the sensors that actually do that measuring—emitting the light and detecting it bouncing back at different wavelengths—the chip that does the computation, and the antenna that sends it wirelessly to the tablet.

“It’s all in the fabric,” he said. 

That gives the headband, worn unobtrusively underneath the HALO jumper’s helmet, a big edge over wristwatch-type wearables which suffer from “user friction” and can be rendered inaccurate by the wrong kind of movement.  

An official with Air Force Special Operations Command confirmed HALO jumpers had tested the prototype headband but declined to comment further. 

The HALO jumper headband is just one of a slew of new clothing items made possible by advanced functional fabrics. (Stolyarov doesn’t like the term “wearables” because of the clumsy plastic items that phrase brings to mind).  

Advanced clothing can do more than gather data; it can also respond, Stolyarov said.  

Because Air Commandos need nimble fingers, they often eschew the kind of thick gloves needed in extremely cold temperatures. AFFOA has prototyped a sleeve worn over the forearm that reacts to extreme cold by warming, raising the temperature of the blood before it reaches the fingers. It also makes thinner, less constricting gloves more feasible, he said.  

But that’s just the beginning.

Fabric that can sense and respond could help protect pilots, compressing or expanding to help ensure proper blood flow during high-G maneuvers.  

“Imagine a T-shirt that provides you and your healthcare provider with real-time meaningful information about how you’re doing in the real environment,” he said. “But you don’t feel like you’re being interrogated by medical equipment. You’re just wearing a T-shirt that you can actually throw in the laundry. … That kind of user adoption is what I think we’ll get to in five to 10 years.”

Further into the future, Stolyarov predicted that clothing could be designed to deliver treatment on the fly. “If the data tells me my wearer is sick, maybe I need to inject some drugs. That’s the next level. … You’re really talking about completely new materials that then enable completely new applications,” he said. 

AFFOA is one of nine Department of Defense-sponsored Manufacturing Innovation Institutes scattered across the country. 

Another six are sponsored by the Department of Energy, and the Department of Commerce sponsors a 16th—all focused on different technology areas. 

The nine DOD-sponsored institutes cover industries from AFFOA’s textiles to digital manufacturing, design/automation and robotics, and biotechnology, said Frost.  

They were established in the 2010s with a two-fold purpose: To try and rekindle domestic manufacturing, which since the 1990s has outsourced most textile work to low-labor cost countries; and to focus on high-value, high-tech production. By doing so, the U.S. military ensures it can rely on a domestic supply chain, especially for cutting edge technology products. 

A Physiological Status Monitoring (PSM) Headband developed by AFFOA. Courtesy of AFFOA.

The institutes straddle the uncomfortable new reality of 21st century technology, where commercial, consumer-driven innovation, because of its scale, can outpace government-led efforts to develop technologies for national security. 

Frost said the institutes always strive to facilitate the development of technologies that are dual use: Developed to solve a national security problem, but useful in addressing the much larger consumer market. 

“They’re a beautiful marriage between addressing defense needs and addressing commercial needs and marrying up Department of Defense needs with commercial interest in developing new product lines and continuing to innovate,” she said. “There’s a big recognition that working together doubles our investment and our chances of reaching success in transitioning these technologies.” 

The United States lost almost one-third of its manufacturing jobs between 2000 and 2010. More than 64,000 factories closed, manufacturing capital investment and output suffered, and the productivity rate dropped. 

By 2016, when AFFOA was founded, “we had really lost our manufacturing base in textiles, because [since the beginning of the century] a lot of that work started going overseas to lower labor cost countries like China and other East Asian countries,” explained Stolyarov.  

It would be pointless to chase that low-value production, he added, so AFFOA set out to create a U.S. textile manufacturing base “differentiated based on technology. And what that means is having unique capabilities, being able to produce fibers and fabrics that no one else in the world knows how to produce.” 

The U.S. already led the world in laboratory-level capabilities, Stolyarov said—in addition to fabrics that can store data and do computation, its universities are able to synthesize “fibers that can change color, fibers that can store energy. There are fibers that can detect chemical and bio hazards.” 

U.S. universities had already produced fibers and fabrics that demonstrated all these capabilities, he said.

“Where we’ve struggled [as a nation] is in translating that into a manufacturing base, getting from the lab to the factory floor. …  [In 2016] no one had actually shown that you can produce these things on industrial manufacturing equipment,” he said. 

AFFOA and the other innovation institutes were set up to bridge that transition, Stolyarov said. “In a nutshell, we set out to work with our manufacturers to transition innovations that are taking place in academia or even maybe startups that are wanting to create companies out of those innovations, and help those founders and help those manufacturers harness the innovation that’s taking place here to create a manufacturing base.” 

AFFOA and its collaborators are experimenting with a variety of methods and patterns to incorporate conductive fibers into a fabric. Photo: Janet Preus