Space Force Hopes for Wear Testing of Uniforms in Spring 2023

Space Force Hopes for Wear Testing of Uniforms in Spring 2023

Aug. 19, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—Right now, just six prototypes of the Space Force’s service dress uniform exist—the two debuted by male and female officers in September 2021, two more for enlisted male and female Guardians, one for Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, and one for Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger A. Towberman.

In the next several months, the service and the Air Force Uniform Office plan to expand those numbers—and draw ever closer to getting the new duds out to every Guardian, leaders said during the Life Cycle Industry Days conference.

Since the uniforms first debuted at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in 2021, the Space Force has taken them on roadshows and tweaked some elements of the design, particularly the collar and the pants.

The next step is “fit testing,” said Catherine Lovelady, change management team lead.

“So that is next where they roll out … about 30 different sizes for males and females. And we’ll have people come in and try them on and see how are they fitting,” Lovelady said. “And they might have to do some pattern adjustments to it after that.”

After that comes “wear testing,” which involves making “another set of 100 uniforms that will actually be worn by Guardians for at least three times a week for three months, to see what did they feel like, what did they like, not like, and if any kind of changes need to be made from there,” Lovelady said.

From there, the Air Force Uniform Office will confirm the details and “specs” of the design before sending them to the Defense Logistics Agency, which will put the uniform into production.

The timeline on fit and wear testing is still a little unsettled due to supply chain issues that have plagued the process—and other military branches—for months now. Tracy Roan, head of the Uniform Office, previously noted that her team wasn’t even slated to receive fabric for test assets until “late summer.”

Tentatively, however, the Space Force is now planning on fit testing taking place “somewhere between November and January. … And then, once we complete that, we’ll move to wear testing, which we hope to be in the spring [of 2023].”

All the while, Lovelady said, the Space Force has continued to receive positive feedback on the design of the uniforms, which incorporates symbols such as the USSF delta logo, a standing collar on the dark blue—nearly black—jacket, and a row of six offset buttons representing the six U.S. armed services. 

In particular, Guardians have liked how the new uniforms allow for more movement than the traditional service dress uniforms, Lovelady said.

“One of the things that Tracy and [the Air Force Uniform Office] did is they’ve gone out and looked at different fabrics,” Lovelady said. “So our material actually has some stretch to it. It’s not the same polywool that has been used in the past. It’s still a polywool, but it has lycra. … So it’s much more comfortable. People can move in it. 

“And especially with ours being a little bit more tighter through the [torso] because it’s essentially double breasted, it comes over, and it allows them that movement. I mean, when we went out on the roadshows, our female officers were like, ‘Look, I could do calisthenics in it.’ And people really, they put it on, and they’re like, ‘Oh my God, this feels so good.’ So we really had it well received.”

The emphasis on designing uniforms specifically for female Guardians has been a frequent theme from Space Force leaders throughout the rollout.

“Quite frankly, in the past, and I’m a retired military member, uniforms didn’t fit women necessarily as well as a lot of people would like,” Lovelady said. “And that has been really driven really by the top down. Our senior leadership wants to make sure that women have a uniform that fits appropriately and looks appropriate on them.

“And you’ll notice that with ours, we did a lot of things like, typically, women’s shirts close one way and men’s shirts close the other. And so when you look at the design of ours, it has that asymmetric look to it. We intentionally made it so it’s the same for both males and females. So when you see them at a distance, it’s not like on the males, the asymmetry goes one way and on females the other way. So it looks the same, but they wear appropriately for females.”

B-52s Land at RAF Fairford for Bomber Task Force Mission

B-52s Land at RAF Fairford for Bomber Task Force Mission

Aug. 18, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Multiple B-52 bombers from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., arrived at RAF Fairford, England, on Aug. 18 as part of a bomber task force mission in Europe, U.S. Air Forces in Europe announced.

“These Bomber Task Force missions across Europe provide a great opportunity to improve our combined readiness, promote interoperability and demonstrate our global power projection alongside our Allies,” Gen. James Hecker, commander of USAFE-AFAFRICA, said in a statement. “Our ultimate strength in the European area of operations is a joint-force lethality—our ability to train and operate with our Allies and partners as one layered, capable and credible combat team.”

Flying into Fairford, the B-52s from the 5th Bomb Wing got a quick start on that training with allies, integrating with fighters from Norway and Sweden.

For Sweden, in particular, the integration marks another milestone as the country continues to progress toward NATO membership.

“Witnessing our nation’s Gripen fighter aircraft flying alongside several of America’s most powerful military aircraft visually depicts the strength and solidarity of NATO,” Maj. Gen. Carl-Johan Edström, commander of the Swedish Air Force, said in a statement. “These moments truly capture the military power that exists within NATO—as individual nations, but, more importantly, as a unified Alliance.”

Media reports in the United Kingdom noted four of the iconic bombers landing at Fairford, garnering considerable attention from locals.

“Our strategic bomber missions demonstrate our always ready, global strike capability,” Lt. Col Ryan Loucks, 23rd Expeditionary Bomb Squadron BTF commander. “The B-52 remains a universally recognized symbol of America’s assurances to our Allies and partners.”

This marks the second time this year B-52s from Minot have flown to RAF Fairford for a bomber task force mission. In February, four of the bombers arrived in Europe. Prior to that, B-1B bombers from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, deployed to RAF Fairford in November 2021.

RAF Fairford is the only forward operating location for U.S. bombers in Europe, so bomber task forces are usually based from there, with the aircraft flying missions across the continent and sometimes farther in a projection of U.S. air power and as an opportunity for aircrews to integrate with allies and partners.

This most recent BTF marks the first one the Air Force has announced since Russia invaded Ukraine in late February, raising security concerns across the region and leading NATO to significantly increase its air policing and air shielding missions along its eastern flank. USAFE’s release on the mission made no mention of Russia, and it is unclear if the B-52s will fly over Eastern Europe during their time in the region.

b-52 mission
A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., lands at RAF Fairford, England, Aug 18, 2022. Royal Air Force photo.
Report: Air Force, Other Services Need to Clarify Tattoo Policies, Waiver Process

Report: Air Force, Other Services Need to Clarify Tattoo Policies, Waiver Process

Aug. 18, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

All of the armed services, including the Air Force and Space Force, should update their policies to give recruits and service members more clarity on the waiver process for tattoos, according to a new report released Aug. 17.

The Government Accountability Office conducted the study, which Congress requested as part of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. The study looked at the tattoo policies of the Air Force, Space Force, Army, Navy, Marine Corps, and Coast Guard. Specifically, the report was meant to evaluate the impact of those policies and the waiver process on recruiting and retention.

The report made no conclusions about how much the services’ tattoo policies were affecting recruiting and retention, noting that the services’ recruiting and retention data “do not include tattoo-specific data or other information that would allow an assessment of whether tattoo policies have a direct effect on recruitment and retention.”

Instead, different services have conducted limited assessments or studies over the years that have shaped their policies. For example, the Air Force Recruiting Service conducted surveys in 2016 and 2021. Both concluded that a number of recruits or applicants had tattoos that would require review or potentially be disqualifying from service.

Both of those surveys led the Air Force to loosen its tattoo policy, a general trend across the services in recent years as the military looks to keep pace with a target population that is increasingly inked. Recent studies have suggested that roughly four out of every 10 young Americans have a tattoo, and many have multiple.

Now, almost every service allows troops to have at least some kind of tattoo everywhere but the head and neck, the GAO report found. And the Space Force is even easing off that restriction, announcing in May that Guardians will be allowed to have a single small tattoo on the back of the neck.

But while policies continue to loosen, there are still some restrictions. Service members and recruits can apply for waivers to those restrictions, but the GAO report found that most of the services, including the Air Force and Space Force, do not include enough information on the waiver process in their policies.

Specifically, both the Air Force and Space Force don’t clearly specify the “requirements for requests and conditions for waiver approval” for recruits, the GAO report found. For Airmen and Guardians already in the service, there’s even less information on the process, including what kinds of tattoos may be eligible for a waiver.

The GAO report concluded by recommending that each of the services, including USAF and USSF, update its respective tattoo policy “to better ensure that it clearly documents whether waivers to the tattoo policy are available for both recruits and service members; and provides clear guidance on tattoos eligible for waivers, the waiver approval authority, requirements for requesting a waiver, and on any other conditions required for waiver consideration or approval.”

The report indicates that all the services agreed with the recommendation.

The push to make policies less restrictive and to give more clarity on the waiver process comes as the military’s leaders warn that recruiting is facing a crisis. Air Force Recruiting Service commander Maj. Gen. Ed Thomas recently likened the current environment to a “week-to-week dogfight,” and the service has dramatically increased the number of career fields in which it is offering an enlistment bonus in hopes of enticing recruits.

Rolls-Royce Supports USAF with Experience, Innovation

Rolls-Royce Supports USAF with Experience, Innovation

Aug. 18, 2022 | By Adam Stone

The roots of innovation trace back to World War I. Rolls-Royce’s predecessor company in Indianapolis, the Allison Engine Company, adapted early automobile engines for the De Havilland DH-4, a single-engine, two-seat biplane bomber. Later, Allison designed and manufactured thousands of engines for such legendary American military aircraft as the P-51, P-38, P-39, P-40, and others, and provided engines for the British Spitfire. Throughout the history of its Indianapolis operations, Allison and later Rolls-Royce have remained a trusted Air Force partner through technological, economic, and military revolutions—including the acquisition and name change.

“When Rolls-Royce acquired Allison in 1995, it picked up that legacy and tradition of supporting first the Army Air Corps, and later the U.S. Air Force,” said Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson (retired), senior vice president of business development at Rolls-Royce North America. “From the very start with this company, there was an innovative mindset—a determination to stay on the leading edge of technology and capabilities in support of warfighters.”

Engine making is and was always part science, part art. There is a reason just a few companies today can build high-tech jet engines. “There are fewer, in fact, than nations with nuclear arms,” he said. No wonder, he adds, that “Even today, the Russians and Chinese still try to steal our technology—they can’t match it on their own.”

That long-standing engineering culture helps ensure that Rolls-Royce delivers today—on its promises, with its technology, under any conditions, from extreme heat to destructive sands, to bone-chilling cold.

“There is a lot of technology that goes into this, as well as the ability to test and modify, to work out the wrinkles,” he said. “We use our long history, our experience, to optimize these engines in ways that others cannot.”

One reason, Roberson said: The deep, direct ties between Rolls-Royce employees and their Air Force customers. Roberson spent 34 years as a USAF fighter pilot and commander. “I was a part of the Air Force for half of the time that the Air Force had been in existence,” he mused. “I grew up with it.” Now he gets a thrill from continuing to contribute.

“As an industry partner for the Air Force, it is critically important for us to understand their needs and desires, where they’re trying to go and how best to help them get there. The years spent servicing those engines, upgrading those engines, helping to improve capabilities—that tight relationship and our daily side-by-side work—all that gives us a deep understanding of the culture of the United States Air Force.”

Rolls-Royce engines power the C-130, the workhorse transport and its derivatives, and the versatile CV-22 tiltrotor, as well as the unmanned Global Hawk long-endurance, high-altitude, remotely piloted surveillance aircraft.

C-130J airframes have flown more than 2 million flight hours performing airlift, search and rescue, special ops, electronic warfare, and other needs. “It is critically important and super versatile aircraft,” Roberson said. Whether older -H models or newer C-130Js, “I have no doubt we will be supporting C-130s for at least the next 20 or 30 years.”

Rolls-Royce was a pioneer in vertical lift, powering the Marine Corps’ AV-8B Harriers as well as the V-22 and the engineering enabling those engines to direct their thrust through the transition from horizontal to vertical flight and back again—among the most complex engine technologies. Rolls-Royce also provides the vertical lift capability for the F-35B Lightning II.

“We are the leader in understanding how to take off vertically and transition to horizontal flight,” Roberson said. “When you tilt it from one orientation to another, when you transition from vertical operation to horizontal operation, these are extremely complex conversions. Rolls-Royce’s experience is unparalleled.”

No less unique is the B-52, and Rolls-Royce continues to evolve engine capabilities. Engineers work to improve the propulsion, and to deliver more electrical power to support emerging systems.

“These advanced electronic systems that are important for survival in engagements with the enemy, the systems that are needed to put precision fires on a target—all of that requires additional power,” Roberson said. “We are constantly improving, constantly upgrading and advancing to provide what the Air Force needs to conduct the modern fight.”

Rolls-Royce is at the heart of an effort to keep the B-52 Stratofortress flying until it approaches the century mark. To do that, Rolls matched the proven engines from its business-jet business to the rigorous requirements demanded of a long-range bomber. Advanced engineering made that easy.

“The ability to digitally manipulate the data that we have on our engine made a big difference in the competition,” Roberson said. “Suppose a question came up: ‘What if we needed more power for this or that?’ Our ability to digitally analyze the B-52 allowed us to very accurately predict what we could or could not do, and what the impacts and potential cost implications would be. All of that allowed us to be very precise and responsive both to the Air Force and to Boeing.”

Rolls-Royce is likewise applying those technologies to manufacturing, using digital twins to model performance and predict maintenance, and applying digital engineering and advanced materials and manufacturing processes to reduce parts count, increase reliability, and boost performance.

“In some cases, we’ve leveraged modern manufacturing and materials technology to reduce the thousands of parts that make up an engine by a significant amount,” Roberson said.

“We’re delivering better fuel efficiency and longer flight times, but with less maintenance and greater reliability,” he said.

Looking Ahead

Military aircraft must fly under often difficult conditions, often under extreme heat, cold, and in dirty, sub-optimal environs. Combat conditions only make the demands more intense. “We work hard to give the Air Force engines that do what they need to do in combat,” Roberson said. “That requires a lot of engineering prowess.”

Modern technologies like additive manufacturing enables fewer parts, and new materials, such as coatings, can last longer and reduce downtime. Digital engineering is the key enabler, because it makes it possible to experiment using digital models rather than real life, so that in the long term, “We can manufacture parts in innovative, new ways, much more quickly, and much more reliably,” Roberson said.

“Technology now is allowing us to achieve greater levels of performance in higher-temperature engines than we ever could before,” Roberson said. Further down the road, Rolls-Royce is working on hybrid-electric flight, a solution Roberson said could give pilots greater stealth, as they switch to the quieter electric mode when approaching enemy positions. And the reduced heat profile of an electric engine would also reduce the likelihood of detection.

“This company is absolutely committed to hybrid electric and electric flight for the future,” Roberson said. “We always want to be on the leading edge.”

A Trusted Partnership

Throughout the history of its Indianapolis operations, Allison and later Rolls-Royce, which acquired the company in 1995, has remained a trusted Air Force partner.

1917Early American military pilots begin flying DH.4 aircraft, initially powered by Rolls-Royce Eagle engines. Later versions featured Liberty powerplants, which were based on race car engines, from Allison Engine Co. in Indianapolis.
1942Allison opens new factory in Indianapolis, Indiana, to produce V-1710 piston engines. These engines would power P-51, P-38, P-39, P-40 and other aircraft during and after World War II. Later versions of the P-51s would be powered by Rolls-Royce Merlin engines, iconic for their use in RAF Spitfires and Hurricanes.
1947Allison begins producing J33 engines, which will go on to power the P-80 Shooting Star, the Air Force’s first operational jet fighter, as well as the F-94 Starfire and the T-33 jet trainer. Allison produced nearly 7,000 J33 engines. Its later J35 engines would become the primary powerplant for the F-84 Thunderjet and F-89 Scorpion.
1956First production C-130A aircraft are delivered to the Air Force, the first among more than 2,600 aircraft to be produced in the C-130 line. The initial aircraft were powered by four T56 turboprop engines from the Allison factories in Indianapolis. The T56 becomes one of the longest production engines in aviation history, with over 18,000 engines produced.
1968First flight of the USAF A-7D Corsair II, powered by a single Allison TF41 turbofan engine, a license-built version of the Rolls-Royce Spey. A-7D aircraft flew in the Air Force fleet for more than 20 years.
1985An Allison engine, designated T406 and later renamed as the Rolls-Royce AE 1107C, is selected to power the V-22 tiltrotor aircraft.
1995Rolls-Royce purchases Allison Engine Co. with U.S. Government approval, officially joining two companies with a long, intertwined history of aerospace collaboration.
1996First flight of the C-130J, powered by four Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 turboprop engines.
1998First flight of the Global Hawk UAV aircraft, powered by a single Rolls-Royce AE 3007H turbofan engine.
2006First operational CV-22 aircraft delivered to Air Force at Kirtland AFB, powered by Rolls-Royce AE 1107C turboshaft engines.
2019Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 engines surpass 8 million engine flight hours on the C-130J fleet.
2021Air Force selects Rolls-Royce F130 engines, to be produced in Indianapolis, for B-52 engine replacement.

AFSOC Grounds CV-22 Osprey Fleet Over Safety Issue

AFSOC Grounds CV-22 Osprey Fleet Over Safety Issue

Aug. 17, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force Special Operations Command grounded its CV-22 Osprey fleet Aug. 16 as part of a safety stand down, with no timeline set for the aircraft to begin flying again, the command confirmed to Air Force Magazine.

The stand down, ordered by AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife, comes after two incidents of “hard clutch engagement” in the past six weeks, AFSOC spokesperson Lt. Col. Rebecca Heyse said in an emailed statement.

News of the stand down was first reported by Breaking Defense.

Hard clutch engagement involves the clutch connecting the rotor gear box to the engine slipping, then catching hard, causing the aircraft to lurch.

The two incidents in the past six weeks came after two in the previous five years, Heyse said. No injuries have been reported as a result of the incidents, “due in large part to the skill and professionalism of our Air Commandos who operate the CV-22,” Heyse said.

AFSOC hadn’t yet gathered enough engineering data analysis to identify the cause of the issue, “so it’s unknown if it’s mechanical, design, software or some combination of any of those,” Heyse said.

And until a root cause is determined and risk control measures are put in place, “no AFSOC CV-22s will fly,” she said. Ultimately, “the goal is to determine a viable long term materiel solution,” she added.

The Marine Corps and Navy both operate their own versions of the Osprey, and AFSOC has been in contact with Naval Air Systems Command about the issue, Heyse said, deferring comment on any stand down of those aircraft to the respective services.

AFSOC has more than 50 Ospreys in its fleet, based out of Cannon Air Force Base, N.M., Hurlburt Field, Fla., Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., RAF Mildenhall, U.K., and Yokota Air Base, Japan. The CV-22’s tiltrotor design allows it to take off and land vertically but pivot its engines forward for higher-speed and longer-range horizontal flight.

The aircraft has generated controversy with its safety record, however. Within the past six months, nine Marines have died in two separate crashes on board the MV-22 Osprey.

The CV-22’s stand down marks the second such grounding of Air Force planes in recent weeks, as Air Combat Command just recently cleared its F-35As to begin flying again after conducting inspections for a faulty ejection seat part.

Promotion Rate for Staff Sergeants Hits Lowest Point Since 1997

Promotion Rate for Staff Sergeants Hits Lowest Point Since 1997

Aug. 17, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force’s recent trend of low promotion rates for enlisted noncommissioned officers continued Aug. 17, as the service announced it had tapped just 9,706 senior airmen out of 45,991 eligible to become staff sergeants—a 21.1 percent promotion rate.

That mark is the lowest in nearly a quarter of a century, according to data provided by the Air Force Personnel Center to Air Force Magazine. In 1997, just 18.66 percent of eligible senior airmen were selected.

The low promotion rate was driven by both an unusually high number of eligible senior airmen—the most since 1998—and a relatively low total number of Airmen selected—the fewest since 2014, and just the second time this century when fewer than 10,000 were picked.

This year’s numbers also represent a dramatic shift from just a few years ago, when the service promoted roughly half of those eligible in 2018 and 2019. Even as recently as 2020, the promotion rate was 41.58 percent, just shy of double the 2022 rate. 

The 2014 cycle is the only other one since 2000 to have a rate below 30 percent.

The official release of those who were selected for promotion will take place at 8 a.m. Central time Aug. 25, according to AFPC. The list will be available on the Air Forces Personnel Center website’s Enlisted Promotion page, the Air Force Portal, and myPers.

The Air Force uses Weighted Airman Promotion System (WAPS) tests for E-5s. The test was revamped in 2022, going from 100 knowledge-based questions to 60 knowledge questions and 20 “situational judgment test” questions. The service also changed how it evaluated Enlisted Promotion Reports.

While the Space Force has moved to promotion boards for all its noncommissioned officers, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass has previously said her office is considering whether to do away with WAPS after moving to boards for ranks E-7 through E-9.

Regardless, enlisted promotion rates have been down for many NCO ranks this year. The service promoted its fewest tech sergeants in a decade, and the promotion rate for master sergeant was the lowest it’s been since 2010.

And those numbers are unlikely to rebound in the near future, the service has warned, as a result of high retention amid the COVID-19 pandemic, end strength numbers plateauing, and recent enlisted grade structure revisions.

In particular, leaders say the grade structure revisions were necessary to combat a decline in experience among Airmen in the NCO corps.

“The majority of the experience decline was attributable to the Air Force trying to achieve an enlisted force structure with too many higher grades,” Col. James Barger, Air Force Manpower Analysis Agency commander, said in a July statement. “We also found that experience levels would continue to decline unless the Air Force lays in more junior Airmen allocations and fewer E5-E7 allocations.”

The goal, Barger said, is to reach a “healthier” distribution of Airmen across grades by fiscal 2025—seemingly indicating that lower promotion rates could continue for another two or three years.

YEARSELECTEDELIGIBLEPROMOTION RATE
20229,70645,99121.10
202115,66044,66335.06
202013,86433,34141.58
201914,23529,17948.79
201815,66930,65151.12
201714,18132,00644.31
201616,50639,06442.25
201513,26939,26033.80
20149,40336,73925.59
201311,21234,07832.90
201213,44833,06040.68
201111,33726,54942.70
201013,51828,51047.41
200915,22330,57449.79
200812,20928,09843.45
200715,13036,60841.33
200613,29837,07135.87
200514,61436,40540.14
200413,62533,30640.91
200313,65127,41649.79
200219,44830,88062.98
200120,79332,17064.63
200019,60538,65450.72
199916,05344,10936.39
199811,03348,71922.65
19979,85452,82018.66
Source: Air Force Personnel Center
With FMS, Air Force Looks to Integrate With Allies Earlier and in New Ways

With FMS, Air Force Looks to Integrate With Allies Earlier and in New Ways

Aug. 17, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—With a new policy in hand, the Air Force’s Foreign Military Sales enterprise is looking to go beyond selling USAF systems to allies and partner nations—and instead to help them develop their own capabilities.

Such an approach, deemed “non-program of record acquisitions,” is part of a larger shift in FMS toward more and earlier integration with other countries, Brig. Gen. Luke Cropsey, director of the Air Force security assistance and cooperation directorate, told reporters at the Life Cycle Industry Days conference.

“Over the last decade, in particular, we’ve seen a significant shift to partners not only wanting to get in earlier, but in a lot of cases, actually wanting to get into doing platforms or designs that we aren’t flying,” Cropsey said. 

In the past, “we typically didn’t sell weapons systems to foreign partners until after Milestone C, when we had basically a production capability up and running, and we had already gone through all of our wickets, testing and everything else, so that we had a good, stable product that we knew that we were going to be able to provide,” Cropsey said. And when it came to systems that the Air Force wasn’t producing for itself, there was little, if any, way to help.

But now, with the new “non-program of record acquisition” policy—implemented in the past year—Cropsey and his team are able to “pull in a foreign partner nation’s money from a funding perspective and marry that up with somebody else’s money and actually form a collective program around those shared requirements,” he said.

While there have been other ways for partners to work with the Air Force to develop new systems and capabilities, such as international agreements, Cropsey noted that being able to do so through Foreign Military Sales will create more opportunities for more countries.

“The fact that we’ve now added that capability from a policy perspective into what we’re capable of doing in the FMS portfolio, I think is a big benefit to our partners, because the FMS side of this business is by far the the larger … when it comes to the number of countries that we have involved and the size of the dollars associated with it,” Cropsey said.

The most high-profile example of this new policy to date has been L3Harris’ electronic warfare suite for the F-16, called Viper Shield. While the U.S. Air Force has chosen Northrop Grumman to equip its F-16s with the Integrated Viper Electronic Warfare Suite, USAF and Lockheed Martin selected Viper Shield to go on the F-16V, designed solely for FMS.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. made reference to Viper Shield in a speech in July at the Global Air and Space Chiefs’ Conference in London, saying the process “brought together partners from the Indo-Pacific, Europe, the Middle East, and Africa.”

But still more can be done, Brown said, as he laid out his vision for “Integrated by Design,” a process by which the Air Force will “start with allies and partners in mind versus building U.S. first, then adapting to include allies and partners.”

A key portion of integration by design, Brown stressed, is Foreign Military Sales, and in bilateral talks with allies, he said he has frequently heard that the U.S. must improve its FMS.

“I will tell you, this is something we are working on,” Brown pledged.

And even beyond non-program of record acquisitions, there will be other ways for the enterprise to innovate, he indicated.

“There are opportunities to leverage or change existing policies to enable us to work together to align investments, capabilities, and approaches, so together, we can optimize our innovation and industrial capacities,” Brown said. “And together, we should look deeper at our capability development and export policies to see where we can either open up or change policies to better align efforts.”

Air Force Global Strike Command Test-Launches Minuteman III

Air Force Global Strike Command Test-Launches Minuteman III

Aug. 16, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force Global Strike Command test-launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile Aug. 16, several days after delaying the test to avoid stoking tensions with China.

The launch from Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., took place at 12:49 a.m. Pacific time. The ICBM reentry vehicle traveled approximately 4,200 miles to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands, AFGSC announced in a press release.

Airmen from the 625th Strategic Operations Squadron at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., and Sailors from the Navy’s Strategic Communications Wing executed the launch on board a Navy E-6B Mercury aircraft using the Airborne Launch Control System.

Airmen from the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., and 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., helped support the test launch, while the Space Force’s Col. Bryan Titus, vice commander of Space Launch Delta 30, was the launch decision authority.

“This scheduled test launch is demonstrative of how our nation’s ICBM fleet illustrates our readiness and reliability of the weapon system. It is also a great platform to show the skill sets and expertise of our strategic weapons maintenance personnel and of our missile crews who maintain an unwavering vigilance to defend the homeland,” Col. Chris Cruise, 576th Flight Test Squadron Commander, said in a statement.

AFGSC emphasized in its release that the test launch “is not the result of current world events,” and in a separate release, Space Launch Delta 30 indicated that the launch had been scheduled years in advance. 

That schedule shifted slightly, however, when Speaker of the House of Representatives, Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.), led a Congressional delegation on a visit to Taiwan in early August. 

That visit, the first by a Speaker to the island in 25 years, drew a fiery response from China, which considers Taiwan a rogue province and rightfully its territory. The Chinese launched military exercises all around the island. U.S. President Joe Biden, seeking to avoid escalating tensions, announced Aug. 4 that the Minuteman III test would be delayed.

China is still conducting military exercises around Taiwan after another U.S. congressional delegation visited the island, but the Minuteman III test took place 12 days after the initial postponement.

That stands in contrast to earlier this year, when the Pentagon first delayed, then canceled, an ICBM test entirely to avoid potential miscommunication and escalation. In March, the Defense Department postponed a test in the early days of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as Russian President Vladimir Putin raised tensions by putting his nuclear forces on high alert. In April, the Air Force announced that the test had been canceled.

The last publicly announced test launch was in August 2021.

‘Wildly Successful’ Skyborg Will Become Program of Record but Won’t Stop Developing S&T

‘Wildly Successful’ Skyborg Will Become Program of Record but Won’t Stop Developing S&T

Aug. 16, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—Skyborg, the Air Force’s effort to develop an artificial intelligence-enabled system to control unmanned aircraft, is ready to “graduate” and contribute to key programs such as the Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems, a top program executive officer said.

But while the so-called Vanguard effort is seemingly on the verge of becoming a program of record, it won’t stop developing, experimenting, and testing new technologies.

For months, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has described his vision of four to five low-cost, uncrewed aircraft flying alongside the crewed fighter that will be the centerpiece of NGAD—or other fighters such as the F-35—to create a formation. Lately, Air Force officials have started referring to those uncrewed aircraft as collaborative combat aircraft, or CCA.

Kendall and other leaders have pushed an ambitious pace to deploy these drones, perhaps by the middle of the 2020s. Such a timeline is a credit to the success of Skyborg, Brig. Gen. Dale R. White, program executive officer for the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s fighters and advanced aircraft directorate, told reporters during the Life Cycle Industry Days conference.

“We used Skyborg as the foundation, the stepping-off point, with all of the [science and technology] work that we did, which feeds into it, and we’re continuing to work with industry and with the enterprise, and we’ll continue to refine that approach,” White said, adding that because of Skyborg, the CCA effort is not “starting from zero.”

Since being identified as a priority effort in 2020, Skyborg has already demonstrated capabilities that CCAs will likely need.

In December 2020, a drone included in the Skyborg program flew alongside an Air Force F-22 and Marine Corps F-35, allowing the two crewed platforms to communicate using otherwise incompatible datalinks. The Autonomous Core System, the “brain” of Skyborg, has successfully flown multiple aircraft made by different contractors. Multiple drones operated by the ACS have flown together, demonstrating a drone “teaming” capability. And there have been other flight tests as well, the details of which have not been publicly announced.

“I think the most important thing is our ability to show that the Autonomous Core System was effective and it can be moved from aircraft to aircraft,” White said. “And so that demonstration we had in [2021] was really to focus on … we had two completely different vendors, two completely different aircraft, and we could use the Autonomous Core System on both. And so that served as kind of a foundation that autonomy was something that was mature enough to be able to move the program forward, and that’s going to feed the CCA approach.”

In its 2023 budget request, the Air Force indicated that it wanted more than $100 million over the next two years to further that approach under a Research, Development, Test, and Engineering program called Autonomous Collaborative Platforms, which “matures technology from the Science and Technology (S&T) Skyborg Vanguard program,” budget documents state.

In that regard, “we see Skyborg as kind of a graduation exercise,” White said. “The Secretary has made it clear he sees the vision of a program of CCAs. That shouldn’t be a question. He’s made that abundantly clear.”

But while Skyborg’s technology is maturing and advancing toward operational use, the program’s S&T side won’t slow down, White added. 

“Most people may not know this, but Skyborg is still flying. We just flew again in June,” he said. “They’re still pushing out capability, continuing to push the bounds of what we can do with autonomy.”

Indeed, White indicated that Skyborg has not only proven out technology for autonomous unmanned aircraft, but it has also demonstrated a new way for acquisition and S&T to work together.

“While we may graduate, programmatically speaking, there’s still continued work that needs to be done on the S&T side,” White said. “And what we found is through that process of Skyborg, that relationship between the PEO and [Air Force Research Laboratory] commander [Heather L. Pringle], it has proven to give us so much benefit. I get to steer what I think she should be looking at. And then she goes off and does that. And then that feeds into the decision space of how we build capabilities.”

Ideally, White added, that’s how the Air Force would like for all its programs to work. “In the case of Skyborg, it was just wildly successful in terms of what we got out of it, what we continue to get out of it, and how we use that to present decision space to our leaders on how we set up programs of record,” he said.

Such an approach is especially important for Skyborg given its focus on software, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Observers and officials have frequently bemoaned the Pentagon’s acquisition process for cutting-edge technology, saying it doesn’t work with the rapidly iterated, constantly improving approach of tech innovators.

By allowing Skyborg’s science and technology progress to continue while integrating it into collaborative combat aircraft and other programs, the Air Force is moving closer to operational AI, said Caitlin Lee, senior fellow for the Mitchell Institute’s Center for Unmanned and Autonomous Systems.

“It is really important to prototype and to do so quickly and to iterate quickly and to do lots of tests and evaluation, and Skyborg is doing that,” Lee said. “What I’m talking about is crossing what they call the Valley of Death into a program of record. And I think the real trick there is that you can’t just stovepipe this AI in a program of record all by itself. It’s got to be constantly integrated and developed within a platform and optimized for that platform.”