KC-46 Boom Operators Learn to Live With RVS Pending 2.0 Upgrade

Aug. 9, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J.—The KC-46 boom operators stopped talking and leaned in as New Jersey Air National Guard F-16s approached a refueling mission over upstate New York in July. The fighters were visible on a 1,080-pixel, black-and-white screen as they lined up behind the boom. The cockpit went quiet, too, and the pilot flipped to a visual of the aerial refueling as he listened for possible instructions from the boom operator, who chatted with the receiving aircraft.

Blackouts and washouts on KC-46s’ video displays during refueling, caused by shadows or direct sunlight, will remain a problem until the fleet’s Remote Vision System (RVS) 2.0 is ready. But after hundreds of hours of missions from the Pacific to NATO’s eastern flank, the boom operators have nevertheless learned to refuel most types of aircraft the Air Force flies.

Workarounds include software upgrades and a procedure by which receiving aircraft have to back away and approach again as the boom operators toggle between different visual displays. The results have amounted to better refueling accuracy but more delays.

“It can take anywhere from five minutes to 30 minutes,” explained Staff Sgt. Daquane Spikes of the 2nd Air Refueling Squadron, 305th Air Mobility Wing, of Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., describing the delays as he looked over the shoulder of a fellow boom operator instructor during the F-16 refueling.

“As far as the washout and the shadows, I normally notice it as the receiver is coming into contact,” he said.

Depending on how dark the shadow is, the boom can be completely blacked out on the display screen as it nears the receiver.

“You would probably not be able to see the receptacle in the boom, which would make you expect to lose your depth perception,” he said. “Then, you send them back and alternate your 3D camera scenes.”

The scene selection refers to the image on the black-and-white screen in front of the boom operator, who sits at the front of the aircraft, just behind the cockpit. A knob to the left of the screen allows the boom operator to flip between camera views.

Senior Airman Jon Vermont, sitting at the left boom operator console, explained how changing the scene gets around the defect.

“As the sun is changing [in] distance over the horizon, and [depending on] what degree it’s at, we need to change our scenes to match with it, to keep a good visual on the receiver itself,” Vermont said. “We’ll switch views, but the only time that we’re switching views is when the receiver is at 50 feet or farther aft.”

The limit on when a boom operator can switch scenes is due to another deficiency in the system: The screen blacks out for an instant with each turn of the knob. The Air Force requires that every time conditions such as clouds or lighting degrade the visual display, a boom operator must send the receiving aircraft back to 50 feet astern, then change the scene, before the aircraft begins a new approach.

“If we’re in a position where the sun is just beaming down on us and we can’t find a correct scene, we have to bring the receiver in and back them out multiple times,” Spikes said. “In a wartime situation, the less time that the receiver is around the boom, the more time they have to do whatever mission set they have that day.”

As of May 31, the KC-46 had received interim capability releases that permit it to refuel 97 percent of U.S. Transportation Command taskings. That includes most bombers, tankers, and fighters as well as airlift and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft. The only aircraft still not approved for refueling from a KC-46 include the A-10, B-2, CV/MV-22, and E-4B.

Still, however, the KC-46 is not approved for combat operations.

RVS 2.0 is expected to alleviate problems in depth perception with new cameras and a full-color, high-definition screen. Also, between scene changes, the screen will no longer blink black, meaning the boom operator will not have to send the receiver aircraft back aft.

‘A Sense of Deliberate Haste’

Commander of Air Mobility Command Gen. Mike Minihan told Air Force Magazine that the series of interim capability releases he issued over the past year have been meant to make the KC-46 operational and its crews trained and ready for the upgrade.

“Certainly, there are challenges that we have to plan a way through,” Minihan said in a July 28 phone interview.

“Some of the sunlight, some of the angles, some of the weather can make the crew have to do some planning that overcomes the limitations of the first [RVS] series,” he said, referring to coordination between receiving pilots and boom operators.

In some cases, boom operators may wait to begin aerial refueling until the receiving aircraft is positioned differently relative to the sun. Boom operators communicating directly with the receiving pilots may ask them to reposition the aircraft.

“I’m making sure that we all understand that there is a sense of deliberate haste when it comes to getting the 46 on step with RVS 2.0 and also them coming off the line with all those fixes already incorporated,” Minihan said of his discussions with Boeing.

Many KC-46s have upgraded to an “RVS 1.5” system, but the KC-46 on the July refueling flight was still operating on a lesser software upgrade, Vermont said.

Boeing has promised to deliver the RVS 2.0 system by fiscal 2023, but Minihan could not provide any further specifics on that timeline or how upgrades to current aircraft would be coordinated without losing AMC refueling capacity.

One thing is certain, boom operators with hundreds of hours of experience on older refuelers still prefer the KC-46, even with its current drawbacks.

Unlike KC-135 boom operators, for example, the KC-46’s boom operators don’t need to continue controlling the boom once it locks in to a receiver.

“Once we make contact with the receiver, it goes into a fly-by-wire system,” Vermont said of the automated system the takes over control of the boom once contact is made. “It follows the receiver around after we make contact. It can sense where the boom is, where the nozzle load is.”

The fly-by-wire system is the Aircraft Load Alleviation System (ALAS) whose purpose is to maintain contact by allowing the boom to follow the receiving aircraft’s movements. In older aircraft such as the KC-135, the boom operator has to follow the receiver manually. In the KC-10 and the KC-46, fly-by-wire systems reduce operator fatigue by following the receiver automatically.

A number of other advantages benefit receiving aircraft, Vermont said. The retiring KC-10’s third engine on the tail creates a draft as receivers approach the boom, while older KC-135s are “a little shaky,” making it harder for receivers to close in on the boom.

“The autopilot on this jet is fantastic,” said Vermont, who has 700 hours of flight time on the KC-46 and 800 hours on the KC-135.

Vermont explained that with an older airplane such as the KC-135, the autopilot “just couldn’t keep up” with certain aircraft bow waves—changes in air pressure caused by large receiving aircraft going at high speeds. The KC-46’s more advanced autopilot can keep up with the changes in pressure caused by the receivers.

“I’ve never had an auto-disconnect on me while doing AR,” Vermont added. “In previous tankers like the 135, if I had a C-5 behind me and he did a rapid movement, it could kick off our autopilot and cause a dangerous situation. I’ve never had anything like that happen.”

The KC-46’s autopilot also makes the possibility of a midair collision less likely. That’s because the newer system is able to adjust to the bow waves created by any sudden changes made by a larger cargo plane receiver, instead of shutting off and handing controls over to the pilot.

One way Minihan has sped up operational use and experience with the new plane has been to send it on employment concept exercises. In April, four KC-46s deployed to Moron Air Base, Spain, to help refuel NATO air policing missions over NATO’s eastern flank, and in June, KC-46s were used in an Indo-Pacific exercise out of Yokota Air Base, Japan.

The result has been more flying hours for crews on the new platform in priority theaters.

“The people that fly, fix, and support it love it. If you talk to the receivers that are refueling off it, they love it, too,” said Minihan, who has regular in-person meetings with Boeing executives to ensure that the coming RVS 2.0 upgrade remains on schedule and is quickly adopted across the AMC KC-46 fleet once ready.

“My favorite soundbite from one of the most experienced KC-46 boomers is, ‘I’ve never missed a plug,’” said Minihan, while emphasizing that AMC is preparing “an exquisite ballet” to ensure that no operational units are affected by the RVS 2.0 upgrade. “The timelines are still being worked, but it’s sooner rather than later.”

Editor’s Note: This story was corrected at 4 p.m. Eastern time June 11 to note that the refueled F-16s were from the New Jersey Air National Guard, not the Maryland Air National Guard.

GE’s XA100 Engine Would Create New Mission Possibilities for the F-35

Aug. 9, 2022 | By Nick Adde

“You must solve a lot of problems if you’re going to provide an Air Force that can fly effectively and complete its missions in that environment,” Retired U.S. Air Force Gen. Paul Hester said of the Pacific theater. Put more simply, “There’s a lot of room out there,” he said.

Hester has firsthand knowledge of this. He’s a former commander of USAF Pacific Air Forces. Operating effectively in that expansive theater, which will be a major focus of the USAF for the foreseeable future, is why he says re-engining the stealthy, multi-mission F-35A with a next-generation, adaptive powerplant must be part of the USAF’s plans.

GE’s AETP offering, called the XA100, has delivered on the Air Force’s original ask: 25% better fuel efficiency, twice the thermal management capacity, and at least 10% more thrust. Hester, who now consults for GE, notes the XA100’s three test campaigns—including one currently taking place at the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Development Complex (AEDC)—have demonstrated that generational jump in capability.

From a mission planning perspective, Hester says the effect such an engine would have in combat would be enormous. “More ‘miles per gallon’ means I can fly that much farther,” he said. “From a mission planner’s point of view, more range means you can complicate your adversary’s problems. Plus, I’m able to react better, with more options, to things that an adversary throws at me.”

“I’m able to expand my mission and pick different airfields I can operate from. I can take tankers away from contested airspace, and free up their availability for other aircraft that are part of my mission. I’ve opened up my envelope, my operational environment.”

The Air Force’s AETP (Adaptive Engine Transition Program) started in 2016 with this exact scenario in mind. General Electric (GE) and Pratt & Whitney are testing engines under this program with adaptive cycle engines that generate more power when you need it and then adapt for greater efficiency while cruising to extend the jet’s range. The AETP engines, designed as drop-in replacement engines for the F-35A, also provide a significant jump in cooling capability. That cooling is critical to support the F-35’s impending Block IV needs and capacity for growth in upcoming upgrades.

Hester notes that’s just the mission flexibility afforded by 25% better fuel efficiency. “That doesn’t account for the other improvements AETP provides,” he says.

Improvements in thrust and enhanced thermal management bring along similarly important mission benefits. Thrust, Hester notes as a former fighter pilot, “is something you can never get enough of. It increases your potential payload and your ability to get out of challenging situations.”

Thermal management is an area Hester notes is essential for both the short term and long term needs of the F-35 platform.

“The F-35’s thermal needs are growing,” he said. “And they’ll continue to grow as the jet modernizes throughout its service life. AETP brings double today’s thermal management capacity, which means plenty of cooling availability to absorb heat off various internal systems. The three-stream architecture AETP introduces, as opposed to the current two-stream architecture, is the key to solving the overheating problems we see today.”

Improvements in model-based systems engineering in recent years have also helped model the design and predict performance of GE’s XA100. Today’s tests of a physical engine are proving the accuracy of pre-test modeling and predictions.

“[The XA100] has tested at Air Force facilities in Tullahoma, Tennessee,” Hester said. “Through those tests, you’re able to look against the predicted ability of the engine to operate across the flight envelope and see where the actual data points are.”

The tests at AEDC are part of a long-term risk mitigation strategy Hester says the Air Force was wise to employ. “There is always a learning curve with jet engine development and design, whether it’s a new engine or an upgrade. But the way the Air Force structured its adaptive engine programs, methodically working through multiple programs and providing consistent funding for those programs, has allowed a significant amount of risk to be removed. That allows the Air Force to know what they’re getting before an Engineering and Manufacturing Development program.”

Digital engineering also has given GE the confidence that its engine fits not just the AETP target design vehicle in the F-35A, but also the carrier-based F-35C. GE has a part-number common engine for both aircraft, representing nearly 90% of the planned F-35 fleet.

“The most advanced aircraft in the world should have an engine to match,” Hester said. “The benefits are clear, and we need to move forward now to outpace an increasingly competitive environment.”

DOD Revises COVID-19 Guidelines for Travel, Masks, and More

Aug. 8, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

The Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness revised the Defense Department’s COVID-19 guidelines in a memo dated Aug. 8.

The new rules represent the second revision to the guidelines. They clarify what’s meant by being “up to date” on COVID-19 vaccines and when personnel must wear masks in vehicles, among other changes. The revised guidelines specify that:

Installation commanders must change their base’s Health Protection Condition Level (HPCON) based on the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s Community Level in the local county. Commanders must raise a base’s HPCON level no later than two weeks after the CDC raises its “Community Level” for the county the base is located in; and may lower the HPCON no sooner than two weeks after the CDC lowers the Community Level. Commanders no longer must coordinate with other nearby base commanders for “consistency in response and unity of messaging.”
Contact tracing activities will prioritize investigation of “cases, clusters, and outbreaks involving high-risk congregate settings, unusual clusters of cases, and … novel or emerging variants that post a significant risk for severe disease, hospitalization, or death.”
Personnel must self-screen for symptoms before entering a DOD facility “or interacting with members of the public in person as part of your official duties.” Those with symptoms or who feel sick must stay home. Symptoms for self-screening are outlined by the CDC.
Maintaining six feet of physical separation between individuals no longer applies to students in DOD schools.
Personnel must wear masks in indoor spaces on DOD transportation including aircraft and boats regardless of vaccination status or DOD Community Level. Whereas masks had been required in low-occupancy vehicles such as cars or vans when the Community Level was “High,” the new guidelines merely recommend masks in low-occupancy vehicles—but do so regardless of Community Level.
Someone is up to date on vaccinations when they’ve received “all recommended COVID-19 vaccines, including any booster doses recommended when eligible.”
Close contacts of infected individuals no longer must quarantine if the contact’s vaccination status is up to date. Close contacts whose vaccination status is not up to date must quarantine for five days.
Meeting organizers must require attendees to “follow the applicable requirements” for physical distancing in Section 5.2 of the guidelines.
The commander of U.S. Transportation Command has the authority to waive travel-related requirements “in order to continue execution of the Joint Deployment and Distribution Enterprise as required to protect and sustain the joint force globally.”
Evacuations and permanent changes of station are now considered “mission-critical” as they pertain to travel guidance.
DOD contracting officers may, but no longer must, require contractor personnel complete a risk assessment, including a self-health assessment, prior to traveling outside the U.S.
The cost of travel-related testing may be claimed as an expense.

Time Is Already Running Short for Congress to Pass 2023 NDAA, Spending Bills

Aug. 8, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

More than seven weeks still remain until the 2023 fiscal year begins on Oct. 1, but observers of Congress are already warning that time is running out for lawmakers to pass the annual National Defense Authorization Act and appropriations bill that will fund the Pentagon before that deadline.

Should Congress fail to pass those bills on time, they’ll have to pass a continuing resolution to keep the federal government open, a move that keeps spending levels frozen at the previous year’s levels.

Defense Department leaders have frequently bemoaned the use of CRs, saying they stall new programs, delay production increases, and keep funds stuck in the wrong accounts. Department of the Air Force leaders, in particular, have already said that any delay in the 2023 budgeting process would have “a particularly negative effect.”

Yet such a delay is looking more and more likely.

For the NDAA, the House passed its version of the bill in mid-July, increasing the top line of the Pentagon’s budget request by $37 billion. The Senate Armed Services Committee passed its version in June, with committee leadership filing it to the Senate floor in mid-July. The full chamber has yet to vote on the bill.

On the appropriations side of things, both the House and Senate have yet to approve a defense spending bill. The House Appropriations Committee did pass its markup of a spending plan for the Pentagon in June, but the full chamber has yet to debate it. The Senate Appropriations Committee, meanwhile, did not unveil its spending bills until late July.

“The good thing is that the House went ahead and passed six of the 12 appropriations bills,” retired Col. Anthony Lazarski, a former professional staff member for the Senate Armed Services Committee and aide to Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and a principal with consulting firm Cornerstone Government Affairs, said on the latest episode of the Mitchell Institute’s Aerospace Advantage podcast. “So they got them all out of committee, and then they brought six to the floor. … What didn’t come to the floor is the defense bill, as well as Homeland Security and a few others, because there just wasn’t an agreement, and they weren’t sure they were going to be able to get the votes on the floor.”

Now, Congress is at the start of its August recess period, with both chambers slated to return in early September after Labor Day. But with Election Day looming Nov. 8, lawmakers won’t stay in Washington, D.C., for long before heading back out on the campaign trail. The House is scheduled to have its last day in session before the election Sept. 30, while the Senate is tentatively set to be in session for two weeks in October, though that could change.

In order to get the NDAA signed into law by Oct. 1, the Senate would have to pass its version soon after returning in September, allowing for the conference process to start whereby lawmakers and staff members from both chambers draft a compromise bill. That process can take several weeks, before both chambers would then have to vote on the new bill, presumably before the House leaves town.

And it’s far from certain that the Senate will vote on its version of the NDAA quickly in September. Col. Todd Harmer, also a former congressional aide and now an executive with consulting firm American Defense International, pointed out that doing so will require cooperation between SASC leaders and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.)

“The big question … is going to be when that bill does go to the floor. There are a lot of competing priorities,” Harmer said on the podcast. “I know [Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.)] and Sen. Inhofe do not have an agreement from Leader Schumer yet to bring it to the floor. But hopefully [they will] by mid-September, and then the committees can conference the bill.

Even then, Harmer predicted that Congress won’t meet its deadline.

“We will not get it done before the end of this fiscal year,” Harmer said. “So I think some time after the election, in November before Christmas, we’ll finally see the FY23 Defense Authorization Act.”

Lazarski also sounded skeptical.

“For both of these bills, nothing will happen for conference,” Lazarski said. “They’re going to wait until after the election, see what happens, who’s going to have a majority in the next Congress. And then it’s really going to be a tough negotiation as we go forward.

“Obviously they’re going to want to get these bills done as they do every year, but it’s probably going to take until Christmas, potentially until the end of the calendar year, and if they’re having problems, which obviously we’re hoping they don’t, there is a possibility of kicking it into the next Congress. And that could push this back all the way to March because the bills will have to get refiled. But right now, we’re hearing that they’re going to try to get this done.”

Harmer and Lazarski are not alone in expressing concern that key spending bills may not get done before the start of the new fiscal year. Indeed, it has become a recurring issue in Congress. The Pentagon has started the new fiscal year under a continuing resolution in 12 of the last 13 years, including each of the last three years.

For the NDAA, leaders have found a way to speed up the process by drafting a compromise bill outside of the conference process and then introducing it in both chambers. However, critics say such a move reduces free and open debate.

Ukraine Could Get Western Fighters, Pentagon Official Says—‘Down the Road’

Aug. 8, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Pentagon announced its latest drawdown package for Ukraine on Aug. 8, valued at $1 billion and mainly comprising munitions for key systems. But any decision on whether to provide the Ukrainian Air Force with Western combat jets is still to be made, a key Defense Department official told reporters—and it could potentially take “a year to three years” before such jets could be delivered.

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl’s comments came several weeks after top U.S. Air Force officials indicated an openness to giving Ukraine some kind of fighter aircraft in its fight against Russia’s invasion, seemingly reversing previous opposition to such a move.

But Kahl didn’t say which aircraft the U.S. might give to the Ukrainians and noted that actually getting them to Ukraine wouldn’t happen quickly and therefore was not an immediate priority.

“Our overwhelming priority right now is getting the Ukrainians things that are relevant for the current fight. So right now, the fight is in the east and increasingly in the south. We need to get them capabilities that deliver on a timeframe that’s relevant to that,” Kahl said. “So we’re focused on these types of capabilities, not something that might deliver in a year to three years, etc.

“That said, there is work being done here at the Pentagon and elsewhere out in Europe at EUCOM … to help work with Ukrainians to identify their medium- to long-term requirements. So think of things that aren’t measured in days and weeks but measured in the months and a handful of years.”

Specifically, “there are real questions about what would be most useful in terms of assisting the Ukrainian Air Force in improving its capabilities,” Kahl said. “It’s not inconceivable that down the road, Western aircraft could be part of the mix on that. But the final analysis has not been done.”

While the Pentagon considers the delivery of Western jets to be a longer-term priority, Ukrainian officials have been pushing for them for several months, and pilots have told Air Force Magazine that sorites in their outperformed MiG-29s now are essentially “suicide missions.”

In particular, Ukraine has said it needs “fast and versatile” aircraft such as the F-16, not slower-moving ground defense platforms such as the A-10. The Ukrainians have also pushed for their pilots to start receiving training on Western aircraft as soon as possible, even before a final decision is made on which aircraft to give them.

Members of the U.S. House of Representatives have lent their support on that last point, including a provision in their version of the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act that would provide $100 million for Ukrainian pilots to train on American fixed-wing aircraft. That legislation, however, has yet to pass the Senate.

Munitions and Missiles

In the meantime, the Pentagon continues to announce new Presidential drawdowns of security aid for Ukraine—Aug. 8’s package is the 18th in the past year. And this latest one is primarily composed of missiles and ammunition for artillery, mortar systems, High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), and National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS).

What the package did not include was any new HIMARS or NASAMS. Ukrainian officials have said they need rapidly expanded numbers of HIMARS from their current inventory of 16, as well as quick delivery of NASAMS to defend against the Russian cruise missile threat.

But while the Pentagon is providing an unspecified number of Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS) to be fired from the HIMARS, “our assessment actually is that the Ukrainians are doing pretty well in terms of the numbers of systems and really the priority right now is making sure that they have a steady stream of these GMLRS,” Kahl said.

The GMLRS are having “real operational effects,” Kahl added.

“These GMLRS … are having a very profound effect. I mean, this is a 200-pound warhead. It’s kind of the equivalent of an airstrike, frankly, a precision-guided airstrike,” Kahl said. “These are GPS-guided munitions. They’ve been very effective in hitting things that previously the Ukrainians had difficulty hitting reliably.”

In terms of air defenses, the new drawdown includes an unspecified number of Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles (AMRAAMs) that will go with the NASAMS, Kahl clarified.

“There are no NASAMS in this package. There are AMRAAM missiles for the NASAMS. So the NASAMS that are in the pipeline, we think, will probably arrive in the next few months,” Kahl said. “And the AMRAAM missiles that are in this system, which can be used for the NASAMS, they will take some period of [time]. … They’ll have to be looked at, the inventory has to be looked at, to make sure that all the missiles are in good shape, and then they’ll get there in time for the NASAMS’ arrival.”

Report: Some of DOD’s GPS Alternatives Lack Complete Business Cases

Aug. 7, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

The Navy should complete the business cases for its proposed alternatives to GPS navigation so that Congress can properly oversee and fund the programs, according to a new report by the Government Accountability Office.

The Air Force’s business-case documents for its Resilient-Embedded Global Positioning System/Inertial Navigation System (R-EGI), on the other hand, were complete.

The GAO report also criticized the Pentagon’s PNT Oversight Council for focusing most of its attention on modernizing the existing GPS constellation and little on new modes of positioning, navigation, and timing to fill in when GPS goes down.

The Defense Department’s growing reliance on GPS, coupled with other countries’ growing abilities to interfere with satellites—kinetically with anti-satellite weapons and through acts such as signal jamming and cyberattacks—have brought about the desire for “a diverse array of technologies” for PNT, according to the report:

“DOD’s intent in using this approach is that these alternative sources would work together, even when GPS is available, to check the accuracy of each source, including GPS, and combine information if the quality of a single source degrades.”

The most common mode of interfering with GPS is jamming—blocking communication between transmitters and receivers by sending out signals in the same band of radio frequencies, according to the report. Yet while jamming is limited in geographic range, cyberattacks “can have far greater reach as long as the target is accessible via a computer network, and can present a greater threat” the report said, characterizing “automation and connectivity” as “fundamental enablers of DOD’s modern military capabilities” that also “make weapon systems more vulnerable.”

USAF’s REG-I, a “multi-PNT” receiver for air platforms, includes GPS service plus inertial navigation, with an open architecture to accommodate future alternative PNT mechanisms.

The Navy’s receiver, the Upgrade to Global Positioning System based Positioning, Navigation, and Timing Service (GPNTS), adds clocks plus inputs for commercial satellite data. The Navy is also acquiring celestial and inertial navigation systems and an upgrade to its Cooperative Engagement Capability sensor network for situational awareness. The business cases aren’t complete for any of the Navy’s programs.

The Army’s Dismounted Assured Position Navigation and Timing System (DAPS) for troops on foot and its Mounted Assured Position, Navigation, and Timing System (MAPS) for combat vehicles involve inertial systems along with clocks plus receivers for commercial satellite data. DAPS and MAPS have yet to transition from the “urgent” to the “middle tier” or “major capability” acquisition “pathways” like the Air Force’s and Navy’s.

The report acknowledges that depending on urgency and other factors, the services don’t have to turn in completed business cases but said that doing so is a “leading practice” that can help the DOD “improve its acquisition outcomes.”

“The information in a complete business case can help decision makers in DOD and Congress oversee acquisition efforts. With a complete business case, decision makers can better ensure that the necessary resources are available to match the program’s requirements, and that technologies used in a system will work as expected. Without a complete business case, as is the case with the four Navy efforts, DOD assumes more risk, which may result in reduced capabilities of the eventual system, delayed delivery of PNT capabilities to the warfighter, or unexpected cost increases,” according to the report.

The GAO report also pointed out that the DOD’s three-tiered PNT Oversight Council “only rarely addressed alternative PNT efforts” and instead “focused its efforts on addressing GPS issues,” which DOD officials said was “due to the pressing need to purchase computer chips to support M-code receiver cards,” referring to the department’s new stronger, encrypted signal.

‘Sole Purpose‘ Policy Didn’t Make It Into Nuclear Posture Review, but Biden Wants It in the Future

Aug. 5, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

President Joe Biden still hopes to shift to a “sole purpose” policy for nuclear weapons in the future, even as his administration’s new Nuclear Posture Review preserves the U.S.’s longstanding policy of “flexible deterrence,” a top Pentagon official said Aug. 5.

Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Colin Kahl, speaking at a side event at the United Nations’ 10th review conference on the nonproliferation of nuclear weapons, also promised that an unclassified version of the Nuclear Posture Review will be released “in the relatively near future.” A classified version and a brief summary were released in March.

The three-paragraph summary concluded by stating that the U.S. would only consider the use of nuclear weapons “in extreme circumstances to defend the vital interests of the United States or its allies and partners.”

That marked a walk-back from Biden’s pledge on the campaign trail to formally declare that the U.S.’s sole purpose for having nuclear arms is deterring or responding to a nuclear attack. A sizable group of Democratic lawmakers had also lobbied Biden after he became president to state in the NPR that the U.S. would never use nuclear weapons first in a conflict.

Republicans, on the other hand, vocally opposed such a move, as did allies and partner nations, according to media reports.

Complicating any potential changes in nuclear policy are the threats posed by both Russia and China. During the course of its invasion of Ukraine, Russia has repeatedly raised the threat of using its nuclear arsenal, and China has recently engaged in an expansion of its nuclear capabilities that Pentagon officials have called “breathtaking.”

And so, while “a sole purpose declaratory policy has long been supported by President Biden … the NPR concluded that now is not the time for making that change,” Kahl said. Such a decision ensures “continuity and stability” in U.S. nuclear policy, he added.

At the same time, “we retain the goal of moving towards the sole purpose declaration in the future, and the NPR makes that clear,” Kahl added. “And we will work with our allies and partners to identify concrete steps that will allow us to do so. We also continue to adhere to a negative security assurance not to use or threaten to use nuclear weapons against non-nuclear weapon states that are party to the [Non-Proliferation Treaty] and are in compliance with their nuclear non-proliferation obligations.”

The U.S. has released nuclear posture reviews in 1994, 2002, 2010, 2018, and now in 2022. Kahl did not say if or when the Biden administration might release a new Nuclear Posture Review or amend this latest one.

There is also uncertainty regarding China’s goal for its nuclear arsenal, Kahl said. Previously, the Pentagon had estimated that the Chinese had 200 nuclear warheads and would double that number by 2030. More recently, however, those estimates have jumped to 700 warheads by 2027 and 1,000 by 2030. Kahl said that the final number could wind up “quadrupling” what China has now.

All the while, the U.S. and China have not engaged in substantive arms control or strategic stability talks akin to the New START treaty between the U.S. and Russia, Kahl confirmed.

“We are open to strategic stability dialogue conversations with [China]. We are open to initiating conversations on arms control. … The necessary condition for that conversation to happen is a reciprocal willingness from Beijing to entertain those conversations,” Kahl said. “And to date, they have not expressed a willingness to engage in either a sustained strategic stability dialogue or arms control.”

The countries’ leaders, Biden and President Xi Jinping, have mentioned the possibility of such talks in their conversations, Kahl said. But thus far, there has been no follow through.

Instead, tensions are rising over House Speaker Rep. Nancy Pelosi’s recent visit to Taiwan, which has sparked an intense backlash from China including military exercises surrounding the island, as well as an announcement Aug. 5 that the Chinese military was cutting off communications with their American counterparts.

Kahl criticized the latest move as “bad news” with potentially dangerous consequences.

“Mature responsible nuclear powers don’t cut off military to military contacts and communication in the midst of heightened tensions. They don’t do that because it increases the prospect for misperception and miscalculation,” Kahl said.

Mildenhall KC-135 Crews’ Unique Rapport: ‘I Don’t Know That I Could Choose Another Airplane’

Aug. 5, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

RAF MILDENHALL, U.K—The ops tempo has increased as of late, but after every sortie, the pilots, co-pilots, and boom operators flying the KC-135s of the 100th Air Refueling Wing still gather for a debrief.

And in those sessions, the Airmen develop a bond they feel is special to those who fly on the Stratotanker.

“There is a potentially 18-, 19-year-old enlisted dude, and two majors or a lieutenant colonel and a major, or a captain or whatever,” Tech. Sgt. Blake Soule, a KC-135 boom operator, told Air Force Magazine. “And they sit together, and the boom can say to the pilots, ‘Hey sir, I need more out of you here. You didn’t do this very well,’ and vice versa. And that is such an important piece of building that rapport … and it’s really unique. A lot of other airframes that have a crew, the enlisted and the officers don’t really mix too much. They don’t operate the entire sortie in that way. So yeah, it’s a very beneficial way to work and to build that trust with your other crew members.”

Even on other tankers, the relationship between the pilots and the crew in the back can be different, said Capt. Jori Ingersoll, a KC-135 pilot.

“As far as the relationship, it’s all based on trust,” Ingersoll said, the three-person crew trusting the boom operator with “connecting multi-million dollar aircraft with multi-millions of dollars of fuel between the two of them.”

The KC-10 Extender typically has a crew of four, with a flight engineer. The new KC-46 Pegasus has two pilots and a boom operator, with room for up to 12 more crew members. But with the KC-135, the boom operator’s job can extend far beyond the act of refueling.

“They get to decide how involved they are in an airplane. And especially at Mildenhall, it’s a great involvement,” Ingersoll said. “When we do pattern work, the boom operator is the God’s eye view in the back. They can see everything outside, all of our instruments, the way the pilots are reacting. They cross check, so they double check us on airspeed, altitude, back us up on the radios. They’re, I mean, essentially another copilot in the back.”

Soule credited that “camaraderie” at Mildenhall in part to the 100th ARW’s relatively small, tight-knit group of pilots and boom operators. With 15 KC-135s, the wing is less than a quarter the size of the Air Force’s “super” tanker wing, the 92nd Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.

That, combined with the 100th ARW being the only permanently based USAF tanker wing in Europe and Africa, means the Airmen at Mildenhall get plenty of experience with real-world missions.

“A lot of the boom operators have more time in the flare than a lot of the pilots have in the airplane,” Ingersoll said. “So the amount of experience that they have and the amount of diverse mission sets that they see is oftentimes well above what a pilot sees with the experience. So there’s a lot of respect that goes to that. I don’t know that I could choose another airplane because of what a cool relationship the three of you have to have.”

That sense of community is also boosted by some of the KC-135’s more unique aspects, Soule said. The aircraft has been flying for more than 60 years, and while that has made it a target for divestment in recent Air Force budgets, it also gives the crews who fly it satisfaction in keeping it going.

“I kind of take a little bit of pride in knowing how the airplane works, hydraulic cables and pulleys,” Soule said. “It’s not electric fly-by-wire. It’s not through a TV screen. It’s just a window and my eyeballs and some hydraulic fluid and a joystick. And I think that helps within the community build rapport among the crews and pride in what we do, is loving your airplane.”

There are still challenges in keeping the jets flight-ready, though, and Ingersoll credited Mildenhall’s maintainers for allowing the crews to maintain their high ops tempo.

“You’re dealing with older equipment, so you’ve got to be nice to it,” Ingersoll said. “And our maintenance teams … we couldn’t get off the ground without them … There will be times when we’ll have a piece of equipment break, and they’re the first to respond. They determine the timeline of us being able to get off the ground. It’s harder to troubleshoot these airplanes, because other airplanes will have a computer that will go ‘[bing], that’s the problem.’ And this airplane, [you’ve got] cables and cords. You really have to have a mechanical, intellectual brain to figure out what’s going wrong and how to fix it.”

So as more and more units transition over to the KC-46, Mildenhall is ready to stick with the KC-135 as needed.

“The 135 is a like a 1968 Mustang, and the 46 is a brand new 2023 luxury Rolls-Royce,” Soule said. “They both have their merits. They both do what they do well.”

PACAF Ponders Inter-Pacific Academy for NCOs as Partner Recruitment Lags

Aug. 5, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

When top Air Force leaders graced the stage at a senior noncommissioned officers’ summit Aug. 1 to urge attendees from 65 nations to collaborate with the United States, one region was noticeably underrepresented: the Indo-Pacific.

Of the 39 partner nations that Pacific Air Forces identifies in the Indo-Pacific region, only eight were represented at the summit. Most there, such as Japan and Australia, were longstanding allies. At a similar event as part of the September 2021 Pacific Air Chiefs Conference at PACAF headquarters in Hawaii, only 13 Pacific partner nations sent their senior enlisted leaders to attend.

Pacific Air Forces is hoping an effort to create an Inter-Pacific Air Forces Academy for regional NCOs will help strengthen relationships and enhance interoperability in the region defined as the most important according to the National Defense Strategy.

“We have many regions that are here today,” including South America, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and Africa, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass told Air Force Magazine before the start of the weeklong event.

“What all of those nations will come together and see is kind of that shared purpose and that shared commitment that we have to one another,” Bass said. “Relationships aren’t built overnight. And so, we have to have touch points like this, where we come together and forge the relationships and trust that we’re going to need for years to come.”

Asked if she will be reaching out to new INDOPACOM partners, Bass said the ties already existed.

“I don’t think they’re new ties,” she said. “The ties have already been there with a lot of our INDOPACOM nations. We’re continuing to strengthen them.”

But Command Chief Master Sergeant of Pacific Air Forces Sergeant David R. Wolfe told Air Force Magazine that outreach to the region hasn’t been that easy. Especially for smaller nations dependent on their economic ties to China, fostering a security partnership with the United States could come with costs.

“Every country in the world has economic ties with China,” Wolfe said. “What we need from our partner nations is to communicate the value of the enlisted force, to their success in integrating militarily with all of the partnerships that we have out there already.”

Wolfe said the U.S. goal is for partner nations in the Pacific to value their enlisted corps in a way that will make them “relevant, ready, trained” with a level of competence on par with long-standing American partner nations in the region.

The eight attending states were Japan, Australia, New Zealand, the Philippines, Mongolia, Singapore, Thailand, and a representative from the island of Taiwan.

Together they represent a selection of U.S. partners in the Pacific that already have long-standing defense and security ties. They buy U.S. defense equipment, or in the case of Mongolia, they represent a country where PACAF intends to increase its defense assistance in coming years.

“We’re missing way more than I would like to,” said Wolfe, noting the absence from the summit of quad member India and growing defense partners Indonesia and Vietnam. “We did everything that we could to get as many countries as we possibly could here.”

Notably, none of the smaller Pacific nations were present. Recently, PACAF held the Valiant Shield exercise in the South Pacific nation of Palau and has been competing fiercely with China for defense relationships on smaller islands that would be valuable for employing the agile combat employment concept, whereby aircraft can land and quickly depart in austere environments with minimal equipment.

Wolfe said the lack of Indo-Pacific attendance at the NCO event was less a matter of countries being concerned about what China thinks than their own lack of investment in their NCO corps.

“The main reason is that there is a variable level of commitment to the enlisted force in our partner nations,” he said. “An event like this sends the message to our [partners]—we just had the Secretary and the Chief of Staff of the Air Force here spending an hour with just us.”

PACAF’s main objective for the senior enlisted summit was to take the steps to establish an Inter-Pacific Air Forces Academy for NCO training. Wolfe later said that an Aug. 2 PACAF breakout session discussed the fundamentals of the future school and what manpower and resources other nations might be able to contribute.

The academy is more than U.S. altruism—it’s about alignment with National Defense Strategy objectives.

“We can’t go into a partnership with a country that doesn’t at least have some terms of reference that are similar to ours for interoperability,” Wolfe said.

An example would be a country that also flies the F-35. To be interoperable with the United States, that country must be able to “do things like we do,” such as maintenance, launching, and turning the aircraft after landing to launch again the next day.

“It’s only a few countries in this room that could do that because they don’t have the workforce, the enlisted corps, to be able to be a 24-hour operation,” he said.

Interoperability enhances integrated deterrence as well, the concept promoted by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III whereby all the levers of national power are used to deter an adversary such as China.

“Integrated deterrence isn’t integrated if you don’t have countries that can do like things,” Wolfe said.

While only the eight nations present unanimously supported moving forward with the Inter-Pacific Academy, notably Canada and the United Kingdom indicated they wanted to have a role as well.

“Everybody’s worried about China—it doesn’t matter where you’re at on the globe,” Wolfe said, noting that many European nations are sending aircraft to joint exercises in the Pacific as competition with China steps up.

The academy idea builds on the successful National Guard State Partnership Program to train partner nations in the Pacific and a PACAF program that dispatches mobile training teams for professional military education and for sergeant training.

Wolfe cited the Philippines as PACAF’s most aggressive partnership at the moment. He said that even with a recent political change of government that has indicated a willingness to cooperate militarily with China, the Philippines is still deepening its integration with the United States.

Wolfe said Bass is working with the Philippines to help establish an NCO first sergeant position that would be proposed to the country’s military leadership.

“I would say small forward progress with the new government,” he said of the Philippines, adding that Singapore was also a “stalwart partner.”

PACAF views Brunei, India, and Sri Lanka as additional Pacific countries where it can deepen its NCO partnerships, the PACAF command chief indicated.

“We have a program to evaluate where everybody’s at kind of on the spectrum,” Wolfe said. “All we’re trying to do is help every country take whatever the next step is.”