Air Force Drops BEAST Week From Boot Camp in Favor of ACE Exercise

Nov. 18, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

After 16 years, the Air Force is caging the BEAST.

For more than a decade and a half, future Airmen in Basic Military Training have undergone Basic Expeditionary Airman Skills Training, a four-day-long exercise meant to simulate deployments, particularly those in the Middle East that defined military service throughout the early 2000s.

But with the Air Force increasingly focusing on competition with China and the operational concept of agile combat employment, BMT leaders decided an overhaul was needed.

Now, the service is implementing a new training exercise, dubbed Primary Agile Combat Employment Range, Forward Operations Readiness Generation Exercise, or PACER FORGE.

Instead of four days, the exercise will last 36 hours, and trainees will be split into smaller, dispersed teams that are tested with scenarios “built to provide flexibility, promote information seeking, teamwork, decision-making and are results focused,” according to an Air Force release.

“The move toward PACER FORGE is not just a renaming or re-branding of BEAST,” Col. Jeff Pixley, commander of the 737th Training Group, said in the release. “This was a year-long effort to reimagine BEAST.”

The Air Force has been simulating deployments for decades now. In 1999, the service introduced “Warrior Week” into BMT, complete with a tent city, improvised airstrip, and a focus on things such as humanitarian deployments, contingency operations, and peacekeeping.

In 2006, Warrior Week became BEAST, which featured hundreds of trainees training in an austere but relatively large encampment, facing the sorts of challenges that were commonplace in Middle East deployments—incoming mortar rounds, complex attacks, roadside bombs, car bombs, and unexploded ordnance.

The tactical course formed the highlight of BEAST, where trainees low-crawled to wooden barriers, charged the enemy with rifles, made spur-of-the-moment ethical decisions, and high-crawled up a steep, sandy hill as they dodged “sniper fire.”

Upon taking command of BMT in 2021, however, Pixley determined that BEAST was too focused on “just-in-time pre-deployment training,” according to the Air Force release.

PACER FORGE will still have scenarios for trainees, but for now, the service isn’t detailing exactly what those are.

“We want it to be something trainees consider so important and formative that they don’t spoil it for those that follow,” Pixley said.

Pixley did offer some clues, however, in emphasizing that the scenarios will be aimed at developing “multi-capable Airmen” while being “physically demanding and based on real-world operations.”

Multi-capable Airmen has become the Air Force’s term to describe Airmen who can practice agile combat employment—the idea of smaller teams of personnel operating out of remote or austere locations, sometimes performing jobs outside of their career field, and capable of moving quickly.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. has made ACE a key part of his overall pivot toward China and other peer competitors, and units have practiced it everywhere from inside the Arctic Circle to across remote islands in the Pacific to a highway in Michigan.

Now, it’s making its way into BMT.

“Agile combat employment is about building foundational skills and problem-solving behaviors in an increasingly challenged threat environment to codify repeatable and understandable processes,” said Lt. Col. Jeff Parrish, commander of the 319th Training Squadron, which is responsible for the oversight of PACER FORGE.

Future Airmen have been taking part in PACER FORGE since at least October, and Pixley said leaders have received a positive response.

“What we are doing is making them ready to join any team, to work well together, to solve tough problems, to be good wingmen and teammates, and to innovate,” Pixley said in a statement. “If we get it right, it will be the highlight of their BMT experience, despite only being 36 hours in length. Early feedback suggests we are absolutely on the right track.”

US Remains Committed to Middle East Despite Strategy Shift, Kahl Says

Nov. 18, 2022 | By Chris Gordon

The Department of Defense’s senior policy official laid out the Biden administration’s security strategy for the Middle East.

In a speech in Bahrain on Nov. 18, Colin Kahl, undersecretary of defense for policy, said the U.S. is still committed to the region despite a shift in its security focus away from the Middle East and toward Russia and China in the new National Defense Strategy.

“We haven’t gone anywhere,” Kahl said at the Manama Dialogue security forum. “What I can guarantee is that we continue to have vital national interests in this part of the world. And a lot has changed, but that has not. That has not changed.”

After more than two decades of U.S. wars in the Middle East, the new NDS is continuing the Trump administration’s shift toward deterring Beijing and Moscow. Kahl’s comments sought to assuage concerns on the part of Arab partners and Israel that the U.S. military commitment is shrinking as Iran’s nuclear program is growing. Kahl augured that the U.S. still has the ability to rapidly project power into far-flung regions and react to flare-ups in the Middle East.

“In the future, success in how we fight will not be determined by the simple arithmetic of boots on the ground but rather by maintaining our readiness to rapidly respond by flowing forces where they are needed globally, and to fall in with interoperable allies and partners,” he said.

Recently, the Air Force has dispatched bombers and fighters to the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) region that are not normally based in the area. Those deployments have been touted as examples of America’s capability to respond when needed.

Kahl also highlighted another Air Force element that the U.S. hopes to build on: Task Force 99, an Air Forces Central detachment that is exploring the use of unmanned aerial systems. He also cited the Navy’s Task Force 59, which fields maritime drones, and other activities focused on technological advancement.

“The pace of technological change demands that we do business differently, and CENTCOM has become a critical hub for innovation and experimentation,” Kahl said. “The region itself is moving fast to embrace the opportunity of technology with the United States in a supporting role. The U.S.-Saudi combined Expeditionary Robotics Operation Center is a great example of the innovation emerging from within this region. Even as the United States upgrades its approach to security, our commitment to the region is enduring.”

The U.S. has continued military operations under CENTCOM as part of the coalition that is carrying out Operation Inherent Resolve against ISIS.

“The leadership of many of you here today is directly responsible for the dismantling of terrorist networks and assistance to vulnerable populations, but there is still more work to do,” Kahl told the gathering of regional security leaders. “We must stay the course and continue to expand and improve our coalition to fight the stateless extremist organizations that continue to threaten our security.”

Kahl said the U.S. remains the most reliable partner in the region and cautioned countries against associating themselves with Russia or China. The U.S. and its partners view Iran as a major regional threat, National Security Council strategic communications coordinator John Kirby said Nov. 18. Yet Russia has associated itself with the theocratic regime in Tehran by acquiring Iranian-made drones for its war in Ukraine, Kahl said.

“Turning to Beijing or Moscow to check Tehran strikes me as a fool’s errand,” Kahl said. “It’s never going to work. And, in fact, it’s even less likely to work with Russia than at any time in the past because Russia used to be the big brother in the equation. And now their army has been so attrited in Ukraine that they are now dependent on Tehran. They’re so desperate. They’re going to the Iranians for drones and Pyongyang for artillery. So they’re not going to deliver the security that the region needs.”

China, Kahl argued, does not make weapons as well as the U.S. Further, countries that cooperate closely with China will limit their potential for deeper integration with the U.S. due to American security concerns about that Chinese presence.

“You can turn to countries that have fewer conditions, or you don’t have to worry about that,” Kahl said of countries turning to Beijing. “That’s fine. You’ll get equipment that’s not nearly as good. You’ll get equipment that can’t be sustained. You’ll get equipment that can’t be integrated or interoperable with the equipment that you already have, or the equipment that all your neighbors have. And you will ultimately get to a point where you are in so deep with countries like China that it will put natural limits on our ability to cooperate. Not for punitive reasons, but because it’ll create security risks to our forces and our systems in the region.”

Despite a smaller U.S. footprint in the Middle East, Kahl said the U.S. offers the best prospect for cooperating against common foes.

“Are the Americans sometimes frustrating to work with?” Kahl said. “Of course we are. But don’t compare me to the Almighty. Compare me to the alternative.”

CSAF Decorates Airman Who Responded to Suicide Bombing During Afghanistan Evacuation

Nov. 18, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

An Airman who rushed to help in the aftermath of the suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, during Operation Allies Refuge received the Distinguished Flying Cross on Nov. 17—with Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. presenting the medal.

Brown gave the award to Tech. Sgt. Katherine Rosa Orellana at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., marking the first Distinguished Flying Cross the Brown has presented in his career, according to an Air Force press release.

Orellana, a critical care and trauma team respiratory therapist with the 375th Air Mobility Wing, is currently embedded in Barnes-Jewish Hospital in St. Louis. But in August 2021, the then-staff sergeant was deployed to Hamid Karzai International Airport as part of the noncombatant evacuation of tens of thousands of U.S., Afghan, and other partner nation civilians, as the Taliban seized control of the country.

On Aug. 26, 2021, an explosion ripped through the crowd at one of the gates of the airport, killing and injuring scores of people.

Orellana was among the first to respond to the crisis and helped to save the lives of 22 individuals, including Afghan evacuees and U.S. service members.

Over an eight-hour period, she helped evacuate five ventilated patients and expedited necessary testing for one critically injured patient while under the threat of attack, according to the service’s release.

“I joined the team a week prior and had to trust they knew what they were doing, and when we went in, we just did our jobs,” Orellana said in a statement. “And we did really well.”

A subsequent Pentagon report determined that a single suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. service members—11 Marines, one Sailor, and one Soldier—and 170 civilians. It was the deadliest attack on U.S. troops in Afghanistan since 2011. Another 45 troops were wounded.

Orellana was one of roughly 60 Air Force medical personnel assigned to the hospital at HKIA during the evacuation, who helped respond amid the chaos in the bombing’s aftermath.

The Distinguished Flying Cross is awarded for heroism or extraordinary achievement while participating in aerial flight and is the nation’s fourth-highest award for heroism. Orellana’s medal was awarded with the “C” device for combat, given only when the service member “was personally exposed to hostile action or under significant risk of hostile action.”

Orellana also had the honor of receiving her award from Brown during an all-call in front of more than 1,000 Airmen—many of whom also participated in Operation Allies Refuge.

“Thanks for making my day,” Brown said, according to the Air Force release. “Many of you were involved in the largest humanitarian airlift in the world, and you should be proud.”

All told, Air Mobility Command has said it will award 96 Distinguished Flying Crosses to Airmen involved in Operation Allies Refuge, seven with the “V” device for valor and 74 with the “C” device. Another 12 Airmen will receive Bronze Star Medals.

Already, AMC has handed out awards to several crews of C-17s that flew out hundreds of civilians during the evacuation, including the crew of REACH 871, the record-breaking flight that carried 823 people to safety.

Also honored earlier this month with DFCs were Capt. Jedd Dillman, a flight nurse, and Master Sgt. Matthew Newman, a respiratory therapist. They were the first aeromedical evacuation Airmen in AMC history to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross.

Still more are soon to come. AMC commander Gen. Mike Minihan is scheduled to hand out 36 Distinguished Flying Crosses at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., on Nov. 21.

airman afghanistan — Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. presents a Distinguished Flying Cross citation to Tech. Sgt. Katherine Rosa Orellana, 375th Medical Group critical care and trauma team respiratory therapist, during an all-call at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., Nov. 17, 2022. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Violette Hosack.

Air Force Touts Unity of Effort in Push Toward New Collaborative Combat Aircraft

Nov. 17, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force will make a “significant investment” in uncrewed, collaborative combat aircraft, or CCAs, in the fiscal 2024 budget, a quartet of generals announced at the Pentagon. They insisted that the technology is mature enough to move aggressively toward a program that will yield operational capability in a few years.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has previously said CCA technology is mature enough that the concept can proceed to becoming a program of record, and that it will first appear in the ’24 budget request.

The four generals—Maj. Gen. Heather L. Pringle, commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory; Maj. Gen. R. Scott Jobe, director of plans, programs, and requirements for Air Combat Command (ACC); Brig. Gen. Dale R. White, program executive officer for Fighters and Advanced Aircraft; and Brig. Gen. Joseph D. Kunkel, director of plans and deputy chief of staff for plans and programs—collectively made the case that the push toward CCAs is well coordinated within the service, that the operational side of the service is onboard with the concept, and that experimentation so far has shown that it will be, in the words of White, “a game changer.”

The presentation seemed arranged to show unity within the service about the desirability of adding uncrewed airplanes to the crewed aircraft fleet, with buy-in from operators, technologists, budget planners, and sustainers.

In recent months, some current and retired senior leaders, including ACC commander Gen. Mark D. Kelly, have cautioned that introducing CCAs must be done iteratively, so that aircrews can build trust in their autonomous teammates and be comfortable with the technology before taking it to war.

CCAs “bring you a lot of opportunity for tactics, techniques, and procedures development, with different kinds of scheme of maneuver [and] with a different firepower that’s really not been seen before,” Jobe said.

“If you think of these things as an extension of our crewed aircraft, and the ability to manage risk in a different way, it brings a lot of potential capability, at a lower price point,” he said.

White said that an “enormous amount of analytical work” has gone into the concept, and that along with the science and technology done to date, “it’s instilled a level of confidence in us that this is a capability to pursue, that we need to pursue quickly, and we believe that it’s a game-changer.”

In order to “move the needle to get the capability faster,” White said companies were brought in early to “show us the art of the possible,” and “they have answered the call.” This was a different way of approaching a new capability, he said, and “we have worked with many vendors.”

It’s a “very collaborative relationship,” White said. “I think that’s what’s really key.” There has been “user involvement” since the beginning of the program, he said.

The CCAs will build directly on work done with the Skyborg program, one of the Air Force’s “Vanguard” technology incubators, which has created an artificial intelligence that can fly an aircraft. Skyborg has demonstrated that the technology is “portable,” Pringle said, having been shown to work in a number of different uncrewed aircraft, both solely and in concert with crewed aircraft. More demonstrations are still to come and are underway, she said.

The capability “in and of itself is critically important,” White said. The speed to ramp is really important, because this capability is something that we do believe will change the nature of the fight.”

While they would not characterize the level of funding planned for the program, “what I can say is, when our budget goes across the river, you’re going go see a significant investment” in CCAs, Kunkel said. He’s under orders from Kendall to “field an operational capability as soon as possible.”

Jobe added that the time to a usable capability must be “on a relevant timeline,” but he didn’t elaborate, except to say it’s “not something that’s going to take 10 years.” The timing of CCA introduction is “sensitive,” he said.

Capability development is taking place in “five distinct areas,” Jobe said, to apply CCAs to a highly complex threat. This, in turn, requires “teaming across the entire Air Force, [which has] been fairly unique to this exercise, at least in my experience.”

He said there’s been “a lot of analytical support that shows that this actually changes the way that we fight, and it makes us more effective in the way that we engage in combat operations. And it’s been in multiple independent studies, which makes us feel highly, highly confident that we’re on a solid path forward.”

He assured reporters that “there’s the requirements part to include concepts of operations, concepts of employment on how we plan to do crewed/uncrewed teaming, and bringing that all together.” Moreover, “we have to get the organization right,” he said, and there has been work done on developing doctrine for CCAs, as well as planning for how they will be maintained and organized.

Work has also been done determining the “legal authorities” required. The goal is not to create killer robots, he said, and a lot of work is yet to be done with the FAA to even allow armed, uncrewed aircraft to operate in civilian airspace.

“And you’re probably going to see us do operations in a different way than we’ve done in the past,” he said. “Again, this is a different capability.”

The “requirements and attributes” of CCAs have been defined, Jobe said, but a significant amount of modeling and simulation remains to be done to see how those play out in various scenarios.

No one would describe the acquisition strategy for CCAs. Though cooperation with other countries—notably Australia—has been touted in the development of CCAs, he said, “We know we’re going to do our own competition in our own industrial base for a CCA.” That will change if Kendall directs a more internationally collaborative approach, he said.

Though not a joint program, the generals said the Navy has been involved with CCA development from the beginning, and they suggested that the Navy may lend some of its expertise, as well. It’s already working with an uncrewed tanker, the MQ-25 Stingray.

Boeing Reorganizes Defense Business After Financial Troubles

Nov. 17, 2022 | By Chris Gordon

Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS) reorganized its divisions, streamlining to help turn around the firm’s financial performance, the aerospace giant announced Nov. 17. Instead of eight divisions, the company will now have four divisions: Air Dominance; Mobility, Surveillance, and Bombers; Vertical Lift; and Space, Intelligence, and Weapons systems.

“These changes will help accelerate operational discipline and program quality and performance, while stabilizing our development and production programs,” BDS chief executive officer Ted Colbert said in a statement. “These are necessary steps to put BDS on the path to stronger, profitable growth.” The consolidation is effective immediately.

Boeing has faced companywide losses, including in its commercial sector. Its defense business has been a significant drag on the company’s recent financial performance following losses incurred on fixed-price government contracts. In October, Boeing reported a loss of $3.3 billion in the third quarter of 2023, with its defense business $2.8 billion in the red.

“Turnarounds take time—and we have more work to do—but I am confident in our team and the actions we’re taking for the future,” Boeing chief executive officer David L. Calhoun wrote in a letter to employees at the time.

Now, Boeing has pivoted in its operations in the hopes of turning around its finances. Only the Vertical Lift division remains untouched, with Mark Cherry remaining vice president and general manager of the division.

Dan Gillian, previously in charge of U.S. government operations for Boeing Global Services, will take over the Mobility, Surveillance, and Bombers division. That portfolio will include the KC-46, Survivable Airborne Operations Center, E-7, E-3, VC-25B, P-8, bombers, 777X components, and executive transport aircraft.

The KC-46 and VC-25B, which will become the new Air Force One, have been a significant financial drag for Boeing. The KC-46 program lost $1.2 billion, and the VC-25B program lost $766 million in the third quarter. The KC-46 has been troubled from the start, problems in its refueling system requiring a revamp and leading to delays. The VC-25B program was priced too cheaply, according to Boeing, making it a loss generator for the company. Supply chain issues and labor shortages have increased problems.

Steve Nordlund, formerly the head of the Phantom Works advanced research and development division, will lead Air Dominance. That division will include the non-space elements of Phantom Works, classified programs, and the F-18, F-15, T-7, MQ-25, and MQ-28 currently used by Australia.

Kay Sears, until now the head of autonomous systems, will take over the new Space, Intelligence, and Weapons Systems unit. That will include space exploration, launch programs, satellites, munitions, missiles, weapon system deterrents, maritime undersea, Phantom Works space, and Boeing subsidiaries BI&A, Millennium, Insitu, Liquid Robotics, Spectrolab, Argon, and DRT.

Several executives will retire after assisting with the transitions: Tim Peters, the head of mobility and surveillance, and Cindy Gruensfelder, who has led missile and weapon systems. Jim Chilton, the senior vice president for space and launch, will continue to manage space exploration, launch programs, satellites, and Phantom Works space operations until February before moving to a senior adviser role with Colbert.

The reshuffle comes as part of a broader shakeup in BDS. Colbert appointed former bomber and fighters division head Steve Parker to take on a new position as chief operating officer at BDS to help turn its fortunes around, Reuters reported in October, which Boeing confirmed in its latest announcement.

“I am confident this reorganization will drive greater and more simplified integration and collaboration,” Colbert said.

Air Force Announces Changes to JROTC Program After Reports of Sexual Abuse

Nov. 17, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Months after a media investigation uncovered dozens of cases of sexual abuse in the Junior Reserve Officers’ Training Corps program, an Air Force official said the department plans to increase oversight, introduce more background checks, and hire more instructors, especially women, to combat the issue.

Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Alex Wagner detailed the planned changes in a hearing before the House Committee on Oversight and Reform on Nov. 16—but faced some pushback from a lawmaker who questioned whether the department could have moved faster.

The hearing, which also featured the assistant secretaries for manpower and reserve affairs from the Army, Navy, and Defense Department, was called in response to reporting from The New York Times, which detailed cases of instructors sexually abusing teenagers in the JROTC program. In the past five years, the newspaper found, at least 33 instructors have been criminally charged with sexual misconduct involving students.

That reporting sparked a congressional investigation and led to Pentagon officials admitting in a September hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that additional oversight was needed.

“There’s very little oversight in the Air Force right now,” Lt. Gen. Caroline Miller, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, said at the time.

In a prepared statement and in testimony before the House Oversight Committee, Wagner also acknowledged that more can be done.

“Given the incidents of misconduct identified and our own review, it is clear the Department of the Air Force must do more to prevent this type of misconduct from occurring at any of our JROTC units,” Wagner said.

Wagner outlined in his statement some of what the Air Force plans to do, starting with improved oversight from Air Force JROTC Headquarters.

At the moment, AFJROTC Headquarters has only nine regional directors responsible for overseeing 870 units across the country, for a ratio of roughly 97 to 1.

This “only enables on-site evaluations approximately every three years … [and] impacts HQ AFJROTC’s ability to maintain effective oversight and engage with partner schools and their AFJROTC units,” Wagner wrote in his statement to the committee.

Moving forward, the plan is to reduce that ratio to 30 to 1, allowing annual evaluations of every unit.

In addition, the Air Force wants to hire more instructors for units, after an internal review found that 18.5 percent of units have only one instructor instead of the standard two.

“AFROTC data demonstrates that single instructor units tend to experience more negative incidents than those that are fully manned,” Wagner wrote, noting that half of all known arrests in AFJROTC are within units with only one instructor.

The department also wants to be more deliberate in who it hires as instructors. At the moment, more than 90 percent of AFJROTC instructors are men, despite the AFJROTC cadet corps being 40 percent female.

“We’ve got the wrong balance, and I think aligning that gender disparity better will have a significant impact on this program,” Wagner told lawmakers. “One of the key questions and concerns of this committee is that cadets feel like they have nowhere to turn. … One hundred percent, by the way, of the victims are female, and 100 percent in the Air Force of the perpetrators were male.”

When pushed by Rep. Chrissy Houlahan (D-Penn.) on how exactly the Air Force will address that gender disparity, Wagner indicated that an implementation plan for proposed changes is coming soon.

“Tomorrow, I’m flying down to Air Force Junior ROTC headquarters” at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., Wagner said. “And we’re going to work on a plan. I’ve asked them to come up with ideas. I’m going to help them shape and sharpen that plan. I think this will have an immediate, tangible impact on the safety of Cadets in this program.”

One change that will go into effect in early 2023 will be the use of Child Care National Agency Check and Inquiries (CNACI) background investigations for all instructors, scheduled to be implemented across AFJROTC by April.

“All Air Force ROTC instructors have a military records check which is a comprehensive review of a 20-year military career in which an instructor was conclusively discharged honorably,” Wagner said. “We are now adopting this background check, which is the gold standard used by schools across the country and the Army, which includes … an FBI background check as part of it. This is the national agency check, prior to any instructor eligibility for certification. Then, once a certified and eligible instructor is hired by a local school, then they undergo that local school’s individual background check, which is done in the same way that they would perform for any other instructor.”

But Wagner faced criticism from Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who noted that the Army began using CNACI background checks six years ago for JROTC instructors and questioned why the Air Force hadn’t started using it earlier.

“We are learning our best practices from some of the policies and procedures the Army has put into place. We are aggressively moving forward to implement that check,” Wagner replied.

But Wasserman Schultz appeared unimpressed, later saying that it is “really troubling that so many bad actors appear to have slipped through the JROTC vetting process.”

USSF Was Almost ‘No Go’ for Artemis Moon Launch—Had to Replace a Faulty Switch

Nov. 17, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

A snag in Space Launch Delta 45’s testing of the Artemis 1 flight termination system contributed to a delay of the very-early-morning launch Nov. 16, one of two last-minute glitches in the final preparations to launch America’s new moon rocket for the first time.

Three members of a NASA “red crew” had already driven out to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center in Florida to tighten some bolts on a valve of the Space Launch System rocket’s mobile launcher platform. The valve had been leaking liquid hydrogen propellant. That work took place right up to a 30-minute planned hold, or stoppage, in the launch countdown, a hold which began after midnight the morning of Nov. 16.

Had everything else gone according to plan, following the 30-minute hold the launch team would have started the 10-minute terminal countdown to launch—but instead, another issue intruded into the two-hour launch window that opened just after 1 a.m.

When the SLS’s rocket stages are all tanked up, liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen—cooled to achieve their liquid states—boil off, to be continually replenished by the mobile launcher, explained NASA’s Derrol Nail as he relayed updates during the agency’s live-streamed broadcast of the countdown and launch. While the red crew worked, none could be replenished.

But with the valve tightened, the rocket’s core stage back up to 100 percent of liquid hydrogen, and the upper stage in “fast-fill” mode—and still without a delay announced to the 1:04 a.m. targeted launch time—attention turned to a problem reported by the Space Force’s Space Launch Delta 45. The delta manages the U.S.’s East Coast launch operations and had responsibility for a critical aspect of the mission: the flight termination system.

The launch delta “oversees the range here and makes sure that the airspace and the ocean out over the flight path is clear,” Nail explained. It also “has the responsibility to destruct the rocket should it go off track.”

A spokesperson for Space Launch Delta 45 confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine that the issue resulted from “a failed ethernet switch in our system at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station that provides the signals required to send command destruct signals to the launch vehicle if it goes off its nominal and safe path.”

About 25 minutes into what had been projected as a 70-minute job to replace the faulty switch, the delta needed more time: “They did just update the NASA test director to say that it’s going to take them a little bit longer because they’re going to need to re-verify this ethernet equipment once they have it installed,” Nail said. “At the moment, if we were launching right now, the range is ‘no go’ as a result of that bad ethernet switch.”

By 12:55 p.m.: “We’re clearly in a delay now,” Nail said. The upper stage’s liquid hydrogen was 95 percent filled, while the SLD 45 was “looking to start testing their connectivity to the rocket.”

Without the system safely tested, the launch couldn’t take place. The delta’s spokesperson explained why:

“These systems are critical to preserving public safety and are thus mandatory for safe and effective operations. With our onsite technical and maintenance team, we replaced the switch, retested the system, and were ready to support launch activities in time to support the Artemis launch timeline.”

Finally at 1:47 a.m., over a third of a way through its launch window, the first SLS’s rocket’s 8.8 million pounds of maximum thrust—hailed as America’s most powerful rocket ever—propelled the Orion astronaut capsule, dummies filling the seats, on its three-week uncrewed trip around the moon and back.

The Zero-Emissions Aircraft: How the Digital Transformation Fuels Progress

Nov. 17, 2022 | By Dale Tutt

Every industry has a major role to play as we transition to a sustainable economy – especially transportation whether automobile, rail, air or sea. For aerospace, the process to build zero-emissions aircraft includes the steepest hurdles. Until now, sustainability has focused primarily on CO2 emissions during aircraft operation, and while this is an important area to address, attention also needs to be placed on the impact of material processing, manufacturing operations and how the aircraft will be maintained.

Significant developments already in operation

One way today’s OEMs are improving sustainability is by building greater efficiencies into the aircraft, which improves fuel economy and reduces fuel emissions. The Boeing 787 is a good example. The 787 is producing around 20 to 30 percent lower fuel burn on international flights. How? Boeing first improved overall aerodynamics which included modifying the wings. Boeing then incorporated lightweight structures (more composites) which also contributed to better overall fuel economies. Finally, Boeing transitioned to more electrically driven systems to improve the efficiency of the systems, and reducing the power extraction from the engines.

Another approach to sustainability is sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) adoption. SAF has been implemented by commercial airlines around the world. Some companies have made strides through their own corporate mandates, while others are following government regulations based on that company’s country of origin. In fact, most airlines around the world have committed to replacing ten percent of the jet fuel they consume with SAF by 2030.

Electrification of functionality throughout the aircraft is another contributor to a sustainable future. Boeing and Airbus have introduced a number of electrical systems (to replace mechanical or pneumatic systems) for improvements in performance, weight, efficiency and maintenance.

And let’s not forget the promise of the electric aircraft. Notable breakthroughs have occurred especially among regional carriers. The emergence of Heart Aerospace, Eviation and Bye Aerospace are testament to the validity behind the future of electric air travel. Of course, electric vertical take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles bring a new level of technology and excitement to the marketplace, and not just to the commercial side. In fact, the U.S. Air Force has already granted airworthiness approval for the Alia aircraft by Beta Technologies. They conducted the first airman flight earlier this year. We are expecting to see this segment continue to take off in the next two to three years.

In addition to current developments, the industry is making strides with “clean manufacturing”

With the current sustainability efforts already underway, companies are also shifting their mindset to focus on clean manufacturing. Clean manufacturing is an approach that allows OEMs to eliminate waste and lower their carbon footprint across the entire product development lifecycle.

One aspect to clean manufacturing is additive manufacturing. Today’s more robust additive manufacturing solutions include innovations in 3D printing. Using this type of approach allows for parts to be made in less time, perform better, weigh less and are easier to maintain. OEMs are able to get the parts they need when they need them — customized for operational performance and efficiency.

Clean manufacturing empowers the circular economy. It allows OEMs to add recycling requirements early in the product development stage. It’s building with a new intention to recycle/reuse old parts to lessen the demand for extracting natural resources or raw materials. It’s finding ways to lower the carbon footprint both inside the factory as well as throughout the broader ecosystem.

Addressing the zero-emissions aircraft

When we talk about decarbonizing the aerospace industry viable options include SAF and clean manufacturing. But what about building a true, zero-emissions aircraft? Structures will have to adhere to an evolving set of rules. Simulation, propulsion, design characteristics, aerodynamics, structural analysis all need to come together and be analyzed in a meaningful and insightful manner.

At this time there are two propulsion options for the zero-emissions aircraft: electric and hydrogen. The electric aircraft has made significant progress, but with current power densities, it has a limited cruising range. We’ll likely see electric aircraft for short hauls and medium-range flights. That leaves the long-range flights to hydrogen.

Hydrogen shows promise and could be the future of air travel, but it has its own technological challenges. Will it be used as a combustible — fuel for a modified gas turbine engine? Or as a fuel-cell battery which provides electricity for propulsion? Some in the industry believe hydrogen can be used today as a combustible with adjustments to the engine and combustion chamber. The real challenge with hydrogen is dealing with cryogenic temperatures and/or high pressures for storage. Hydrogen burns hot, and as a result, produces nitrogen oxide (NOx) as a byproduct. OEMs will need to design a “cooler” combustion process that reduces or eliminates NOx.

The bottom line: whatever the shape and propulsion type of the zero-emissions aircraft, to be successful OEMs will need a highly digitalized design and manufacturing environment where all data is shared, processes are automated and there’s open collaboration across all domains and design disciplines.

Building a digital enterprise – complexity becomes a competitive advantage

The best way to address the challenges around sustainability and the zero-emissions aircraft is to transition to a digital enterprise. A&D companies, their partners and entire supply chain need to adopt the digital twin and digital thread. A comprehensive digital twin enables teams to better predict the effects of hydrogen (in storage) by analyzing, simulating and verifying before physical production begins. Teams gain valuable insight by generating thousands of iterations on how to best design and build liquid hydrogen storage tanks, for example.

While a digital twin can be set up for just about anything in the engineering or manufacturing disciplines, if it’s not connected or integrated to other phases of product lifecycle development, teams will not realize the twin’s full potential. Teams need digital threads which seamlessly connect the comprehensive digital twin to all phases of the development and production for the continuous exchange of data – the automation of data – up and down the product development lifecycle.

A closer look at the MBSE digital thread

Aerospace companies looking to implement more sustainable products and processes are moving towards model-based system engineering (MBSE). MBSE is growing within the A&D industry because it’s a more disciplined approach to systems engineering. It brings a new level of integration and efficiency to complex systems and processes across the many multi-domain challenges aircraft manufacturers employ today. When companies move to a MBSE approach they collaborate more easily across domains and throughout their supply chain.

The MBSE approach is more than functional or logical modeling. It’s actually about building a digital thread (MBSE digital thread) that serves as the “digital backbone” uniting engineering, manufacturing, supply chain, and program management activities (Figure 1).

*Figure 1: The MBSE digital thread touches all key product development domains for complete traceability and visibility.*

Implementing the MBSE digital thread enables teams to confidently explore and simulate alternative designs. Continuous verification comes from the digital nature of the solution – traceability of the design. Since the entire design process is defined with a comprehensive digital twin, every design change and update is tracked against the product definitions for the project. Product requirements can be easily tracked throughout the product lifecycle. Using MBSE for the circular economy or for clean manufacturing allows recycle requirements to be built into the early concepting stages and tracked throughout to verify that the requirements have been met.

Additive manufacturing plays a key role

In many respects, the more innovative zero emissions aircraft will require platforms that are custom configured which means additive manufacturing will play a key role. Additive manufacturing not only revolutionizes how teams build parts and assemblies, but dramatically changes how to design parts. Recognizing this, Siemens has paved the way to the future of more sustainable products and processes by investing in design and manufacturing technologies that maximize the benefits of additive manufacturing by automating the entire manufacturing process.

Realizing the zero-emissions aircraft – together

Siemens is at the forefront of helping A&D companies of all sizes master complexity and build more sustainable products. By leveraging digital technologies — the comprehensive digital twin and digital thread — aerospace companies can transform how they operate, collaborate and share information across the product development lifecycle. Customers are also discovering the powerful capabilities behind our Xcelerator offering, a comprehensive, integrated portfolio of software, services and an application development platform. Xcelerator serves as the catalyst for the digital transformation.

Whether it’s maximizing the potential behind SAF, introducing the concepts and technologies behind smart manufacturing, or using the digital enterprise to build the future zero-emissions aircraft — our prime directive is to help A&D customers achieve their strategic objectives as they incorporate sustainability into all facets of operation.

Read the whitepaper here.

Congressional Leaders Working on Compromise NDAA, Hope to Pass It in Early December

Nov. 16, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Leaders on the Armed Services Committees in both the House and Senate are crafting a compromise National Defense Authorization Act and still hope to pass the annual policy bill before the end of 2022, HASC chair Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said Nov. 16.

Once more, lawmakers are scrambling to pass the NDAA at the end of the calendar year—and after the fiscal year has already turned over—as Congress sorts through a massive to-do list while running up against a deadline.

Both the House Armed Services Committee and Senate Armed Services Committee passed their respective markups of the 2023 NDAA in June, and the House passed its final version in July. Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), the chair and ranking member of the SASC, introduced the bill on the Senate floor in October, and Senators proposed hundreds of amendments.

But just like last year, the Senate never took action in considering those amendments, consumed by other priorities. In 2021, that included President Joe Biden’s massive proposed “Build Back Better” bill, among other pieces of legislation. This year, the midterm elections kept lawmakers on the campaign trail for much of October.

Now, with the holidays approaching, time is running short to get the NDAA to Biden’s desk, especially if the Senate passed its own version, which would require a conference process to reconcile it with the House bill.

Instead, leaders from both parties and both chambers are crafting a compromise bill outside of the conference process, as they did last year, with the intention of passing it unchanged in both the House and Senate.

That process is led by Reed, Inhofe, Smith, and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), the ranking member in the HASC.

“We’re making progress. We’ve got another meeting tomorrow, and I’m pretty sure by the end of this week, we will have a bill that the House and the Senate, Democrats and Republicans, agree upon,” Smith said on C-SPAN’s Washington Journal on Nov. 16. “And the plan would be to pass it the first week of December. So we’re making good progress and are confident that we’ll get it done.”

That plan for quick passage could be in jeopardy, however. Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), currently the House Minority Leader and likely to be Speaker of the House in the next Congress, reportedly said the legislature should wait until January to move on the NDAA, according to States Newsroom.

Speaking at Politico’s Defense Summit, Smith pushed back on that idea and called out McCarthy by name.

“I hope Kevin McCarthy understands. … He claims to care about national defense. You are damaging the United States military every day past Oct. 1 that you don’t get it done. And certainly more so every day past Jan. 1,” Smith said.

Passing the NDAA every year has become a rite of passage for Congress, one of the few areas of bipartisan agreement over the past six decades.

As of late, though, that rarely has gotten done before the start of the new fiscal year each Oct. 1. There have even been a few recent examples of the NDAA not being finalized until the new calendar year—the Senate voted to override a presidential veto on the fiscal 2021 bill on Jan. 1, 2021. The 2008 NDAA didn’t get through Congress until Jan. 22, 2008.

Still, national security experts, Pentagon officials, and lawmakers focused on defense overwhelmingly prefer to pass it before the end of the year. While the NDAA does not appropriate funding for the Pentagon, it is often tied closely to that funding and directs how the Defense Department can and should spend its money.

Without an NDAA or a new budget, the Pentagon is stuck under continuing resolutions, which keep funding levels frozen at the previous year’s levels and prevent new programs from starting. It’s an issue Air Force leaders and others have frequently bemoaned, and it was cited by two other Congress members at Politico’s summit: Rep. Doug Lamborn (R-Colo.) and Rep. Jim Cooper (D-Tenn.).

“The annual passage of the NDAA is the beating heart of Congress,” Cooper said. “It is over half of the discretionary work that Congress does during the whole year. This one bill has been passed reliably for six decades. If this process were to stop due to partisanship, due to whatever, that cripples our nation’s ability to respond to threats. [Continuing resolutions] are bad enough. They interrupt the process—they’re kind of like arrhythmia. But not passing an NDAA? That’s more like a heart attack.”

When asked about McCarthy’s proposal to wait until January, Lamborn said, “I mean, there are some things I didn’t like, some amendments, but that’s inevitable when you have a large piece of legislation like that. I think it’s important to pass the NDAA as soon as possible and get the funding as soon as possible so that contracts can be let out and new programs can be established and opened up instead of continuing in a sort of hibernation where nothing is happening and they are frozen in place under an existing funding stream where they can’t start anything new.”

In addition to the NDAA, Congress will have to act fast to avoid another continuing resolution—the current one is scheduled to expire after Dec. 16.