Afghanistan After Action Report Finished but Still Classified, Pentagon Says

Aug. 31, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Work on the Defense Department’s after action report on the war in Afghanistan and the withdrawal from Kabul is finished, Pentagon Press Secretary Brig. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder said Aug. 31—but when the public might get to read the report remains to be seen.

In the year since the final withdrawal of all U.S. military personnel from Afghanistan, a number of public reports and analyses have chronicled the weeks, months, and years leading up to it.

There have also been a military investigation into the deadly suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members and dozens of Afghan civilians outside Hamid Karzai International Airport as well as an Air Force inspector general’s report on the erroneous drone strike following that bombing that killed 10 civilians.

However, it’s been a longer wait for the after-action report the department typically produces after conflicts, detailing timelines of events, observations, discussions, and recommendations for future actions, as part of the Joint Lessons Learned Program.

“The after action report is complete, it’s under review,” Ryder said in a press briefing at the Pentagon. “Right now, [Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III] is reviewing it. At this time, the report is classified. So at a point that we have more to provide on that, we certainly will.”

Ryder’s comments come a month after the Wall Street Journal reported that DOD leadership was reviewing the report and considering not releasing any portion of it.

Awards

While the after action report is still yet to come, Austin did announce Aug. 31 that all units involved in Operation Allies Refuge and Operation Allies Welcome, the two operations that rescued Afghan civilians fleeing the Taliban and helped resettle them in the U.S., will receive the Meritorious Unit Commendation or its equivalent.

The Air Force’s equivalent is the Meritorious Unit Award and is given “for exceptionally meritorious conduct in the performance of outstanding achievement or service in direct support of combat operations.

“The degree of achievement required is the same as that which would warrant award of the Legion of Merit,” the Air Force Personnel Center website states.

Austin also said he is directing the respective military departments to conduct an expedited review of all the units present at Hamid Karzai International Airport from Aug. 15 to Aug. 30, 2021—the final few days of the withdrawal as the Taliban seized control of Kabul—to determine if those units should receive the Presidential Unit Citation.

The PUC, first established in 1942, is reserved for units that “display such gallantry, determination, and esprit de corps in accomplishing its mission as to set it apart from and above other units participating in the same campaign,” according to the AFPC website.

The degree of heroism is equivalent to the Air Force Cross for an individual, and Austin’s announcement specifies that the expedited review also include consideration for “appropriate individual awards.”

“This is a significant recognition for those who served in Afghanistan and participated in this very significant event. … From the Secretary’s standpoint, really the key message here is that it’s meant to express the gratitude of the Department of Defense and our nation for what it is that our men and women serving in Afghanistan during this very challenging time, what they accomplished,” Ryder said.

Lockheed Martin Says Its F-35 Sustainment Costs Have Fallen by Half—Another 35 Percent Coming

Aug. 31, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The Lockheed Martin-controlled portion of the F-35 cost per flying hour, across all users, has fallen 50 percent in the past seven years and should go down another 35 percent in the next five years, assuming a performance-based logistics contract is forthcoming, program officials said.

Lockheed Martin’s vice president for F-35 sustainment Audrey Brady, in a briefing for defense reporters at the company’s Arlington, Va., offices, said the cost reductions—which only affect “the things that we at Lockheed control”—are due to a number of factors. Some have to do with Lockheed Martin investment “at its own risk” of striking long-term deals with vendors for parts and materials to get economic quantities and better prices. Others have to do process or material improvements, lower costs for parts, faster repair times for parts, and quicker cure times for low-observable materials, in some cases reducing the “waiting time” for a repair by eight hours or more, among others.

The cost decreases do not take into account engine expenses, depot costs, or other maintenance, officials said, as these are contracted and budgeted separately. Lockheed Martin controls “about 40 percent” of the factors affecting maintenance costs on the jet. Thus, the total operating costs have not been reduced by the quoted percentages—only Lockheed Martin’s portion. However, Brady said the company’s initiatives have generated savings of $1.2 billion. Some of that has already been realized, and some “is still to be,” said Mike Aylward, company F-35 sustainment strategy director.

Measured by the Air Force’s new preferred metric of “cost per tail per year,” there’s been a reduction of 37 percent over the same 2015-2021 period, officials said, and it will decline another 25 percent through 2026. They did not supply dollar figures because those amounts are counted in fiscal 2012 dollars and can be “misleading,” Brady said, and are also “competition sensitive.” However, she said Lockheed Martin’s percentage decreases were calculated using “the same figures the F-35 JPO (Joint Program Office) uses.” Lockheed Martin is required to report those costs to the JPO on a monthly basis, she said.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., in a streamed interview with the American Enterprise Institute Aug. 29, said operating costs on the F-35 are “something we are concerned about” and that the original estimates—made early in the two-decade-old program—had been “probably a bit optimistic.” He said the Air Force will be providing Congress “an updated” cost per tail per year in response to congressional demands for more insight into the program.

“We are starting to see some of that cost come down” as more aircraft enter the inventory, Brown said, and as the program achieves greater savings from volume. The metric of cost per tail per year is more useful to the Air Force than cost per flying hour because it gives the service a better handle on the “cost of ownership” of the airplane and budgeting, he said. He has previously explained that the per-flying-hour metric is misleading when the F-35 flies more hours than planned.

The most recent all-inclusive cost per tail per year for the F-35—fiscal 2021—was $4.1 million for the A model, which the Air Force uses; $6.8 million for the F-35B short takeoff vertical landing version; and $7.5 million for the carrier-capable F-35C model. The most recent estimate for the F-35A model’s cost per flying hour was $33,000, in 2012 dollars. The Air Force has pursued a goal of getting that cost to $25,000 by 2025, also in 2012 dollars.

Lockheed has been pushing the services toward a performance-based logistics (PBL) contract for the F-35 fleet, in which the company would warrant a pre-set price for a certain number of operating hours, but Congress and the DOD have balked. Instead, the company is working toward two logistics contracts, Brady said: one for supply and the other “for everything else.”

Under language in the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, a PBL can’t be awarded unless the performance achieved in fiscal 2022-2023 is better than has been achieved in previous years, Brady noted. If it is, a contract could be awarded “January 1, 2024,” she said.

Aylward showed a chart indicating that F-35 reliability has increased substantially in the last few lots of aircraft, thanks to more aircraft and parts being of a common configuration and parts being of better initial quality. In Low-Rate Initial Production Lots 11-13, mean time between failure of aircraft has been 11.1, 14.3. and 14. 1 hours, respectively, vice a requirement of 5.9 hours.

Company charts said that in 2021 Air Force deployments, the F-35 achieved an 80 percent full mission capable rate. In the same year, foreign military sales operators of the jet recorded a 90 percent mission capable rate and a 65 percent full mission capable rate. “Full mission capable” means the jet can perform any of its various missions, while mission capable means it is ready to perform at least some of them, as opposed to being down for maintenance. In the most recent Red Flag exercise, out of 250 planned F-35 sorties, none were lost due to maintenance issues, the company reported.

“More than 90 percent of our parts are performing better than expected,” Aylward said.

For operating cost comparisons, Aylward also said the services should assess the reliability of fifth-generation aircraft—the F-22 and F-35—in an “apples to apples” way with fourth-generation airplanes. Whereas fourth-generation aircraft typically are assessed for operating cost without external podded capabilities such as electronic warfare, electro-optical systems, mission planning, and targeting, those features are built into fifth-generation aircraft. Assessing fourth-generation types with all those needed externals included would give a fairer comparison and one that would show that the F-35 is a solid performer, he said.

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Senior Master Sgt. Megan A. Harper

Aug. 31, 2022 | By Patrick Reardon

The Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2022 will be formally recognized at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference from Sept. 19 to 21 in National Harbor, Md. Air Force Magazine is highlighting one each weekday from now until the conference begins. Today, we honor Senior Master Sgt. Megan A. Harper, a security forces manager for the 701st Munitions Support Squadron at the Kleine Brogel Air Base in Belgium.

On Aug. 16, 2021, Harper received a call that a C-17 aircraft had been hostilely taken at Hamid Karzai International Airport and was en route to Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar with an unknown number of passengers. At the time, Harper was the operations superintendent at Al Udeid, home to the largest expeditionary wing in the Air Force, where she led 372 Total Force defenders in full-spectrum force protection intelligence and base defense operations.

After alerting her commander, Harper initiated a squadron recall to bring off-duty staff and defenders back to prepare for the arrival of the hijacked plane. Roughly 45 minutes later, the C-17’s crew landed securely with the aid of tactical vehicles, and the 47-member team created a human barrier to prevent any of the passengers from breaking through after disembarking the aircraft. Armed passengers were known to be on board, but their emotions and intent were still a mystery.

“They dropped the ladder, and literally the first passenger to come off was a 5-year-old child with her mother,” Harper said. “What we thought was 450 to 620 ended up being 827 passengers.”

Harper explained that in their panic, the evacuees had used weapons merely as a “ticket” to secure passage out of Kabul to Qatar. They had no ill intentions toward the aircraft’s crew or the response team.

Senior Master Sgt. Megan A. Harper, a security forces manager for the 701st Munitions Support Squadron, is one of 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2022. Air Force photo.

Harper’s reaction time and her team’s efficient emergency preparedness helped to secure the C-17’s aircrew and all 827 passengers without further incident. That flight, of course, marked only the first of hundreds of evacuations from Kabul during the next two weeks.

“I think we received an aircraft every three-and-a-half minutes over the course of the next five days,” Harper said.

As the operations superintendent, Harper directed 588 Joint Force protection Airmen, Soldiers, Sailors, and Marines as they ensured the safe passage of 57,000 Afghan evacuees through Al Udeid.

She was also the recipient of the Distinguished Graduate, Academic Achievement, and Commandant Awards at the Senior Noncommissioned Officer Academy and established Al Udeid’s first female defender mentorship group. The latter was an especially important organization at Al Udeid, where about 78 percent of the rotation at the time had never been deployed—meaning they had never been to Afghanistan where female culture is so starkly different from the West’s. Harper’s mentorship group provided those defenders with not only guidance, but also cultural training.

The result of her leadership was a cohesive, communicative team at Al Udeid. At the same time, that leadership is a result of her teams.

“I’ve been blessed with just having the absolute best people to stand shoulder to shoulder with,” Harper said. “That’s really what my drive is.”

Google Public Sector: An Innovative Technology Partner for the Future

Aug. 31, 2022 | By Scott King

Born in the early dawn of the Information Age, the U.S. Air Force (USAF) has established a reputation and culture of embracing technological advancements to propel the service forward. Its newly formed sister service, the U.S. Space Force (USSF) is a product of that culture and reflects a vision for national defense that seeks to address the challenges in the cyber and space domains. As the Department of Defense (DoD) pursues its digital modernization strategy, the services are not waiting – pursuing the implementation of their CloudOne strategy, which seeks to enable the USAF and USSF to maintain at the cutting-edge of the best technology available today. Google Public Sector was created specifically to support the U.S. government’s needs, is emerging as an important strategic partner and enabler for the USAF and USSF to realize their Force Design 2030 visions. Specifically, Google Public Sector is helping the services establish capabilities leveraging Google Cloud’s commercial solutions that eclipse antiquated “government cloud,” or “gov cloud” offerings, which have shown to be less secure, less resilient, and less future-proof.

Indeed, government clouds were originally designed because the U.S. government was choking on the operational inefficiencies and costs of maintaining thousands of siloed and disparate data centers. In 2010, the Federal Data Center Consolidation Initiative (FDCCI), intended to save the taxpayers between $5 billion and $8 billion annually by consolidating U.S. government data on a gov cloud. This was expressly created for U.S. federal, state, and local governments to meet the U.S. government’s thorough security and compliance regulations. However, like constructing castles with a single moat around them, gov clouds were by design intended to provide a perimeter defense around U.S. government information—ultimately creating a single pane of attack for cyberattackers to lay siege to (not to mention in the event an attacker was able to breach their defenses).

Since gov clouds were initially conceived and pursued, the internet, and the data riding on it, has grown exponentially. Today, the internet is a virtual superhighway of data transport. Gov clouds have not kept pace, requiring traffic to be routed through a boundary cloud access point (BCAP) that ostensibly forces all of the traffic from that virtual superhighway to use a single lane exit. This requirement has created latency issues, degraded the user experience, and is largely antithetical to the expectations of today’s Airmen and Guardians. As the USAF and USSF look to the future, they are seeing the limits of gov cloud solutions that struggle to provide them the support they need at the speed of relevance.

Google Cloud experienced firsthand what happens to a cloud that uses a perimeter defense. In early 2010, in the wake of a nation-state-sponsored cyber attack, called “Operation Aurora,” which targeted more than 20 technology companies, Google Cloud found itself a victim and recognized that it needed to go beyond the perimeter-defense approach of gov clouds. Making a strategic decision to design and implement a 21st century enterprise network, Google Cloud’s pioneering approach to security could be summarized in two words: zero trust. Instead of creating moats that attackers could infiltrate over time, Google Cloud assumed that bad actors were already on the network and started building controls to manage that risk from within.

Google Cloud created an equivalent software that meets the BCAP security outcomes, without being constrained by the same hardware or physical infrastructure limitations of gov clouds. Intentionally keeping the needs and pain points of their commercial and public sector customers in focus, Google Cloud sought to keep their customers in the fast lane of the digital highway and not be constrained by a suboptimal or bespoke solutions that could not scale or survive in a dynamic and ever-changing landscape. Google Cloud developed methods of encryption, including encryption keys, to provide a defense-in-depth approach to protecting data—even when the data is at rest.

In addition to encryption, Google Cloud is very deliberate in where it builds global infrastructure and data centers, and allows its customers to direct the geographic distribution of data. Google Cloud has fourteen data centers in the United States – all across the country, from Oregon to Georgia. Google Cloud’s data centers are also globally located throughout Europe, South America, and Asia and ready to support the Guardian or Airman where they are located to provide the best and fastest response to their needs. These are just a few examples of how Google Cloud actively seeks to proactively reduce the surfaces of attack, across the entire network, that could otherwise be exploited by bad actors.

With the help of Google Cloud, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Rapid Sustainment Office is optimizing aircraft operations and sustainment using data to ensure global strategic advantage. Photo by Rick Goodfriend/USAF,

With the creation of Google Public Sector in June 2022, Google has signaled it is now prepared to bring its comparative advantage and paradigm-shifting approach to meet the U.S. government’s digital transformation requirements. Rather than create and certify a bespoke gov cloud that is inherently limited, Google has invested in certifying its entire network to meet the U.S. government’s thorough security and compliance regulations. At the same time, Google Cloud has worked to ensure its products can be used on any cloud service provider platform. Building in these characteristics from the beginning, Google Cloud is demonstrating a commitment to driving an open approach that encourages competition through multi-vendor, multicloud, and hybrid cloud solutions. Rather than endorsing a winner-take-all approach, Google Cloud is putting the customers’ needs first and has intentionally structured its cloud to be adaptable, flexible, and anti-vendor lock-in. Over the past several years, Google Cloud has invested considerable time, money, and human capital to demonstrate how the same services it provides to the public sector either meet or exceed the security and compliance regulations of the private sector.

USAF and USSF visionaries, who have also been looking over the horizon to identify the requirements of the future and seeking the best-in-class commercial solutions can be brought online, are seeing the value Google Public Sector provides. Some of the most innovative units within the Department of the Air Force, like the Air Force Research Lab, are using Google Workspace to drive collaboration within their ranks and among academia and our allied partner nations. Google Cloud is the platform of choice for a range of solutions, like simulation training for pilots, predictive maintenance, and combating cyber threats. For example, with the help of Google Cloud, the Rapid Sustainment Office (RSO) within Air Force Lifecycle Management Center (AFLCMC) is optimizing aircraft sustainment and operations to ensure global strategic advantage, especially in an increasingly complicated security environment.

The way the USAF and USSF have viewed their digital transformations has evolved over time as well, due to their partnership with Google Cloud, and now Google Public Sector. The USAF pivoted from its plan to take a “lift-and-shift” approach to its transition to the cloud; recognizing the move to the cloud had significant implications beyond simply realizing cost-savings. Instead, the USAF appears poised to embrace the opportunity to fundamentally transform the way it approaches its mission through the use of cutting-edge technology. Similarly, the USSF continues to establish a force that can win in both cyber and space domains and is deliberately pursuing solutions that can operate at the speed and scale it requires. Though much work remains, both services see their respective digital transitions to the cloud as a defining moment. Partnering with cloud service providers that keep pace with the strategic imperatives of today, while simultaneously enabling integration that avoids vendor lock out, and investing in the development of future capabilities that anticipate future service requirements, is critical.

Google Cloud is the platform of choice for a range of solutions, like simulation training for pilots, predictive maintenance, and combating cyber threats. U.S. Air Force Second Lt. Charles Keller, left, and Airman First Class Tyler Haselden, Pilot Training Next students, train on a virtual reality flight simulator at the Armed Forces Reserve Center in Austin, Texas, June 21, 2018. PTN is an Air Education and Training Command initiative to explore and potentially prototype a training environment that integrates various technologies to produce pilots in an accelerated, cost-efficient, learning-focused manner. The six-month program leans on a variety of technologies, to include virtual and augmented reality, advanced biometrics, artificial intelligence and data analytics. Photo by Sean Worrell/USAF.

So What Does This Mean for Our Airmen and Guardians?

The paradigm shift away from gov clouds is happening and the digital transformation of the USAF and USSF has begun. Google Public Sector is providing solutions that help Airmen and Guardians perform tasks faster, more efficiently, and more effectively. As important, Airmen and Guardians are starting to explore new and innovative ways to use information–exploring the “art of the possible” in ways they have never enjoyed. At the same time, Google Public Sector is emerging as a strategic partner and thought leader that is committed to providing the best of their battle-tested and validated commercial solutions to the USAF and USSF—ensuring they can operate at the speed of relevance.

As with any change, implementation and adoption take time. However, the Airmen and Guardians in the ranks of the USAF and USSF, both today and in the future, should be more optimistic than ever that their voices are being heard and that their leaders are demanding they have the tools needed to focus on their mission.

AFRL Space Materials Experiment Gathers Data In Flight for the First Time

Aug. 30, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

Scientists from the Air Force Research Laboratory and outside organizations have sent a selection of spacecraft construction materials to the International Space Station, there to be exposed to space weather.

In the making for two years, the MISSE-16 experiment—short for 16 Materials International Space Station Experiment—will help to evaluate how the materials hold up in the harsh space environment of radiation and temperature extremes. At the same time, researchers should get a better sense of how well they simulate the space environment in the lab.

MISSE-16 surpasses past MISSE missions by collecting data about the materials during the flight in addition to before and after.

AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate, DuPont, the Georgia Tech Research Institute (GTRI), and NASA are part of the test, with DuPont contributing material samples, NASA doing some “pre-flight material characterization,” and GTRI providing “expertise in several areas of high importance to space research,” according to an announcement.

The samples include polymers such as DuPont’s Kapton and Mylar as the “lion’s share” along with composites and ceramics, said Ryan Hoffmann, senior research physicist in the Space Vehicles Directorate, in an email to Air Force Magazine. Some of the materials have been part of satellites before, while others are going to space for the first time.

space materials — Materials International Space Station Experiment, or MISSE, shown in the blue panel on the airlock slide tray at the International Space Station as the Special Purpose Dexterous Manipulator grapples it. The MISSE spaceflight experiment is a collaboration among the Air Force Research Laboratory, NASA, Georgia Tech Research Institute, and DuPont to study the effects of space weather on spacecraft materials. NASA photo.

“Heritage” materials such as Kapton HN have “flown on many missions for many decades,” so this new analysis “will help virtually every spacecraft in operation,” Hoffmann said.

With ground-based testing “notoriously difficult and flawed,” MISSE missions started in 2001 to evaluate materials after their flights on the ISS. But even that method was lacking. It involved taking no in-flight measurements, “so the process of degradation could not be observed,” Hoffmann said. Add to that the fact that “space materials will ‘heal’ to some extent within a matter of hours when exposed to atmosphere.”

To gauge the effects of exposure to space on the materials, AFRL and its collaborators first tested samples in their labs, exposing the samples to radiation then analyzing them with processes such as spectroscopy, atomic force microscopy, and electrical conductance.

MISSE-16 includes cameras for the first time to record any visible changes to the materials while they’re on the space station, and AFRL has an identical camera setup in its space simulation chamber to provide another opportunity for comparison. The researchers will repeat the original analysis after the six-month mission, when the samples are back on Earth.

Austin Pledges ‘Relentless Focus’ on Counterterrorism at Afghan Exit Anniversary

Aug. 30, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The Pentagon continues a “relentless focus” on counterterrorism, as evidenced by recent successful operations against al-Qaida and ISIS, even as the nation continues to debate the cost and meaning of America’s longest war, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said on the first anniversary of the end of the U.S. military presence in Afghanistan.

In an Aug. 30 “Message to the Force,” marking a year since what Austin called “the conclusion of the Afghanistan War,” he noted that since 2001, “no enemy has been able to launch an attack on our homeland … from Afghanistan or anywhere around the globe.” He chalked this success up to the efforts of not only the U.S. military but “the entire U.S. government’s efforts to defend our citizens.”

The war was necessary out of self-defense, Austin insisted, saying al-Qaida was able to “plan and execute … the horrific” 9/11 attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon “because the Taliban had given them safe haven in Afghanistan.” The U.S. presence there over 20 years—and the sacrifice of “2,461 brave heroes [who] never made it home,” as well as all those wounded “in body and soul”—kept the nation safe, Austin said. The fallen and the veterans alike performed “noble service” to the nation and the world, he said, voicing his “profound gratitude” for their sacrifices.

“We know this work is not done,” he asserted, pledging to continue the pursuit of terrorists and noting recent success in delivering “justice to Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of al-Qaida and Osama bin Laden’s deputy at the time of the 9/11 attacks,” who was killed by a U.S. drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 1.

Austin also noted that “in recent months, our military has successfully carried out operations against key ISIS leaders.” He added that this effort requires “more than military might” and again emphasized the “whole-of-government effort to address the root causes of violent extremism.”

He added that “no one should doubt America’s resolve to keep our people safe.”

Austin’s new National Defense Strategy does not put counterterrorism front and center of the U.S. military’s efforts, though, as it rather echoes the previous NDS that re-oriented America’s military focus toward peer-adversary competition, with counter-extremism as a lesser-included case. In its departure, the U.S. said it would continue to monitor Afghanistan from “over the horizon,” without explaining in detail what that meant, but suggested that the U.S. would intervene or carry out strikes there as necessary to keep terrorism in check. The Taliban, which returned to power a year ago, pledged to deny terrorism a home in Afghanistan, but al-Zawahiri’s open presence in Kabul, where he was killed by a U.S. drone strike, illustrated that it is not living up to its word.

Austin thanked the parents and families of the fallen in the Afghan war, saying “to our Gold Star families: We hold your loved ones in our hearts, and we pledge to you the unwavering commitment of a grateful nation.”

In an Aug. 26 message, Austin marked the anniversary of the terror bombing in the midst of the evacuation of Kabul that killed 13 American servicemembers and 170 Afghans waiting to leave the country.

“The heroes we lost that day gave their lives to defend their teammates and to help save the lives of tens of thousands of innocent Afghan people who sought freedom and the opportunity for a better life,” Austin said in the earlier message. In the Aug. 30 missive, he noted that the U.S., along with its partners and allies, “in the war’s final days … conducted the largest air evacuation of civilians in American history, lifting more than 124,000 people to safety.”

(See our Aug. 30 Daily Report article by James C. Kitfield, “Remembering the Largest Non-Combatant Evacuation Operation in U.S. History”).

Austin voiced pride that so many “military communities—and Americans from all walks of life—have welcomed our Afghan allies as they begin new lives in our country.”

The strength of American democracy can be seen in “the fact that millions of people freely choose, every day, to defend it,” Austin said, adding that those who “step up to serve” in uniform or as civilians do so because they believe in “the rule of law, human dignity, and freedom.” Commitment to these values drives “the important work that American patriots are doing around the world,” such as rushing supplies and assistance to Ukraine “in the face of Russia’s unprovoked and reckless invasion.” The U.S. is “firmly committed” to fighting for “the rules-based international order against autocrats and aggressors everywhere.”

However, Austin acknowledged that after “two decades of combat in Afghanistan … many people have hard questions about the costs of the war and what their sacrifices meant. These are important discussions, and I hope we will keep having them with thoughtfulness and respect.” But he pledged that “our gratitude to those who served” will never end and “this country will never forget what you did and what you gave.”

At SOCOM Change of Command, Nods to Afghanistan, Future in Indo-Pacific

Aug. 30, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Pentagon leaders sought to balance both the past and future of U.S. Special Operations Command on Aug. 30 as Army Gen. Bryan P. Fenton succeeded Army Gen. Richard D. Clark in a ceremony at MacDill Air Force Base, Fla.

One year to the day since the end of the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, the proceedings were marked by reflections on nearly two decades of conflict in the Middle East, conflict that SOCOM often played a key role in.

“It was the quiet professionals of SOCOM who were among the first on the ground in Afghanistan in 2001,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said. “And when I led troops in Afghanistan and Iraq and served as the CENTCOM commander, I relied on special operators and support teams for your skill, for your precision, and for your bold determination to confront any threat anytime.”

Clarke, along with Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, made particular reference to the ISIS suicide bombing that killed 13 service members Aug. 26, 2021, in Kabul, Afghanistan, during the withdrawal’s final days.

“One year ago last week, Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, one of our special operators, lost his life in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan. He was the last member of this command to lose their life in combat,” Clarke said. “When I had the honor of officiating the funeral at Arlington for Ryan, his family told me this: ‘Ryan genuinely loved serving this country. He started his service in the 82nd Airborne Division, but he especially wanted to strive to come and loved serving in our special operations forces.’”

At the same time, Clarke, Austin, and Milley all spoke of the department’s ongoing shift in focus toward great power competition and how it will affect the combatant command.

“The way we fought wars for the last 20 years is not the same way we’re going to fight wars in the future,” Milley said. “The special operations maxim of ‘The human is more important than the hardware’ will always be true. But we must arm our operators with the right equipment. We must arm them with the right intelligence. We must arm them with the right sensor fusion and data analytics. We must arm them with the right relationships and partners. And right now we are at an inflection point, a historical inflection point.”

In particular, Austin touted Fenton’s “extensive experience in the Indo-Pacific” as leaders continue to emphasize competition with China as the U.S.’s pacing threat.

Fenton, who previously served as commander of Joint Special Operations Command, was also “the first Special Operations officer to serve as a deputy commander at U.S. Indo-Pacific Command,” Austin noted.

Clarke told Fenton, “With a depth of experience in the Indo-Pacific, you’re already poised for our most pressing security challenges.”

China and the Indo-Pacific won’t be the only areas of concern, however. Fenton noted in his first remarks as SOCOM commander that Russia remains a priority—and over-the-horizon operations to counter terrorist threats in the Middle East will keep the command busy in that part of the world as well.

“Your special operations forces are ever more ready … ready to counter persistent threats from terrorist organizations and other actors like Iran, ready to respond rapidly to crisis when called,” Fenton said.

Air Force Sets New ‘Aspirational’ Goals for Diversity in Officer Applicants

Aug. 30, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Department of the Air Force offered up new “aspirational” goals for diversity in its officer applicant pool in August. Now Secretary Frank Kendall has given the department’s commissioning sources until Sept. 30 to develop initiatives to try to meet those goals.

“It is imperative that the composition of our military services better reflect our nation’s highly talented, diverse, and eligible population,” Kendall wrote in a memo dated Aug. 9, adding that the new percentages “will not be used in any manner that undermines our merit-based processes.”

The applicant pool demographic goals, updated for the first time 2014, also include figures that incorporate gender, race, and ethnicity—undersecretary Gina Ortiz Jones has pushed for more consideration of “intersectionality.”

For example, the new goals project 13 percent of the officer applicant pool to be Black—8.5 percent men, 4.5 percent women.

“Our applicant pool goals are intentional, because our investments and outreach to top talent must be intentional,” Jones said in a statement.

Across the board, the new demographic goals represent a notable shift in ambition for the Air Force and Space Force. The previous goals, established in 2014 and broken down across racial categories, were:

80 percent White
10 percent Black
8 percent Asian
1 percent American Indian or Alaskan Native
1 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander
No goal for multi-racial

The new department-wide goals are set at:

67.5 percent White
13 percent Black
10 percent Asian
7.5 percent multi-racial
1.5 percent American Indian or Alaskan Native
1 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander

For ethnicity, the 2014 goal was set at 10 percent Hispanic or Latino. For gender, it was 30 percent female. The new goals are, respectively, 15 percent Hispanic or Latino; and 36 percent female.

According to data provided to Air Force Magazine, two of the main sources of officer commissions, the U.S. Air Force Academy and Air Force ROTC, mostly met the 2014 goals in their enrollment numbers from 2015 to 2021, the most recent year for which data is available.

However, the percentages were substantially short of the new goals for the most part, though less so for smaller racial groups such as American Indian or Alaska Native; and Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander.

In particular, USAFA’s enrollment numbers didn’t meet the new diversity goals for Black, Hispanic or Latino, or female officers in any of the six years covered, while Air Force ROTC’s numbers fell short every year for Black, Asian, and female officers.

Meanwhile, the current Air Force and Space Force officer corps is even more predominantly White and male. While the new officer applicant goals may not directly result in more diversity in the Active-duty officer corps, the most recent data show the breakdown is currently:

USAF

77.3 percent White
6.3 percent Black
5.5 percent Asian
3.4 percent multi-racial
0.5 percent American Indian or Alaskan Native
0.5 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander

USSF

74.2 percent White
8 percent Asian
6 percent Black
4.8 percent multiracial
0.6 percent American Indian or Alaskan Native
0.6 percent Native Hawaiian or Pacific Islander

The breakdown of goals across race/ethnicity and gender is available here.

Kendall’s directive to develop diversity and inclusion outreach initiatives is aimed at the department’s main commissioning sources—the U.S. Air Force Academy, Air Force ROTC, Officer Training School, and the Space Force’s direct commissioning program. After developing initiatives, those sources will have to report annually on them.

DAF’s push for more diversity in its officer corps comes as the department responds to a series of independent reviews in recent years that found disparities in recruitment, retention, and promotions among racial and ethnic minorities, as well as women, in the Air Force and Space Force. In particular, the operations field is the least diverse specialty code, and within that career field, the pilot specialty is the least diverse of them all.

At the same time, the department is also dealing with a difficult recruiting environment that has caused leadership to expand its efforts to entice potential Airmen. In particular, the Air Force Academy saw a steep decline in applications this past year of around 28 percent, which officials have blamed on a lack of in-person recruiting caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

This story was updated Sept. 1 to directly compare the new officer applicant pool goals to the 2014 goals and data from two commissioning sources.

Brown: Collaborative Combat Aircraft Not Just for NGAD

Aug. 29, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force doesn’t want its new “collaborative combat aircraft” to be exclusively part of the Next Generation Air Dominance system but is looking at other air- and ground-based platforms to direct such uncrewed airplanes, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. revealed, hinting that the CCAs will be ready for operations before NGAD is.

Brown also gave himself a letter grade of “C” for his first two years of service as the Chief, saying the grade reflects what rank-and-file Airmen have been telling him about conditions in the service. He also commented on developments in the Pacific and Ukraine, combat search and rescue, and the pilot shortage.

Speaking in a virtual interview with the American Enterprise Institute, Brown said the service is putting a “a lot of focus” on CCAs, which can be “a sensor … a shooter … a weapons carrier, and reduce the cost of operations.”

Asked if the CCAs will be ready to fly alongside NGAD when that system is slated to fly circa 2030, Brown said “we’re looking at … not to do it solely with NGAD.” He said the service is considering CCAs being directed from F-35s, “from a seat on the E-7 Wedgetail,” which is set to replace the E-3 AWACS, or from a KC-46 tanker, as well as “ground stations,” Brown said.

“We want to not constrain ourselves and say it’s tied to NGAD,” he said, but “how do we look at it from a broader perspective?” The F-35 and KC-46 are already in service, and the Wedgetail is planned to enter the inventory around 2027.

The Air Force has long planned to make the KC-46 a communications node, and service officials have recently hinted that it could play a role in air battle management as well.

Brown did not directly comment on when CCAs might be available for operational service, but they are among Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall’s “operational imperatives.” Kendall has said the technology is mature enough that CCAs can proceed into a program of record without further concept exploration work.

Asked if the U.S. will be ready to be a “stand-in force” within the next five years, though, Brown said, “we have some work to do.” But he said the Air Force will likely be a “hybrid” of stand-in and stand-off forces in the near future, “and that’s what we’re focused on.”

The allies and partners “are our stand-in force,” he said, and the Air Force “can’t build a strategy based on being a stand-off force … we have to stand with them.”

Although there is not yet a program office for the E-7, Brown insisted that “we’re moving fast” on the acquisition, and USAF has been “engaging on the Hill” about accelerating the buy, particularly with the Oklahoma congressional delegation, the constituency of which includes the Oklahoma Air Logistics Complex, where the E-3 and similar aircraft are overhauled.

Asked to grade his performance after two years as Chief, Brown said, “I’ll give it a solid ‘C.’ In some areas—I’m a C student, if you look at my GPA from college—but it’s not from a lack of trying.” As he engages with Airmen, he said, “they feel … the need to change,” and they agree with him that the service needs to be moving in the direction of agile combat employment and multi-capable Airmen—those who can do more than one specialized job.

“There’s a lot of energy there,” he said, and Airmen approve of doctrinal changes that push more authority to lower levels.

The push to simply state commander’s intent and leave the details to the troops “has really has resonated,” he said. “So there’s been some very positive things.”

Troops are concerned about inflation, despite several pay raises, and Brown said the Air Force is working through cost of living adjustments in various locations but doesn’t want to create a “rollercoaster” of changing compensation so that the service and the troops find it difficult to budget.

He also said he was warned at the outset of his tenure that “some of the things I want to do … will take four years.” He explained that initiatives such as his “accelerate change or lose” idea are “a cultural shift … And that takes time, so you’re not going to be able to flip a switch and make everything move forward.”

Brown said he and Kendall have a “similar mindset” about what path the Air Force needs to take and that they have a constructive partnership.

The Air Force would like to see a lower operating cost for the F-35, Brown said, but he acknowledged that early estimates of what it would cost to fly the jet were “overly optimistic.” The Air Force is shifting its calculation of operating cost from a per-flying-hour basis to “cost per tail per year” model, he said. This will give a better handle on true costs of ownership, he said.

Having recently returned from a tour of the Indo-Pacific, Brown reported that partners and allies are moving to strengthen their defenses and interoperability with the U.S.

China’s bluff charges of aircraft against Taiwan are that country’s way of “pushing the edge,” Brown said, in a “slow, insidious” way of setting a new status quo.

“That’s what we have to pay attention to,” he said. “If we don’t respond or react … then they’ll take another step, take another step, take another step.” There is a “coalescing” of thought among allies and partners, both in the Pacific and Europe, that these provocations must be addressed, Brown said, but he didn’t explain how.

Agile combat employment is one of those cultural shifts Brown said he was referring to, “knowing that threat is a different threat than we’ve been used to for the last 30 years.” The ACE concept emphasizes dispersion of forces, base resiliency, and camouflage, he said.

Asked for the most recent lessons learned from the Ukraine war, Brown cited the “power of information” in getting a “lightning quick” unified NATO response as well as the ability of Ukrainian forces to deny Russia much value from its airpower.

“That’s something we need to think about collectively,” he said. He said Russia’s doctrine of tying airpower to ground forces clearly isn’t working well.

Brown also said the value of allies and partnerships has been proven by the conflict, especially in airpower terms. Exercises and doctrine allowed NATO to “move airpower around rapidly” to address the threat, and NATO has demonstrated its connectivity and interoperability in deterring Russia from moving beyond Ukraine, as well.

Brown said the Air Force is still trying to think through how it will perform combat search and rescue, given the large distances in the Pacific and the vulnerabilities of rotary-wing aircraft such as the HH-60 and CV-22.

“We’re doing combat search and rescue the same way since Vietnam,” he said, arguing that an overhaul of the concept of operations is needed and being worked on. He acknowledged that the Air Force has cut the buy of HH-60Ws and is trying to figure out what standing force of CSAR operators is required.

“The threat is much different today,” he said. “I’m afraid we’re going to lose a bunch of people on a helicopter or CV-22, so we really have to think differently about how we do” the mission. Much of the focus now is on autonomous vehicles to extract downed fliers, he said. If the Air Force loses an unmanned aircraft in an attempt to retrieve personnel, “it’s no big deal,” he said.

The Air Force is employing a variety of approaches to closing its pilot shortage, mainly in the areas of using technology to speed up pilot training and in the creation of “air academies” that offer young people an opportunity to earn a license. Those who do will be offered pilot slots in the Air Force, he said. Brown reported having regular meetings with the airlines to discuss national strategies to increase the number of pilots.

“We’re in this together,” he said.