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.”

Air Force F-35s Grounded as Search for Faulty Ejection Seat Parts Widens

July 29, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force grounded its F-35A fighters as it checked for potentially faulty parts in the type’s Martin-Baker ejection seats. The move followed by a day the service’s grounding of nearly half its T-38 supersonic trainers and about a sixth of its T-6A primary trainers for the same issue.

Air Combat Command announced that it was standing down its F-35As, as did U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Education and Training Command. Pacific Air Forces was expected to follow suit. The Navy is following a similar inspection protocol on its jets with Martin-Baker seats, including its F-35Bs/Cs, F/A-18s, EA-18s, T-45s, and F-5Ns.

“With a few exceptions, all ACC F-35 aircraft are in a temporary stand-down while more data is analyzed,” an ACC spokeswoman said July 29. “The stand-down of aircraft will continue through the weekend, and a determination to safely resume normal operations is expected to be made early next week, pending analysis of the inspection data.”

ACC said it has known about the potential problem since April, when a routine inspection found a defective cartridge at Hill Air Force Base, Utah.

“An Immediate Time Compliance Technical Directive was issued” to inspect other aircraft, the spokeswoman said, which ordered that all the seats be checked within 90 days. When it was determined that a production line quality failure was to blame, the F-35 Joint Program Office “rescinded the immediate action” TCTD and changed it to a “routine” TCTD, still to be completed within the 90-day period, she said.

The general stand-down was ordered July 29 “to expedite the inspection process,” the spokeswoman said. The command could not say how long it expected the inspections to take, as a count of how many had already been inspected was not immediately available. The Air Force has about 475 F-35s.

A USAF spokesperson said “this is properly called a stand-down” rather than a grounding because the aircraft can resume flying after an inspection shows that they’re safe to operate.

During the Hill inspection in April, a single cartridge-actuated device, or CAD, on an F-35 seat was found to have an insufficient amount of explosive powder, a Martin-Baker spokesman said.

“It was incomplete; it was not finished,” he noted.

Since then, factory records and lots have been checked, and USAF F-35As have subsequently been inspected “out of an abundance of caution.”

The process requires taking a jet out of service for about a day, as the seat must be fully removed from the aircraft to get at the parts, which can then be accessed “in a few seconds,” the spokesman said. Each seat has two CADs, which help propel the seat out of the aircraft if the pilot commands an ejection.

There are ways to determine from a visual inspection whether the CAD is defective, the Martin-Baker spokesman said. If maintainers are still in doubt, they can perform an X-ray to establish that the proper amount of powder is in the cartridge.

Aircraft found not to have faulty cartridges can return to flying immediately. If a cartridge is suspect, a replacement is installed.

“They’ve done about 70 percent of the fleet already,” the Martin-Baker spokesman said of USAF’s F-35s. “Only a very small number” of problematic cartridges have been identified, and “they have plenty to replace them.”

The issue is “F-35-unique,” he said, but “because it has come from the same factory in the same period,” AETC and the Navy are checking their records and their aircraft “to make sure” other aircraft aren’t affected.

The Naval Surface Warfare Center Indian Head Division provides propellant-actuated devices for all the services, and Martin-Baker is “working with Indian Head” to mitigate aircraft downtime, the company spokesman said.

There has been congressional attention to ejection seats in recent months, and consequently, the services are “taking no chances. They are going for zero risk,” he said. Some 85 countries and 95 air forces fly aircraft with Martin-Baker seats, and “everybody is looking” at their airplanes to ensure there are no issues, he added.

The Navy has been X-raying F-35 CADs since July 24 to verify they are good and shipping them to fleet maintenance centers to swap out for any defective parts found, Naval Air Systems Command said.

Air Force officials said training of pilots will be affected by the various groundings, but because of the availability of simulators, the impact is expected to be small, “especially if this is a short-lived thing, which I expect it to be,” according to one. He also said the downtime can be exploited by maintainers to catch up on other inspections and maintenance actions.

Ukraine is Hitting Russian SAMs With HIMARS; US Considers Future Aviation Contribution

July 29, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

While the air picture has remained static in the Russia-Ukraine war, the introduction of High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) has allowed Ukraine to strike surface-to-air missile targets behind enemy lines. Now the U.S. is considering future aviation contributions in Ukraine, defense officials confirmed to Air Force Magazine.

Defense officials briefed Pentagon journalists July 29, painting a picture of a demoralized Russian force and a newly empowered Ukraine, able to hold the line thanks to sophisticated new air defenses. A senior defense official confirmed that the United States has facilitated the transfer of “significant spare parts” to keep Ukraine’s Soviet-era MiGs and Sukhois flying, but the Defense Department will not train Ukrainian pilots on new systems until a platform is decided.

“We know that they’ve been able to strike surface-to-air missile locations and to destroy some SAMs,” a senior military official said in response to a question from Air Force Magazine.

“The fact that the Russians continue to not have air superiority certainly says a great deal about Ukrainians’ kind of will,” he added. “Both in their ability to prevent the enemy from shooting at their aircraft, but also to shoot down Russian aircraft.”

The senior defense official said air defense aid has focused on armed unmanned aerial systems, such as the Air Force’s Phoenix Ghost. While Ukraine still retains Phoenix Ghost systems from an earlier defense package, DOD is starting a contracting process to acquire up to 580 additional Phoenix Ghost UASs.

The defense official said in terms of aircraft, the Defense Department is weighing a future contribution.

“Our attention in terms of potential investments in aviation is really much more focused on, kind of, the mid- and long-term than it is on the current fight,” the official said. Lawmakers and Ukrainian Air Force officials have expressed their desire to train Ukrainian pilots on the F-16.

Pressed on why the Defense Department is not inclined to begin training Ukrainian pilots now, the official said that training only made sense after a decision on the future platform is made.

“Well, I think we’re examining this. We’re looking into this question,” the official said. “But really, it is important to identify what the platforms are and will be and make sure that you’re providing the right kind of training.”

American and partner defense assistance, coordinated through monthly meetings of the multi-nation Ukraine Defense Contact Group led by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, began in June to provide precise targeting systems that can reach 40 miles behind enemy lines.

The results have stymied the Russian advance.

“They’ve gotten to a point now and created a level of defense that really has the Russians at a standstill. They’ve stopped,” the military official said.

Ukrainian defense minister Oleksii Reznikov has said his country would need “at least 100” more HIMARS to reverse Russian gains in the eastern Donbas region, where Russia now controls the entire Lunhansk oblast and much of Donetsk as well as a land bridge from Russia to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.

The United States has delivered 12 HIMARS and has committed four additional systems, while other countries have provided similar systems.

After hitting more than 50 Russian command-and-control sites, ammunition depots, and other targets with the HIMARS, Ukraine began a counter-offensive to take back the key southern city of Kherson, north of Crimea.

Heavy fighting continues, but the U.S. defense officials said little territory is changing hands.

Another powerful air defense system promised by the Biden administration July 1, the National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile System (NASAMS), which is the same system used to protect Washington, D.C., is still in the contracting process.

Ukrainian officials believe once the system is in place, it can better protect large cities, civilian populations, and key military targets. In recent days, Moscow lobbed missiles at the outskirts of Kyiv and the vital port city of Odesa, despite a Russian agreement not to target port facilities and to allow grain shipments to ease a world food shortage.

Ukraine has argued that it needs air power in the form of modern combat aircraft if it is to truly turn the course of the conflict and regain lost territory. Ukraine and members of the U.S. Congress argue that it is wise to begin training combat pilots now.

The Defense Department, however, is still hesitant to give Ukraine the air power it needs to face modern Russian combat jets and air defense systems.

“Obviously, we want the Ukrainians to have the capabilities they need,” the senior defense official said in response to a question from Air Force Magazine. “Our support to Ukraine in the air domain has been focused on armed UAVs.”

RAF Fairford Grows to Support Bomber Task Forces and More

July 29, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Senate Panel Proposes 8.7 Percent Bump to Pentagon Budget

July 28, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 28, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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