RAF Fairford Grows to Support Bomber Task Forces and More

July 29, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

RAF FAIRFORD, U.K.—A little more than a decade ago, RAF Fairford was all but abandoned by the U.S. Air Force, with uniformed personnel leaving and the service keeping the small base northwest of London as a designated standby, to be used only in contingencies.

Now, however, the base is in a “growing phase,” its commander says, as U-2s fly nearly every day, bomber task force missions regularly cycle through, and construction projects ramp up.

The 420th Air Base Squadron, led by Lt. Col. Jeremy Stover, is responsible for all the day-to-day functions that keep the base running. For the bomber task forces in particular, that entails months of planning to support hundreds of Airmen and their aircraft.

“Fairford’s in this unique position where we’re … the only bomber forward operating location in Europe,” Stover told Air Force Magazine in an interview. “So what that means is that we’re organized, manned, trained, [and] equipped to support that bomber fleet, both with the necessary specialized ground equipment and the facilities they use, if they need to stand up the mission planning cell or put their maintenance in, because we’re not a main operating base. So we’re kind of postured here, and that really is our mission, to be ready to support the deploying units here.”

Within the past year, there have been two BTFs based out of Fairford—B-1B Lancers from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, in October, while B-52 Superfortresses from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., were there starting in February. On both occasions, those bombers and their Airmen stayed in Europe for more than a month, conducting missions and training alongside partner nations.

And for the Airmen of the 420nd ABS, those rotations presented an opportunity to flex their own training, Stover said.

“A bomber task force is very much a strategic message in terms of their presence. It helps deter adversaries, assures our allies and partners, and then also allows both my Airmen here who support their mission and the Airmen that are deployed generating, maintaining aircraft, flying the aircraft—it demonstrates their readiness and lethality and shows and allows them to integrate with not just NATO, but other allies and partners,” Stover said.

In particular, the task forces highlighted the “touch points” where his Airmen work alongside those accompanying the bombers, Stover said. While pilots, aircrew, and maintainers accompany their aircraft, they still need support in numerous areas, including “security forces, air traffic control, airfield ops, and [the] communications and force support services section,” Stover said. “So everything that we need to provide for the care and feeding for that number of people from lodging, to fitness centers, morale, welfare, recreation programs, that obviously brings a significantly increased footprint.”

That increased footprint has resulted in Fairford being busier on a day-to-day basis, not only when the bomber task forces are actually on base.

“Previously our airfield did not have published open [operating] hours. We opened the airfield to launch U-2s, and then we would close the airfield and open it back up to recover them. It was only within the last month or so where we established Monday-through-Friday open hours, operating hours [for] the airfield,” Stover said. “So from the airfield perspective, we have airfield management out there, making sure that they identify any degraded pavement surfaces, so that we can forecast ahead of time to make sure the pavement stays in a good enough condition and we maintain it so that we can support that wide range of aircraft.”

The care taken with the runway is of particular importance given Fairford’s status as the European hub for forward-deployed bombers.

“Unique to bombers is they have some of the most, if not the most, strict pavement requirements in terms of condition and load-bearing capabilities. So that is something that we have to stay in front of,” Stover said. “You can’t just send bombers to any runway. A lot of runways aren’t long enough, or they’re not reinforced or not strong enough to be able to take that much weight. So that’s something that they stay current on.”

At the moment, problems with the runway are usually fixed through a contract the base has with the U.K. Ministry of Defence. But that could change in the years ahead, thanks to a new “rapid airfield damage repair program,” Stover said.

“So it’s heavy equipment and the supplies that you would need that are forward staged at strategic locations so that if the runway was damaged, we could rapidly get onto the airfield and repair the airfield so we can continue operations,” Stover said. “So there’s another program there where we will be starting in the next couple of years [which will include] additional warehouses to store some of that equipment.”

Those new warehouses are just a part of a slate of upgrades coming to Fairford to keep pace with the increased footprint and ops tempo. In 2021, the Air Force announced that it will invest some $300 million in improvements to Fairford.

“We are in a time of growth for the base—we’ve got a lot of construction projects on the base,” Stover said.

Already, a new multi-purpose hangar is under construction, with an estimated completion date by the summer of 2023.

Stover said most “hangars on the base right now are very old, and you can’t do some things in those hangars. So this new four-bay hangar, you’ll be able to do engine runs in the hangar. You’ll be able to work on modern aircraft that have special materials and handling requirements and HVAC types of requirements that we don’t have in our current facilities.”

With the new hangar will come an increase in permanent party presence, Stover added—from 12 dating back to when the Air Force first returned to Fairford to around 90 “probably by next summer or the end of next year,” he said.

“Part of that is driven because we brought on additional permanent party military so that we have additional people here, so we do have the ability to have airfield operating hours,” Stover added. “Whereas before we really weren’t manned to be able to do some of that. We’re in a growing phase right now.”

Another project that’s currently underway, Stover added, is one to expand the base’s munitions storage facilities.

“We have very limited … authorized locations on Fairford itself to be able to store munitions, just because we have close proximity to houses off base. So the majority, the vast majority of our weapons are provided by the 420th Munitions Squadron out of RAF Welford, which is 45 minutes southeast of here,” Stover said.

The new facilities will be complete in the next few years and will increase the base’s storage capacity “tenfold,” Stover said.

Senate Panel Proposes 8.7 Percent Bump to Pentagon Budget

July 28, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Pentagon budget seems poised for an increase in 2023 over the $773 billion requested by President Joe Biden. The question now is how large that increase will be.

The leaders of the Senate Appropriations committee released their markup of the defense funding bill July 28, with $792 billion going to the Department of Defense. Such a total would mark a hefty 8.7 percent increase over the total enacted for fiscal 2022, excluding emergency funding. It would also substantially surpass the amount proposed by the House Appropriations committee in June, which was largely in line with the Biden administration’s request.

But while the House Appropriations bill left the top line request untouched, there appears to be a growing bipartisan consensus for adding more spending, mainly focused on two factors: the impact of historic inflation, and concerns about the threats posed by Russia and China.

Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Jon Tester (D-Mont.), chairmen of the full committee and defense subcommittee, respectively, credited both in statements accompanying the release of the bill.

“This legislation will keep America safe by giving our troops a well-earned pay raise, ensuring our servicemen and women are well-trained and well-equipped with the most up-to- date technology, and shifting resources toward programs that’ll maintain our fighting edge over adversaries like China and Russia,” Tester said.

Leahy and Tester also noted that their topline figure is largely similar to the one authorized by the House as part of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act.

However, while the NDAA sets policy and authorizes funds, it does not appropriate the money the Defense Department spends. That’s a process led by the Appropriations committee, and Republicans on the panel have already said they think the new chairman’s mark doesn’t go far enough.

In a press release, Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), the vice chairman of the committee, indicated that the top line should be increased by $10 billion to match the level authorized by the Senate Armed Services Committee in its version of the NDAA.

Still, the chairman’s mark will form the starting point of considerations as the defense subcommittee starts a process that will need to finish before Oct. 1 if Congress is to avoid relying on a continuing resolution to keep the Pentagon funded.

As part of the proposed increase to the top line, Leahy and Tester list four areas in particular to prioritize: countering inflation, space, infrastructure, and the defense industrial base and acquisition.

For inflation, that means $5 billion extra to pay for fuel, $1.5 billion to help acquisition programs affected by rising prices, and another $1.45 billion to supplement basic allowances for housing and subsistence, as well as other special pay.

For space, the bill includes $2.2 billion to accelerate development of a resilient space architecture, which has been a repeated theme for Space Force leaders and other space agencies as of late.

Included in that $2.2 billion is $300 million to build up a medium-Earth-orbit missile warning and tracking constellation, $250 million for the Space Force’s operational test and training infrastructure, $250 million for on-board defense measures for certain high value satellites, and $216 million for two more launches for the Space Development Agency’s Tracking Layer constellation.

On top of that, the bill would require the Secretary of the Air Force and the Chief of Space Operations to provide a report to Congress detailing all of the department’s missile tracking and warning programs.

For the Air Force, the bill would include extra funding to buy 16 C-130Js for the Air National Guard, 10 more HH-60 Pave Hawks, and four EC-37B Compass Calls, one of the service’s top unfunded priorities.

However, the committee leaders added a section to the bill registering their concern that programs such as the F-15EX and HH-60W “have been truncated across the Future Years Defense Program [FYDP] well below their stated acquisition objectives.”

“While the Committee understands that trade-offs occur to support force modernization, truncating programs that only recently transitioned into production and were hailed as supporting critical Air Force missions, such as personnel recovery and future tactical air, calls into question the strategic underpinning of these and other acquisition decisions,” the section reads.

As a result, the bill would also require the Air Force to provide a report to Congress of all the programs they plan to cut procurement for by 2027, along with an analysis of the impacts of doing so.

Committee leaders also took aim at the F-35 joint program office over the recently announced Lot 15-17 contract with Lockheed Martin, noting that the prices appear to be “significantly higher” than was previously budgeted for procurement, creating a gap of some $1.4 billion across fiscal years 2021 to 2023.

“The Committee believes that resources exist in prior years that are available for reallocation to partially address this aircraft pricing issue,” the bill’s summary language states. “… Therefore, the Committee directs the Program Executive Officer, F–35 Joint Program Office, within 30 days of the contract award of lots 15 through 17, to submit to the congressional defense committees a detailed accounting of all fiscal year 2021 and fiscal year 2022 unobligated balances, by activity that can be reallocated to address the pricing shortfall.”

Faulty Ejection Parts Prompt USAF to Ground Some T-38s, T-6s

July 28, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Concerns about potentially faulty ejection seat parts have prompted the Air Force to ground 279 trainer aircraft until inspections can be performed to assure that the aircraft are safe to fly. The grounding, which went into effect July 27, affects nearly half the T-38 fleet.

The 203 T-38 Talons and 76 T-6 Texan IIs potentially affected are grounded until further notice “out of an abundance of caution,” Air Education and Training Command’s 19th Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Craig Wills said in an emailed statement.

“We will not return aircraft affected by this issue to the flying schedule until we’re confident their escape systems are fully functional,” he said. “Our instructor pilots accomplish an incredibly important and demanding mission every day, and we owe them safe and reliable aircraft.”

The aircraft affected are spread among all USAF Undergraduate Pilot Training bases as well as Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla. The grounding affects 40 percent of the T-38 fleet and 15 percent of the T-6 fleet. The T-6s are turboprop aircraft that teach basic flying skills, while the supersonic T-38 is used to prepare fighter and bomber pilots for their operational aircraft. The T-38 is also used to teach fighter fundamentals. The Air Force had 492 T-38A/C jets and 442 T-6s as of Sept. 30, 2021.

Air Force Materiel Command informed AETC that explosive charges used in the ejection seats of T-38s and T-6s may suffer from “quality defects,” which were not explained. Aircraft with the explosive cartridges installed must now be checked, and the procedure for that inspection is being developed in concert with AFMC. Each seat has multiple and redundant cartridges.

“AFMC was able to isolate the specific lot numbers of product that require inspection and further identify which aircraft may be affected,” according to the 19th Air Force statement. The paperwork indicated that the 279 trainers could have faulty parts.

“Those specific aircraft will remain under a temporary stand down until maintenance can confirm that the escape systems are fully functional,” 19th Air Force said.

Martin Baker makes the ejection seats used in the T-38 and T-6. Separately, the Navy has grounded some of its F/A-18s, EA-18s, T-45s, and F-5s with Martin Baker seats, also out of concern for defective cartridges.

Although all T-38s and T-6s stood down on July 27, those not believed to have the bad parts were back on the flying schedule July 28.

“As our teams investigate this further, if we find information that identifies other issues we will aggressively take steps to ensure flight safety, including temporarily standing down aircraft where required,” 19th Air Force said.

“Our primary concern is the safety of our Airmen and it is imperative that they have confidence in our equipment,” Wills said.

AETC officials said the command will likely shift to simulator training during the downtime while the potentially affected aircraft are being inspected.

After Nearly Three Years, Fairford Stays Busy with Steady U-2 Operations

July 28, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

RAF FAIRFORD, U.K.—At the end of a row of fighter jets at July’s Royal International Air Tattoo, an entirely different kind of aircraft drew plenty of attention from the thousands in attendance—the U-2S Dragon Lady.

Long shrouded in secrecy, the legendary high-altitude intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft has been seen in the skies over RAF Fairford with increasing regularity over the past few years. But even for local aviation enthusiasts, the chance to see the plane up close represented a unique opportunity.

“In the general media and [from] some of the locals, we’ve already gotten feedback. They’ve been here for years, and I’ve seen quite a few … comments on how surprised they were that they were able to get that close to a U-2,” Lt. Col. Jeremy Stover, commander of the 420th Air Base Squadron at Fairford, told Air Force Magazine.

“We have very active, what we call spotters, aircraft spotters, off base. Our perimeter fence is right at the edge of the runway, and so people will populate that road right outside the base and be out there taking pictures. So I see it posted online on Facebook and other media sites. They post a lot of pictures, and they’re huge aviation fans. And so I think for a lot of them to get that close, it was a really significant event for them.”

It is hardly surprising that the U-2’s inclusion generated excitement—it hasn’t been seen at RIAT since the 2017 airshow. Before that, it hadn’t been on display there since 2005.

However, putting the U-2 on display this year involved significantly fewer logistical challenges than in years past. U-2s have been operating out of Fairford since 2019, after the Air Force deployed the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron out of Beale Air Force Base, Calif.

Their missions are kept secret, but their imposing, unique presence has garnered plenty of interest among the general public—and kept the Airmen deployed to RAF Fairford busy on a day-to-day basis.

“Currently, we support the deployed U-2 squadron. They’ll fly one or two sorties a day, roughly 20 sorties a month,” Stover said. And that’s kind of our steady state battle rhythm, if you will. So it’s mostly flying Monday through Friday.”

For several years prior to the U-2, RAF Fairford did not have consistent airfield operations. The Air Force started withdrawing its uniformed personnel from the base in 2010, keeping it on standby for heavy bomber operations. Over time, bombers have regularly rotated through as part of exercises in Europe.

None, however, have stayed as long as the U-2, and the 99th ERS continues to deploy Airmen to the base.

“They have a permanent party military commander and director of operations, and then they have roughly 50 deployed Airmen,” Stover said. “They’re mostly maintenance. They’ve got some contractors. So they do the maintenance and the generation of the aircraft itself.”

The 420th ABS, meanwhile, stood up the 420th Expeditionary Air Base Squadron to support the 99th, providing everything else needed to keep the U-2 flying and the Airmen supporting it going.

“We brought in roughly 70 to 80 deployed base operations support Airmen to support that footprint,” Stover said. “So … what did that mean in terms of [career fields]? So we’re talking airfield operations, so air traffic control, airfield managers, we call them RAWS [Radar, Airfield, and Weather Systems], civil engineers, security forces is a very significant footprint obviously for the U-2s. So that makes up roughly half of that deployed footprint to provide security for the U-2 aircraft. And then we also have a few logistics. So from that perspective we have to provide all the necessary base operations support requirements.”

It’s an extensive list of responsibilities, in addition to the bomber task force and agile combat employment missions that are regularly staged out of the base, Stover said. How long it will continue—and how likely it is that spectators will get to see the U-2 at RIAT—remains to be seen, Stover said.

“I will say the [U.S. Air Forces in Europe] staff came out last fall or winter to kind of readdress that decision and look at, does it make sense to keep them at Fairford? Does it make sense to try to locate them somewhere else?” Stover said. “And ultimately, the feedback that I received was [that] for the immediate future, they’re going to continue to operate out of Fairford. But I couldn’t say how much longer.”

Saltzman Nominated to Follow Raymond as Space Force CSO

July 28, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

President Joe Biden has nominated Space Force Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman to be the Space Force’s next Chief of Space Operations. Saltzman currently serves as the deputy CSO for operations, intelligence, sustainment, cyber, and nuclear.

The Pentagon announced Saltzman’s nomination July 28. Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, the first person to serve in Space Force, is retiring.

Saltzman holds a bachelor’s degree in history from Boston University, Mass., and a Master of Strategic Management from George Washington University, D.C., according to his official bio. He went from Air Force Space Command in 2016 to the Pentagon, where he served as director of future operations at Headquarters Air Force. After that, he was director of current operations.

A year as deputy commander of U.S. Air Forces Central preceded his return to D.C., where he took up his current post in August 2020. In that same month he transferred into the Space Force and received his third star.

Speaking with AFA president retired Lt. Gen. Bruce Wright at the AFA Warfare Symposium in March, Saltzman said he wasn’t confident in today’s “space status quo” in the event of a “high-end fight” with China’s military “if all sides of a fight are using space the way they currently do now,” he said.

“I don’t like our advantages there—the complexity of synchronizing in the Indo-Pacific, the distances we have to cover,” Saltzman said. China is “going to have targeting capability. They’ve got advanced weapons. … I don’t like to win 51 to 50. That’s not the way I want to go to war with these guys.”

This shift from the “benign space environment” the U.S. military enjoyed in the past means it now will “operate against a thinking adversary that is committed to denying us those space capabilities,” Saltzman said.

Instead, he said that presenting “a formidable force” to deny any benefits of an attack in space could be “one of the cornerstones of deterrence,” along with being able to “impose costs” on an adversary as punishment for “aggressive behavior in space.”

A strategy for doing so, he said, requires not just new equipment for a more resilient space architecture but also training, and investing “to make sure that our operators, whether they’re providing ISR, SATCOM, missile warning, electronic warfare, any of those capabilities” are “the best trained in the world.”

Mid-Tier Programs Running Out of Time; Overruns Coming, Kendall Says

July 27, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall thinks Congress will give the Air Force a bigger topline budget amount than it requested in fiscal 2023—and not a moment too soon, because a number of “mid-tier acquisition” programs are running out the clock and need a fresh funding stream, he said. He also warned that the need to speed up the program acquisition pipeline will inevitably cause “cost and schedule pickups” that are “unfortunately … the price we pay” to stay ahead of China.

“This year, the Congress is likely to provide a significant increase to the funding we asked for,” Kendall said at the Potomac Officers Club Air Force Summit on July 26, and “this will significantly reset our baseline for ’24.”

The long-term budget plan “we just built … is a starting point for discussions that will happen over the next couple of months” about the fiscal 2024 budget, he said.

“We don’t really know where we’re going to end up … but I think we’ll do well in [the] Department of the Air Force.”

That’s a good place to be because many important programs that were launched with new fast-track authorities from Congress as so-called “mid-tier acquisition” projects are running out their five-year clocks and need an infusion of funds to stay on course, he said.

“My intent … with the programs that I’m trying to fund, is to move towards fielding meaningful military capabilities,” Kendall said. “I’m not very interested in experimentation for its own sake. I’m prepared to accept risk and move toward engineering and manufacturing development of systems that lead to production … at scale.”

In reviewing the most essential projects, “I’ve found that a number of them are mid-tier acquisition programs,” which require that the system be fielded “within five years: Do development, get a couple of working prototypes, get them into the field, and then decide what to do after that.”

It was assumed that those programs would be funded for subsequent production, he said, but “most of them aren’t structured that way … A lot of them are only funded for that five-year initial [phase], so there’s no funding in the out years of our FYDP for those programs,” he said. A “high percentage … are not fully funded.”

Kendall didn’t list the affected projects, but among the 20 or so the Air Force is working on are hypersonic missiles, the B-52 re-engining program, F-22 upgrades, and satellites.

“So, what I’m doing in the budget this year is structuring things to actually get toward capability,” Kendall said, but he added: “There’s risk in that.”

He explained that “Back in a less-stressful time, we could take three or four years to do a risk reduction program first, demonstrate the maturing technology, and then commit to [engineering and manufacturing development] for production after that. I think the situation we’re in, if the risk appears to be manageable, and there are reasonable mitigations, we need to get on with it and get toward production.”

Skipping some of that risk reduction time means “there will be cost and schedule pickups as we go forward. But I’m afraid we’re going have to pay that price to get where we need to go.”

China, he said, is advancing rapidly, and there’s no time to waste if the Air Force is going to stay ahead, he said.

“One thing that has impressed me in the year that I’ve been back” in the Pentagon “is that the Chinese modernization program continues apace … The threat does not get less over time—it gets worse … And it isn’t just about the things they have … it’s what they see in the future.”

The Air Force has to be “thinking ahead of that, and moving ahead of that.”

Kendall said he sees “increasingly aggressive moves by China” and that the “rhetoric coming out” of Beijing about Taiwan “is a little unsettling.”

While China “does have its problems” militarily, Kendall asserted, “its ambitions … are not going to diminish anytime soon.”

Asked what lessons Kendall thinks China might be learning from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, he said he “hopes” the Chinese leaders recognize that aggression will bring “grave economic consequences” on the aggressor. He also said Chinese president Xi Jinping should appreciate that military forces don’t always “perform as you expected” and that ”what you think is going to be a short war doesn’t always end up that way.”

Beyond his oft-reported “operational imperatives,” Kendall said, he is reshaping the Air Force headquarters bureaucracy to restore “a science and engineering cadre that has atrophied over time.” While some changes are “inside baseball … others have a direct relationship to our effectiveness overall.”

“We need to rebuild” the science and engineering expertise and operational analysis capabilities that have deteriorated in the Air Force, he said, “recruiting and growing people and giving them experiences that make them more technologically capable, and in a better position to manage technology and be in a better position to make technological judgments about what technologies are ready and what can be done with them.”

Headed to Poland to Boost NATO, F-22s Arrive in UK

July 27, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

F-22s arrived at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., on July 26 en route to Poland, as the U.S. Air Force continues to bolster its presence of fifth-generation fighters in the region.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe confirmed the F-22s’ arrival, stating in a release that the fighters from the 90th Fighter Squadron of the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, will be traveling from Lakenheath to the 32nd Tactical Air Base in Lask, Poland, to support NATO’s air shielding mission.

New USAFE commander Gen. James B. Hecker hinted at the F-22s’ appearance in Europe at the Royal International Air Tattoo on July 17 in an interview with Air Force Magazine.

“We’re bringing over F-22s … that are going to be coming over shortly, within a month, and they’ll spend four or five months over here,” Hecker said. “So we’re going to constantly cycle in fifth-generation in addition to what will eventually be two permanent [F-35] squadrons at Lakenheath. So we’ll be cycling it in here in the meantime.”

According to local media reports, six F-22s arrived at Lakenheath. When they arrive in Poland, they’ll be tasked with supporting a new mission for NATO. Air shielding is intended to protect NATO nations from air and missile threats by leveraging air- and ground-based air defense assets.

Air shielding “will provide a near seamless shield from the Baltic to Black Seas, ensuring NATO Allies are better able to safeguard and protect Alliance territory, populations and forces from air and missile threat,” USAFE’s press release states, adding that the F-22’s success as an air dominance platform makes it “a highly strategic platform to support NATO Air Shielding.”

This marks just the latest deployment of USAF fighters to eastern Europe in an effort to reassure NATO allies on the eastern flank in the face of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and continued aggression.

Earlier in July, F-35s from the Vermont Air National Guard forward-deployed to Amari Air Base, Estonia, to support the air shielding mission. Prior to that, the Air Force has moved F-15s, F-16s, other F-35s, and still more aircraft into Eastern Europe, participating in NATO’s Baltic air policing and enhanced air policing missions.

The constant rotation of new aircraft into the region is part of the Air Force’s plan to remain vigilant as the Russia-Ukraine war drags on.

“What we’re going to do is just kind of have six, 12 kinds of airplanes that will come in here for four months, and we’ll do that for about a year or so, in addition with all the permanent aircraft that we have stationed here,” Hecker told Air Force Magazine. “And that will increase our presence here, and then we’ll have to readjust and see what this thing looks like a year from now, and then we can adjust as necessary.”

US, UK Will Have ‘Avenue’ to Share Best Practices for Sixth-Gen Fighter Development

July 27, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

LONDON—After working together closely to help develop and deploy the F-35, the United Kingdom and the United States have pursued different programs when it comes to sixth-generation fighters.

But that doesn’t mean the two countries and their air forces won’t collaborate in the future on sixth-gen technologies, capabilities, and best practices, America’s air attache in London, USAF Col. Charles E. Metrolis, told Air Force Magazine in an exclusive interview.

At the moment, the U.S. Air Force doesn’t have any publicly known international partners for its secretive Next Generation Air Dominance program. Britain, meanwhile, has teamed up with several other nations as part of its Tempest program. And at the Farnborough International Airshow earlier in July, the British government announced that it will also work with Japan to conduct a joint analysis of Tempest and the Japanese F-X sixth-gen program. Also at the show, the U.K. announced that a demonstrator aircraft for the Tempest program will fly in the next five years.

“We’re aware the U.K. is working with Sweden and Italy on [Tempest],” Metrolis said. “And I saw the announcement about involving Japan, though I believe the U.K. will have to formally submit a request to Sweden and Italy to have Japan join the program.”

NGAD, meanwhile, “is U.S.-only for now,” Metrolis said. That stands in contrast to the development of the F-35. Seven other nations partnered with the U.S. to share development costs and technologies for the Joint Strike Fighter, and the U.K. led the way as the program’s only Level 1 partner, having contributed the most financially besides the U.S.

But while the two nations have seemingly gone their separate ways for sixth-gen, Metrolis hinted that there will be dialogue in the coming years.

“We would welcome the U.K.’s thoughts on sixth-gen development and deployment. But it’s not clear right now how that will look,” Metrolis said.

Specifically, Metrolis pointed to the technologies that will make up the sixth-generation fighters as a ripe area for the U.S. and U.K. to work together.

“It’s going to be the latest technology on both sides. … So if they have a particular insight or capability they can share, or we have something we can share with them, that’s good for the alliance,” Metrolis said. Basically, it’s best practices. There will be some avenue for crosstalk in the future in terms of development.”

And the U.K. might not be the only nation the U.S. turns to in its effort to develop sixth-gen capabilities. Australia has also been part of the F-35 program as a Level 3 partner, and the U.S., Britain, and Australia announced the trilateral security pact AUKUS in September 2021.

The AUKUS agreement was initially focused on sharing technology related to nuclear-powered submarines, but its scope has expanded in the months since. Australian ambassador to the U.S. Arthur Sinodinos noted in November that it will also include “enhanced” air and space cooperation.

“There’s so much more that’s being thought about,” Metrolis confirmed, “especially in air and space: the E-7 [Wedgetail], fifth- and sixth-gen fighters. Sixth-generation might become an AUKUS pillar.”

How exactly that might manifest remains to be seen. While the U.K. is developing Tempest and the U.S. is pursuing NGAD, Australia has yet to publicly involve itself with a sixth-generation program.

As those future decisions are made, Metrolis said there will be economic and industrial base considerations. But even more so will be the question of interoperability.

“We’re very interoperable with the U.K., more than any other nation,” Metrolis said. “And as the F-35 rolls out across NATO, along with other platforms like the E-7, we’ll become even more interoperable. But we still have a lot to do with the interoperable piece.”

US Aircrews Took a Break From Busy NATO Ops Tempo to Greet Civilians at UK Airshows

July 27, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

FARNBOROUGH, U.K.—As tens of thousands of industry officials, military personnel, and aviation enthusiasts streamed through the Royal International Air Tattoo and Farnborough International Airshow, many gathered to see U.S. Air Force jets, assembled from across Europe and the U.S., and to speak to the aircrew who fly them.

For the Airmen, the airshows marked a key opportunity to engage with civilians at a time when concerns about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and its implications for the continent are dominating the public discussion.

“People that are coming by … are interested in the aircraft and asking all sorts of questions about how NATO is structured and what USAFE is doing here,” Capt. Jacob Herrick, an F-16 pilot from Aviano Air Base, Italy, told Air Force Magazine from the U.S. corral at Farnborough, which also featured an F-15E and F-35 from RAF Lakenheath, U.K., and a C-130H from the Georgia Air National Guard.

Even more USAF aircraft were displayed at RIAT, including a CV-22 Osprey, a KC-46 Pegasus, a KC-135R Stratotanker, and an MC-130J Commando II. And between the two airshows, there was plenty of focus on what comes next—and questions, F-35 pilot Maj. David Bown told Air Force Magazine.

“[I’ve been] answering a lot of questions about the F-35 and what capabilities it brings to the U.S. Air Force, as well as all our partner nations. And then … at Farnborough, [I’ve been] meeting a lot with the industry and trade show partners, kind of seeing what the future holds,” Bown said.

The F-35, in particular, garnered intense interest from spectators, as more European nations move forward with plans to procure the fifth-generation fighter for their own air forces.

Of course, for many, the chance to see all of the fighters up close was unique.

“Everyone comes over to look at the Strike Eagle and talks about the size and how it’s one of the best fighters that they can think of,” F-15E weapons systems officer Capt. Trent Norton said. “It’s a lot of people who … they grew up seeing the Strike Eagle, or just the Eagle in general, and wanting to see it in person, and now they have the opportunity to be real close or even touch it, and they’re all really excited to see it.”

For the pilots and aircrew, the time at the airshows represented a change of scenery after several months of high operations tempo. In response to Russia’s invasion, the U.S. has increased its vigilance on the eastern front of NATO, with more air policing missions in the region and rotations in the area.

“We’re … supporting NATO and supporting our partner countries,” Herrick said. “So everything that they’re telling us to do, we’re out there doing it alongside England, Germany, everybody else that’s supporting NATO.”

For the F-16s at Aviano, in particular, he added that the past few months have been especially busy.

“We’re kind of becoming the quick-reaction force for NATO. Out in Aviano, we’re a little bit more forward deployed than the base … at Lakenheath, so we’re a bit more rapidly deployable,” Herrick said.

For the fighters from Lakenheath, ops tempos have always been high and have stayed relatively steady recently, Norton and Bown agreed. But there’s no denying that world events have created a new urgency.

“There’s a heightened awareness around the base and around the world on what’s going on,” Bown said. “And the motto is just, we’re always prepared, no matter what.”