Northrop Grumman Reveals It’s Developing the F-35’s New Radar

Northrop Grumman Reveals It’s Developing the F-35’s New Radar

Jan. 11, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Northrop Grumman is building the F-35’s new radar, designated the AN/APG-85, the company announced Jan. 11. It described the radar as the “cornerstone” of the F-35’s future sensor suite and as the replacement for Northrop’s AN/APG-81, which is fitted to the existing version of the fighter.

The Air Force’s budget documents have referenced the AN/APG-85, an active, electronically-scanned array (AESA) radar, since last year, but Northrop has not been allowed to discuss the program until now and wasn’t cleared to go much beyond its press release.

“The capability of the F-35 advanced radar will enhance the DOD’s ability to execute the National Defense Strategy in the future,” the F-35 Joint Program Office said in response to an email query from Air & Space Forces Magazine. “Therefore, certain information will continue to be protected by enhanced security measures due to the critical nature of the technology.”

Northrop said the new radar is an “advanced multifunction sensor that will be compatible with all variants of the F-35 aircraft and will be capable of defeating current and projected adversarial air and surface threats.” It is not yet clear if it will be retrofitted to existing models of the fighter.

The new radar will probably be available in time to equip seven jets at the tail end of the Lot 17 F-35 contract, options for which were set between the Joint Program Office and Lockheed Martin earlier this month. The Joint Program Office said only that the new radar “is planned for fielding in Lot 17.” Lot 17 aircraft could potentially be delivered by late 2025 or early 2026.

Development of the radar “will incorporate some of the latest technologies available and help ensure air superiority,” the company said. “This advanced sensor will provide unparalleled battlespace situational awareness that translates into platform lethality, effectiveness and survivability.”

Neither Northrop nor the F-35 Joint Program Office would comment on the degree of commonality between the two radars, or whether the new unit will completely replace the old one or if only certain elements will be changed.

“We do not disclose technical information on operational capabilities,” the JPO said in response to most questions about the AN/APG-85.

Slides on Northrop’s website show the current AN/APG-81 being employed against adversary fighters, ground threats, against uncrewed aerial vehicles and cruise missiles, conducting bomb damage assessment, performing a ground moving target indicator (GMTI) role and performing a synthetic aperture radar mapping function. Presumably, the AN/APG-85 will go beyond those functions, with greater resolution and even less susceptibility to jamming and spoofing.

Government and industry officials have also spoken of the F-35’s radar being capable of performing electronic warfare, offensive directed energy operations and cyber warfare functions.

The radar will be developed and built at Northrop’s Linthicum, Md. facilities, where the AN/APG-81 is built now. The same facility also builds the APG-83 Scalable Agile Beam Radar (SABR), an AESA that is being backfitted to the Air Force’s F-16s.

At the outset of the F-35 program, former Air Force Secretary James Roche told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the radar’s transmit and receive modules would be so reliable and degrade so gracefully,  the unit would not need service and could be “sealed in” for the life of the aircraft.

“Until we come up with something better,” Roche said at the time. “Then we’ll open it up and seal in a new one.”

The new radar will be a key piece of equipment for the Block 4 version of the F-35, which will add a host of new capabilities to the jet, such as new electronic warfare capabilities and new weapons. The need to provide power and cooling for these additional features is one of the reasons the Air Force is in the throes of deciding whether to equip Block 4 versions of its F-35As with an all-new engine based on one of the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) powerplants, or an upgrade package being touted by Pratt & Whitney, which is the sole maker of the F135 engine that powers the fighter.

Northrop noted that it is a major partner to Lockheed Martin on the F-35, and in addition to the radar, builds the center fuselage and wing skins, “several sensor systems,” avionics, mission systems and mission-planning software, pilot and maintainer training systems, “electronic warfare simulation test capability” and overall stealth capabilities.

FAA Failure Causes Massive Flight Delays—Air Force Says Operations Unaffected

FAA Failure Causes Massive Flight Delays—Air Force Says Operations Unaffected

Jan. 11, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Commercial flights across the United States were briefly grounded after the Federal Aviation Administration’s Notice to Air Missions system (NOTAM), used for relaying key data to pilots, failed in the early morning of Jan. 11. But the Air Force said its military systems were not impacted and that it could work around any issues posed by disruption of the civilian NOTAM system.

“Military flights are not affected by the NOTAM system outage,” Air Force spokeswoman Ann Stefanek told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “The DINS (Defense Internet NOTAM SYSTEM) is functional and separate from the FAA NOTAM system, thus military are excluded.”

NOTAM alerts pilots and airports of real-time hazards and abnormalities that could interfere with flight operations.

The civilian NOTAM issue could still cause some problems for U.S. military planes that operate from dual-use civilian airfields, a relatively common arrangement for Air National Guard units, if runways are clogged with affected aircraft. But it was not immediately clear if any ANG operations were impacted.

Air Force officials noted that in addition to operating on a separate NOTAM system, military aircraft could gather information from other sources.

“If we require real-time updates, our pilots can get them from air traffic control or from installation to installation,” Stefanek said.

The FAA lifted its ground stop of flights nationwide shortly before 9 a.m., but not before it caused massive headaches for U.S. travelers. Disruptions in civilian airline travel due to storms and other technical problems can take days to sort out, with pilots and planes not being able to get to a location on time often having cascading effects. As of noon on Jan. 11, more than 7,000 flights were delayed, and more than 2,500 were canceled, the bulk of which were in the U.S., according to the flight tracking website FlightAware.

Those delays didn’t seem to affect the Air Force and the rest of the Pentagon—Flight tracking data from the website ADS-B Exchange indicated military aircraft remained operational as the FAA worked to sort out the NOTAM issue.

When asked by Air & Space Forces Magazine if there were any indications the system failed due to a cyberattack or nefarious activity, an FAA spokesperson said “the agency continues to look into the cause of the initial problem.” The White House said it did not have any indication the system was brought down by a cyberattack, but the government would thoroughly investigate the cause.

Russian Missiles Used Against Ukraine ‘Absolutely Filled’ With US Tech

Russian Missiles Used Against Ukraine ‘Absolutely Filled’ With US Tech

Jan. 10, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

For months now, Ukraine has faced a barrage of Russian missile and drone attacks, straining its Soviet-era air defenses. But as the U.S. and its allies work to provide Ukraine with upgraded technology to defend against those strikes, an open-source intelligence analysis has found the Russian missiles have plenty of U.S. technology of their own.

In a Jan. 10 briefing, analysts from the Royal Institute of Strategic Studies, detailed how many of Russia’s missiles have American and other Western components, despite export controls in place.

“All of these pieces of equipment were absolutely filled with Western components,” James Byrne, the Director of the Open Source Intelligence and Analysis Research Group at RUSI, said. “For us, it’s very interesting, very surprising. Nearly everything that we found in those systems was manufactured, designed by American companies.”

Bryne said RUSI was able to conduct its extensive assessments in part because Ukraine has offered up weapons it has shot down, captured, or collected the wreckage of, for inspection by analysts. 

“As the course of the war progressed, a lot of the components that we saw in these platforms and that we have since seen in these platforms are relatively new,” Byrne said. “The Russians have been doing it for a really long time, and they’re still doing it now.” 

Byrne said the two largest suppliers of tech it found in Russian weapons were the U.S.-based Analog Devices and Texas Instruments—much of that technology has non-military applications, making a crackdown on their export harder. And according to the British think tank, Russia has various schemes to smuggle technology into the country, including front companies in third countries. 

The U.S. has put in place expansive export controls to prevent American technology and goods from heading to Russia since Moscow’s renewed invasion begin in February 2022. That’s on top of other steps the U.S. took after the original Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2014, including the strengthening of export controls on weapons technology. 

However, according to RUSI, some of the weapons used by Russia in Ukraine have been made in the past year. 

“It’s always been the case that there was a huge interest in acquiring American technology,” Byrne said. “Despite Russian efforts to sort of build this sort of domestic homegrown semiconductor industry, despite the propaganda, despite the discussion about import substitution, they haven’t succeeded in doing that. I personally don’t think they will ever really be able to succeed in doing that. And so it leaves them really critically dependent on foreign technology.” 

The Department of Commerce did not immediately reply to a request for comment from Air & Space Forces Magazine on the effectiveness of U.S. export controls. 

As Russia has continued to pummel Ukrainian infrastructure this winter, the U.S. and its allies have sought to provide Ukraine with an integrated, modern air and missile defense network. Most recently, both the U.S. and Germany have pledged to give the Ukrainians one of its more advanced systems: the PATRIOT air defense system.

On Jan. 10, Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder announced that Ukrainian soldiers will begin training to operate the PATRIOT at Fort Sill, the same place American troops are trained on the system, as soon as next week.

Doing so will require Ukraine to pull some troops off the front lines; Training on a U.S. PATRIOT battery takes several months, though it could be expedited by skipping some steps deemed nonessential. 

“The longer those troops are off the line, they’re not actually engaged in combat, and so [we’re] trying to work with the Ukrainians to see what we can do to accelerate the training timeline,” Ryder said. “In terms of what that training will look like, it will consist of training in the classrooms, it will consist of training on the PATRIOT systems, and then of course, in a simulation lab as well before they actually deploy the capability on the battlefield.” 

Ryder said Ukraine plans to send soldiers already trained in air defense to Fort Sill, where the Ukrainian troops will be instructed by the same teachers used for U.S. and allied troops who operate the system. Around 90 Ukrainians will be trained, which is the same number of troops the U.S. uses to operate its PATRIOT batteries. 

Ryder also stressed the importance of not cutting too many corners in the training process, citing lessons learned from watching the Russians struggle with combined arms maneuvers due to poor training and techniques, leaving their advanced equipment less useful.

“My understanding is that nothing will be done that would prevent this from being employed to the maximum, most effective way possible,” Ryder said. “If give you a piece of equipment, I’m simply giving you a piece of equipment, but if I give you the equipment and I give you the training, I now give you a capability. So that’s really essential here to ensuring that not only do the Ukrainians have the equipment they need to fight, but also the training that’s going to enable them to operate it on the frontline.” 

Wolters: Ukraine Needs Fighters, But There’s Still No Consensus Yet to Provide Them

Wolters: Ukraine Needs Fighters, But There’s Still No Consensus Yet to Provide Them

Jan. 10, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Former NATO Supreme Allied Commander Europe and retired Air Force Gen. Tod D. Wolters thinks Ukraine’s allies and partners should provide fighters to that country, but there doesn’t seem to be a consensus view on when, and maintaining NATO solidarity is more important right now, he said Jan. 10.

Speaking during a Mitchell Institute webinar, Wolters, who retired as SACEUR and head of U.S. European Command last June, said Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin will discuss how fighter aircraft might be provided to Ukraine at a meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group in Germany at the end of January. But the goal will be to reach a consensus with members.

Austin “works this issue” of fighters routinely with the contact group, which includes not only NATO members but other interested parties, and in Germany, “he is going after this,” Wolters said.  

“The goal, of course, is to achieve a consensus with that entire group and those nations, about what can” be provided to Ukraine and “be effective in the military campaign as it unfolds today; to work current ops to save as many lives as possible right now, and to ensure that your posture 5-10 years from now is best suited to guarantee follow-on success.”

Wolters said it isn’t clear when fighters should be provided, but “when it’s time, we have to be prepared to make those contributions with combat aircraft. And it is … my belief, based off capabilities that exist in the environment, that we’re still challenged, from a timing perspective, to make this move.” He suggested that there is not yet consensus in NATO about providing the fighters.

For now, “it’s about ensuring that [NATO’s] solidarity is never compromised, and that is part of the overall strategic campaign. And that comes into play when you start to pull this question apart about what is actually going in [to Ukraine] and what is holding off, for the time being.” He declined to say what objections have been raised about such a transfer.

Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder told Air & Space Forces Magazine that “we continue to have a very robust dialogue with the Ukrainians when it comes to their security assistance needs. They have an air force, and they’ve been employing [it] to great effect, in a lot of locations throughout Ukraine.”

Ryder added that “we’ll continue to have that conversation with them, [and] with our international allies, and our partners. And we’ll take a variety of considerations into fact into account—factors to include training, maintenance, sustainability, and also the availability of those types of systems.”

Ukrainian officials have asked the U.S. and its allies for advanced systems like the F-16 for months now, but USAF officials initially were cool on the proposal and have yet to fully commit.

Meanwhile, Wolters said Russia’s lack of precision in its weaponry is “appalling” and leading to countless unnecessary deaths among civilians. He didn’t offer an opinion on the theory that Russia is using hypersonic missiles because it is running out of lower-level precision weapons. But the advent of hypersonics “forces us to ensure that our indications and warning architecture is compatible” in NATO, to see such weapons before they are in their endgame. Authorities for response have to be “fast enough and long enough and accurate enough,” he said.

“The good news is, we have a lot of brilliant people in this country [and] our NATO nations and they’re all working very, very hard to continue to improve our indications and warning architecture from a hypersonics perspective, and that that is ongoing and needs [to] continue,” Wolters said.

Wolters declined to directly address whether he thought the airpower “stalemate” in Ukraine translates to a devaluation of airpower. Instead, he said there’s an academic debate about air superiority “versus [air] denial,” but said there’s no doubt that the nations on NATO’s eastern flank are safer for having a strong air capability among and behind them. He pushed for balance in capability across all domains.

“It’s never just one domain that that you have to be superior in. I believe you need to have a very, very balanced approach because it is a dilemma for the enemy.” A good strategy will include elements from “air, land, sea, space and cyber, to include the information environment,” he said.

Wolters noted that Ukraine’s use of Turkish TB-2 drones for target spotting and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, has been effective, and their role came to light “probably sooner than we wanted it to.”

He also lauded many NATO and partner nations for adopting the F-35, which he said contributes more than just precision attack and stealth, but a capability “in indications and warnings,” command and control, and intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance. All that, plus its speed and range “speaks for itself,” Wolters said. The benefits of interoperability and networking offered by the F-35 and its proliferation among allies and partners “doesn’t bode well for an enemy of NATO,” he said.

PHOTOS: Air Force’s Largest-Ever Launch of C-17s from Single Base

PHOTOS: Air Force’s Largest-Ever Launch of C-17s from Single Base

Jan. 10, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Two dozen C-17s took off from Joint Base Charleston, S.C., on Jan. 5, the most C-17s to ever launch together from a single base.  

The display of airpower opened with an elephant walk of Globemaster IIIs and included a flyover above the city of Charleston. The maneuvers were part of a broad-ranging force generation exercise that included Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps units all across the Southeast. 

The 24 Globemaster IIIs included more than half the 437th Airlift Wing’s inventory and one in 10 of all the C-17s in the entire U.S. Air Force. Also involved in the exercise were F-16 fighters, KC-135 tankers, and an E-3 AWACS aircraft, for a total of nearly 60 aircraft in the operation, according to a release. 

C-17s
Twenty-four C-17 Globemaster III aircraft assigned to the U.S. Air Force’s 437th and Air Force Reserve’s 315th Airlift Wing at Joint Base Charleston, S.C. fly over Charleston, S.C. during Mission Generation Exercise 23, January 5, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Nicholas Priest

After the Charleston flyover, the C-17s split into four groups to focus on different mission sets under the umbrella of Agile Combat Employment: command-and-control, navigation, tempo, and logistics under fire. Specifically, the four groups dispersed to Pope Army Airfield, N.C.; Marine Corps Air Station Cherry Point, N.C.; Marine Corps Air Station Beaufort, S.C.; and Hunter Army Airfield, Ga. 

ACE is the Air Force’s operational concept of dispersing forces from large central bases into smaller groups that can operate in remote or austere environments, moving quickly as needed with Airmen sometimes performing tasks outside of their usual career fields. 

“We have to fight to get to the fight,” Col. Robert Lankford, 437th Airlift Wing commander, said in a statement. “This exercise tests our ability to accomplish the mission, while geographically dispersed and with limited communications.” 

At Pope, Airmen established a tactical operations center alongside a Joint Communications Support Element from MacDill Air Force Base, Fla., while special tactics Airmen performed a static-line jump to secure a dirt landing strip. 

At Cherry Point, aircrews loaded High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) onto the aircraft, then flew to Pope to practice HIMARS rapid infiltration, in which the system is quickly unloaded and readied for use. 

At Beaufort, the C-17s performed an “integrated combat turn” and refueled U.S. Army AH-64 Apache helicopters. And at Hunter, Airmen practiced maneuvering cargo under fire, operating outside of their primary duties.  

“What we’re practicing are flexible deterrent and flexible response options,” said Maj. Zachary Barry, a C-17 pilot and the lead planner for the exercise, in a release. “If we can move really quickly, it makes it harder for the adversary to respond.” 

In addition to the 437th Airlift Wing, Airmen from the 24th Special Operations Wing, 315th Airlift Wing, 169th Fighter Wing, and the Joint Communications Support Element participated in the exercise, among others. 

C-17s
Pilots from the 437th Airlift Wing taxi C-17 Globemaster III aircraft before a mission generation exercise at Joint Base Charleston, South Carolina, Jan. 5, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Dawn M. Weber

“Every day, we are learning new lessons that we want to apply in combat, so this mission generation exercise is a chance to test our capabilities at a tempo and scale that approximates combat operations,” 18th Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Corey Martin said in a statement. 

A workhorse long-range airlifter, the C-17 and its aircrews at Joint Base Charleston were drawn into the spotlight in August 2021 during the noncombatant evacuation out of Afghanistan. With thousands of Afghan civilians, U.S. personnel, and citizens from allied nations seeking to flee the Taliban, the Air Force deployed dozens of C-17s to Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul every day for weeks, where they ferried out more than 124,000 people to safety, the largest airlift in history. 

Airmen from the 437th Airlift Wing and the Air Force Reserve’s 315th Airlift Wing played a key role in the evacuation, and this past November, Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Mike Minihan visited the base to award 51 Distinguished Flying Cross medals to Airmen who participated in the operation—one of the largest DFC ceremonies in recent history. 

F-35 Flies for the First Time with Tech Refresh 3, Paving the Way for Block 4

F-35 Flies for the First Time with Tech Refresh 3, Paving the Way for Block 4

Jan. 10, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The first F-35A fitted with the Tech Refresh 3 update flew Jan. 6 from Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the Joint Program Office announced. The TR-3 suite of more powerful processors and memory is the enabling upgrade on which most of the planned F-35 Block 4 improvements rely.

The Block 4 version of the F-35 will have new electronic warfare capabilities, new sensors, and capabilities for new weapons, as well as improved interoperability with fourth-generation fighters, the fifth-generation F-22, and other parts of the Joint Forces.

The Air Force has reduced its request for F-35s in recent years, with officials saying they prefer to wait for the more advanced Block 4 version of the jet and want to avoid having to retrofit as many of its existing F-35 fleet to the Block 4 standard as possible.

But Block 4 has been delayed by trouble getting the TR-3 flight ready. In fact, delays and technical problems with the TR-3 account for a $330 million increase in the F-35’s development costs, according to a report from the Government Accountability Office. Development of Block 4 is now three years late and will continue until 2029, the GAO said in April 2022.

The first production-model version of the F-35 with TR-3 installed—but not the full Block 4 suite—will come in Lot 15, now under construction. The government struck a deal for Lots 15 and 16, with options for Lot 17, with Lockheed Martin on Dec. 30.

In a press release, Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt, program executive officer for the F-35, hailed the first flight of TR-3 as a “significant achievement” for the program.

The “TR-3 is the F-35’s critical computer processing electronics upgrade that will continue to provide all our pilots with the capability they need to be successful against any adversary,” Schmidt said, adding that there’s “still a lot of work to do and I am confident that our industry partners and government team will get the job done.”

Regarding the challenges in its development, the JPO acknowledged that “the TR-3 program has overcome technical complexity challenges with hardware and software and is now on-track to deliver capability to the U.S. and its allies starting in 2023,” when the first Lot 15 jets will roll off the production line. The government-industry team continues “to find innovative ways to ensure delivery of critical capabilities to defeat future threats. Lessons learned in the execution of the TR-3 program will be applied across the entire Block 4 modernization program.”

The JPO did not immediately respond to a query from Air & Space Forces Magazines about how long TR-3 flight testing will take, but in its release, the office said the flight marked the beginning of “an extensive flight test campaign,” with developmental and operational test flights continuing “through 2023 to ensure safety and warfighting capabilities.”

Government and industry officials have said the system has been heavily tested on the ground to ensure that everything will work together properly on the actual flying aircraft.

A developmental test team from the 461st Flight Test Squadron conducted the first flight of the TR-3-equipped aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The aircraft was AF-7, one of the designated F-35 test airplanes for the Air Force, instrumented to record actual performance, which will be compared with computer predictions.

Maj. Ryan Luerson, an Air Force test pilot, flew the 50-minute hop, which reached an altitude of 35,000 feet and a speed just below Mach 1, to test airworthiness and stability of the software.

Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Campbell, commander of the 461st Flight Test Squadron and director of the F-35 Integrated Test Force, said TR-3 “modernizes the computational core of the F-35 air vehicle. Therefore, new TR-3 hardware and software affect nearly every aircraft feature. Today’s event was just the start of a comprehensive flight test campaign that will both verify and improve the safety, stability, and performance of the whole F-35 weapon system in this new configuration.”

Lockheed Martin aeronautics F-35 VP and general manager Bridget Lauderdale said the flight “is an important step in enabling future capabilities to ensure F-35 remains unrivaled across the globe. We look forward to continued collaboration with the JPO and industry partners to deliver TR-3.”

The Air Force’s New 12-Week Parental Leave Policy: Here’s How it Works

The Air Force’s New 12-Week Parental Leave Policy: Here’s How it Works

Jan. 9, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Airmen and Guardians may now take up to 12 weeks of paid parental leave under the Pentagon’s new Military Parental Leave Program (MPLP). 

Authorized by Congress in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, policy details were released Jan. 4, retroactive to Dec. 27, 2022. The new policy covers births, adoptions, and long-term care requirements for new foster children.

Airmen and Guardians who exhausted available parental leave under the old policy prior to Dec. 27 are not eligible to take the longer leave; but any parent with unused or unforfeited parental leave as of Dec. 27 is now able to extend to the new 12-week standard. 

Under the prior policy, in place since 2018, a new child’s primary caregiver could take an additional six weeks of leave after convalescent leave, while the secondary caregiver could take three weeks. 

The new leave policy doesn’t put a specific timeframe on convalescent leave, instead leaving it up to the recommendation of the birth parent’s health care provider “to address a diagnosed medical condition.” Convalescent leave begins the day after the new child’s birth, or after the birth parent is discharged from the hospital, whichever is later. 

After that, both primary and secondary caregivers have a year to take their 12 weeks of leave, which may be taken in increments of seven or more days, and need not be taken all at once. 

The 2022 NDAA mandating the new 12-week policy called for the Pentagon to implement the policy within a year of the law taking effect, putting the deadline at Dec. 27, 2022. That’s why, after initially missing that date, DOD made the policy retroactive. 

As long as a service member had unused caregiver leave as of Dec. 27, they’ll be allowed to take the full 12 weeks of leave. So if an Airman had completed two weeks of secondary caregiver leave as Dec. 27, leaving one week under the old policy, he or she is now eligible for an additional nine weeks, bringing the total leave to 12 weeks. 

Similarly, a Guardian who had taken five weeks of primary caregiver leave as of Dec. 27, leaving one week to go before returning to work, is now be eligible for an additional six weeks, again for a total of 12 . 

Airmen and Guardians who returned to work before Dec. 27 and gave up parental leave will not get a reprieve. Having forfeited parental leave under the previous policy there is no chance now to gain the added time off.  

Meanwhile, any Airman or Guardian in the middle of their six weeks of convalescent leave authorized under the previous policy will be allowed to finish that leave and then take 12 weeks of parental leave. 

While the services require all leave be taken within 12 months of a birth, adoption, or foster child placement, members deployed for military operations can defer parental leave until their deployment is completed. 

To request leave under the new policy, Airmen and Guardians must use LeaveWeb, which was updated Jan. 6, or AF Form 988. Separate requests are now necessary for convalescent and parental leave, as they are now treated as distinct and separate events.  

For more details, read the full Department of the Air Force Guidance Memorandum, or this rundown of frequently asked questions. 

Advocates say the new leave policy will help the Pentagon retain and attract talent amid a historically competitive job market, putting military parental leave policies more in line with the rest of the federal government and making them arguably more generous than most private employers. 

No More Tape Test: Air Force Announces New Body Composition Program

No More Tape Test: Air Force Announces New Body Composition Program

Jan. 9, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 11 a.m. Jan. 10 with additional information from the Air Force.

Goodbye tape test, hello waist-height ratio. 

The Department of the Air Force unveiled its new body composition program Jan. 9, more than two years after dropping the unpopular abdominal circumference measurements from fitness assessments. Now, instead of getting a point total based on waist measurements, Airmen and Guardians will divide their waist by their height in inches. For example, an Airman who stands 69 inches tall and has a waist of 36 inches would have a waist-to-height ratio of 0.52. 

According to a DAF release, any ratio below 0.55 is deemed a low or moderate risk, meeting the standard. Ratios equal to or above 0.55 will be considered a high risk and out of standard.

When waist-to-height ratio scoring chart first leaked online in February 2022, it showed 0.55 ratios and above to be high risk. The Air Force surgeon general’s office said that chart was “pre-decisional.” That chart also noted a difference between low- and moderate-risk ratios, while the DAF release did not define the distinction.  

The leaked chart also showed a narrow range of scores—below a ratio of 0.40—that were not given a designation of low, moderate, or high risk. In order to have such a ratio, a service member would have to be relatively tall with a very small waist. An Air Force spokeswoman said there would be no high-risk designation for very low waist-height ratios.

For service members deemed high risk, a yearlong “informal, self-directed Body Composition Improvement Program” is in store, including a referral for medical evaluation and “assessment for additional risk factors.” There are are no disciplinary implications during this period, the Air Force said, but if the member is still not meeting standards after a year, a mandatory formal self-directed program will be imposed.

“That may result in consideration for administrative action, including separation for continued failures,” according to the Air Force release. 

“The goal of the new program is to empower Airmen to take charge of their health and fitness through lifestyle enhancement to optimize readiness,” said Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, in a statement.

In the Space Force, high-risk Guardians will be referred to Guardian Resilience Teams, including “human performance subject matter experts with different specialties,” such as preventive care, performance optimization, mental health care, and spiritual assistance. This policy follows the Space Force’s holistic health program, which includes a fitness program without annual tests. 

The Air Force stopped using waist measurements as part of its fitness test in 2020, amidst the pause in PT testing at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. The department noted at the time, however, that Pentagon policy still required the recording of body composition. In November 2021, the Air Force surgeon general settled on waist-to-height ratio as the service’s new measurement method, and in March 2022, DOD changed its policy to give the services more latitude in measuring body composition. 

Critics of the old waist measurements said the measurement was a simplistic means of guessing at individuals’ bodyfat percentage. Body builders in particular suffered under a system in which they could excel in the tests only to be suspect based on the measuring tape.  The new body composition program is separate from the PT tests, erasing that connection.

The new assessments will begin in April. 

CSIS Simulation Offers a Rare Look at US-China Clash over Taiwan and the World of Wargaming

CSIS Simulation Offers a Rare Look at US-China Clash over Taiwan and the World of Wargaming

Jan. 9, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. could take thousands of casualties but in most cases would ultimately prevail: These were the conclusions drawn from a series of 24 wargames run by the Center for Strategic and International Studies that assessed a scenario in which China attempted an amphibious invasion of Taiwan in 2026.

Wargames are a common way for civilian and military decision-makers to test out strategies or plan for conflict. Often, they are highly classified and their conclusions, methodologies, and assumptions are never publicly explained in detail.

But as Taiwan has emerged as a point of major contention between Washington and Beijing, CSIS took the unusual step of releasing its findings and methodology.

“Classified wargames are not transparent to the public,” an executive summary of the exercise published by CSIS states. “Without a suitable analysis, public debate will remain unanchored.”

The series of wargames, funded by the Smith Richardson Foundation, explored a variety of scenarios with different participants. The rules for the wargames were based on historical data and research, including theoretical weapons performance.

As Beijing has built up its forces and sought to coerce the self-governing island of Taiwan to unite with mainland China, U.S. lawmakers, officials, and observers’ concerns about a military conflict in the Indo-Pacific have grown. The Department of Defense cites China as its “pacing” challenge in its new National Defense Strategy. But how a war over Taiwan might be fought by the U.S. military has been unclear.

Pentagon wargames that influence policy and shape military strategy draw on intelligence assessments and non-public data, such as high-resolution imagery and classified information about the specifications of U.S., allied, and the adversary’s equipment. But CSIS’s report notes classified wargames’ “assumptions and even results are not transparent to the public.”

“Probably the most significant thing is that they did the wargame in an unclassified format,” retired USAF Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies and one of the wargames’ participants, said. “It allows for open discourse and dialogue on some of the consequences as a result of the game which normally don’t get discussed because it’s all done behind the cloak of classification.”

The 24 game iterations presented sobering findings: high attrition of forces on both sides, massive U.S. surface ship and aircraft losses, and quick exhaustion of long-range precision-guided munitions. Attacks on U.S. forces based in Japan could quickly draw the Japanese into the conflict.

“In most scenarios, the United States/Taiwan/Japan defeated a conventional amphibious invasion by China and maintained an autonomous Taiwan. However, this defense came at high cost,” authors Mark Cancian, Matthew Cancian, and Eric Heginbotham write in CSIS’s report. “The United States and its allies lost dozens of ships, hundreds of aircraft, and tens of thousands of service members. Taiwan saw its economy devastated. Further, the high losses damaged the U.S. global position for many years.”

According to a 2022 Pew Research Center Poll, 86 percent of Americans view China’s military power as either a “somewhat serious” or “very serious” problem. Eight-two percent felt the same way about tensions between Taiwan and China.

But there is little in the public domain about what a conflict with China might entail, including its potential toll in blood and treasure to the U.S.

“Is the United States ready as a nation to accept losses that would come from a carrier strike group sunk at the bottom of the Pacific? We have not had to face losses like that as a nation for quite some time. It would actually create a broader societal change that I’m not sure we’ve totally grappled with,” Becca Wasser, the head of the Center for a New American Security’s Gaming Lab and a participant in the wargames, said. “We need to prepare for some of the worst-case scenarios to effectively deter in the Indo-Pacific, and that requires us making changes now.”

According to the CSIS report, America must urgently address its supply of long-range precision weapons, such as the AGM-158C Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles (LRASMs), prepare to operate from more dispersed air bases, harden shelters for aircraft, and strength bomber forces, among other recommendations.

“If we’re not prepared, it’s going to take a loss for the nation to wake up, and hopefully we’ll have time to correct,” Deptula said.

Added Wasser: “We’re trying to play out the war not because we want the war to happen, but because we’re trying to ensure it does not happen.”