No Longer Protected by Congress, Air Force RC-26 Fleet Heading to the Boneyard

Jan. 6, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Air National Guard is retiring its entire fleet of 11 RC-26 Condors, the Air Force said Jan. 6. The twin-prop plane had an often under-the-radar but sometimes controversial role as a reconnaissance aircraft used for both counterdrug and homeland security missions.

A converted civilian airliner, the aircraft attracted unwanted attention several times recently, and for years the Department of Defense has sought to retire the aircraft in favor of cheaper platforms such as drones.

Those efforts had been blocked by advocates on Capitol Hill, most vocally former Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.), an RC-26 pilot in the Air National Guard. In both the 2020 and 2021 National Defense Authorization Acts, there were provisions preventing the Air Force from using funds to retire the Condor.

No such provision made it into the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, though, and Air Force said that without a need or funding for the aircraft, the plane will finally be out of service.

“There are no Air Force specific RC-26B validated requirements nor dedicated funding to support sustainment of the weapons system,” an Air Force spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The Wisconsin Air National Guard concluded operations on Dec. 28, it announced. Representatives for the Air National Guard did not say whether all RC-26 operations have ceased—Alabama, Arizona, California, Iowa, Mississippi, New Mexico, Texas, West Virginia, and Washington all have the aircraft as well.

The Air Force said all 11 RC-26 aircraft will head to the Boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz.

While the Air Force sees no requirements for the RC-26, the Wisconsin National Guard touted the aircraft’s usefulness in its release.

“Officers, civilians, suspects, families and regular citizens who have no idea that the reason that they are alive is because those guys were experts at their jobs, helped chase down and arrest drug dealers, in ways that could not have been done in any other platform,” Lt. Col. Benjamin West, the Wisconsin Air National Guard’s program manager, said in a statement.

“Having spent a large time of my policing career in narcotics work, I can tell you that this mission saves people’s lives,” added Army Col. Paul Felician, director of the Wisconsin National Guard’s counterdrug program. “The stuff that this aircraft enabled law enforcement to do took more drugs off the street and kept people safe from having to go into the direct risk of harm—it’s a sad day to see it go away.”

But the RC-26’s use in law enforcement missions was questionable at times, according to the Air Force’s own accounting. The aircraft monitored protests and relayed information to law enforcement in Minnesota, Arizona, California, and Washington, D.C. after the murder of George Floyd in police custody the summer of 2020. Congressional concerns prompted an Air Force Inspector General investigation, which concluded that the National Guard Bureau erred in its deployment of RC-26s in some cases.

The aircraft were directed to fly “overhead imagery Incident Awareness and Assessment (IAA) missions in support of law enforcement and/or National Guard units responding to destruction of property and violence” after Floyd’s murder in 2020, the report said.

“Properly approved missions can support civilian law enforcement, but there is no scenario in which it is acceptable or permissible to use DOD assets to deter demonstrations and protests, assuming they remain lawful,” the report said.

The National Guard Bureau didn’t have “a clear authorization” approved by civilian leaders before RC-26s began flying the missions, according to the IG report, and some of the missions over protests were, in the inspector general’s view, implausibly done for “training” purposes.

Air National Guard leaders have said the platform should be retired because cheaper platforms such as drones could fulfill counternarcotics and homeland security functions. Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh, Air National Guard director, said the cost to keep RC-26 in the fleet—$30 million per year—could be used to field and invest in newer systems.

“It’s an old aircraft, and there’s current language right now that says I can’t retire that fleet or even expend money to prepare to retire that fleet,” Loh said in 2021. “And so, each year, I’m spending millions of dollars to keep a fleet alive that quite frankly has run its useful life, and I need to actually get out of those to get into something new.

“We’ve actually had better technologies out there to take care of the mission, so even if I needed to do the mission today, I can [do] it with better technologies that are cheaper to operate,” Loh said at the time.

This is the First-Ever ANG Flight Nurse to Earn Distinguished Flying Cross

Jan. 6, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

A Minnesota Air National Guard flight nurse who responded to a deadly suicide bombing in the midst of the Afghanistan evacuation in August 2021 is set to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross on Jan. 7.

Maj. Katie Lunning of the 133rd Airlift Wing will be the first Air National Guard nurse ever to be awarded the DFC, the military’s fourth-highest award for heroism.

Lunning was a captain deployed to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, when the noncombatant evacuation from Kabul, Afghanistan, began. The mission resuced thousands of Afghan civilians, foreign nationals, and U.S. personnel fleeing the advancing Taliban as the Afghan government collapsed. Lunning and her team at Al Udeid set up a ground aid station and helped treat the flow of civilians arriving in Qatar, according to an Air Force release from November 2021. But it wasn’t long before Lunning and her CCATT teammates were mobilized to fly to Kabul on a C-17.

“We didn’t know what to expect,” she said in the release. “On the flights to Kabul, we were wearing protective helmets and vests. The intelligence brief was concerning, and you could feel that everyone was on alert.”

They arrived Aug. 26 in Kabul, the same day a suicide bomb killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghans, and injuring hundreds of others.

“We were pulling them out as they are getting injured. … We were the first CCATT in,” Lunning recalled in a Jan. 3 press release. “It was the largest medical evacuation out of that coalition hospital ever, and very dangerous on the ground. We had to leave the airplane to go get our patients…. We took injured Marines and Afghan civilians who really weren’t flight worthy, but there was no choice. We just had to get them out of there. So, a lot of medical events occurred on the airplane, but we ended up being able to safely deliver everybody to Landstuhl, Germany [for further medical care].”

A few days later, Lunning was on the last convoy of C-17s to fly out of Afghanistan, officially ending the U.S. presence there.

Air Force leaders have praised Lunning and other CCATT medical professionals for their work during the Afghanistan evacuation, when they created “flying hospitals” to treat sick and wounded Afghans, delivered babies en route, and treated life-threatening injuries. A number of other medical professionals have been honored with the Distinguished Flying Cross in recent months, as Air Mobility Command and the Air National Guard honor Airmen involved in the operation, but Lunning is the first Guard flight nurse among them.

The entire crew of MOOSE 98, a C-17 flight that brought in a critical care air transport team on Aug. 26, was honored at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., in December.

Tech. Sgt. Katherine Rosa Orellana, a critical care and trauma team respiratory therapist who also responded to the suicide bombing was decorated by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. In November.

Capt. Jedd Dillman, a flight nurse, and Master Sgt. Matthew Newman, a respiratory therapist, were the first aeromedical evacuation Airmen in AMC history to receive the DFC. And Capt. Leslie Green, also a flight nurse, received the award at Joint Base Charleston, S.C.

Including Lunning, the Air Force has now awarded 99 Distinguished Flying Cross medals for actions during the Afghanistan airlift mission.

Air Force’s Task Force 99 Looks to ‘Impose a Cost For A Low Cost‘ in CENTCOM

Jan. 5, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

A small Air Force team at Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar is working on solutions to mitigate one of U.S. Central Command’s primary issues: doing more with less.

As part of a broader push in CENTCOM towards what leaders call “a culture of innovation,” Task Force 99 at Air Forces Central is working to help alleviate some of the pressure on the current force, as the U.S. military’s resources shift from the region but American forces continue to battle the remnants of ISIS and confront Iranian-backed attacks.

Their innovation: Use what already exists in different ways.

“It’s fostering an environment where we come up with new processes, new ways of thinking about how we employ our assets,” Task Force 99 commander Lt. Col. Erin Brilla told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Brilla leads the small team of eight Airmen, though the exact numbers fluctuate based on deployment cycles. The unit was originally unveiled by Air Force Central (AFCENT) commander Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich at AFA’s Air, Space, & Cyber Conference in September. But at the time, there were no members, including Brilla; she read about the new unit in a news article.

With a background in acquisition and intelligence, Brilla moved from another role inside CENTCOM to lead the new unit.

“Next thing I know, I found myself here,” Brilla said by phone from Qatar. “The acquisition skill set is not one that you would normally find in operational command in theater.”

The unit originally had no headquarters. Its members worked out of repurposed dorm rooms at the base. Even its name wasn’t settled at first—when Grynkewich announced the unit’s formation to reporters, it was called Detachment 99. In October, though, it formally stood up as Task Force 99—and it got a nickname, the “Desert Catalysts.”

Brilla says the team is currently working with commercial technology and seeing how they can apply that to military uses. CENTCOM has pitched itself as a prime experimentation hub for the U.S. military as a “literal sandbox,” in the words of multiple CENTCOM officials.

CENTCOM officials envision a new regional counter-drone exercise. The Navy’s Task Force 59 begin the innovation effort in 2021 by fielding a small fleet of maritime drones that will grow into a coalition network of around 100 vessels that will monitor the region’s waters, according to CENTCOM commander Gen. Michael “Erik” Kurilla.

Task Force 99 took many of the lessons learned by Task Force 59 and applied them from the start, Brilla said. The Air Force team is also being assisted by the Defense Innovation Unit.

Currently, the Airmen are experimenting with drones that cost around five to six figures, with payloads as low as $40, typically some form of sensing device or camera. Grynkewich has said he wants to field systems that cost under $1 million. Kurilla said Task Force 99 will follow a similar model to Task Force 59. CENTCOM will also stand up a land-based Task Force 39 for the Army.

“Task Force 99 will replicate Task Force 59’s maritime efforts with aerial drones complete with tailored payloads and other capabilities operating together to observe, detect, and gather data that feeds into an operations center,” Kurilla told reporters Dec. 22. “Task Force 99’s fleet of unmanned aircraft will impose dilemmas on our adversaries and detect and defeat threats to our systems and to our partners.”

Task Force 99 is using what the Department of Defense classifies as Group 1 to Group 3 unmanned aerial systems, with grouping based on size, speed, and altitude. Group 1 drones are small systems that weigh under 20 pounds, fly at less than 100 knots, and do not exceed 1,200 feet of altitude. Group 3 drones can weigh over 1,000 pounds with an operating altitude of up to 18,000 feet.

Group 1 systems in military use include drones such hand-launched Puma system, which was used by the British Army at the American-hosted Project Convergence exercise in the fall. Group 3 drones may have launch and recovery systems. But Task Force 99’s efforts are a far cry from the more expensive drones such as the RQ-9 Reaper that AFCENT supports from airfields in the region.

“It’s a wide variety of what we’re looking at,” Brilla said. “But it’s all: what we can do with things that are all readily available that we can potentially combine in a new way or use in a new way.”

The Task Force 99 team is looking at using drones for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and possibly electronic warfare. Brilla declined to specify exactly which systems the team was using, citing a desire not to endorse specific commercial products that the U.S. military was still testing out.

“Anything we can potentially use to impose a cost, for a low cost from our own perspective,” Brilla said of what types of drones Task Force 99 will use. “We want to be able to ensure financial prudence and make sure that we are using our resources in the best manner possible. So there are places where you can put an unmanned or a digital technology in place where there might have been a time-intensive human process in order to free up that human manpower for something that’s a higher priority or more critical. Those are our goals.”

CENTCOM sees each service’s task force as part of a holistic effort, eventually combining in a network to identify threats. Those real threats—from ISIS fighters to Iranian-backed drone and missile attacks—are something CENTCOM says is useful to experiment with new technology. However, Brilla concedes Task Force 99 has to rely on things it expects to work, and cannot replace current manned assets with unmanned ones if that hampers U.S. military efforts in the region or poses risks to U.S. troops and allies.

“In many cases, it’s already been proven out—maybe not in government or military channels, maybe it’s been out in the commercial or the industrial sector,” Brilla said. “Even though we’re using the word experiment here, it is not a new technology. We’re very careful about choosing something that is mature, unclassified, and low-cost. If it fails, it is a much lower risk. If it does fail, that might be an acceptable answer. But it is a question of risk that we’re willing to accept because we would not be losing life, limb, eyesight, or millions and millions of dollars.”

In the near term, Task Force 99 hopes to double its team up to around 20 Airmen. Because members cycle through deployments, the team needs to continuously replace expertise, though Brilla believes it will benefit from new approaches brought by different Airmen. The unit is also exploring how it might incorporate Guard or Reserve members that have relevant civilian expertise, and Air Forces Central has invited 17 allies to assist Task Force 99 efforts.

“Innovation will extend the value of our partnerships, fill some of the gaps in resources,” Kurilla said. “The American commitment to the region used to be measured by boots on the ground. That is the old way of thinking.”

F-15EX Fires Missiles from New Underwing Stations in Successful Tests

Jan. 5, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

The new F-15EX’s ability to carry and launch more air-to-air missiles than the F-15C was proved in a pair of late November tests at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., the service said Jan. 5.

The two F-15EX aircraft of the 96th Test Wing each fired a missile in the tests: one launched an AIM-120 AMRAAM radar-guided missile from station 1 and the other launched an AIM-9X heat-seeking missile from station 9, according to an Eglin release.

The outboard missile stations are new to the F-15EX and give the fighter the ability to carry and launch 12 air-to-air missiles at once. The F-15C was limited to eight such missiles; four on conformal fuselage stations and four on underwing stations. The two new stations add another four underwing missiles; two each on two pylons.

“Once initial testing is complete, operational units receiving the new F-15EX will be able to carry and employ a full loadout of 12 missiles on the aircraft, upon fielding,” the test wing said.

Boeing, maker of the F-15EX, has previously advertised that the fighter can carry 22 air-to-air weapons, but the Air Force’s armament center wasn’t immediately able to say whether that full capability is being acquired by the service or is an option for future upgrades. Boeing did not respond to queries.

The additional weapons are enabled both by the additional stations but also by increased processor power and thrust on the F-15EX.

“This mission provided the first test points for validating the expanded carriage and employment capabilities of the Eagle II,” according to the release.

Eglin described the missiles as having been successfully “released … on separate passes against a target drone,” but was not able to say what the target was or whether it was struck by the missiles. Eglin employs a variety of targets ranging from QF-16s to dedicated, reusable target drones.

The 96th Test Wing said the tests mark “another milestone in the F-15EX’s developmental test program, but also incorporated many operational test objectives during the mission.” These were not described. The F-15EX fired its first missile nine months ago.

The F-15EX is being tested in a novel way, taking advantage of its similarity to the aircraft it replaces. The test aircraft are being used for simultaneous developmental and operational testing and have already deployed to several exercises to confirm the performance of new systems and capabilities.

In addition to its capacity to carry more weapons, the F-15EX has a fly-by-wire flight control system, an advanced, very powerful processor, an active electronically-scanned array radar, and the Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS), which is a new self-defense electronic warfare suite.

“The integrated test strategy has been critical to our test success, allowing us to break the mold of traditional testing, ultimately resulting in a better overall product for the warfighter in a shorter timeline than a traditional approach, said Col. Colton Myers, combined test force F-15EX operational flight program test project manager.

Retention Returns to Pre-COVID Levels as More Airmen Depart

Jan. 5, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force retention spiked to a 20-year high during the COVID-19 pandemic, as enlisted Airmen reenlisted rather than risk the uncertainties of the pandemic job market.

Two years later, however, officers and enlisted retention is back at or below pre-COVID levels. For 2022, 93.1 percent eligible officers stayed in uniform, as did 89.4 percent of enlisted Airmen. Rates for the Space Force are still hard to determine because of the small number of Guardians in the force.

“These retention rates are consistent with those over the last six years,” said Air Force spokeswoman Tech. Sgt. Deana M. Heitzman. “While there may be some impact from COVID, it is too early to make that correlation.”

Retention rates have held near 90 percent since 2017, but 2022’s rates are the lowest for both officers and enlisted since 2018, when 93.2 percent of officers and 89.6 percent of enlisted remained with the service

Retention ticked up in 2019 and then peaked in 2020, especially among enlisted service members, going from 90 percent to 91.1 percent. That marked the largest year-over-year increase for either group in the six years of data provided.

In 2021, retention among officers increased slightly, while enlisted retention fell to 90.5 percent. Both groups saw retention fall by at least a percentage point in 2022.

Heitzman said a lack of robust data makes it hard to determine clear rates for Guardians in the Space Force.

Amid the pandemic, the Air Force slashed the number of career fields eligible for reenlistment bonuses and offered waivers to let more Airmen transfer their service commitment to the Reserve or Air National Guard.

Then, as competition in the job market grew fierce, recruiting faced a downward trajectory and hundreds of Airmen were booted for refusing the COVID-19 vaccine, the service updated its retention bonus program, adding career fields in mid-2021 and twice in 2022.

As of Sept. 30, 2022, the Air Force’s Active-duty end strength was 328,517 Airmen, a hair below the 329,220 authorized in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. Authorized end strength declines this fiscal year, as enacted by the 2023 NDAA, to 325,344.

Fiscal Year	Officer Retention	Enlisted Retention
2017	93.00%	90.00%
2018	93.20%	89.60%
2019	93.60%	90.00%
2020	93.70%	91.10%
2021	94.10%	90.50%
2022	93.10%	89.40%

Source: Air Force data

No Speaker of the House? No Oversight of Defense, Warn Reps on Both Sides

Jan. 5, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

As the House of Representatives struggles to elect a Speaker and begin the work of a new session, a bipartisan group of lawmakers began warning that the House can’t perform its oversight duties. The House has been locked in a holding pattern since Jan. 3, with ten ballots coming and going and no candidate receiving the needed 218 votes to take the Speaker’s gavel.

Republicans hold a slim majority in the House, but a group of about 20 from the party’s conservative wing have withheld their votes from Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who has thus far refused to stand down and see if another candidate can win the 218 votes needed to get the Speaker’s job. Representatives must continue to vote until a speaker is elected and before other business can come before the chamber.

That means essential committees, such as the House Armed Services Committee, cannot do their work, such as participate in classified national security briefings. Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wisc.) highlighted that point during Jan. 4 press conference: “Right now, [Rep.] Don Bacon and I were supposed to be meeting with the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs in the SCIF here to talk about matters in the Indo-Pacific. But I’m informed by House security that technically I don’t have a clearance. I’m a member of the Intel committee, I’m on the Armed Services committee, and I can’t meet in the SCIF to conduct essential business.”

Such classified briefings occur regularly for HASC members and staff, said Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) in a phone interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“Our staff are getting classified briefings daily, they happen multiple times a day,” Smith said. “Members, particularly at the senior level of life like me, a couple times a week, at leas. So, in a normal situation, if the committee was actually formed and we were able to do our job, we would be getting this information on a daily basis, multiple times a day. And that’s all just blank and we’re all just blind.”

The longer the process drags on, the greater the impact, Smith said. Delays will slow down the committee’s work with reverberations that could last months. “They’ve got to pick a chairman,” he said of the Republican majority. “Then they’ve got to pick the members to be on the committee, which typically takes time. And then we’ve got to organize the subcommittees. So yes, it pushes things back.”

Delays will “make it much more difficult for us to do the other major piece of our job,” Smith said, “which is pass the defense bill, which we do every year, which is legislatively how we exercise our oversight.”

Congress has passed a National Defense Authorization Act every year for more than six decades, and it takes months to craft that measure. The HASC holds a series of hearings with the different military services and combatant commands, typically starting in March. So long as there is no Speaker, however, “all of that stuff is pushed back and thrown into a level of chaos,” Smith said.

Given the small majority Republicans hold in the House and the ability of a small faction to create legislative hurdles, Smith even went so far as to speculate the NDAA’s passage, normally a given, could be in peril.

“Are they going to let us pass the defense bill?” Smith said of the small group of Republicans who repeatedly voted against McCarthy. Many of them also opposed the 2022 NDAA last month. “They tried to stop us the last four years but we were in charge, so we had the votes, we were able to get it done,” Smith said of his fellow Democrats. “They’re going to undoubtedly stop us from passing a defense appropriations bill, because they’re going to stop all appropriations bills.”

So aside from the short-term impact of not having a functional Congress, “those near-term impacts of pushing back all of our work for the year,” he added, “there’s a long-term impact, that we now have a group of extremists effectively in charge of the House of Representatives who want to stop us from doing even our most basic work, including protecting this country. That’s something that everybody should be very alarmed about.”

Republicans who support McCarthy are just as frustrated. They accused the renegade wing of their party of allowing President Joe Biden’s administration to operate unchecked and of preventing Congress from having a say in national security issues like countering Russia and China and investigating the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), who is expected to become the HASC chairman, is a stalwart McCarthy supporter. In a statement issued Jan. 5, he likewise accused the Republican holdouts .

“There is no oversight of the White House, State Department, Department of Defense, or the intelligence community.” said Rogers in a joint statement with Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio). “We cannot let personal politics place the safety and security of the United States at risk.”

All F-35, F135 Engine Deliveries Suspended Pending Crash Investigation

Jan. 4, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Fallout from the Dec. 15 crash of an F-35B is widening, as the Joint Program Office revealed deliveries of new F135 engines for all F-35 fighters were halted Dec. 27—while deliveries of newly completed F-35 fighters were stopped the day of the crash.

Deliveries of both products are on hold as Naval Air Systems Command continues its investigation into the root causes of the accident, the Joint Program Office reported. In the mishap, an F-35B making a vertical descent hit the ground hard at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth, Texas, facilities.

“Currently, acceptance of new engines has been suspended,” a JPO spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “The length of the pause is currently to be determined, and it is hard to say how long it will last,” given NAVAIR’s ongoing investigation and the need to establish criteria “that would allow deliveries to resume,” he said. “The root cause analysis and accident investigation need to be completed first.”

The spokesman also said that “flight operations restrictions have been imposed at all F-35 production facilities, which has had the effect of halting aircraft deliveries.” The flight restrictions were imposed immediately after the accident.

“A joint JPO, Lockheed Martin, Defense Contract Management Agency (DCMA), and Pratt & Whitney team is developing procedures to lift these [flight] restrictions and resume flight operations,” he said. “At this time, it is not known how long this pause will be in effect.”

The JPO spokesman told Air & Space Forces Magazine that a safety inspection and Time Compliance Techical Directive (TCTD) have been issued for an undisclosed number of aircraft in the F-35 fleet. The affected aircraft are not with a particular unit and span the full range of F-35 variants—A, B and C—meaning that all the services are affected.

However, only certain aircraft have been grounded, not the entire F-35 fleet. The spokesperson said he could not explain why certain aircraft were being examined and others not, citing operational security.

A TCTD typically involves an inspection of a part or system that may have caused an accident or a handling issue and is often accompanied by instructions to replace the part or modify it in some way. The JPO spokesperson said that the nature of the TCTD is also being withheld for operational security reasons.

Government officials said the Air Force has only grounded a “handful” of F-35As pending inspections, and that this characterization suggests less than half a dozen aircraft.

Deliveries of new F-35s have been on hold since the accident, and as a result of not being permitted to transfer those aircraft to the government before the end of the year, Lockheed Martin missed its goal of delivering 148 aircraft in calendar 2022, delivering only 141. The company said it now has nine completed aircraft awaiting final test and acceptance flights, and was “on track” to meet its commitments at the time of the mishap.

A government official said the TCTD is “not necessarily connected” to the accident but could not elaborate due to security concerns. Observers “should not conclude” that the subject of the TCTD is assumed to have caused the crash, he said. Government officials reported that an engine issue is being examined as a possible cause of the accident.

The Dec. 15 accident happened while an Air Force pilot for the Defense Contract Management Agency was conducting an acceptance test prior to delivery of the F-35B. The accident was recorded on video and showed the aircraft in a hover, then descending toward a vertical landing with wings level at what appeared to be a too-fast rate. A puff and then a stream of white smoke issued from the tail at the same time.

The aircraft bounced on the runway, and then the tail—with the engine exhaust still in vertical mode—lifted, causing the nose to strike the runway at an off-angle, then spun the aircraft around. When the aircraft turned back to its original orientation, the pilot ejected.

A Defense Contract Management Agency spokesperson said the pilot was examined at a hospital after the accident and released. The pilot had previously been assigned to DCMA and was recently “lent” back from the Air Force to help with acceptance flights, the DCMA spokesperson said.

Although the aircraft was a Marine Corps-type F-35B equipped for vertical takeoff and landing, the Air Force pilot was a test pilot trained to operate it in that mode, the Air Force said.

Boeing Works to Solve KC-46 Deficiencies, One by One

Jan. 4, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

While Boeing and the Air Force inch forward on the new KC-46 Remote Vision System 2.0, they are also making progress on other deficiencies that have thus far limited the aircraft in certain missions.

Boeing is tweaking the design of the actuator at the base of the tanker’s boom so that it will operate with the thrust-limited A-10 Thunderbolt.

The Pentagon Inspector General characterized the problem as a “stiff boom” that “would not extend or retract during flight testing unless subjected to more force” than the A-10 could muster. Rather than a full “boom redesign,” Boeing KC-46 Program Manager James Burgess said the fix is a new actuator.

Speaking to reporters at Boeing’s Everett, Wash., plant, Burgess explained the challenge this way: The actuator “drives the boom out in the telescope direction, and then when a receiver connects with it, the receiver drives the boom back into sort of a nominal refueling position.” The original actuator requires about 1,400 pounds of pressure to enable refueling, Burgess said. But when at high altitude and fully loaded with weapons, the A-10 is “a very thrust-limited receiver aircraft; it had trouble pushing it up to that 1,400 pounds and then keeping it compressed at that force.”

Indeed, A-10 attack aircraft still cannot refuel from the KC-46, even after Air Mobility Command announced in September that the KC-46 had been cleared for worldwide deployments and combatant commander taskings.

The new actuator will be able to better regulate the force needed. Boeing shared a 3-D model of the new design in the boom assembly facility.

“What it does is control force as a function of rate, so as the receiver pushes harder on it, it pushes back harder on the receiver,” Burgess said. “If the receiver doesn’t push as hard on it, it doesn’t push as hard back. So it’s a little bit more conducive to lightweight, thrust-limited receivers like the A-10.”

The new actuator is smaller than the current one, and simpler, as well, with only one torque motor rather than two.

“It turns out [the current actuator] was probably a little over-designed initially in terms of redundancy,” Burgess said. “That has nothing to do with the deficiency. But Boeing and the Air Force worked together to take advantage of simplifying the design as part of the redesign. The relief manifold assembly … goes away, and it’s replaced with what’s called a PQ valve.”

A working version of the new actuator is currently going through lab tests at Boeing Field, Burgess said. Delays, however, continue to mount: An Air Mobility Command spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine in November that the fix, referred to as the Boom Telescoping Actuator Redesign (BTAR), “is experiencing delays due to issues getting a compliant actuator from Boeing’s subcontractor, Moog.”

AMC said its most recent projection has flight testing ending in late 2023, with retrofits for the existing fleet starting in late 2025. Delays could push that still further into the future.

The “stiff boom” is just one of several non-RVS deficiencies in the KC-46 identified by the Air Force. Another is related to leaks in the fuel system that were first identified in March 2020. Reports indicated seals designed to “flex” and move with the aircraft were insufficient to the task. Burgess said the problem was due to the difficulty of installation, and that Boeing has since redesigned the valve seals to make it easier to install them. As a result, “far fewer” fuel leaks have been reported, Boeing and Air Force officials during the plant visit.

Officially, the leaking seal deficiency has not yet been resolved, but Burgess said that was more of a formality at this stage, the result of infrequent meetings of the KC-46 deficiency board.

Other deficiencies have been resolved. Burgess touted during the tour the redesigned cargo pallet lock, which now includes a safety feature to ensure the lock stays fully engaged. The previous design sometimes unlocked when twisted during flight, leading the Air Force to restrict the aircraft from carrying cargo or passengers for a few months in 2019.

All in all, Air Force officials projected optimism, both in the KC-46’s current capabilities and the future fixes coming.

“If we had to go to war today, we would take this airplane with us,” Lt. Col. Joshua M. Renfro, from the Air Force’s KC-46 Cross Function Team, told reporters. “And we’d be fantastically confident in its capabilities in order to deploy it. However, long term, there’s always things that we can leverage— emerging technologies, and that partnership [with Boeing]—to acquire what the long-range vision for this tanker needs to be.”

4 More Airmen Get Distinguished Flying Crosses for Afghanistan Mission

Jan. 4, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Two pilots and two loadmasters were honored with Distinguished Flying Crosses at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., on Dec. 20, perhaps the final Mobility Airmen to be recognized for their actions during the August 2021 noncombatant evacuation of Kabul, Afghanistan.

Capt. Thomas Jividen, Capt. Bandna Choudhary, Master Sgt. Eric Pietras, and Tech. Sgt. Justin Lyles, all of the 62nd Airlift Wing, received their DFC with “C” device from Lt. Gen. Randall Reed, deputy commander of Air Mobility Command.

The recognition follows earlier ceremonies at Joint Base McGuire–Dix-Lakehurst, N.J.; Travis Air Force Base, Calif.; Joint Base Charleston, S.C.; and Scott Air Force Base, Ill. In all, the Air Force has awarded nearly 100 DFCs for Operation Allies Refuge, most with the “C” device indicating the award was for actions under combat conditions.

Jividen was one of several C-17 pilots forced to take decisive action on Aug. 15, 2021, when the airfield at Hamid Karzai International Airport was breached by desperate Afghan civilians and the Taliban seized control of the capital city. After offloading more than 100 Soldiers and boarding 200 Afghan nationals, Jividen safely taxied through hundreds of civilians on the airfield and executed a daylight tactical departure, despite dangerous runway incursions and the threat of small arms fire.

Fifteen days later, Choudhary, Pietras, and Lyles arrived at HKIA on two of the last five flights out of Al Udeid Airbase, Qatar. Despite air defense artillery, flares, and heavy machine gun fire, they landed safely, and Choudhary, a pilot, secured her aircraft while Pietras and Lyles loaded the last remaining U.S. personnel and equipment onto their jets in less than 60 minutes. With no ground controllers and the airfield unsecure, they then took off.

“It will be years before you truly understand just how big of a difference you made,” Reed told the DFC recipients in a speech. “But thanks to you … we can take tremendous pride in the fact that our military, our Air Force, our members of McChord are ready any day of the week, any hour of the day or night, and we can trust that you’ll always get it done.”

The Distinguished Flying Cross is the nation’s fourth-highest award for heroism and the highest award for extraordinary aerial achievement.