New ICBM, Family Housing Get Big Boosts in Air Force’s 2023 Military Construction Budget

April 22, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Although the overall military construction request decreased from fiscal 2022 to 2023, spending on infrastructure for the Air Force’s new intercontinental ballistic missile more than quadrupled.

In 2022, the department requested $2.38 billion for projects across its Active-duty, Guard, and Reserve components. This year, it’s asking for $2.26 billion total, a decline of nearly five percent.

Of that, $444 million is devoted to projects related to the LGM-35A Sentinel, or as it was called until recently, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent. Specifically, the service wants to spend $89 million for a maintenance facility at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., $179 million for software and technology centers at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, and $176 million for a command center, a missile handling complex, and approximately 2,550 acres of land at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Neb.

All told, the Sentinel-related projects represent nearly 20 percent of the entire 2023 MILCON budget, or one out of every five dollars. It’s also a dramatic expansion in construction for the program from a year ago—for 2022, the Air Force asked for $98 million for GBSD-related projects.

Military construction has become a more pressing concern for the Air Force in recent years—in 2021, officials estimated there was a $30 billion backlog of repairs, as previous budgets prioritized other needs and let facilities atrophy.

Most of the MILCON budget in 2023, though, is devoted to new missions that support the beddown or deployment of new systems—$1.57 billion out of the $2.26 billion, nearly 70 percent.

Included in that total are several projects for the B-21 Raider program. The Air Force is asking for authorizations of $328 million and appropriations of $218 million for Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., related to the B-21. Ellsworth is slated to be the initial B-21 operating base and the formal training unit, or “schoolhouse” for the bomber.

Other major projects included in the ’23 military construction budget include $191 million for the Air Force’s planned divert airfield on Tinian, one of the Northern Mariana Islands. The airfield, projected to be completed by 2025, will serve as an alternative to Andersen Air Force Base in Guam—the 2023 budget requests funds for a parking apron, fuel tanks, and further airfield development.

There is also $141 million for Kadena Air Base, Japan, to build a hangar for Helicopter Rescue Squadron Operations and a Helicopter Maintenance Unit, as well as a “corrosion control facility for painting large bodied aircraft.”

Within the U.S., there is $125 million for Barksdale Air Force Base, La., to build “a Weapons Generation Facility to reconstitute nuclear capability,” as well as $100 million to extend a runway at Joint Base Elmendorf–Richardson, Alaska.

While funding for military construction is down slightly in the latest budget request, the money for military family housing increases, from a $441 million request in 2022 to $588 million in 2023.

Much of that increase is devoted to construction improvements, to fund “the combination of required maintenance and repair together with improvements to bring the unit to contemporary standards.” In 2022, the Air Force asked for $105 million for such improvements. In 2023, that figure is more than double, at $230 million.

Most of that $230 million is slated to go to privatized housing through the Military Housing Privatization Initiative.

Long-Term Ukraine Aid to Be Discussed at Ramstein Meeting

April 22, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

“Stakeholders” from up to 40 nations will meet with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, on April 26, to discuss how to deliver extended and more lethal aid to Ukraine, the Pentagon said.

The meeting is “not a NATO ministerial” but instead a gathering of those interested in providing aid to Ukraine in its resistance to Russia’s invasion, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby told reporters April 22. More than 20 nations have accepted the invitation, he said.

The European Union, Finland, Georgia, and Sweden have been among the entities invited to participate in recent NATO meetings discussing the war in Ukraine.

“One of the things that [Austin] wants” from the meeting is “the beginnings of a discussion with like-minded nations about long-term defense relationships that Ukraine will need going forward,” Kirby said.

“We obviously want to talk about what’s going on now. We certainly want to hear from … other nations about what they’re doing, in terms of immediate defense assistance, and how that might change,” Kirby said.

As the fighting in Ukraine enters “a new phase, … I think he also wants to take a longer, larger view of the defense relationships that Ukraine will need to have going forward, when the war is over.” This is an evolving issue and “that’s why we want to have the meeting,” Kirby said.

“Having more than 20 [nations] already agree” to attend “on relatively short notice, I think, is a powerful statement of the convening power of the United States and the importance that not only we but these other nations place on Ukraine’s defense needs going forward,” Kirby asserted.

There will be no NATO decisions resulting from the meeting about future U.S. force posture in Europe, Kirby said, because it is “not a NATO meeting.”

Austin does not have “a preset list of things” he wants participants to pledge, Kirby said.

“He wants to hear from allies and partners and … from the Ukrainians themselves about what … they’re doing and what they will need going forward. That’s why we’re calling it a ‘consultative group.’ So we can actually consult … but … we’re not going into this with a pre-cooked set of endings here.”

If specific decisions are not made, DOD hopes participants come up with “a framework for getting at specific decisions going forward,” Kirby said. He said that Austin will address the press at the conclusion of the meeting to explain “what we heard and what was learned.”

The meeting follows pleas from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that the U.S. and other countries send heavier weapons and air defenses to aid in battling Russia. It also follows the White House pledging another $800 million in aid to Ukraine that includes artillery, artillery rounds, vehicles, and kamikaze drones that can destroy tanks. The U.S. has so far provided more than $3.3 billion in military aid to Ukraine.

Kirby said the congressional authorization amounts for lethal aid to Ukraine are drawing down but are not yet nearing exhaustion. He said the Pentagon will be discussing new amounts with Congress shortly.

Asked if the Pentagon believes the war will end soon, Kirby said, “I don’t think anybody can predict how long this is going to go on.”

Because Russia is now “concentrating their efforts in a smaller geographic area” of the Donbas where there has been fighting for eight years and where Russia has been “occupying [territory] illegally, … we would expect that the fighting could be prolonged.”

The conflict could go on for weeks or “potentially … longer than that,” Kirby said, but “nobody wants to see that. The truth is, and I’m sure you’re tired of me saying this, … if Mr. Putin pulled his forces out and stopped this illegal invasion, and sat down in good faith with Mr. Zelensky,” the conflict “could be over now.”

“Clearly he has no intention of doing that. I understand that, but it doesn’t mean it shouldn’t still be said,” Kirby added.

Kirby also reiterated that the Phoenix Ghost unmanned, tank-killing aircraft the Pentagon said it would provide to Ukraine “was already under development by the U.S. Air Force” and was not developed for this conflict.

The system’s capabilities “happened to be very appropriate to the kind of fighting that we anticipate is going to go on in the Donbas region,” Kirby said. However, “it wasn’t pulled forward for the fight” in Ukraine.

The U.S. will provide 121 of the units, but Kirby could not give details. The Ukrainian military will need some training on the system “because it’s not in their inventory,” but Kirby said that could happen quickly, “and we’re going to accelerate delivery.” The training will be similar to that provided for the Switchblade tank-killing UAV, he said.

Air Force Releases ‘The Blueprint’ to Help Guide Airmen’s Careers

April 22, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Basic information on the Air Force’s history and structure, details on core values and skills, links to information on professional development and other resources, all gathered into one place—that’s the idea behind “The Blueprint,” released by the Air Force on April 21 to help guide its enlisted force development.

A 32-page “living” document that will be updated regularly with new information and links, “The Blueprint” is intended to be a resource and reference for enlisted Airmen throughout their careers, presenting essential information on everything from Air Force Specialty Codes to different programs Airmen can tap into when leaving the service.

The development of “The Blueprint” was one of the objectives laid out in the Air Force’s new Enlisted Force Development Action Plan released this January. Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass has pitched “The Blueprint” as necessary for a modern Air Force transitioning away from career development that expects Airmen to either get promoted or get out.

“When I grew up, we had more of a pyramid, if you will. And if you do all of these things in your career, ultimately, here’s how you become a senior noncommissioned officer or whatever,” Bass told Air Force Magazine in a January interview. “And I just don’t see things in that light anymore. We see them as a blueprint, and there’s many paths, many ways within an Airman’s career.”

To that end, three pages of “The Blueprint” detail different development opportunities for junior enlisted Airmen, noncommissioned officers, and senior NCOs. These include the Community College of the Air Force, Airman Leadership School, Special Duty, sister service enlisted professional military education, and even just a permanent change of station. At each point, the document also highlights the transition opportunities and resources available for those leaving the service.

“The Blueprint” also gathers links to the Air Force’s various resources for managing personal and professional development, from myFSS and myEval to programs for military families and spouses.

In addition to resources, the Blueprint also gathers the fundamental information Airmen will need in their careers, from the core competencies and Airman Leadership Qualities to explanations of how the broader structure of the Defense Department and Air Staff work.

“What I envision in my mind is a kind of a cradle-to-grave blueprint on an Airman’s career, from the time they start their career all the way through the end and, kind of, even off into after they separate and/or retire. … It’s just a roadmap for them to be involved in their own deliberate development of a career and also shares with them what they can expect,” Bass told Air Force Magazine.

“The Blueprint” is one of several foundational documents for the Air Force that are set to either be released or updated in the coming months. As outlined in the Enlisted Force Development Action Plan, the service also plans to update its “Blue Book,” which defines and breaks down the Air Force core values, and the “Brown Book,” which lays out the Enlisted Force Structure and establishes the standards, roles, and responsibilities for enlisted Airmen.

In the summer of 2022, the service will also release its first ever “Purple Book,” detailing “how do we develop the joint leaders that we need, that are able to talk joint, train joint, and to some degree, understand and integrate more and have the synergies that we need with our brothers and sisters from the other services,” Bass said.

Dear Tomorrow: CMSAF’s Perspective on the Air Force of 2030

April 22, 2022 | By Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass

It’s always a bit of a risky undertaking to sit down and write about the future.

If your predictions are overly positive, you’re an optimist; overly negative, you’re a pessimist. If they come true, then they are facts. If they don’t, they are metaphors.

Time, as always, will have the final say in the success of the steps we take today to ensure our continued success tomorrow. Unfortunately, time is not a luxury we have—the world, as we know it, is changing at an accelerated pace.

It was actually in 1982 when, American futurist, Richard Buckminster Fuller first proposed the “Knowledge Doubling Curve.” He noted that up until 1900, the sum total of human knowledge doubled about every 100 years. By the end of World War II, that rate had accelerated to every 25 years. Today, we double our knowledge roughly every year.

That’s an amazing, and somewhat terrifying, accomplishment—especially when seen through a military lens. Our adversaries are modernizing fast, and looking to replace us on the world stage. As technology advances, our adversaries are taking ideation to execution faster and faster—and training their people how to employ these new systems in a high-end fight.

To that end, we are also modernizing to ensure that our air dominance remains uncontested. However, in contrast, we aren’t just training our Airmen to use these systems, we are developing them to be the leaders our Air Force will need to win a strategic competition.

That will be the one competitive advantage we will always have over our adversaries—our people. The more deliberately we develop them today, the more successful they will be tomorrow. We don’t need Airmen to simply execute tasks off a checklist. We need Airmen who can think critically, strategically, and operate with an innovative mindset. Future conflict will never look like it has in the past, and we need our Airmen to be adaptive at speed and scale.

The Airmen we are building today will be the innovative problem solvers of 2030, and beyond. When we look at projections of what a strategic competition with a near-peer adversary could involve, it becomes clear that the Airmen of 2030 will need to have an innate ability to critically think through myriad situations, develop innovative ideas and solutions to address complex challenges, and maximize a teaming concept to ensure success across the entire enterprise.

These skills will weigh heavily on future operations, as we build an Air Force that requires a deeper understanding of the digital environment from its Airmen. When looking out to 2030, the Airmen who will be serving will not only be digital natives, but they will have to be digitally literate on a level we have yet to experience.

And given the speed and scale at which information will flow in the coming years, we have to take steps today to ensure our Airmen are resilient enough to handle the complex and adaptive systems of the future. Our people must have a sense of personal and professional grit to tackle the kinetic and non-kinetic environments that will no doubt play a role in future conflict.

All of these things are integral to who we are today, and who we need to be, tomorrow. Regardless of what challenges we face in the future, taking the time today to invest in our Airmen and provide them with a Blueprint of their development is a strategy that will continue to net positive results.

Our most competitive, most strategic, and most effective advantage against any adversary will always be our people. I am immensely proud of how far we have come as an Air Force, and genuinely optimistic about where we are headed.

Congress’ Nuclear Adviser Wonders Whether Russia Is Stoking WW3

April 21, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

The whole point of Russia’s war in Ukraine could be to drag the West into World War 3, said the executive director of Congress’ Task Force on National and Homeland Security.

Peter Pry, who is also director of Congress’ U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, spoke to retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, during a livestreamed Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense Forum on April 21.

The discussion took place just one day after Russia’s military said it tested its new nuclear-capable Sarmat intercontinental ballistic missile, which, according to The Associated Press, Putin said would give the West pause. Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said April 20 that the test was “routine and not a surprise,” confirming that Russia had “properly notified the United States under its New START treaty obligations.”

“We did not deem the test to be a threat to the United States or its allies,” Kirby said.

During the Mitchell event, however, Pry questioned whether Russia’s President Vladimir Putin may have become emboldened by the direction of the U.S.’s nuclear posture over the past 30 years: Whereas the U.S. has positioned itself to deter a nuclear war, Russia has prepared to wage a surprise attack.

Pry was skeptical that Putin’s subordinates would balk at a nuclear strike. He said the U.S. should raise its readiness level in response to Russia’s doing so and argued that such a move could even spell the end of the war in Ukraine.

Peter Pry, director of Congress’ U.S. Nuclear Strategy Forum, and retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, participate in a livestreamed Nuclear Deterrence and Missile Defense Forum on April 21.

DEFCON 3

The involvement of three nuclear superpowers in the war in Ukraine—with China supporting Russia and the U.S. supplying arms to Ukraine—is “extremely alarming” and represents a “classical situation where we would have been concerned about the possibility of nuclear war,” Pry said.

“I think the administration and the Intelligence Community are either lying or have misconstrued the strategic situation,” Pry said, referring to dismissals of Russia’s heightened nuclear readiness level “as basically bluster or bluffing.

“And this has been used to justify keeping U.S. strategic nuclear forces at their lowest readiness level, DEFCON 5, which potentially makes them much more vulnerable to the surprise nuclear attack,” Pry said.

He doesn’t believe the U.S. would know an attack was about to happen.

Russia’s “ICBM command and control arrangement is such that we can’t see those forces mobilizing because they are on a condition the Russians call ‘constant combat readiness.’ All the time, they’re ready to launch … Twenty-four/seven, 365 days a year, Vladimir Putin could push a button and launch most of his nuclear weapons in just a few minutes without any advanced preparation.”

Pry said he thinks “the Intelligence Community is smart enough to know that. I hope they are. When I served in the CIA, we knew that the Russian strategic posture is very different from ours,” Pry said.

“Most Americans think of the Russian triad and the U.S. traid as basically the same, and they are not,” he continued. “Our strategic triad of bombers, missiles, and submarines is designed to deter nuclear war. Their nuclear triad of ballistic missiles, submarines, ICBMs, and bombers is designed to fight and win a nuclear war—particularly to achieve a surprise attack. To be able to beat us to the draw and strike us.

“That’s why, for example, most of their warheads [are for] ICBMs” which can carry up to 10 warheads, Pry said. On the other hand, the U.S. has the fewest warheads for its intercontinental ballistic missiles out of all three legs of the nuclear triad—400 total for its 400 Minuteman IIIs.

A “crippling blow to the United States” is possible by aiming just five nuclear warheads at the U.S., Pry said. “You could destroy the three bomber bases and the two ballistic missile submarine ports where most of our submarines are located on a day-to-day basis.”

Raising U.S. readiness could be a chance to end the war in Ukraine on peaceful terms, Pry argued.

“Going up at least to DEFCON 3 would put [U.S. forces] in a more survivable posture and then communicate to Moscow, ‘Look, we’re mobilizing our forces because you guys have mobilized your forces. Neither of us wants to get in a nuclear war, so stand down your forces, and we’ll stand down ours,’” he said,

Space-Based Interceptors

Of course, that solution relies on the assumption that Russia doesn’t want to get into a nuclear war, of which Pry isn’t convinced.

“When I look at what the Russians are doing, you know, it’s almost like they are taking steps that are calculated to be provocative to the West and to get us to intervene in that war,” Pry said. “I keep thinking of the Battle of Austerlitz in 1805—Napoleon’s greatest victory where he managed to get the combined armies of Austria and Russia to attack him by feigning weakness. [He] had whole regiments run away from the Russians to lure them into attacking him on the Austerlitz battlefield, and then he dropped the hammer.

“Does Russia want Ukraine to become the bloodlands of a World War 3—[to] have NATO and the United States come in there and then use [Putin’s] 10-to-1 advantage in tactical nuclear weapons as a final solution to the problem with NATO and the United States?” Pry said in reply to an audience question.

“I mean, we might already be there in terms of Russia taking advantage of the correlation of forces that flavors it in terms of nuclear firepower.”

The U.S.’s increase to 64 ground-based ICBM interceptors amount to “a joke” against foreign arsenals, Pry said: “North Korea even can challenge the 64 GBIs. We’ve got to get serious about that. I think the space-based defenses are the way of technologically moving forward to a place where we may be able to better defend the homeland.

“We’ve got a U.S. Space Force. It ought to be about that—building a missile shield for the United States. Not just about anti-satellite activity, which seems to be what its chief function is now.”

Russia Sanctions 29 Americans, Including Mitchell Institute Dean

April 21, 2022 | By Amy Hudson

The Russian government sanctioned 29 Americans on April 21, including Vice President Kamala Harris, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, and the dean of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula.

The official announcement, released in Russian by the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and translated for the Air & Space Forces Association, reads: “In response to the constantly escalating anti-Russian sanctions implemented by the Biden Administration … we have created a stop list of 29 Americans, of which there are senior government representatives, business leaders, experts, and journalists, who together form an anti-Russian cabal.”

Specifically, the sanctions limit the ability of the individuals to travel in Russia and would place any assets held in that country at risk.

“The actions undertaken by [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and his military in Ukraine are beyond despicable … ,” said Deptula. “The community of peace-loving nations need to do everything in their power to support Ukraine in repelling the invading Russian forces, and to stop the atrocities they are committing against innocent men, women, and children.”

Deptula has repeatedly urged the United States to provide more weapons to Ukraine, saying the Biden administration should not be deterred by Putin’s threats.

In a March 22 Mitchell Institute discussion with former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, retired Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, both leaders said missteps by the West emboldened Putin ahead of the Feb. 24 invasion of Ukraine, but they emphasized it’s not too late to provide the weapons needed to overcome Russian air power.

The sanctions come as the Biden Administration, also on April 21, pledged another $800 million in aid to Ukraine, including a new drone developed by the U.S. Air Force, vowing to ask Congress for even more funds as fighting continues.

F-15 and F-16 Jointly Test Legion Pod Infrared Tracker

April 21, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

An F-15 and an F-16 jointly and passively detected, tracked, and triangulated an aerial target using the infrared search-and-track Legion Pod on April 7, the Air Force’s 53rd test wing announced.

This capability will be useful as U.S. fighters go up against adversary aircraft having low-observable features that reduce their radar cross-section, making them hard to track and target using radar alone.

In the test, an F-15 and an F-16, each equipped with a Legion Pod, detected a target and then used the pod’s advanced datalink to “passively triangulate target position without the use of radar or other active ranging sources,” the 53rd Wing said in a press release. It was the first “multi-platform use” of the IRST pod, the unit said.

Infrared search-and-track technology “provides a key enabler in the long-range kill chain as well as the ability to locate targets in a multispectral domain,” said Lt. Col. Jeremy Castor, sensors program manager with the F-16 Operational Flight Program combined test force.

Any large-force scenario, he said, “includes multiple aircraft types, each with different viewpoints of the battlespace. The ability to share data” provides information “they would not be able to get, otherwise.”

The Legion Pod has a common interface that allows it to be mounted on any aircraft with minimum impact on that jet’s core software. This open-systems capability “opens the door for integration, with minimal effort, onto other fighter aircraft,” like the F-15EX, the 53rd Wing said.

Continued testing will explore “operationally relevant capabilities” with an advanced datalink, Castor said. The eventual goal is for any USAF aircraft to be able to carry and employ the Legion Pod.

The advanced datalink was first tested successfully during the Northern Edge exercise in April 2021, with a two-ship of F-15s. It was tested on a two-ship of F-16s at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., in December 2021. The April 2022 test was the first using dissimilar aircraft types and represents “a milestone in the program’s ongoing progress,” the wing said.

The two-week evaluation was collaboratively run by the Combined Test Force, the 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron, the 40th Flight Test Squadron, Lockheed Martin Missiles and Fire Control, and the Air National Guard/Air Force Reserve Command Test Center.

Pentagon Reveals Secretive New Drone the Air Force is Giving to Ukraine: Phoenix Ghost

April 21, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 6:30 p.m. to include clarifying comments from the Pentagon press secretary on when the Phoenix Ghost was developed.

The Pentagon is giving Ukraine a secretive new drone that the U.S. Air Force has developed—one that “very nicely” suits the needs of the Ukrainian military, the Pentagon revealed April 21.

The U.S. will deliver at least 121 of the new Phoenix Ghost tactical unmanned aerial systems to Ukraine as part of a new $800 million assistance package announced by Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby. But, what is the Phoenix Ghost?

“This is a drone that had been in development before the invasion, clearly,” Kirby said during an afternoon press briefing. “The Air Force was working this, and in discussions with the Ukrainians about their requirements, we believed that this particular system would very nicely suit their needs, particularly in eastern Ukraine.”

Kirby’s comments mark a slight change from those made by a senior defense official earlier in the day. In a background briefing, the official said the Phoenix Ghost was “rapidly developed by the Air Force, in response, specifically, to Ukrainian requirements.”

Kirby said he did not have an exact date for when Phoenix Ghost started development. But given that the Air Force had at least 120 to send from its inventory, “You’re not going to have 120 on your shelves if you just started buying them on the 24th of February,” the day Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began.

“What probably wasn’t as well worded as it should have been [is] it was developed for a set of requirements that very closely match what Ukrainians need right now in Donbas,” Kirby said, referring to the eastern region of Ukraine where Russia has focused its attack in recent days.

The exact capabilities that Phoenix Ghost will offer to Ukraine are being kept under wraps, as Kirby declined to comment. But he did say the drone is “akin” to the Switchblade drone that the U.S. has already delivered to Ukraine.

Switchblades are often referred to as “kamikaze drones” or “loitering munitions” because they are capable of flying over a target before crashing and detonating in a precision strike. Different versions of the Switchblade can fly between 15 and 40 minutes, with a range from 10 to 40 kilometers.

The Phoenix Ghost is “designed for tactical operations,” Kirby said. “In other words, largely but not exclusively to attack targets. It, like almost all unmanned aerial systems, of course, has optics. So it can also be used to give you a sight picture of what it’s seeing, of course, but its principal focus is attack.”

Kirby later added that the drone is a one-way system, meaning it is not meant to be recovered.

Air Force public affairs declined all comment on Phoenix Ghost to Air Force Magazine, referring questions to the Pentagon. An employee of Aevex Aerospace, the California company producing the drone, also declined comment to Air Force Magazine.

While the drone is currently being delivered to Ukraine, Kirby said he expected that the Air Force would use it in the future for itself.

Since Russia launched its invasion, the Department of Defense has provided $3.4 billion worth of military aid to Ukraine, including another $800 million package in mid-March, followed by another $100 million in early April. Kirby previously said the contents of those packages would be fully delivered by mid-April.

In addition to Switchblades and the new Phoenix Ghost, DOD has also provided Stinger anti-aircraft missiles, Javelin anti-tank missiles, Mi-17 helicopters, Humvees, artillery, and millions of rounds of small arms ammunition and grenades, among other items.

Some B-21 Bomber Facilities at Ellsworth to be Ready for 2024

April 21, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Some facilities supporting the first B-21 Raider unit at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., are to be ready by 2024, according to Air Force budget request documents, indicating the service anticipates a swift test and evaluation program for the new aircraft.

The Air Force announced last year that Ellsworth is to be the initial B-21 operating base and the formal training unit, or “schoolhouse,” for the bomber. The base now hosts the B-1B Lancer.

According to justifications (the so-called “J-Books”) in the Air Force’s fiscal 2023 budget, just released, three military construction projects at Ellsworth are requested for a collective $328 million, including a Low Observables Restoration Facility, a Weapons Generation Facility, and a Radio Frequency Facility.

The two-bay LO restoration facility, which is to be climate-controlled and have filtration gear to support spray-on stealth treatments, is to be finished by September 2024, according to the documents. The weapons generating facility—which will assemble bombs and missiles and get them ready to be loaded onto aircraft—is to be complete by February 2026. No completion date was given for the Radio Frequency Facility, which will test the B-21’s stealth prior to missions.

The Air Force has maintained since the B-21 program began that the program would yield at least one “usable asset” by the “mid-2020s.” Lt. Gen. James C. Dawkins, deputy chief of staff for strategic deterrence and nuclear integration, said last year that the B-21 will be available for missions “around 2026 or 2027.”

At least six B-21s are in some stage of construction, said Randy Walden, Rapid Capabilities Office director. Last year, Walden predicted that the first B-21 would roll out and fly in “mid-2022,” although in March of this year he declined to be more specific, saying only that the rollout will be event-driven, not calendar-driven.

The first B-21 is undergoing calibration tests and will soon need to be moved outside Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, Calif., production plant for engine runs and taxi tests prior to first flight, Walden reported. There was a public rollout for the B-2 Spirit bomber in 1988 ahead of such outdoor pre-flight testing. Walden said he expected a similar ceremony for the B-21, as the beginning of powered tests will be a “historical event.” After slow- and high-speed taxi tests, the B-21 will make its first flight, likely to be a short hop to nearby Edwards Air Force Base, Calif.

Having some of the Ellsworth facilities ready in 2024 suggests an aggressive program for flight testing the B-21. The B-2 was tested for four years between 1989 and 1993, when the first operational example was delivered to Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., the sole B-2 operating base and schoolhouse.

Air Force leaders have emphasized in recent months that the B-21 is the centerpiece of a strategic “family of systems” that will include uncrewed escort aircraft providing sensory data, suppressing air defenses, providing communications links, and conducting electronic warfare, among other tasks. The B-21 itself was intended from the beginning of the program to be an “optionally manned” platform and capable of deploying either conventional or nuclear weapons. Besides direct-attack weapons, the B-21 is to be capable of employing stand-off missiles such as the Long-Range Standoff weapon, or LRSO. It was also designed from the outset with an “open architecture” to reduce integration risk and allow competition for future upgrades.

The Air Force plans to acquire “at least” 100 B-21s, but comments from senior leaders in recent years indicate the service is leaning toward a buy of 145 or more.

After Ellsworth, the “preferred locations” for B-21 basing include Whiteman and Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, which now operate the B-2 and B-1B, respectively. The Air Force has said it expects to retire the B-2 circa 2031 and the last B-1Bs around 2032. The B-21 depot is to be at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla.

The Air Force is also asking for $30 million to acquire acreage adjacent to the air logistics center at Tinker to house B-21 depot activities. The Air Force envisions a 133-acre campus with “21 docks and environmental shelters with associated facilities and infrastructure.” The docks will handle maintenance, “de-paint, wash, fuel, radio frequency diagnostic, and parts storage” for the Raider. The facilities will be built “in phases.” The Air Force would add 80 acres to the 53 acres it already has in the vicinity to create the campus. Consolidating all these activities in a single place will save $500 million over the life of the B-21 program, the Air Force said, and it needs to acquire the land by the end of fiscal 2023 to have the depot available when needed.