Saved from Closure, RAF Mildenhall Starts Planning: ‘What Should Tomorrow Look Like?‘

Aug. 2, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

RAF MILDENHALL, U.K.—Only a few years ago, RAF Mildenhall, one of a few bases in the United Kingdom that still hosts U.S. Air Force units, was set to close, a target of the 2015 European Infrastructure Consolidation Plan.

That changed in the summer of 2020, when then-Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper announced that the base, home to the 100th Air Refueling Wing, the 352nd Special Operations Wing, and several more squadrons, would remain open, saying it made “obvious strategic sense.”

Now, with its future seemingly secure, officials at Mildenhall are starting to consider how that future might look.

“I’m optimistic about the future because … I feel like we’re at a point here where we’re ultimately able to build out the future of the installation itself, making strategic investments in the actual infrastructure and necessary adjustments,” Col. Gene A. Jacobus, commander of the 100th ARW and the base commander, told Air Force Magazine.

The initial 2015 plan was for the 100th ARW—the only permanently based aerial refueling wing for U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa—to transfer to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.

But Jacobus, who took command in July 2021 and noted that he wasn’t involved in the decision to keep Mildenhall open, said he believed the base’s strategic value remains strong.

“The unique capability that we provide from this installation—we talk about it being a strategic forward base—is, I think, key to ultimately its relevance in this AOR and the positioning of the installation—where it’s at in the theater, where we can range from in the KC-135 from here, its close proximity to other U.S. visiting forces, i.e. RAF Lakenheath, and the capability it has there,” Jacobus said.

Indeed, Lakenheath and its squadrons of F-15Es and F-35s sit just a few miles from Mildenhall, and the two bases continue to work together “quite extensively,” Jacobus said.

“We’re proud of the capability that they bring to this AOR, and we’re proud of the fact that we can help extend that capability, wherever it needs to be, at a moment’s notice,” he said.

In recent years, Lakenheath has seen some notable changes, with construction of a new flight simulator facility, maintenance unit, hangars, storage facilities, and more in advance of the arrival of new F-35 fighters this past December.

Now, Jacobus and other leaders at Mildenhall are considering how it, too, might change and grow in the coming years.

“My view is that we will continue to look at not only today’s capabilities, but what should tomorrow look like, in terms of infrastructure to meet future mission needs,” Jacobus said.

Those considerations are still in early stages, but Jacobus hinted that changes could go beyond simply modernizing a base that was first constructed in the 1930s.

“There are areas on the installation that we want to focus our attention on essentially updating the infrastructure itself, but also looking at, are there changes necessary to the base for a future mission?” Jacobus said. “So we don’t have it formalized yet. But we’re certainly putting together a plan, and we’ll look to resource against the plan once we get it finalized.”

Jacobus declined to share any details on what that plan might look like, but he did say that the action group tasked with helping to draft the plan have started with a fundamental consideration: “What is that future mission?”

“We’re less than two years out from the decision to reverse the closure,” Jacobus said. “So there’s still work to be done there. And we’re certainly getting after it.”

Considerations of the future mission raise further questions about the fleet of 15 KC-135s operated by the 100th ARW. The legacy tanker has been flying for more than 60 years, and the Air Force has sought to cut the fleet in recent years, requesting to retire 13 jets in 2021, 18 in 2022, and 13 in 2023.

“We are proud of the ‘135, and I know that there’s a lot of discussion about the future of the ‘135,” Jacobus said. “But what I can tell you is that every single day … we’re producing KC-135 sorties and providing air refueling at the speed of relevance across this AOR. And so, you know, going out into the future, and again, outside of really my purview, but we’re receiving the support from our higher headquarters, through the supply chain, through the logistics professionals, to continue to produce sorties.”

As the airframes continue to age, though, more issues will arise, Jacobus acknowledged. And looking to get ahead of that, “we’re thinking through … what are those potential future needs so that we can anticipate any concerns that might be in the future,” he said.

Meanwhile, the KC-135’s ostensible replacement, the KC-46, still has not been cleared for combat operations, and only recently refueled its first international aircraft as issues persist with its Remote Vision System and other aspects.

So as Mildenhall’s planning for the future unfolds, it’s doing so under the assumption that the KC-135 will be sticking around for some time to come, Jacobus said.

“What I tell our team is we will keep leaning into the KC-135 until we’re directed otherwise. And so when and if that decision comes at some point, we’ll make the necessary adjustments,” Jacobus said. “But we’re certainly proud to continue to fly such a historic aircraft that has continued to produce amazing capabilities.”

Space Force’s Towberman Plants the Seeds of Partnership, Talks Talent Management

Aug. 2, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

When enlisted leaders from 65 nations gathered in a hotel ballroom to hear how the Space Force built an enlisted corps, seemingly few could apply the lessons. Most of their militaries didn’t have the equivalent of a Space Force. But the session attracted more questions than any before it during a weeklong summit to strengthen partner enlisted corps and to foster relationships that could lead to space.

“We’re new and independent, and we’re on that journey as some of you are on that journey,” Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force Roger A. Towberman told the group as he paced the length of the room, taking numerous questions from countries in Latin America and Africa, some of which host Chinese space assets.

Towberman took the opportunity during the Senior Enlisted Leaders International Summit in Arlington, Va., on Aug. 2 to encourage the nations to get onboard with the Space Force’s value of good behavior in the space domain. He invited the leaders to call him personally to discuss ways to cooperate with the United States in space.

“We’ve developed our own promotion system. We’ve developed our own assignment system—all of the things that any service has to do. But we’re right in the middle of it,” Towberman said, describing how in three years, three field commands have stood up with 7,500 Guardians in uniform, a quarter of whom never wore an Air Force uniform.

“That makes the Space Force a great teammate and a great source of information, and we’re happy to partner with anyone,” Towberman said. “We’re trying to figure out, how do we develop our noncommissioned officer corps? How do we develop great technicians? How do we develop a culture that is independent and distinct from any of the services that built us?”

Towberman responded to questions about threats in space, including the debris fields created by China’s and Russia’s anti-satellite weapon tests, and Russia’s projectile-firing space satellite. The Space Force’s senior enlisted leader called for establishing norms even before every spacefaring nation is in agreement.

“It needs to start somewhere,” he said. “It’s important that we don’t perhaps wait for a perfect solution where everyone can agree, but somebody has to start drawing boundaries.”

One African questioner drew laughs when an Airman had to translate his lengthy, three-part question about how to protect military communications systems and satellites and how to clean up the debris field.

“Partnerships, partnerships, partnerships,” Towberman said. “We have got to work together to protect the systems and to ensure, from a military perspective, that our allies have access to the systems and capabilities that they want.”

The Space Force official called for more communication, more information sharing, and more access agreements, noting that the proliferation of satellite companies means any nation can launch a satellite into orbit.

“It won’t be limited by physics or by technology,” he said. “It will be limited by relationships, by partnerships, by policy, perhaps by law.”

The ‘Classic Model’ vs. ‘Gigonomics’

Towberman also discussed talent management at the Space Force and what he learned from a 2021 visit with human capital leaders at SpaceX.

“We’ve made one of our core values as a service a commitment to growth,” Towberman said, echoing what he learned from the commercial space company.

“We recruit from the beginning people that want to improve themselves and grow and develop continuously,” he added, noting that unlike generations past, the younger generation does not want to stay in the same career for decades. Space Force, in turn, is creating flexible development programs.

“The classic model is, I commit, and on the first day of my career, someone says, ‘You’re going to do this,’ and I do that for 20 years or 30 years,” he said. “We don’t believe that that resonates very well with American young people today that they want to be able to do different things.”

The Space Force is trying to build a development structure that allows Guardians to grow and develop in different ways that still fill the service’s needs.

“It’s hard. It can be frustrating, as well,” Towberman said.

Experts he has spoken to indicated that building a culture can take 10 years.

“We’re just slowly kind of marching and doing the best that we can,” he said. “Sometimes we don’t even know that we’re being, you know, unwilling to change. It feels like [being] quite open minded.”

In a pull-aside interview with Air Force Magazine, Towberman said he has embraced the mindset of the younger generation. One way the Space Force demonstrated a long-term commitment was to allow Guardians to help develop the service’s four core values.

“I love this sort of gigonomics,” he said, referring to careers that are broken up into short-term stints. “I love their energy. I love the sort of servant attitude that we see from young people today. And I’m happy to lean into it.”

“Our values [are] probably the most significant kind of place where we went to young Guardians and we talked to them about what was important to them,” Towberman added. “That’s probably the biggest success is just baking them into those processes and listening more and kind of talking less.”

Space Force Drops Garrison Name in Favor of ‘Space Base Delta‘

Aug. 2, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Garrisons are out—Space Base Deltas are in.

The Space Force has switched up how it refers to the organizations responsible for mission support functions, saying the new designations better reflect their function and place within the service’s structure.

The Peterson-Schriever and Buckley Garrisons became Space Base Delta 1 and Space Base Delta 2, respectively, in May. Los Angeles Garrison followed suit July 14, becoming Space Base Delta 3.

“The naming convention of Space Base Delta more accurately characterizes the function and structure of the organization in relation to the mission deltas/units that they support,” a Space Force spokesperson told Air Force Magazine.

Garrisons had occupied a niche within the Space Force’s organizational structure of field commands, deltas, and squadrons. Instead of focusing on mission areas, they were tasked with all the non-operational things that need to happen for the service to function.

“We have got to have defenders of the gate. We’ve got to have the contracted means in place. We have to have the … IT functions to provide the network and telephony aspects of that because we fight from home,” Col. Zachary “Shay” Warakomski, commander of Space Base Delta 1, said in a Mitchell Institute webinar in May.

However, the garrison name caused slight confusion for some who associated the term with the physical installation.

In contrast, the Space Base Delta name is more akin to the Air Force’s Air Base Wing. The two organizations are “not necessarily equivalent,” the Space Force spokesperson said, “but an Air Base Wing would be the most similar type of organization to the Space Base Delta.”

Air Base Wings are responsible for mission support functions at Air Force installations, often serving as host units at bases with multiple tenant units.

Space Base Deltas, meanwhile, can be responsible for Space Force installations separated by vast distances. Space Base Delta 1, formerly Peterson-Schriever Garrison, is tasked with supporting not only Peterson and Schriever Space Force Bases in Colorado, but also Thule Air Base, Greenland; Cheyenne Mountain Space Force Station, Colo.; Kaena Point Space Force Station, Hawaii; and New Boston Space Force Station, N.H.

Space Base Delta 2, formerly Buckley Garrison, supports not only Buckley Space Force Base, Colo., but also Cavalier Space Force Station, N.D., Cape Cod Space Force Station, Mass., and Clear Space Force Station, Alaska.

SBD 3 supports Los Angeles Air Force Base, which the service has said will be renamed as a Space Force Base in the future, and Space Systems Command.

Space Launch Deltas 30 and 45 are the host units at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., and Patrick Space Force Base, Fla., where the launch deltas provide base services. The Space Force spokesperson told Air Force Magazine there are currently no plans to establish more Space Base Deltas beyond SBD 3.

Space Base Deltas will continue to be distinct from space mission deltas, the USSF’s organizations that are similar to “Army Brigade Combat Teams or Air Force Expeditionary Wings in that they enable laser focus on specific mission sets that pull together unique capabilities and highly-trained warfighters to deliver combat effects,” the spokesperson said.

As part of the switch from Garrisons to Space Base Deltas, the units will receive new emblems and insignia, the spokesperson confirmed.

New Missile-Warning Satellite, Set to Launch, Will Complete SBIRS Constellation

Aug. 2, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

The Space Force’s sixth and final satellite in the Space-Based Infrared System heads to geosynchronous orbit as soon as Aug. 4, the faraway orbit offering a wide view of Earth to detect missile launches in the atmosphere.

The sixth satellite in the constellation adds “crucial fortification of the current missile warning system” that is “global, persistent, and taskable,” said officials who briefed reporters about the mission by phone Aug. 1.

The infrared sensors onboard SBIRS GEO-6 are identical to those on the other five SBIRS satellites, the first of which launched in 2011. But the new entry adds to the constellation’s accuracy in detecting missile launches anyway because of the satellites’ overlapping fields of view, said Col. Brian Denaro, program executive officer for Space Systems Command’s Space Sensing Directorate at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif.

“When you get multiple looks at a single launch, it really helps with the accuracy and assuredness of that launch,” Denaro said. He called SBIRS GEO-6 “another critical, unblinking eye to track and defend against ballistic and hypersonic missile threats.”

Able to monitor a third of the Earth at a given time, the SBIRS satellites’ two infrared sensors—one that scans and one that stares—provide “rapid notification” of a missile launch to alert the likes of the President, the President’s cabinet, combatant commanders, the Missile Defense Agency, and troops in the field, said Col. Daniel T. Walter, senior materiel leader for the Space Sensing Directorate’s Strategic Missile Warning Acquisition Delta.

SBIRS satellites “tip and queue MDA’s more high-fidelity sensors and targeting solutions in order to take out inbound threats,” Walter explained.

The SBIRS constellation serves as a successor to, and works in concert with, the Defense Support Program constellation, also orbiting in GEO, the officials said. SBIRS not only detects the fact of a missile launch, predicting points of origin and impact, but also identifies “a vast arsenal of missiles,” Walter said. Those include not only long-range intercontinental ballistic missiles, “but as we’re getting better at this mission area, we’re able to detect much shorter-burn missiles.”

SBIRS GEO-6 comes online as the Pentagon plans to field new missile-warning and missile-tracking constellations in GEO, polar, low Earth (LEO), and medium Earth orbits (MEO) starting in 2025. The new space architecture responds to the desires to track faster, maneuverable hypersonic missiles and to improve resiliency against anti-satellite weapons through sheer numbers and by placing the satellites in various orbits.

An experimental satellite preceded the sixth SBIRS to GEO in July. The Wide Field of View Testbed (WFOV) will provide data to inform the Space Force’s Next-Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared (Next-Gen OPIR) constellation. The WFOV satellite will monitor Earth’s atmosphere for infrared signatures at a higher resolution and over more of the Earth than SBIRS satellites.

Several months of on-orbit testing of SBIRS GEO-6 follow the launch in which “we go out and we test all the subcomponents of the satellite,” said Maj. Matthew Blystone, program manager overseeing production, launch, and early orbit testing of the SBIRS GEO 5 and 6 missions. “We deploy solar arrays and light shades, and then we start payload tuning.”

A period of operational acceptance follows during which the 2nd Space Warning Squadron of Space Delta 4 at Buckley Space Force Base, Colo., “will more or less kick the tires on the satellite, just to make sure that everything is good to go” before the delta officially takes command of the satellite, Blystone said.

Lockheed Martin built the satellite carrying its infrared-sensing payload made by Northrop Grumman. Its expected life is 12 years.

SBIRS GEO-6 is the third-to-last national security launch on a United Launch Alliance Atlas 5 rocket before transitioning to ULA’s new Vulcan Centaur. The Pentagon’s final two Atlas V launches will be in 2023. All five of the SBIRS GEO satellites already in orbit have launched on Atlas 5s as well.

The Aug. 4 launch window is from 6:29 a.m. to 7:09 a.m. Eastern time. As of the Aug. 1 press briefing, the likelihood that weather would prevent the launch from taking place during Aug. 4’s launch window was 30 percent. The likelihood of weather preventing the launch during the Aug. 5 launch window, starting at 6:25 a.m. Eastern, was 40 percent.

McGuire’s ‘Pudgy’ KC-46s Honor Legendary WWII Ace

Aug. 1, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

JOINT BASE MCGUIRE-DIX-LAKEHURST, N.J.—The KC-46 Pegasus tankers here all fly with the callsign “Pudgy” in honor of the second-highest-scoring American ace of World War II, Thomas B. McGuire.

“Pudgy 01” and “Pudgy 02” arrived Nov. 9, 2021, as part of an elaborate welcoming ceremony. Pudgies 03 to 08 have arrived since.

The new aircraft aren’t named Pudgy. “That was just chosen to be the callsign to be best representative of the base,” said KC-46 pilot Capt. Luke A. Williams. “There was no name given to the aircraft besides” their given Air Force type nickname, Pegasus.

A replica of the original “Pudgy,” McGuire’s P-38 Lightning, is on display at the entrance to the McGuire section of the base.

McGuire’s Pudgy “is so emblematic of the base,” explained 305th Air Mobility Wing historian Stuart R. Lockhart. “It is a connection so well known” in the area and within the Air Force.

Lt. Col. Joe Delgado of the 514th Maintenance Group told Air Force Magazine that the joint base’s leaders came up with the callsign because it references the entire base, not just one wing.

“The commanders didn’t want to use ‘Can Do’ because that is a 305 AMW callsign,” Delgado said. Usually, when someone from the 514th Air Mobility Wing flies, “they simply adopt the squadron’s callsign,” he said.

Williams, the pilot, said “Can Do” would have left out the 514th Air Mobility Wing, which also flies the KC-46, and the 87th Air Base Wing, which hosts the wings.

“In the end, Pudgy is used to encompass everyone who does the mission of the base,” Delgado said. Each delivery flight will have the Pudgy callsign: “Pudgy 24” is to be delivered in 2023.

87th Air Base Wing historian James J. Warrick said McGuire named his airplane “Pudgy” after his wife, Marilynn. She had “obtained the nickname in high school,” according to information published by the base.

“He shipped off to the Pacific shortly after they were married and never returned home to her,” Warrick said in an email. “On 7 January 1945 over the Philippines, Major McGuire was killed during a dogfight performing a maneuver in an attempt to help a wingman,” Warrick said.

“His remains were hidden by locals and were not discovered until 4½ years later. He was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor on 8 May 1946 with Charles Lindbergh attending,” Warrick added. “He was buried with full honors at Arlington in May 1950.”

But every month or so, a new Pudgy flies over the skies of New Jersey.

SOCOM Picks L3 Harris’ Sky Warden for Armed Overwatch

Aug. 1, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

U.S. Special Operations Command has awarded a contract for its Armed Overwatch program, selecting L3 Harris Technologies’ AT-802U Sky Warden as the winner of its competition for a low-cost aircraft to fly surveillance and strikes in austere locations, the combatant command announced Aug. 1.

The deal could be worth up to $3 billion and will include 75 aircraft along with training systems, mission planning systems, support equipment, spares, and logistics support. Initial operating capability is expected in fiscal year 2026, with full operating capability following in 2029.

“Armed Overwatch answers a critical need for U.S. Special Operations Command to conduct a wide range of operations globally in support of the National Defense Strategy,” SOCOM Commander Gen. Richard D. Clarke said in a statement. “This rugged, sustainable platform will operate in permissive environments and austere conditions around the world to safeguard our Special Operations Forces on the ground.”

L3 Harris unveiled Sky Warden in May 2021 as part of a collaboration with aircraft manufacturer Air Tractor. The companies claimed that the aircraft, based on Air Tractor’s agricultural AT-802 airframe, features the largest payload capacity of any single-engine turboprop aircraft. The aircraft has previously also been modified for firefighting missions.

Sky Warden was selected as one of five finalists for the Armed Overwatch program that same month, with flight demonstrations taking place throughout 2021 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

That demonstrator will now be “rapidly” modified into a production configuration and provided to SOCOM for weapons system testing, L3 Harris said in a press release. That’s expected to take six months, followed by production starting in 2023, first at Air Tractor’s facility in Texas, then with modifications occurring at L3 Harris’ facility in Oklahoma. The low-rate initial production lot will consist of six aircraft.

Sky Warden will replace the Air Force’s U-28 Draco fleet and will be both an intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft and one that is capable of conducting light strikes in permissive environments. It beat out Leidos’ Bronco II, MAG Aerospace’s MC-208 Guardian, Textron Aviation Defense’s AT-6E Wolverine, and Sierra Nevada Corp.’s MC-145B Wily Coyote.

Testifying to Congress in April, commander of Air Force Special Operations Command Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife said the Armed Overwatch program was designed to reduce the need for so-called “air stacks” of specialized, single-role aircraft to fly together over objective areas.

In particular, the aircraft will likely be used to counter terrorist threats, often in coordination with troops on the ground.

“The idea of the Armed Overwatch platform is [that] it’s a modular capability and so you can outfit the aircraft with a robust suite of sensors that will exceed what is available with most dedicated ISR platforms today. Or you can outfit the platform with a robust suite of precision munitions,” Slife told lawmakers. “It really depends on the mission, and so clearly, the Armed Overwatch platform is not a panacea for every tactical situation that a ground force might find themselves in. But for what we envision the enduring counter-[violent extremist organization] mission looking like, we think it’s a prudent investment.”

In a release touting the contract award, SOCOM pointed to Sky Warden’s ability to carry modular payloads, its cheap operating costs, and its ability to operate from austere fields.

Russians ‘Running Away’ From Ukraine NCO Corps Is an Example to Partners, Air Force Leaders Say

Aug. 1, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Eight years ago, when Russia invaded Crimea, Ukraine quickly capitulated, its military grossly overmatched, poorly trained, and operating according to an old Soviet paradigm. By contrast, in the current war, Ukraine is fighting hard behind an empowered noncommissioned officer corps, U.S. and Ukrainian Air Force leaders said at the Senior Enlisted Leaders International Summit in Arlington, Va., Aug. 1.

“The Ukrainian government saw the need to get past the Soviet model of training NCOs and create a more Western model with the help of NATO and the help of the United States of America,” Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Ramón “CZ” Colón-López told NCO leaders from 65 nations and NATO.

“It’s no mistake and no chance that the Russians are running away from them right now,” he told the Air Force chief master sergeant equivalents. “They’ve trained more specifically on the access to information and the empowerment of those NCOs.”

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. also spoke to the group on the themes of “integrated deterrence” and “integrate by design” for leveraging all elements of national power, themes that will be discussed in more depth throughout the week.

Ukrainian Air Force Chief Master Sergeant Kostiantyn Stanislavchuk capped the event’s first day by charting Ukraine’s subjugated past to its current fight for freedom behind a restructured NCO corps.

“Give us the weapons, and we will keep fighting until we can’t fight anymore,” Stanislavchuk said to applause from the enlisted leaders.

Stanislavchuk said battlefield progress against a superior force is thanks to Ukrainian courage and empowered enlisted soldiers. He gave an Aug. 1 battlefield tally of 223 Russian military jets and 190 Russian helicopters shot down and more than 41,000 Russians killed.

“The NCOs are not just there to follow orders, but they are there to make decisions and think outside the box,” he said. “On the Ukrainian side, we’re seeing more and more, especially with our junior NCOs and junior commanders, they are working together, and they’re able to become more leaders and make those decisions.”

Stanislavchuk observed that Russia is trying to do the same when its officers are killed on the battlefield.

“Whenever we destroy their higher power ranking officers and lieutenants, we’re seeing they’ve actually tried to lean on their NCOs more and more now,” he said. “But the NCOs are not prepared to make those decisions. They will not take that risk.”

In a pull-aside interview, Colón-López told Air Force Magazine that Ukraine is an example to the partner nations in attendance of what happens when you put your trust in an NCO corps and create an empowered force, and one that is interoperable with the United States.

“They went all in from creating institutions for NCO development to creating special operations forces that are more autonomous,” he explained. “So, from 2014 to 2019, you get the military that you see today, fighting the Russians, that is actually putting up a good fight.”

Colón-López said relationship-building with the partner nations present is directly aligned with the National Defense Strategy.

“With the National Defense Strategy being heavy on the reliance with partners, it’s important for us to continue to cultivate these relationships,” he said. “We’re not here to tell them to do things the way that we’re doing it. We just want to make them aware of all the effort that we’re putting forward on a global stage to be able to be to interoperate, if needed.”

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass told Air Force Magazine on the sidelines of the summit that bringing together the senior enlisted leaders to see a success story in Ukraine deepens their commitment to work with the United States.

“We know that we are a stronger United States Air Force when we have the partnerships and relationships with our allies,” she said.

“When everybody leaves here this week, we will have made connections with lots of different nations to be able to talk about force development, force structure—what is a command team? And how do we grow our forces,” she added. “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.”

The training of a strong NCO corps like that of Ukraine is also an asymmetric advantage against China, Bass said.

“To the PLA and the PRC, a strategic deterring factor is a strong NCO corps,” Bass told the group, referring to the People’s Liberation Army and the People’s Liberation Army. “It’s the people that win wars. It’s the people that are the deterrence.”

Space Force Looks to Put Space Attaches in Embassies

Aug. 1, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force is in the process of establishing a program that will bolster the new service’s diplomatic outreach with its very first attaches in select U.S. embassies across the world, Air Force Magazine has confirmed.

The Regional Space Advisor program will “develop a cadre of space professionals focused on strengthening Allied and Partner relationships,” Space Force spokesperson Lt. Col. Brooke Davis said in a statement. As part of that process, the program will place space attaches in a variety of countries, “both established and emerging space powers,” Davis said.

The process for selecting which countries get space attaches will require coordination with the State Department, the host country, and Air Force International Affairs, Davis added, and no final decisions have been made. But there is one country that seems likely to be at or very near the top of the list—the United Kingdom.

“The Space Force just stood up in the past two or three years, but they’re going through their personnel and deciding how they want to work on the diplomatic side. London will probably be the first embassy to get a Space Force attache,” USAF Col. Charles E. Metrolis, the air attache at the U.S. embassy in London, said in an interview.

While Davis said the RSA program is not yet fully established, and thus no countries or timelines have been finalized, Metrolis said the logic of the U.K. being one of the very first is clear.

“The U.K. is one of a few [countries] with a space command, with space forces, with space professionals who didn’t come over from the RAF as Airmen but have been in space their entire careers,” Metrolis said.

Indeed, the British government has pushed forward with its efforts on space in recent months. According to the Union of Concerned Scientists’ database of every satellite currently in orbit, the U.K. currently has the third-highest number of assets in space, trailing only the U.S. and China, and that number will grow in the near future.

This past February, the U.K. released its first Defence Space Strategy, which included plans for two satellite networks, one in low Earth orbit. The country also plans to have the first orbital launch from its own soil this year. That’s in addition to the current constellation of five military satellites, Skynet.

Meanwhile, in April, U.S. Space Command and U.K. Space Command signed a memorandum of understanding for Enhanced Space Cooperation, strengthening the ties between the two countries.

“Space and cyber are also areas where the U.K. is looking more to work with us,“ Metrolis said. “They see space as so much more than an enabler. For so long, we saw space as an enabler for the other domains, but now we have our service, so we’ve moved into thinking of space as more than an enabler.”

The U.K. isn’t the only country, however, to build up its space defense capabilities in recent years. Germany, Italy, France, and Canada have all established military space commands or divisions in recent years. All three European countries also operate military satellites of some kind as do Japan, Mexico, South Korea, Denmark, and India.

Not every country will get a space attache right away. It will take time to develop attaches and identify host nations, and the Space Force, by far the smallest service, has limited manpower.

“USSF is discussing the potential of Air Attachés being recognized as Air and Space Attachés in select countries until the USSF has sufficient manpower to dedicate a full Space Attaché position,” Davis said in the statement.

What Goes Into Being the DOD’s Airboss at One of the World’s Biggest Airshows

July 29, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

FARNBOROUGH, U.K.—As tens of thousands of visitors entered the Farnborough International Airshow near London, an array of American aircraft stood just a couple hundred feet from the gate.

Front and center at the July airshow stood a trio of fighter jets—an F-15E Strike Eagle, an F-16 Fighting Falcon, and an F-35 Lightning II. Behind them were an Air National Guard C-130H, a Navy P-8A, and Army helicopters such as the AH-64D Apache Longbow and CH-47F Chinook.

The effort it took to assemble those aircraft, to support and provide for their crews, and to place and arrange them just so, began more than half a year prior.

“We started the planning about six months ago,” Lt. Col. Phillippe Melby, deputy commander of the 100th Operations Group at RAF Mildenhall and the Pentagon’s “airboss” for the show, told Air Force Magazine in an interview from his base a couple hours’ drive from Farnborough. “That’s when [Defense Security Cooperation Agency] released the list of assets they wanted to participate in shows. So planning actually did start earlier in Washington, D.C. I wasn’t really privy to what was happening behind the scenes there, but it’s been going on for a long time.”

As airboss, Melby’s job description, along with that of his deputy, Lt. Col. Andre Walton, covered an expansive range of duties.

“You probably associate an airboss as someone in the tower directing traffic, directing the timing, and the main safety observer,” Melby said. “So it’s a little bit different than that. … The airboss in a trade show is pretty much responsible for all the DOD participants to make sure they’re getting what they need, in a nutshell.”

Chief Warrant Officer 4 Jason Plonka, right, AH-64 Apache helicopter pilot, 12th Combat Aviation Brigade, discusses the capabilities of the AH-64 with attendees at the Farnborough International Airshow in Farnborough, U.K., July 20, 2022. U.S. Army photo by Staff Sgt. Thomas Mort.

Those responsibilities included ensuring that all the Airmen, Sailors, and Soliders who attended the airshow were informed of the schedule, got food, and had lodgings. But beyond that, Melby also had to consider the larger goals the Pentagon had in attending the show and displaying its aircraft in the first place.

“It was a huge emphasis for the government to emphasize our special relationship with the U.K., to also showcase our NATO partners, and also all the services within USAFE and within the DOD itself,” Melby said. “So the planning takes a long time really to figure out, ‘What is the message we’re trying to say with this trade show? And then with industry, what are the things that we’re really trying to push for—that we know that we want to improve interoperability with NATO partners—what are the assets that we think should be the focus?’ But again, as the airboss, I’m not part of that decision-making.”

While Melby didn’t make that decision, he was tasked with carrying it out on the ground, down to the way the planes were arranged.

“The government really wanted to emphasize that we’re going to place a lot of assets on the ground in a static display role, even though a lot of things are happening at the same time,” Melby said. Access to DOD’s “corral” display was by invitation only. “But to show within that corral all the different services that were represented, the message is really: Stronger together. So with all the different services together, when we work together, we’re stronger together.”

That message of interoperability has taken on renewed urgency with Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—but for Melby, the task of getting the aircraft in place presented other, more logistical challenges.

“We had already been on site surveys—there had been two site surveys before the show even started. So we knew where we were going to be placed,” Melby said. “But then that Friday [before the show started], that first day when assets started arriving, we’re working with the show organizers, because they have a big say in where assets go, so we have to work closely with them to make sure where they want assets works with how we want the assets to be placed, taking in mind security, taking in mind which aircraft we want to be next to, what other countries do we want to be nearby.”

Indeed, even where the U.S.’s display is in relation to other nations can be a “big factor that goes into planning,” Melby said.

Throughout the week, Melby and his team worked to accommodate a steady stream of visitors through the U.S. corral, including Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, NASA administrator Bill Nelson, U.S. ambassador to the U.K. Jane Hartley, and Sen. Jerry Moran (R-Kan.), among others.

And when it came time to pack up and leave at the end of the week, the slightly chaotic process of arriving reversed itself.

“People have to get out of town based on when their airfields close,” Melby said. “So you have to get a slot time with the organizers, because there’s a lot of other traffic leaving at the same time. … So you’re adapting. You’re changing plans. You’re just adjusting every aspect of moving out and then keeping in mind security, keeping in mind the personnel. Some people have a hard time to get out of there because they have follow-on missions that they have to get to.”

All in all, thousands of visitors made their way to the U.S. corral over the course of the week, and Melby praised his team and the personnel in attendance for their professionalism. And when it was all over, after months of planning, he arrived back at Mildenhall that weekend to get a little down time.

“This was quite a big commitment, and it did take me away from my day job,” Melby acknowledged.

Yet it was a job he relished. While serving in the Pacific Air Forces several years ago as part of the aerial events and exercises planning team, he served as a deputy airboss for six airshows in the region. Getting the chance to be the principal airboss for the first time, he leapt at the opportunity for a simple reason.

“I’ve loved airplanes since I was a kid. So everything about watching airplanes fly, being at airshows, seeing the demos go—I stop and watch planes fly whenever I see them. It doesn’t matter what it is,” Melby said. “And so I just love all aspects of aviation [and] being able to go to these shows, talk to people about airplanes.”

Whether Melby will return as an airboss for a future show remains to be seen. He has been selected for promotion to colonel, and demands on his time are likely to increase. But even if Farnborough winds up being his only one, it was worth it.

“It’s a lot of planning; it’s a lot of work; but it’s very rewarding,” Melby said. “It’s very fun to do.”