‘This is a Sport’: F-16s Pilots Use New Sensors to Max Out Human Performance

‘This is a Sport’: F-16s Pilots Use New Sensors to Max Out Human Performance

April 15, 2024 | By David Roza

Air Force F-16 pilots are testing out new sensors that could help maximize their performance and avoid deadly accidents while flying fast under heavy G-forces and stressful conditions.

Developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Integrated Cockpit Sensing (ICS) system measures a pilot’s blood oxygen levels, heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, and other markers that show how their bodies are faring in flight. F-16 pilots from the Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron and 422nd Test and Evaluation Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev. took the system for a spin in a series of tests from January to March.

“We wanted to be able to help the ICS team accelerate their technology through flight tests,” said Wei “Fug” Lee, TPS director of research and the lead adviser for the project, said in an April 15 press release. “The goal is to demonstrate the ICS’s ability to measure physio and environmental data and assess its utility in recognizing physiological insults,” which is the medical term for physical or mental injuries or maladies.

While military cockpits are full of instruments reporting the health of the airplane, there are not as many tools for objectively assessing the health of the pilot. That can be a problem given the high physical demands of combat flying and the small margin for error when flying high-performance aircraft.

“This, contrary to popular belief, is a sport in all the sense of the physicality of the word,” Capt. Travis Worden, an F-16 pilot with the 422nd TES, said in a 2022 YouTube video about human performance sensing with Hasard Lee, a former F-16 pilot who currently flies the F-35. 

Under the G-forces and mental focus of dogfight training, “my heart rate is going to increase, my bodily response and my temporal distortion is going to increase, and you are going to see how much more difficult it becomes for me to think, talk, and communicate,” Worden added.

Indeed, sensors on the pilot’s ears, forehead, and torso showed that his heart rate, which averages 50 beats per minute at rest, rose to around 120 during takeoff and spiked to nearly 160 during defensive dogfighting practice. 

“I had no idea that our heart rates are like 120 just when you’re taking off, not doing anything extreme,” Lee said in the video. 

f-16 pilots
U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Joshua Arnall, director of operations, 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron, adjusts the Integrated Cockpit Sensing, or ICS, system prior to flight testing at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, Jan. 30, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo / Senior Airman Megan Estrada

That lack of fidelity on aircrew human performance data leaves holes in many investigations of deadly aircraft mishaps. 

“Due to poor data collection and analysis, the services and the Department of Defense are missing out on valuable opportunities to reduce risk, prevent mishaps, and optimize human performance,” wrote the National Commission on Military Aviation Safety in a 2020 report. 

Jet pilots across the military have long struggled with hypoxia (low oxygen), dehydration, temporal distortion, mental exhaustion, spatial disorientation, and hyperventilation. But the wide range of physiological episodes, plus pilots’ own reluctance to report episodes for fear of being grounded, and the lack of coordination between the services to study the problem “made finding root causes extraordinarily challenging for researchers,” the commission wrote.

To make matters worse, pilots may not be aware they are having an episode until it is too late. For example, one of the symptoms of hypoxia, which can arise if there is an issue with the pilot’s oxygen system, is a “sense of euphoria,” according to the Federal Aviation Administration.

“These subjects can’t write their name intelligibly, or even sort a deck of cards by suits … yet, they think they’re doing just fine!” the FAA wrote about people experiencing hypoxia.

Since pilots often lose awareness of their own condition, human performance systems need a way of alerting them when something is wrong, much like how pilots hear an alarm or a horn when their altitude is too low or they are approaching stall speed or running low on fuel. In the YouTube video, the system included headphones that emit a beeping noise when it detects hypoxia symptoms such as low blood oxygen levels. 

“For once with these key low-cost innovations, I, as the most lethal aspect of this airframe, can maximize my own lethality and survivability by knowing when I might be in a life-threatening situation,” Worden said.

pilot
An F-16 Fighting Falcon a part of the Viper Demonstration Team from Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, lines up with a KC-135 Stratotanker to receive fuel Sept. 29, 2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Kayla Christenson.

The findings of the report and a long run of hypoxia-related mishaps in the late 2010s inspired AFRL and the test community to start working on the problem, said Lt. Col. Robert Russell, commander of the 422nd TES.

“There are a lot of qualifiers like ‘likely’ and ‘possibly’ because while we collect millions of data points on the airplanes we fly, we monitor and collect zero data on pilots,” he said in the release.

The British defense manufacturer BAE Systems helped build ICS, which integrates sensors in the cockpit and in the pilot’s helmet, oxygen system, and clothing. According to BAE, the cockpit sensors track air quality, pressure, and other factors while the body sensors monitor blood oxygen levels, heart rate, body temperature, humidity, breathing rate, and other metrics. A smartphone-sized processor on the pilot’s chest rig processes and stores that data and alerts pilots when something is wrong. 

“It aggregates … basically a bunch of markers that provide context and help us understand how the pilot is responding to what he or she is asked to do,” Chris Dooley, lead ICS engineer with the AFRL Human Effectiveness Directorate, said in the release. “This data helps us look at risks such as hypoxia and cabin depressurization as well as stress responses to different phases of flight.”

AFRL created an initial prototype in 2022, then got clearance to start flight testing in 2023. The lab will apply the lessons learned from the tests at Nellis and Edwards earlier this year to refine the system, and hopefully connect it to the aircraft itself “to enable proactive safety measures in the case of incapacitated pilots,” the release said. Those measures might resemble the Automatic Ground Collision Avoidance System, which prevents pilots from accidentally flying into the ground. Auto-GCAS saved the lives of 11 Air Force pilots between 2014 and 2020, the Military Aviation Safety commission wrote. 

A BAE graphic breaks down the systems that makeup Integrated Cockpit Sensing. BAE courtesy image

Beyond saving lives, a human performance sensing system can also make pilots fly better. In the 2022 video, data from his body sensors showed Worden that the oxygen levels in his brain dropped more than he expected during high-G turns, which could indicate he needs to improve his anti-G straining maneuver, a breathing and muscle tensing technique to keep blood from draining out of the pilot’s head.

Eventually, AFRL wants to test ICS on other aircraft, and there might be a receptive audience in the Air Force airlift and tanker communities. In December, Air Mobility Command hosted its first-ever human performance industry day conference at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., where Airmen and health tech companies discussed how to manage the mental and physical stresses of the non-stop long-distance flying they might be asked to do in a possible conflict over the vast Pacific Ocean. 

“We’re going to max-perform humans, and I want all the insights and assistance possible,” AMC boss Gen. Mike Minihan said at the conference. “Nothing’s off the table.”

Even if such a conflict never materializes, better health data can keep pilots safer in training.

“Our team’s work is about ensuring the cockpit environment they’re operating in is safe so pilots can complete the mission and come home safely,” Dooley said in the AFRL release. “There’s a lot of possibility with this system. ICS produces a very rich data set that doesn’t exist anywhere else in the world.”

Another F-16 pilot, Lt. Col. Alex Goldberg, voiced a similar opinion in the 2022 video. 

“As pilots, we’ve had people that we’ve lost, and we’ve had incidents ourselves where we’re not able to understand why we’re not feeling good that day,” he said. “Maybe it’s a hypoxic situation. Maybe we grey-lock or G-lock or we’re having issues with our vision based upon the G-forces of the aircraft. Now in real-time we have actual monitoring to provide us what is happening with our bodies to increase our human performance.”

B-1 Bombers Perch Closer to Middle East Conflict in Exercise with Turkish Fighters

B-1 Bombers Perch Closer to Middle East Conflict in Exercise with Turkish Fighters

April 15, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Two of the four B-1B Lancers deployed as a Bomber Task Force to Spain last month have been positioned closer to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the Air Force announced, as the aircraft are now exercising in Turkey with that NATO partner’s air force. The U.S. Air Force has supported Israel’s defense against Iranian missile attacks in recent days, shooting down more than 70 Iranian drones with F-15s and F-16s.

The two bombers “flew from their deployed location at Morón Air Base, Spain, to Incirlik Air Base,” Turkey, on April 15, the Air Force said. There they will conduct “a long-planned, routine training mission” as part of Bomber Task Force  24-2.

The Air Force announced the two B-1s had deployed to Spain March 24. The same day, the service announced that two B-52s had deployed to Diego Garcia in the Indian Ocean.

As part of the deployment, “the U.S. aircraft integrated with and trained alongside Turkish fighter aircraft before landing at Incirlik, where the U.S. aircraft are projected to conduct additional training events in coordination with Turkish forces,” the Air Force said. It did not say how long they are expected to remain.

When the B-1s deployed to Spain from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, their route took them over the Barents Sea, where Reuters reported that Russia scrambled a MiG-31 to intercept the two aircraft, but waved off before reaching the Russian frontier.

This is the second B-1 deployment to Europe this year, as two Lancers from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D. deployed in February to Sweden, which was recently admitted to NATO. After exercising with Swedish forces, they returned to Ellsworth in early March.

The pace of BTFs worldwide has increased in the last two years, and as part of the Air Force’s recently announced “re-optimization,” more deployments and major exercises, with and without allies, are expected.  

Incirlik is the Air Force’s usual deployment location for aerial tankers, typically detached from RAF Mildenhall, U.K.   

The service described BTF-24-2 as “part of Large Scale Global Exercise 2024, an umbrella term that incorporates dozens of separate exercises and military activities under multiple combatant commands, which enables U.S. forces to train with allies and partners to improve shared understanding, trust, and interoperability on security challenges.”

The bombers and support personnel “will conduct a series of missions throughout the BTF 24-2 deployment to train alongside Allies and partners.” These exercises enable “dynamic force employment in the European theater, providing strategic predictability and assurance for Allies and partners while contributing to deterrence by introducing greater operational unpredictability for potential adversaries,” the Air Force said.

Col. Kevin Lord, 39th Air Base Wing commander, thanked “our Turkish hosts for their role in this vital training opportunity and for their ongoing support to our team living and working as part of the Incirlik community.” Bilateral operations and “routine engagement between U.S. and Turkish forces, including these recent bomber task force missions, strengthen our shared commitment to regional security and stability,” he said.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe, “emphasized the importance of partnerships” with the Turkish defense ministry and “how bilateral training contributes to cooperation and shared defense in the region.”

Altus Evacuates Heavy Aircraft Ahead of Tornado Threat

Altus Evacuates Heavy Aircraft Ahead of Tornado Threat

April 15, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Altus Air Force Base, Okla, the pilot schoolhouse for large transport aircraft, evacuated a large number of its C-17s, KC-46s, and KC-135s to other bases in the region on April 15, ahead of severe weather expected overnight.

The 97th Air Mobility Wing moved many of its mobility aircraft to undisclosed locations “based on availability and capability” of those bases to receive and temporarily accommodate them, the wing said in response to queries from Air & Space Forces Magazine. The receiving bases were not named, citing operational security. Altus is about 100 miles west-southwest of Oklahoma City’s Tinker Air Force Base, one of the Air Force’s largest depot complexes.

“All available hangar space will be used to accommodate as many aircraft as possible, with the remainder being evacuated,” an Altus spokesperson said.

Schoolhouse operations were expected to continue, however, with student training to be performed “off station,” the spokesperson said.

The expected weather prompting the evacuations comprised “55-knot winds, 1.25-inch hail, and a slight risk of tornadic activity during the evening hours,” the Wing said. But the aircraft were expected to return within a day.

In addition to “severely damaging winds” and hail, the National Weather Service said conditions are ripe for “severe fire danger” as well.

The evacuations follow a new precedent set in 2018 when Hurricane Michael virtually leveled Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., resulting in a multi-year reconstruction effort still underway six years later. Tyndall’s commander at the time ordered aircraft to evacuate ahead of the rapidly escalating Category 5 hurricane, likely saving scores of aircraft worth billions of dollars. Those aircraft not moveable because they were down for maintenance were locked in hangars, and sustained heavy damage when hangar roofs were torn off by the storm.

In the wake of that storm—among a series of base disasters of varying severity since the late 2000s—commanders have been instructed to err on the side of safety if there is a warning of grave weather conditions.  

In 1952, two-thirds of the Air Force’s nuclear B-36 fleet was destroyed or incapacitated by a string of tornados that ripped through Carswell Air Force Base, Texas, and nearby states. In the wake of the storms—which threw bombers onto one another and flipped some onto their backs—it took more than three months to repair the aircraft and restore Strategic Air Command’s strategic deterrence bomber fleet’s readiness.

Promising ‘Accountability,’ Allvin Releases Update to Airmen on ‘Follow Through’ Efforts

Promising ‘Accountability,’ Allvin Releases Update to Airmen on ‘Follow Through’ Efforts

April 15, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin began his tenure as chief pressing Airmen to “follow through” on changes needed to respond to China’s growing military might and the changing nature of warfare. On April 15, Allvin offered his first self-assessment to Airmen in a memo focused on progress so far.

“This security environment, as outlined in our Case for Change, is defined by a formidable competitor and a rapidly accelerating pace of change,” Allvin wrote. “We have been charting a course for the change we need, and now we are following through on our commitment to those changes. This journey requires accountability.”

Allvin said he would continue to offer biannual updates.

The Follow Through initiative is distinct from the re-optimization plans announced in February, which amount to the largest package of changes to the Air Force in decades. Because those changes are so new, “There are few concrete results in the past six months,” Allvin said. He did, however, offer a number of new details:

  • Warrant Officers. The “first class of Cyber/IT Warrant Officers will start in October and should graduate before the end of [December]. The second is scheduled to begin in January 2025.”
  • Deployments. Allvin said the service is implementing the first six Air Task Forces—units that will train and deploy together—which are on track for deployment by the end of fiscal 2026, under the USAF’s new AFFORGEN force generation model. “The ATFs will train throughout their AFFORGEN cycle and will serve as pathfinders to inform the more comprehensive training requirements and locations for our ultimate Combat Wing Design: Deployable Combat Wings (DCW), In-Place Combat Wings (ICW), and Combat Generation Wings (CGW),” Allvin wrote.
  • Mission vs. Function. “We are moving away from an Air Force designed around Functions and moving towards an Air Force designed around Missions (Maritime Strike, C-C5ISRT, etc.) that require an integration of our core functions to produce outcomes,” Allvin wrote. Enhancing maritime strike and the ability to counter adversaries C-C5ISRT—that is, command, control, computing, communications, cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and targeting—are both areas of interest.

“When I first took this seat, I decided on Follow Through as my initial message,” Allvin concluded. “As we reoptimize our Air Force, my goal isn’t to supplant or replace previous initiatives. Rather, it is to ensure that we continue to make the changes necessary to see them become a reality. This biannual letter is my way of chronicling our improvements and holding myself accountable to this vision. Being mindful stewards of our progress is our best chance at overcoming the challenges we face.”

Follow-Through-Apr-24-UpdateDownload
USAF Fighters Shoot Down Iranian Drones in Defense of Israel

USAF Fighters Shoot Down Iranian Drones in Defense of Israel

April 15, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

U.S. Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles and F-16 Fighting Falcons shot down dozens of Iranian drones as they were heading toward targets in Israel on April 13, a U.S. official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

On April 14, U.S. officials singled out the role of F-15E Strike Eagles from the 494th Fighter Squadron and the 335th Fighter Squadron in downing more than 70 Iranian drones. But on April 15, a U.S. official noted that F-16s were involved in the shoot-downs as well.

The F-16’s involvement in blunting Iran’s attack on Israel has not been previously reported.

A Patriot battery in Erbil, Iraq, took down a ballistic missile, and the USS Arleigh Burke and USS Carney in the Eastern Mediterranean took down four to six ballistic missiles, the officials added. U.S. Navy aircraft also supported the mission.

President Joe Biden spoke with members of the F-15 squadrons to “commend them for their exceptional airmanship and skill in defending Israel from an unprecedented aerial attack by Iran,” the White House said.

U.S. officials said the Iranian attack consisted of more than 100 ballistic missiles, 30 land-attack cruise missiles, and 150 drones. The U.S. said it intercepted missiles and drones en route to Israel, launched from Iran, Iraq, Syria, and Yemen. U.S. and Israeli officials said that “99 percent” of the drones and missiles were intercepted. The majority were taken out by Israel, a senior U.S. official said. British and French fighters also took down some drones.

“The close cooperation between the U.S. military and the IDF has led to the formation of a strong coalition that proved itself last night in the face of Iran’s aerial attack,” the IDF said in an April 14 statement.

While Israel mounted its defense with Arrow 2 and Arrow 3 surface-to-air interceptors and fighters, the U.S. coordinated the air defense for the coalition forces at the Combined Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, where Air Forces Central (AFCENT) boss Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich serves as the regional air defense commander.

Biden ordered the movement of extra F-15s and destroyers—which carry the highly-capable AEGIS air defense system—to the region in the past week. In a statement on April 13, Biden said those deployments led to “nearly all” of the incoming drones and missiles being intercepted. A senior administration official told reporters that over 100 ballistic missiles were airborne at the same time during the attack.

In an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine on April 14, Grynkewich declined to discuss Iran’s attack. However, Grynkewich described how the CAOC typically coordinates air defense.

“We take whatever assets we have that are in theater … under our tactical control or in a direct support role across the joint force and the coalition, and we stitch them together so that we can synchronize the fires and effects when we get into that air defense fight,” Grynkewich said.

In the future, the U.S. wants to increase collaboration in air and missile defense, which has been a long-standing goal for CENTCOM.

“There has been a lot that’s been accomplished” in recent years, Grynkewich said. “We’re trying to stitch together partners in the region who share a perspective of a threat, share concern of the threats to stability in the region—which primarily emanate from Iran with a large number of ballistic missiles—and be in a position where we’re able to share information, share threat warning. And the ultimate goal is to get to a much deeper and fuller integration. We’ve made tremendous progress.”

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said RAF jets shot down “a number” of Iranian drones during the barrage. The U.K. Defense Ministry said in a statement that Royal Air Force aircraft in the region were prepared to “intercept any airborne attacks within range of our existing missions.” Additional RAF fighter jets and refueling tankers have been deployed for the counter-Islamic State mission in Iraq and Syria, which has also freed up U.S. air assets to focus on intercepting Iranian threats.

“It’s a win for the concept of integrated air and missile defense across the theater,” retired Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the CENTCOM commander from 2019-2022, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “People should draw strong conclusions from what just happened about the efficacy of that approach.”

Other former top Middle East generals agreed.

“One of the big concerns we had was how we were going to share the air picture with the Israelis and then coordinate who was doing what when the shooting started,” added retired Air Force Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, the commander of AFCENT from 2016-2018. “Based on the results, it sounds like it was pretty good coordination.”

CENTCOM’s commander from 2016-2019, retired Army Gen. Joseph L. Votel, said Iran’s attack proved integrated air and missile defense “ought to now be an overriding priority” for the entire region.

“I hope the Gulf states are taking note of this,” Votel said. “The level of cooperation between Western militaries plus Jordan is a real example that they should be eager to emulate against the Iranian threat.”

Iran said its drone and missile strikes—its first direct attack against Israeli territory—were in response to an April 1 attack by Israel that killed senior figures in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps at a facility in Damascus. Iran vowed retaliation and Israel, the U.S., and the region were bracing for the attack. It is unclear how Israel will respond.

Biden spoke by phone with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu after the attacks. A senior administration official told reporters the two leaders “had a discussion about trying to slow things down.”

“This is a big deterrent failure for the Iranians,” said Michael Knights of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy. “That’s the key takeaway from this. But it’s also a moment when I think the Israelis would be under a lot of pressure now to just let the volume go down on this conflict.”

An Israeli Air Force F-35 conducts flight operations in a picture released April 13 by the Israel Defense Forces.
National Guard Chief Makes Case for Space Guard: ‘Would Work Exactly Like It is Right Now’

National Guard Chief Makes Case for Space Guard: ‘Would Work Exactly Like It is Right Now’

April 13, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

National Guard officials and state governors are arguing against removing space missions from the Guard, challenging a key element of the Department of the Air Force’s plan on how to staff its space missions. 

The long-simmering issue came to the fore recently after the leaders of the National Governors Association, Govs. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) released a statement blasting the Department of Air Force’s plans to create part-time Guardians in lieu of a Space National Guard.

Fourteen Guard units in seven states and Guam currently have space-related missions, such as missile tracking and electronic warfare. About 1,000 Air National Guardsmen are assigned to such missions out of an overall force of over 100,000. The Space Force, meanwhile, has fewer than 10,000 uniformed Guardians.

The Department of Air Force has proposed legislation to fold these Guard units into the Space Force, which can now accept part-time members through the recently passed Space Force Personnel Management Act. But National Guard officials and governors are pushing back, arguing they had been excluded from the decision-making process.

“Why should governors have important input to that? Well, because of their capabilities being pulled away from states,” Air Force Maj. Gen. Richard R. Neely, the adjutant general of Illinois, told reporters April 8.

The Guard has also cited surveys that up to 86 percent of space-focused Guardsmen would not transfer to the Space Force.

In contrast to the Department of Air Force, National Guard leaders have argued for establishing a separate Space National Guard, asserting that the cost and bureaucracy would be nominal.

“It would work exactly like it is right now,” the Chief of the National Guard Bureau Army Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson told Air & Space Forces Magazine in an interview in late February. “We’ve been in the Guard performing this mission for over 20 years. We’re doing it today. We have Guardsmen deployed overseas doing the space mission. Some of our units are deployed in place, meaning they’re doing their mission every single day, day-to-day.”

U.S. Army Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson, Chief of the National Guard Bureau, converses with U.S. Army Maj. Gen. Tom James, Joint-Task Force-Space Defense commander, at Schriever Space Force Base, Colo., June 27, 2022. U.S. Space Force photo by Tiana Williams

Officials on all sides of the issue say their main concern is doing the mission effectively without added cost and bureaucracy. The issue is currently under review as part of a congressionally mandated study that is expected to be released in the next few weeks.

Hokanson said his position was driven by his “best military advice” as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.

Whether the costs would be as minimal as the proponents of the Space National Guard say is a key question. The issue was previously studied by the Congressional Budget Office, which said in 2020 that a Space National Guard would cost around $100 million a year to operate for around 1,500 personnel if it included Army National Guard space personnel. 

Yet proponents of a Space National Guard say it could be created for less. National Guard officials also say Guardsmen can perform state duties such as disaster relief and highlight the Guard’s State Partnership Program, which pairs states with foreign countries to create tight alliances. 

“I really see it as cost-neutral,” Hokanson said. “They’re still being paid for by the Department of the Air Force, so there’s no increase in the budget. … I look at it like all we do is change the signs in front of the building and the people can change their name tapes.”

Further complicating the picture, preserving the status quo could be an option: that is, leaving space-related functions in the Air National Guard.

“This was really one of the first issues we were looking at prior to the standup of Space Force—what are we going to do with the Guard and Reserve units?” said retired Air Force Col. Stuart Pettis, who worked on the creation of the Space Force. “We’ve been studying this since 2019.”

“We’re not in a world where we only have two options,” added retired Space Force Col. Charles Galbreath of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “I think at this point, we absolutely need to take a good hard look at all three options and not ignore that there are in fact three options.”

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman and Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall have expressed confidence that shifting space-relation Guard missions to the Space Force will better use civilian talent. And Kendall has argued that the change would not be as dramatic for current Guard personnel as critics suggest.

“We’re not asking them to jump off a cliff,” Kendall said. “We’re asking them to go to another arrangement which will be very, very like the one that they’re currently serving under. They’re not going to see much change frankly, as I see it.” 

Hokanson suggested, however, that the Department of Air Force’s plan was full of uncertainty.

“The concern is we don’t know how this Space Force Personnel Management Act is going to work out,” Hokanson said. “We’ve never done it. They’re implementing it now. The Guard has been around for almost 400 years.

PHOTOS: Kadena Welcomes New F-22s and F-16s with Elephant Walk

PHOTOS: Kadena Welcomes New F-22s and F-16s with Elephant Walk

April 12, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Kadena Air Base, Japan, is exchanging F-35s and F-15Cs for F-22s and F-16s in the base’s latest rotation of fighters on Okinawa, a strategic location just 400 miles east of Taiwan.

Kadena’s 18th Wing released a statement and images showing the Raptors are from the 199th and 19th Fighter Squadrons of Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. It did not disclose from where the F-16s came.

An F-22A Raptor assigned to the 19th Fighter Squadron, Joint Base Pearl Harbor–Hickam, Hawaii, departs after receiving aerial refueling during a large force exercise over the Pacific Ocean, April 10, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jessi Roth

Since the Air Force announced in October 2022 that it was retiring all 48 of Kadena’s aging F-15C/D aircraft after more than 40 years of continuous Eagle operations, the service has kept a steady fighter presence on the island through continuous rotations. Among them, the base previously hosted F-22s from the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, and F-16s from the 480th Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany.

It’s unclear how many of Kadena’s original Eagles are still at the base today, but F-15s from the California and Louisiana Air National Guard that deployed there in October are now leaving, as are F-35s from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, that arrived in November.

Before they left and after the new fighters arrived, however, Kadena showcased its array of airpower in an “Elephant Walk” lineup, seemingly establishing a tradition of showcasing each fighter type during its rotation through Japan.

This latest elephant walk shows:

  • Four F-15Cs
  • Eight F-16Cs
  • 10 F-35As
  • 11 F-22As
  • One MQ-9 Reaper
  • Two HH-60G Pave Hawks
  • Two KC-135 Stratotankers
  • One MC-130J Commando II
  • One RC-135 Rivet
  • One E-3 Sentry
  • One U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon

According to a local media report, one of the F-22s that came from Hawaii was involved in an incident upon arriving at the base at 10:30 a.m. local time on April 11. The report showed a video of the Raptor being towed from the runway with its engine turned off. The Okinawa Defense Bureau issued a statement confirming that the Raptor had a landing gear issue during the towing process, resulting in damage to the fuselage, as the jet’s nose was dragged along the ground.

While the latest fighter rotation took place, Japanese Prime Minister Kishida Fumio met with President Joe Biden halfway across the globe in Washington D.C. Along with other moves to bolster the alliance, the leaders announced a new defense network system with Australia.

“I’m also pleased to announce that for the first time, Japan and the United States and Australia will create a networked system of air, missile, and defense architecture,” Biden during a joint press conference April 10. “We’re also looking forward to standing up a trilateral military exercise with Japan and the United Kingdom.” 

The tightening relationship between the U.S. and Japan comes as China continues to build up its capabilities. Kishida emphasized dedication to collaboratively “resolutely defend and bolster a free and open international order” based on the rule of law, but highlighted Japan’s ongoing dialogue with Beijing and its readiness to cooperate with the nation in addressing recent tensions.  Biden, too, reiterated the importance of talks with Beijing to mitigate any “misunderstandings or miscalculations,” noting a recent positive phone call with Chinese President Xi Jinping regarding the establishment of a communication network.

“Our defense and security ties with Japan form the core of our alliances and are the cornerstone of regional peace and security in the Indo-Pacific,” Pentagon press secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Pat Ryder said during a briefing on April 11. “Recognizing that the alliance has reached new heights, we plan to further bolster our defense and security cooperation to allow for greater coordination and integration.”

Will Unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft Mean Airmen Need New AFSCs?

Will Unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft Mean Airmen Need New AFSCs?

April 12, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force will award more contracts for Collaborative Combat Aircraft in the coming months and is committed to fielding the autonomous unmanned jets within the next few years. But how that will impact Airmen’s job remains to be seen, the head of Air Force Futures said April 12. 

Speaking at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event, Lt. Gen. David A. Harris said the manpower matters raised by CCAs are still a work-in-progress.  

“We tend to focus a lot on the materiel piece of this, but there is so much more baked into the doctrine, the TTPs, the manpower piece of CCAs,” Harris said. “All those things have to be thought through. … We still want to get quantities out to the field, but we want to get them out and using them the right way and learn from them and then be able to start integrating properly.” 

The Air Force plans to spend billions of dollars developing CCAs, which complement manned fighters and fly alongside them, providing “affordable mass” compared to adding manned aircraft and doing so at lower risk of lives lost. But even uncrewed, autonomous aircraft require people to maintain, launch, and recover them, and those people will need to be trained and equipped to do their jobs.

“There could be different [Air Force Specialty Codes] that we need to be able to pull,” Harris said. “How do you pull data off of an unmanned platform in a real-time fashion? So you’re part data analyst, you’re part intel, but you’re also part mechanic. Or part intel officer, part pilot. So all of these things are being fused together, because I think there will be a convergence of AFSCs that may end up happening to be able to effectively employ these CCAs.” 

Lt. Gen. David A. Harris, Deputy Chief of Staff, Air Force Futures, speaks with the Mitchell Institute’s Dean, retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, April 12, 2024, in the Air & Space Forces Association studios in Arlington, Va. Photo by Mike Tsukamoto/Air & Space Forces Association

Recalling a recent visit to the Air Force-MIT artificial intelligence accelerator, Harris noted that questions as basic as how much autonomy a CCA drone will have in relation to the pilot it’s flying with is still being worked out. 

“There’s an interesting connection here between humans operating aircraft, and then just being fully autonomous. There’s a piece in the middle with the human-machine teaming piece of this,” Harris said. “As the pilot begins to fatigue after a long flight, can we recognize this and then have that [CCA] platform go more into an autonomous mode?’ Versus, ‘Hey, the pilot’s at peak performance and now I can probably control maneuver these a bit more.’ That intersection is an area that’s being explored.” 

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall will get some hands-on experience with that autonomy when he flies on an autonomously piloted F-16 this year, but that exploration is likely to continue even after the first “increment” of CCAs is deployed sometime in 2028. 

“I think the wrong way to incorporate them is put what we think is a final end-state product out to the user, for them to just say, ‘OK, now take this and adapt it into your TTPs,’” Harris said. “I think the way that this is going to have to end up evolving is, we get something on the ramp and we allow the operator to start working with this to understand what the left and right limits are, and then begin to balance what we want that Collaborative Combat Aircraft to do.” 

Harris’ approach is one that former Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark D. Kelly first advocated in September 2022, when CCAs were developing as a concept. At the time, he said, there was an internal debate within the Air Force: “Are we going to swing for the fence and have these things almost operational in a short amount of time, or are we going to kind of get some singles and folks on base and try to iterate our way there?” 

Boards Selected Fewer New Air Force Majors in 2023

Boards Selected Fewer New Air Force Majors in 2023

April 12, 2024 | By David Roza

The race for Air Force captains to become majors was more competitive this year than last, with declines in both the total number and promotion rate for the O-4 rank in Line of the Air Force categories, according to newly-released data.

In all, 1,995 new majors were selected out of 2,367 captains considered at the selection board late last year, for an overall selection rate of about 84 percent.

By comparison, the 2022 promotion board process resulted in 2,177 new majors from a field of 2,531, for a selection rate of 86 percent, according to data provided by the Air Force Personnel Center.

The career fields included:

  • Air Operations and Special Warfare, which covers aviators and special operations; 1,071 selected out of 1,270 considered.
  • Nuclear and missile operations: 71 selected out of 96 considered.
  • Information warfare, which covers intelligence, cyber, weather, public affairs, and other fields: 398 selected out of 454 considered.
  • Combat support, which includes maintenance, security forces, airfield operations, and logistics: 311 selected out of 370 considered. 
  • Force modernization, which includes chemists, physicists, and developmental engineers: 144 selected out of 177 considered.

The promotion to major marks a transition from company grade officer ranks (2nd lieutenant through captain) to those of field grade officer (major through colonel). Much like how the enlisted transition from Airmen to noncommissioned officers, new FGOs must prepare for greater responsibility and develop a more thorough understanding of their mission and organization.

Besides majors, the Air Force also promoted 58 new lieutenant colonels out of 226 considered, all in the biomedical science corps, which involves medical and dental fields.