What Concerns These Air Force Generals Most about Nuclear Modernization Right Now

What Concerns These Air Force Generals Most about Nuclear Modernization Right Now

Jan. 24, 2023 | By Christopher Prawdzik

Manpower, material, and funding remain the foundation—and a key concern—for the Air Force’s top-to-bottom nuclear modernization effort, a pair of top generals said Jan. 24.

That modernization effort covers everything from personnel to weapons systems to entire facilities, and the service must execute this massive undertaking without losing the slightest bit of operational superiority in a world where nuclear threats have considerably increased, Lt. Gen. James C. Dawkins Jr. and Maj. Gen. Michael J. Lutton said during an Aerospace Nation event hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

A reminder of those increased threats came shortly before the event began, when the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists moved its infamous “Doomsday Clock” to just 90 seconds before midnight, the closest it has ever been, driven primarily by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and subsequent nuclear saber-rattling.

At the same time, the Air Force is in the thick of its nuclear modernization program—according to Dawkins, deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, the “bow wave” of new requirements and fielding of new systems discussed a decade or more ago is now here. With the enormous number of systems and improvements on the horizon, immense challenges follow.

“Believe it or not, what I worry about most, more than anything right now—more than technology—is concrete and rebar, reinforcement steel that goes in the concrete to build the 650 construction projects that we have, not just in the missile fields but across the nuclear enterprise,” Dawkins said. “It has to be built in the next 12 years in 13 states.”

He noted a number of systems and equipment that will be fielded in the coming years, including the recently rolled-out B-21, the air-launched B61-12 tactical bomb, the MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopter for missile site security, and a modernized nuclear command, control, and communications network. But that’s only part of the picture.

“Anytime you transition and do everything at the same time, you’ve got to really be careful about how you orchestrate that,” Dawkins said. “That is going to require a lot of work by our Global Strike Command to ensure that they, again, do that just right.”

The personnel component to these efforts is also crucial, and Dawkins particularly emphasized the need for experts in critical areas—such as electricians, pipe fitters, and welders—to keep the multitude of projects on schedule.

Lutton, commander of the 20th Air Force, discussed the human capital component of the process and how talent management shapes and is shaped by emerging systems and technology. He focused on the integration of Grey Wolf, along with the ground-based Sentinel ICBM system that’s replacing the Minuteman III.

“Some of the similar questions about talent management, talent retention, talent placement, when you’re building a new weapon system, are agnostic of the weapon system, whether it’s an aircraft or a missile system,” Lutton said. “So Gray Wolf right now is teaching us some lessons that will definitely export to Sentinel.”

Lutton said Sentinel has prompted some organizational changes, with the flight test squadron evolving into a test and evaluation group. This will include a flight test squadron, test support squadron, and a maintenance test squadron. Overall, these developments have expanded opportunities for Airmen across the board, particularly when it comes to the country’s ICBM defense.

“Historically, and by historically I can only talk about the time that I’ve served, we’ve never really been ‘Total Force’ in the ICBM business,” Lutton added, noting that the first Reservist weapons officer graduated from the U.S. Air Force Weapons School in December. “We are looking to build so much more Total Force opportunity in the ICBM business, and that does two new things for us: One, it gives us incredible depth of expertise, and two, it allows our Airmen to have options.”

In addition, Lutton noted the service has increased communication about “why” Airmen are doing what they’re doing, looking closely at world events and diplomacy to form a better understanding of their role.

“There’s a component to it where we have to ensure that we’re still very active with counterproliferation,” he said. “We still have to ensure that we’re very active with nuclear nonproliferation, and then we have obviously a very healthy treaty system that is transparent and compliant.”

Dawkins said stable funding remains essential, and he’s pleased with the bipartisan support the mission has had for many years—even with the scrutiny the nuclear enterprise often receives. Still, raw materials, personnel, and tight timelines remain at the forefront.

“We deferred programs back to the early 2000s, and then we had sequestration, and so we don’t have a lot of margin to produce these,” he said, adding that while producing new systems, the current ones must endure. “The ICBMs that Gen. Lutton commands and is in charge of out there in missile fields have to be as good on their last day as they were on their first day, and that continues to get more challenging.”

‘Keep It Simple, Stupid‘—Senior Military Space Leaders Focus on Streamlining Acquisition

‘Keep It Simple, Stupid‘—Senior Military Space Leaders Focus on Streamlining Acquisition

Jan. 24, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Senior U.S. military space and intelligence leaders drove home a clear and consistent message at a gathering of space industry and government officials Jan. 24: The Department of the Air Force and the intelligence community must move from a bloated, complicated acquisition process to one in which space systems can be fielded faster and better meet requirements.

In remarks at a conference held by the National Security Space Association, leaders from the Department of Air Force, Space Force, and intelligence community framed the issue in blunt terms.

“We have a culture we have to break,” undersecretary of the Air Force for space acquisitions and integration Frank Calvelli said.

While Calvelli had some critiques of industry, he put much of the blame for issues he sees on the Department of Air Force’s own lack of clarity on what it wants from specific space programs. Calvelli noted that the Pentagon often rethinks and modifies programs to fit the current budget, shifting scheduling and adding and removing capabilities.

Calvelli has outlined clear goals for the way he wants the Department of Air Force to conduct business: shorter, three-year start-to-launch times, smaller systems, more use of commercial assets, and the use of fixed-price contacts to prod industry to deliver programs focused and on time.

“We like to build new,” Calvelli said. “New is cool. But we have to stop building new and take advantage of existing designs if we really want to drive schedules to be faster.”

Calvelli noted that he does not to hamstring future technologies, but he does want to increase speed in the acquisition process and proliferate the sources of America’s space assets to complicate targeting for America’s adversaries.

He pointed to his time as a senior official at the National Reconnaissance Office, which he said takes a more hardline approach to contracting than the Department of Defense’s process, which defense leaders, experts, and elected officials have long said needs reform.

One common DOD practice Calvelli cautioned against is awarding contracts to the lowest bidder. He said the Department of the Air Force must take a hard look at whether contractors for its space projects can actually deliver before spending millions of dollars on a project that is ultimately canceled.

“You get to the mode where you’re just reviewing the proposal, and you don’t take into account knowledge about the company, or you don’t know about the company,” Calvelli said. “You can end up awarding a significant space program to a part of a company or to a company that has absolutely no experience and no chance of actually executing the program.”

Another of Calvelli’s points of emphasis was moving towards as many commercial assets as feasible, both to take advantage of existing technology and proliferate the sources of America’s space assets to complicate targeting for America’s adversaries.

Calvelli’s views are shared across the military space enterprise, according to the deputy commander of U.S. Space Command.

SPACECOM is focused on “staying in our lane,” Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw told reporters, instead of “unnecessarily or prematurely” focusing on broad solutions that don’t align with specific operational requirements, which may be more limited.

Similarly, as the Space Force enters its fourth year, it cannot lose sight of its core missions of maintaining and building systems that allow the entire U.S. military to fight, the service’s deputy chief of space operations for intelligence said.

“Keep it simple, stupid,” Space Force Maj. Gen. Gregory J. Gagnon said. “Let’s just do small things, do them really fast, and continue to move forward. I think that’s absolutely the right way ahead.”

U.S. officials have noted that because space is a largely classified realm, frank discussion about issues with an asset can be limited.

But while Calvelli said he is sometimes frustrated with DOD’s space acquisition process, one of the nation’s most senior intelligence officials said some of the same issues extend to the rest of the federal government’s national security enterprise.

“We recognize that we have to figure out how to move faster in our acquisition realm,” said Stacey Dixon, the principal deputy director of national intelligence.

Dixon noted the intelligence community is naturally risk-averse, methodical and still working out how to fix its processes.

“We will continue to try to decrease the amount of time that it takes to do work with us and the amount of time that it takes for decisions to be made of which they’re waiting on our input,” Dixon said.

Lockheed: F-35 Deliveries Still Frozen, Classified Programs Growing Fastest

Lockheed: F-35 Deliveries Still Frozen, Classified Programs Growing Fastest

Jan. 24, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Lockheed Martin continues to build F-35 fighters, but deliveries are still on hold as the government and Pratt & Whitney investigate engine issues that contributed to an F-35B crash in December 2022, Lockheed officials said in a Jan. 24 earnings call with financial reporters.

Also during the call, officials reported that Lockheed’s classified business is growing faster than all other areas and revealed a $225 million charge against a secret program taken two years ago was on the AGM-183 ARRW hypersonic missile, on which the company took another $20 million charge in the fourth quarter of calendar 2022.

Executives also hinted that they expect contracts to be awarded on the Next-Generation Air Dominance program to be awarded around 2025.

F-35s Still Undelivered

“I think it’s really important to differentiate between delivery and production” of F-35s, company chief executive officer Jim Taiclet said on the earnings call.

“We are continuing production in the final assembly factories at Fort Worth, in Italy, and in Japan, at the same pace we expected to before the mishap occurred,” he said. “We’re also continuing to order and receive parts and materials from our supply chain as well.”

Acceptance flights, which are conducted by Lockheed and government pilots, are “on hold right now,” but the company is not chiefly paid based on deliveries, he said.

“The vast majority of our revenue, much greater than 90 percent, is earned” during production, he said, so the company doesn’t anticipate a huge hit on revenue due to the delay.

The delivery pause started shortly after Lockheed and the F-35 Joint Program Office agreed to a contract for Lots 15-17 of the aircraft, which Lockheed officials characterized as having “secured” a minimum number of F-35s over the next three lots. Lot 17 remains undefinitized.

Taiclet could not predict when deliveries will resume, saying the timing will depend on “when the U.S. government and the propulsion supplier conclude their ongoing mishap investigation.” Pratt & Whitney, a division of Raytheon Technologies, makes the F135 engine that powers all variants of the F-35 fighter. Raytheon officials did not comment on the status of the F135 in their earnings call, also held Jan. 24.

The F-35 Joint Program Office could not immediately comment on the status of the mishap investigation or when deliveries might resume.

ARRW Charge

Company chief financial officer Jay Malave acknowledged that the company took a $20 million charge on the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon in the fourth quarter—in addition to a $225 million charge against the program in 2021. Until now, Lockheed has not acknowledged that the 2021 charge was against the ARRW program.

“On the charge we took that was related to the program, we continue to have some learnings there,” Malave said. “But … Skunk Works is doing a great job managing that program. And, you know, this is a development program where … you continue to have learnings but in the grand scheme of things, I think we’ve managed that quite well.”

After a string of failures over several years—three in 2021 alone—the ARRW program registered successful powered flights in May and July of 2022, followed by a successful all-up test of an operationally-configured missile in December.

Classified Programs

Lockheed’s classified programs “achieved successful milestones across multiple business areas in 2022 and grew 5 percent year over year,” Taiclet said, adding that “we continue to expect growth on classified that will outpace the rest of the portfolio over the next several years.”

Asked about the Next-Generation Interceptor and Next-Generation Air Dominance programs, Malave said Lockheed is confident about the NGI and “other programs here that are classified. … We expect some of those awards to be made either at the tail end of this year or into next year as well.” The Next-Generation Interceptor award is expected in 2025, “and some of these [classified] programs that I just spoke of between now … and 2025.”

Strong Interest in Other Programs

Taiclet said aircraft maker Sikorsky, a Lockheed subsidiary, was “disappointed” not to win the Army’s Future Long-Range Assault Aircraft and is “officially protesting” the Army’s choice of Bell Textron to build the aircraft. Sikorsky’s entry had “the speed, range, maneuverability and survivability” required and “is the [most] transformational and most cost-effective aircraft that best meets the selection criteria for this competition,” he said. And despite the Air Force’s cutback to its Combat Rescue Helicopter program, Taiclet said the company’s Black Hawk helicopters remain popular.

Similarly, Taiclet noted strong interest in the new Block 70 version of the F-16 fighter, which made its first flight successfully from the company’s Greenville S.C. facility Jan. 24. Twenty of the aircraft are now in work, and they will be delivered at a rate of 7-8 per year beginning this year, Taiclet added. There is significant “organic” interest in the aircraft, he said, meaning that countries already operating the F-16 may buy more—Jordan and Bulgaria are expected to make deals soon. Taiclet was also optimistic that, after long negotiation, India may order its own version of the Block 70, called the F-21, which would entail a licensed production capability in India.

Taiclet said Lockheed hasn’t had huge problems with inflation because its suppliers largely have fixed-price contracts with the company.

Where inflation is having an effect is on “new proposals … where you’ve got suppliers unwilling to provide longer-term price commitments.” There’s more negotiation on “economic price adjustments, which are escalation clauses, inflation clauses. … It’s still an ongoing issue,” Taiclet said.

He said Lockheed is getting “squeezed with our customer” and is trying to negotiate “so we can accommodate” both vendors and customers alike.

US, Israel Kick off Massive Exercise with 142 Aircraft, Satellites, and More

US, Israel Kick off Massive Exercise with 142 Aircraft, Satellites, and More

Jan. 23, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. and Israel kicked off a massive combined weeklong military exercise Jan. 23, the largest since Israel was moved to U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility in 2021.

U.S. officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine the exercise, dubbed Juniper Oak, was notable in both size and scope. CENTCOM said everything from space assets, a carrier strike group, strategic bombers, stealth fighters, electronic warfare aircraft, Special Operations forces, and crews operating HIMARS precision artillery launchers would drill in a “combined joint all-domain exercise.”

The exercise will run from Jan. 23-27 and involve 180,000 pounds of live munitions and 6,400 U.S. personnel, 450 of which will be on the ground in Israel. Operations will take place in Israel and the Eastern Mediterranean Sea.

The exercise “underscores our commitment to the Middle East,” CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla said in a statement.

“No country in the world can bring this level of combat power, with such agility into a region” that is not its primary focus, said Bradley Bowman, a former Army aviator and military expert at the Foundation for Defense of Democracies. “At the same time, it’s important for our adversaries and our allies, frankly, to know that and our partners and everyone in the region to know that.”

The drills mark a significant step towards integrating Israel with U.S. forces in the region. Until late 2021, Israel was considered part of U.S. European Command’s area of responsibility, a somewhat incongruous placement that limited the ability of the two nations to exercise together despite facing some common adversaries, such as Iran. The arrangement reflected older sensitivities among Arab states about cooperating militarily with Israel, but relations have warmed between Israel and some Arab states after the signing of the Abraham Accords.

Just a year and a half later, U.S and Israeli forces are conducting a significant exercise of capabilities that will be used in the Department of Defense’s ambitious Joint All-Domain Command and Control (JADC2) concept by practicing operations “on land, in the air, at sea, in space, and in cyberspace,” according to Kurilla.

“We are not leaving the region,” Bowman said. “Exercises like this demonstrate the truth of a sustained, persistent, and serious U.S. military presence in the region.”

Of the 142 aircraft participating, 100 are American, including everything from four Air Force B-52 Stratofortress strategic bombers to four Army AH-64 Apache attack helicopters. The U.S.’s robust air presence also includes specialized airborne early warning planes, surveillance assets, and electronic warfare aircraft, such as an Air Force RC-135 reconnaissance plane, Navy E-2D Hawkeyes, and EA-18 Growlers. The George H.W. Bush carrier strike group will support six EA-18s, five E-2Ds, and 45 F/A-18s. The U.S. Air Force is also sending four fifth-generation F-35s, which are not normally based in the region, joining six F-35s from the Israel Defense Forces.

In addition to its stealth fighters, the U.S. Air Force is sending four F-15E Strike Eagles and four F-16 Fighting Falcons, as well as Air Force Special Operations components such as an AC-130 gunship. Israel has 32 fixed-wing fighters participating.

The Space Force will also be represented in Juniper Oak, with low Earth and medium Earth orbit satellites under the control of the command’s new space component, SPACECENT.

CENTCOM said the focuses of Juniper Oak include combined command and control, maritime air operations, combat search and rescue, electronic warfare, suppression of enemy air defenses, air interdiction, and strike coordination.

The exercise takes place amid continued tensions in the region. Iranian-backed militias have launched drone and missile attacks against U.S. forces and allies—a drone attack took place Jan. 20 against the Al Tanf Garrison in southeast Syria, though the U.S. has not formally ascribed responsibility.

Iran has also alarmed the U.S. by providing drones to Russia for Moscow’s attacks in Ukraine and has exceeded the limits of the 2015 accord limiting its nuclear program. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan traveled to Israel from Jan. 18 to Jan. 20 to discuss a range of issues, including Iran’s continued threats in the region, according to the White House.

In a statement, Kurilla said the exercise “enhances our ability to respond to contingencies.”

Juniper Oak will include 142 total aircraft, both fixed-wing and helicopters. The 100 American aircraft include:

  • Four B-52s
  • Four F-35s
  • Two MQ-9s
  • One HC-130
  • Two HH-68s
  • Four AH-64s
  • One AC-130
  • Four F-15Es
  • Four F-16s
  • 45 F/A 18s
  • One RC-135
  • Six EA-18s
  • Two KC-46s
  • Five E-2Ds
  • 15 MH-60s

Israeli forces will fly 42 aircraft:

  • Six F-35s
  • 18 F-16s
  • Eight F-15s
  • One CH-53
  • One UH-60
  • One Gulfstream G550
  • Two 707s
  • Two unmanned aerial vehicles
  • Two AH-64s

The exercise includes six U.S. ships, including the USS George H.W. Bush, its air wing, and cruisers and destroyers. Six Israeli ships are participating.

Four HIMARS launchers will provide long-range precision fire from the ground.

All told, 7,580 personnel are participating, including 6,400 Americans, 450 of which are in Israel. Israeli forces involved in the drills number 1,180.

Leading Lawmaker: Delay in Replacing Munitions Should be a ‘Flashing Red Light’

Leading Lawmaker: Delay in Replacing Munitions Should be a ‘Flashing Red Light’

Jan. 23, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The fact that it will take years to replenish U.S. stocks of weapons supplied to Ukraine ought to be a “flashing red light” that the defense industrial base is not prepared for superpower competition, Sen. John Cornyn (R-Tex.) said on an American Enterprise Institute webcast Jan. 23.

Citing a Center for Strategic and International Studies report that it will take five years to fully replenish just the 155mm artillery ammunition supplied to Ukraine—at the rate of 93,000 rounds per year—and there will be similar delays in replacing other such materiel, Cornyn said it is clear “we’re not ready” for the demands of facing off against China in a new, multipolar military competition.

Cornyn is a member of the Senate Intelligence, Finance, and Judiciary committees.

“Clearly, our industrial base is not engaged” to produce at necessary levels, Cornyn said, adding he finds the situation shocking. “I think they’re waiting for demand signals, primarily prompted by appropriations by Congress and multiyear contracting.”

But Cornyn also said he’s not seeing an “‘all hands on deck’ commitment” from the Biden administration to remedying the situation.

The last two defense budgets approved by the Congress were tens of billions of dollars beyond what the administration requested, Cornyn said, indicating a “bipartisan interest” in getting defense stockpiles up to where they need to be to deter a peer adversary. “We need to be ready” to deal with aggression “in more than one part of the world,” he said. The level of weapons production is a “glaring problem,” he added.

However, there are no guarantees that bipartisan support for greater defense spending will continue, Cornyn warned.

“I think it’s going to be hard fought,” he said, citing the $30 trillion national debt and “a great deal of public concern” that this leaves the nation little flexibility to deal with another financial, health or military disaster.

“What it means is that if we have another pandemic, if we have another financial crisis like we had in 2008, interest rates are now high because of inflation. We have a lot less flexibility in dealing with those than we would if we had a more reasonable debt to GDP ratio. So … there’s going to be a lot of hard-fought debate about that. But I would say the days the days of spending all this money like we did in last two years” on various infrastructure and pandemic smoothing-out programs, “those days are over.”

Asked why this situation seems so intractable, Cornyn opined that “we try to repeatedly cash the ‘peace dividend’ when there is no peace.” He said the invasion of Ukraine by Russia was a clear sign that “our holiday from history is over.”

The U.S. is now in a “great power competition … and we haven’t risen to the challenge.” He said the situation requires “a sense of urgency” lacking in the Biden administration, and while he applauded the general direction set out by the National Security and National Defense Strategies, “right now I don’t see anything that gives me a great deal of comfort” that the nation is properly prepared for “a multifront … conflict.”

The amount of equipment and aid flowing to Ukraine has been adequate, Cornyn said, but while he would like to see even more, there are some in Congress who may grow tired of a long-term commitment to the war.

Historically, “the longer these things go on, the more the American people become … fatigued … by the endless expenditure of funds, and [they] say, ‘this has got to come to an end,’” he said.

The intelligence community is good but not “a mind-reader,” Cornyn said, and it’s impossible to know how long Russian President Vladimir Putin will keep us his aggression, even if he’s not succeeding.

“I think he’s ready to grind the Ukrainians into submission as long as he can,” Cornyn said. “He’s ready to outlast the West in terms of our support commitment to helping the Ukrainians.”

However, that doesn’t mean the U.S. should give the Ukrainians an ultimatum to accept a truce, Cornyn said.

“I don’t believe it’s our job … to tell the Ukrainians, ‘you must take this deal … or else we’ll pull the plug on our support.‘ I do not think that’s appropriate,” the senator said.

As for China’s designs on Taiwan, Cornyn said the U.S. must learn from Ukraine that “one guy” can “wake up in the morning” and decide to invade another country, potentially without warning.

China’s non-transparent defense spending has increased “tenfold” since 1990, Cornyn noted, saying “they’re preparing … for ‘something.’”

To deter China, Cornyn said Taiwan must be strengthened, “and we’re doing that.” But he said he does not believe Taiwan is yet strong enough to thoroughly discourage China, and the U.S. must also show it is willing to match China.

And while it is true that the U.S. has more allies than China, no one should assume that all of America’s allies in the Pacific would “come running” if Taiwan is invaded, Cornyn added; on recent trips to the Pacific, Cornyn said he detected little enthusiasm for coming to Taiwan’s rescue from Australia or New Zealand, and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has proven “a disappointment” because of its unwillingness even to condemn Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

For its part, “Japan clearly believes that an attack on Taiwan would threaten their national security interests, particularly given the … disputed islands in in the South China Sea,” Cornyn said. “But again, I’m a little less confident about what some of our other friends might do. And so I don’t think we should assume that the cavalry” would ride to the rescue, “but I do think that our national security interest” and economic interests would suffer greatly if China invaded Taiwan and “we let them succeed.”

MH-139, Behind Schedule, Now Risks Failing Requirements, DOD Says

MH-139, Behind Schedule, Now Risks Failing Requirements, DOD Says

Jan. 23, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Editor’s Note: This story was updated Jan. 25 to include the Air Force’s updated timeline for a Milestone C decision on the MH-139.

The Air Force’s new MH-139 Grey Wolf helicopter is at risk of not meeting “operational effectiveness requirements,” the Defense Department’s chief weapons tester declared in a new report. 

Problems with the automatic flight control system, sensor display, and intercom system, along with its cabin layout and “restrictions on takeoffs in crosswinds or near obstacles” have raised concerns during ground and flight testing. The DOD Office of the Director of Operational Test & Evaluation (DOT&E) 412-page annual report, released Jan. 19, covers more than 240 programs the office reviewed in the past year. Its conclusions and recommendations on the Grey Wolf were not previously widely known.

DOT&E questioned the MH-139 program’s testing regimen, including both the amount of testing leading up to a key milestone and the enduring need for ballistic and electromagnetic testing. 

The MH-139 is intended to replace the Air Force’s aging UH-1N Huey helicopters used by security forces to support the service’s missile fields and also to transport government and visiting officials around the Washington, D.C., area.  Based on the AgustaWestland AW139 civilian helicopter, it is supposed to offer enhanced performance, which requires testing to prove crews can “operate up to the edge of the allowed operating envelope.” 

The concerns in the report emerged only a few months after Air Force officials had voiced optimism that the Grey Wolf was regaining momentum and ready for military utility testing after months of delays. 

When a team of Boeing and Leonardo first won the contract for the aircraft, initial operational capability was projected for 2021. Delayed Federal Aviation Administration certification, however, pushed that timeline back.

While DOT&E found that military flight testing has been close to plan, the report said “persistent problems in acquiring technical data and some aircraft components from the contractor are delaying execution of some portions.” Meanwhile, tests conducted so far indicate problems the agency says that “represent a risk to MH-139 meeting operational effectiveness requirements.” 

Among the newly identified deficiencies:

  • The certified envelope of the automatic flight control system does not match the expanded envelope required in the military version
  • Issues with sensor display availability to the crew in the cabin
  • Problems with the on-board intercom system that enables the crew to communicate
  • “The capability of the cabin layout to support employment of armed tactical response forces”
  • Changes to the “type of hoist [and] the location of the fast-rope insertion/extraction system bar,” along with other cabin modifications, identified by foreign users. 

The Air Force is working on these issues, the report said: “The program is pursuing options to modify the cabin layout to support the tactical response forces and their required equipment while also working with [Air Force Global Strike Command] to update their concept of operations.” 

The expanded flight envelope may present maintenance issues by straining powertrain components, and testing is still ongoing on the helicopter’s armor and fuel system against ballistic threats. 

Yet amidst these issues, the DOT&E report notes that the Air Force is still planning on reaching a Milestone C decision—whether or not to enter production—in the near future. 

“Due to the limited time between the start of government-led flight testing and the Milestone C decision, there are limited opportunities to collect operationally representative performance data to inform the decision,” the report said. It recommended more time for such testing before committing to production. 

On Jan. 24, an Air Force Life Cycle Management Center spokesman told Air & Space Forces Magazine the service is now targeting a Milestone C decision in February or March.

The report also made recommendations involving the helicopter’s survivability, urging testing for both electromagnetic pulses and ballistic threats.

Saltzman’s Priorities for Space Force: Three New Lines of Effort

Saltzman’s Priorities for Space Force: Three New Lines of Effort

Jan. 20, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman has set his priorities for the Space Force, defining three critical areas of focus: combat-ready forces, personnel management, and partnerships—with the other military services, other agencies, and with allies. 

Saltzman outlined “three lines of effort” in a series of “commander’s notes” published Jan. 18:

  • LOE 1: Fielding Combat-Ready Forces
  • LOE 2: Amplifying the Guardian Spirit
  • LOE 3: Partnering to Win

Taken together, the three letters represent Saltzman’s first direct, broadly published guidance to Guardians about where the Space Force is headed under his leadership. He succeeded Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond as the service’s second-ever CSO on Nov. 2, 2022. 

Fielding Combat-Ready Forces 

Saltzman’s push for combat-ready forces is more about training and preparedness than fielding resilient new satellite constellations. “A capable and resilient weapon system will be operationally ineffective if its personnel, expertise, tactical employment, and sustainment are insufficient for the mission,” Saltzman wrote. 

Resiliency, which Raymond cited as his “No. 1 priority” for the Space Force remains essential, Saltzman said. But he takes a more expansive view, seeing threats not only to satellites but also “ground stations, networks, data, and mission-critical support facilities,” he wrote. Adversaries seek to exploit weakness and vulnerability wherever they can find it, and it is incumbent on Guardians to ensure they can fight through such attacks.

The Space Force’s role is to present space capability to the Joint Force—including personnel ready to “conduct prompt and enduring operations against an adversary.” 

During his confirmation hearing before the Senate last September, he stressed the need to invest in test and training technology so that Guardians are prepared for real-life threats, and he repeated that refrain in his letter. 

“We must have range capacity and representative training devices capable of preparing Guardians to engage a thinking adversary in a realistic threat environment,” Saltzman wrote. 

Similarly, the CSO echoed previous comments about the need to develop tactics, techniques and procedures for space operations. “Operational concepts and tactics must be continuously developed, assessed, and enhanced through a service-wide campaign of learning, led by the units entrusted with our systems,” he wrote. 

Amplifying the Guardian Spirit 

Expanding on the Space Force’s Core Values of Character, Connection, Commitment, and Courage, Saltzman defined three core traits of the Guardian Spirit:  

  • Principled Public Servant: Guardians are expected to demonstrate the Space Force’s core values as members of the profession of arms, a critical part of the U.S. public’s trust in the military.
  • Space-minded Warfighter: Guardians should have a “deep understanding” of space operations and be “experts” in deploying space capabilities against an adversary.
  • Bold and Collaborative Problem Solver: Guardians should “engage with, analyze, and debate new ideas and perpetually challenge the status quo,” without fear of failing or adapting. They should also seize the initiative and  be “comfortable empowering subordinates to act.”

Together, these traits are the keys to “taking care of Guardians,” Saltzman said, promising more details in a forthcoming “Guardian Handbook,” which will expand on the “Guardian Ideal” released in September 2021, the service’s foundational approach to talent management.

Saltzman acknowledged that in the Space Force’s quest to take care of Guardians, “we have not reliably hit this mark in the past,” an apparent reference to complaints about the “Semper Soon” catchphrase used by Guardians frustrated by the service’s slow progress on structures and policies. The CSO said he is committed to personnel processes that are “transparent, predictable, and professional.” 

Partnering to Win 

Emphasizing the need for cooperation with a broad range of different organizations, Saltzman wrote in the third letter that “even with superlative talent and exceptional capabilities, the Space Force will not succeed without robust joint, coalition, international, interagency, academic, and commercial partnerships.” 

As examples of those partnerships, Saltzman noted the Space Force’s close ties with both the Air Force, which provides much of the service’s support functions, and the National Reconnaissance Office. But Saltzman also wants the Space Force to engage with international allies, academia, industry, and others. “Foreign exchanges, deployments to industry, university partnerships, reverse industry days, security cooperation initiatives, and shared PME opportunities” are all avenues for partnering to make the Space Force stronger, he said. 

The Space Force’s University Partnership Program has more than a dozen members, and it has already held a number of so-called “Reverse Industry Days,” where industry shares what it has to offer, as opposed to listening to service officials describe their needs. The Service’s partnership with Johns Hopkins University is another key partnership, one that will largely replace the need for its own War College. 

Describing the three letters together, Saltzman said he hoped the newly defined lines of effort will generate “serious discussion at all levels,” and that “command teams are empowered to accelerate activities that align with these LOEs and discard activities that don’t.” 

Weapons Chief Offers Details on the Air Force Munitions Roadmap

Weapons Chief Offers Details on the Air Force Munitions Roadmap

Jan. 20, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Although an interim munitions roadmap is informing the Air Force’s 2024 budget, the roadmap itself is intended to be a living document, rather than a single “artifact” that will be set and followed, the service’s weapons chief said in a recent interview.

The roadmap will primarily focus on the next five years with an eye farther down the road, and the future of Air Force weaponry may very well be modular, Brig. Gen. Jason Bartolomei, PEO for weapons and head of USAF’s armament directorate, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Bartolomei said Secretary Frank Kendall made him co-chair of the roadmap effort, called the Munitions Crosscutting Operational Enabler, or COE, last fall.

“I really think that the roadmapping process is helping to inform … the important budget decisions that are being made,” Bartolomei said. “But I think that the actual artifact of the roadmap is going to be a little bit fleeting, because we live in a dynamic environment and things are changing … more frequently than I think anyone … is comfortable with.”

He declined to say whether an unclassified version of the roadmap will be available, given that the document will be in constant flux.

The effort is “really integrating and knitting together, very deliberately, the operations and the acquisition teams,” Bartolomei said. It is focused “on what weapons we think we need … over the next five years,” he added, with a view for long term as well, but “the future is less clear, the further out you go,” he said. “That’s why we’re really more focused on the near-term.”

Kendall has called out the need for Air Force roadmaps in airlift, electronic warfare, and munitions, as “cross-cutting” capabilities that underwrite his seven “operational imperatives.”

The weapons COE team “includes folks from the operational community, the intelligence community, the acquisition community, and the S&T (science and technology) communities,” Bartolomei said.

The goal is not so much “an artifact … or a one-time thing” but a “mission partnership” that will be enduring and assess munitions needs from a whole-of-Air Force perspective, he noted.  

“We’re really building it in a way to where we’re able to refresh and learn as new information comes over time,” Bartolomei said.

The group aims to invest in “the right capabilities for the different mission sets that we see emerging,” he said, but also “in the right quantities. And so, this is obviously one part of the conversation is clearly on the military side of the equation, but this is also a discussion with our industrial partners.”

Asked if the future of Air Force weaponry will tend more toward munitions tailored to unique target sets or generic, mix-and-match components adaptable to a wide variety of targets, Bartolomei said there is “a lot of value” in the latter approach.

Thanks to open systems architecture and modularity, the Air Force no longer has to limit itself to “an all-up round” in every case.

“What we’re seeing with these weapons is … that there’s a lot of value in thinking about those weapons and the subsystems that make that weapon,” he said. The roadmap leaders have been “really clear with industry that we’d like to partner with them to be a little bit more focused on how we’re partitioning the technical subsystems in the system; how we’re thinking about the interfaces.”

Industry technologists have forecast that future weapons may be a mix-and-match arrangement of seeker heads, warheads or “effects generators,” and propulsion modules that can be selected for their combined properties. Modularity might also reduce production costs but would require a new kind of systems integration to ensure all the pieces work together as intended.  

“I see the systems being more open and more modular.” Bartolomei said. “It’s an instance where you could see … both of those properties in our future weapons, both weapons that are niche, and you can see the upshot for our ability to produce.”

William LaPlante, head of acquisition and sustainment for the Pentagon, has in recent months pointed to Russia’s ongoing invasion of Ukraine as an example of why the industrial base must be in production with preferred munitions, so that their deployment can be accelerated at need. Too often, weapons are produced in waves, leading to economic inefficiency in buying materials and long-lead items.

LaPlante has also said that components for modern munitions should be interchangeable and produced in multiple partner nations, to both help with surge capability and to guard against bottlenecks and single points of failure, such as a particular factory or vendor suddenly shutting down. Such topics have been discussed in the last few months at Ukraine Contact Group and National Armaments Directors meetings.

Asked if the munitions roadmap enterprise is taking foreign partners into account, Bartolomei said “we’re interested in making sure that we can include involved our fellow service partners and our coalition partners, in how we’re thinking about weapons writ large.” That is “a really large task,” he said, but the group hopes to obtain “a comprehensive understanding of where we stand with weapons that includes the Air Force, our coalition partners, and certainly, the Navy.”

Guard F-16Cs Get New Home, Mission with Aggressor Squadron in Alaska

Guard F-16Cs Get New Home, Mission with Aggressor Squadron in Alaska

Jan. 20, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

With the Alabama Air National Guard’s 187th Fighter Wing set to receive its first F-35s this year, the unit’s F-16Cs are getting a new home—much farther north. 

The first two of those F-16s, still adorned with their “Alabama” tail flashes, flew into Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, on Jan. 12. Within months, they’ll sport a new “wraith” black paint scheme as adversary aircraft with the 18th Aggressor Squadron. The two jets are the first of 19 “new-ish” aircraft the squadron will get this year, Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Albert Roper told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a phone interview. 

“They’re fully combat-capable, combat-mission-ready aircraft,” Roper said in a phone interview. “So we’ll just bring them up here to Alaska. … they’ll go to the paint barn, we’ll do a new paint job on them. But we flew up here last week, so they’re flyable aircraft. And then once we get our pilots trained, so they get their familiarization flights, ground training, [simulator] training, computer-based training … we’ll start flying and put them on the line and put them up in the air and flying those aircraft as soon as the next couple of weeks.” 

The Alabama ANG F-16Cs are Block 30 versions, representing an upgrade from the older F-16Cs the squadron has today, Roper said. 

“There’s about a decade gap in the software upgrade and hardware upgrades,” Roper said. “So I look at it as the airframe and the engine, it’s still a Block 30 F-16. But [they] kind of ripped out things like the coaxial cables, speed transmitters, and the processors and replaced it with kind of like ethernet and then increased the processing capability of the computers.” 

Other upgrades represent “leaps and bounds in technology,” Roper said: Improved center display units provide greater clarity for pilots and the avionics suite supports the Hybrid Optical-based Inertial Tracker, or HObIT, which attaches to a pilot’s helmet and provides targeting data and more. 

That means the 18th Aggressors can be more effective training assets, “to increase what we’re able to replicate and present to the combat Air Force,” Roper said. That means replicating more advanced threats in everyday training and at some of the Air Force’s biggest training exercises every year, including Northern Edge in May, and Red Flag-Alaska events in June and August. 

The remaining ANG F-16s will arrive over the next several months, Roper said, with the last deliveries targeted to come before Sept. 30. Meanwhile, all but two of the 18th Aggressor Squadron’s legacy F-16s will head to the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. The two that will remain are dual-seat F-16Ds that will be retained for orientation flights.