At Thule Air Base, Lucky Charms Keep the Lights on for Missile Defense

July 11, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

At Thule Air Base, Greenland, 695 miles north of the Arctic Circle, the ice has broken, and the once-yearly resupply and construction season has begun under 24 hours of daylight. Renovations have begun on half-century-old dormitories, and favorite sundries such as Lucky Charms cereal keep morale high for the 141 Airmen and Guardians who help to assure America is safe from attack over the polar ice cap.

A heavy fog permeated the base on a recent afternoon, delaying outbound flights during the busy transition season, when service members rotate after a one-year stint at the northernmost Air Force base in the world and one of its most austere operating locations. But with the summer ice thaw, the base’s port is accessible to supply ships for a short three-month window.

Airmen and Guardians at Thule balance the responsibilities that come with a vital missile warning and missile defense mission with the mental resiliency required to sustain minus-12-degree average winter temperatures in total darkness, or days at a time indoors during deadly snowstorms between September and May that sometimes give little warning before a mandatory shelter-in-place.

At Thule, high morale helps keep the lights on.

“We’ve got to keep the lights on and got to keep the mission on, and nobody wants to freeze to death in the winter,” installation commander and 821st Space Base Group commander U.S. Space Force Col. Heather L. McGee told Air Force Magazine by phone from Thule in the final week of her command.

McGee’s role as installation commander includes supporting the missile defense and space surveillance missions of the 12th Space Warning Squadron and the tracking station operated by the 23rd Space Operations Squadron, Detachment 1.

“Thule is truly a unique and exciting place to be, and part of it is within the group, the family that we have here,” McGee said.

“You can think of me as like the mayor of a town,” McGee said of the base community that includes up to 450 contractors and civilian and military personnel from Denmark, Canada, and Greenland. “We provide all the support functions so that space mission can function, so the scientists can come up here and do their research, and so the Space Force and Air Force can project power, or project forces, from this unique Arctic location.”

Most personnel at the 821st Space Base Group Serve oversee the contractors who maintain base operations and repair equipment. Other Airmen and Guardians handle communications, personnel, medical services, logistics, civil engineering, air traffic control, aircraft and vehicle maintenance, weather, and security forces.

McGee said the tight support network and powerful mission give Airmen and Guardians a sense of purpose.

“It’s very remote, but we do have a very important mission, and I think it just gives people a real sense of accomplishment to be here,” McGee said.

Service members pass their personal time achieving personal and professional goals. Many have trained for triathlons and Ironman competitions or completed advanced degrees online. Every day are different social events and intramural sports coupled with access to a state-of-the-art gymnasium, pool, and a new hockey rink.

Summer temperatures ranging from the 30s to 50s encourage service members to get outdoors for “Thule Trippin’,” activities that include running, hiking nearby Mount Dundas, and riding all-terrain vehicles.

Even the simplest American creature comforts motivate service members.

“Today, we are offloading cargo,” McGee said during a July 8 phone interview. “A lot of our bulk food came in today, and that’s always exciting to get, so we got some supplies like cold cereal, which we didn’t have for a while.”

Cheerios, Lucky Charms, and Rice Chex made the shipment, along with material for a dormitory renovation and soon, a $3 million backup generator to prevent power loss in the winter.

“The base was built in 1951, so some of these buildings have been around since then,” McGee said.

Renovations will modernize the dorms to improve the quality of life of Airmen and Guardians.

Perhaps one of the most important changes that happened during McGee’s tenure was the beta test by the Air Force Research Laboratory to install satellite internet by accessing the polar-orbiting low Earth orbit (LEO) satellites of the OneWeb constellation.

“Because we’re so far north, the connection is really good. So, these terminals have enabled a much faster—for Thule standards—internet connection,” she said, noting that service members are no longer frustrated trying to take online classes. “It’s a huge morale booster when you can download a TV show or talk to your family.”

Critical Data for Decision-Makers

Retired Col. Stuart Pettis, a Thule commander from 2015 to 2016 when the base operated under the Air Force’s 21st Space Wing, said the most important element of the 254 square-mile Thule Defense Area is a 13-story phased-array radar 12 miles north of the base.

“It’s kind of like a cube with one side mashed in a little bit, and that’s the array face,” Pettis explained of the radar operated by the 12th SWS. “It has all these little antennas. They work together to pulse out energy that’s in a wave form that goes out, and that’s the radar.”

The radar looks out over the North Pole and provides the initial ground-based warning if any potential missile attacks were to be launched from Russia. The Thule radar would confirm data gathered by Space-Based Infrared System (SBIRS) satellites that would first detect a missile launch.

Thule is home to many of the missile defense sensors of Space Delta 4 and command and control sensors of Space Delta 6, providing those capabilities for North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).

Thule’s data can provide the Secretary of Defense valuable minutes in the event of a crisis.

“The data is critical because it provides warning time so they can make decisions,” said Pettis, who now oversees Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) education programs at the Air & Space Forces Association.

“When I was there, I had no discipline problems because everyone was very motivated, and it was a really neat culture,” Pettis added. “It’s a great opportunity. They’re going to get a lot more responsibility there than they might have at a big base.”

McGee said that in her year, Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond and commander of U.S. Space Command Army Gen. James H. Dickinson both visited to underscore the importance of the mission and location.

“Dickinson went to 12th 1SWS and even climbed up on the roof there and was really engaged in what we were doing here and very interested in our mission and our infrastructure,” McGee said.

For all the challenges of being away from home and family at the frigid top of the earth, McGee said her final few weeks have been reflective.

“This is a hard assignment, a year here. It’s hard,” she said. “I started feeling a little sad that a lot of things that we do as a group, I’m like, ‘Well, I’m not going to see these people anymore. I’m not going to be around them.’”

McGee feels deep bonds with the 141 Airmen and Guardians she worked closely with the past year at Thule. She also feels a deep sense of accomplishment helping them meet their goals for the next assignment, next promotion, or getting a coveted job.

“I’m going to miss leading and being a part of this team because it is really a unique, close-knit, very professional team that’s very engaging, and helped me get through my time here without my family because they’ve been like a family to me,” she said. “People here, they’re passionate about what they do. They’re dedicated. It takes a very resilient Airman or Guardian to be up here, and the people that are here are truly knocking it out of the park.”

Editor’s note: This story was corrected at 12:15 a.m. Eastern time July 12 to reflect that squadrons under the Thule installation commander’s authority are not based in Colorado; and to clarify the nature and ownership of the command and control sensors at Thule.

X-37B Space Plane Eclipses Its Record for Longest Flight

July 10, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

A Space Force X-37B reusable space plane surpassed 780 days in space July 7, eclipsing its prior endurance record.

The Space Force’s Space Delta 9 operates the uncrewed, Boeing-built X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle, which belongs to the 3rd Space Experimentation Squadron. Space Force officials did not immediately respond to queries.

The Space Force has never disclosed how many X-37B Orbital Test Vehicles it owns and does not publicize the classified program’s mission itineraries. However, Boeing Space announced the new record on social media.

781 days and counting!

The world's only reusable spaceplane, #X37B, has set another endurance record — as it has on every mission since it first launched in 2010. Congratulations to the @USAirForce, @SpaceForceDOD and all our teammates who support X-37B! #SemperSupra pic.twitter.com/zzZAOG0Wa5
— Boeing Space (@BoeingSpace) July 7, 2022

The Space Force says the uncrewed X-37B is a testbed for technologies associated with reusable space vehicles and largely classified space experiments. The spacecraft is 29 feet long, one quarter the length of the Space Shuttle. Taking off from Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., the first three OTV missions landed at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. The past two returned at Kennedy Space Center, Fla., close to the Cape Canaveral launch site.

X-37B missions have grown progressively longer over time. OTV-1 lasted 224 days in 2010. OTV-5 set the prior record of 780 days, remaining in space from September 2017 to October 2019.

OTV-6 launched from Cape Canaveral on May 17, 2020. Two publicly revealed payloads included the Air Force Academy’s FalconSAT-8, which the X-37B deployed into orbit with five experiments and technology demonstrations aboard; and the Naval Research Laboratory’s experimental Photovoltaic Radio-frequency Antenna Module, intended to convert solar energy into RF microwave energy.

Secrecy surrounding the X-37B fueled suspicions in China and Russia that the X-37B is “secretly an offensive weapon,” according to a report by the Secure World Foundation updated in May 2022. That report called such fears unfounded, noting that observed from the ground, the X-37B appears to be “exactly what the Space Force claims it is.”

The U.S. government will start missions on a new uncrewed space plane, Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser, in 2023. NASA has contracted flights on Dream Chaser to resupply the International Space Station.

Air Force Mascot ‘Shakey’ Is a Guam Mainstay

July 8, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam—In a small, fenced-in operating location deep in the Pacific theater lives an honorary Airman who snorts at the threat posed by China.

She doesn’t worry about living on Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, surrounded by 4,400 acres of munitions, either. A ready supply of fresh apples weighs heavier.

Not the kind with bruises. This fourteenth-generation Andersen resident will sniff and walk away from sub-par-quality treats.

“Shakey is one of the two mascots in the United States Air Force,” said Maj. Timothy Wu, commander of the 36th Munitions Squadron during a “super special” Air Force Magazine visit reserved for the end of a sweltering reporting day.

The most widely known Air Force mascot is the Air Force Academy falcon. “The other is Shakey the pig,” said Wu.

“Hey, Shakey! Hey, girl!” yelled Wu one muggy June afternoon as he attempted to summon the dark brown animal from the respite of her sleeping quarters below a yellow-flowering Cassia tree.

Shakey waddled her hundred-pound body with feverish quickness across the neatly trimmed grass, past a small wooden lean-to shelter and a miniature replica of a munitions igloo, a “Pig-loo.”

Her agape mouth appeared to salivate as she eyed a plastic sack of apples through the chain-linked fence and motioned her pink snout upward amid excited snorts, as if to indicate that she would like the apples deposited over the fence.

“She is our first female Shakey. She’s a local pig, and she’s awesome. She’s our big girl here,” Wu said with a fond laugh.

High-ranking Air Force officials and distinguished visitors to Andersen pay a visit to the 36th MUNS resident:

“Chief Bass, the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. I’ve shown Shakey to the German Minister of Defense. All folks—they all know Shakey,” Wu said.

The question of Shakey’s namesake, a title passed down from one generation of munitions pig to the next, as thousands of Airmen on rotation care for and celebrate her, is still a thing of lore.

“There’s three rumors,” Wu explained.

Shakey could have been named after the old cargo plane, the Douglas C-124 Cargomaster II. The C-124 was dubbed “Old Shaky” because it tended to shake a lot, even in calm skies.

“Another one was a tech sergeant that drank too much coffee, that was named Shakey,” recounted Wu, describing the second rumor of the name’s origin.

“Another theory is that when they caught the original one, her future was always shaky, because they were going to plan on eating her,” he said. “They didn’t know if they were going to eat Shakey or not, so the future was always shaky.”

A $6,000 yearly budget combined with some local resources covers Shakey’s morale, welfare, and recreation expenses, including food and renovations to her facilities. A wood retaining wall to keep rain out during monsoon season is under consideration for fiscal 2023.

A steady flow of fresh apples, melons, and oranges—which she peels with her nose and teeth—has made Shakey realize her importance to the morale of service members in Guam.

“She is a diva. That’s what she is. She knows what’s up,” Wu explained, recounting the story of a visitor for whom Shakey refused an audience.

“Someone came by, and they’re like, ‘Uh, how come Shakey doesn’t come out here for me?’” he said. “I’m like, ‘Because the last few times, you came here empty handed. So, she remembers.”

Quality is also important to Shakey.

“Don’t give her no spoiled apples, either,” Wu said.

When one service member dropped bruised apples over the fence top, Shakey sniffed them and walked away, leaving the perplexed Airman concerned about Shakey’s health.

“I’m like, ‘Now, then why did you give it to her?’” Wu remembered, shaking his head in disbelief.

“‘He was like like, ‘I don’t know, because I don’t want to eat them.’ I was like, ‘But she knows that, too. She’s not going to—’ He tried to pass off some bum apples, because he wasn’t going to eat them, to the pig,” Wu recounted. “Shakey was like, ‘Oh no, I ain’t doing this.’”

Editor’s note: This story was corrected at 5:28 p.m. Eastern time July 11 to remove a reference to the C-124’s role in the Berlin airlift. The C-124’s maiden flight took place after the Berlin airlift concluded.

DOD Air Defenses to Ukraine Still ‘Several Months’ Away as Aid Planning Turns to ‘Years’

July 8, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

The Pentagon announced a new $400 million aid package to Ukraine on July 8 to include four more High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) and high-precision ammunition, but a senior defense official said delivery of promised air defenses is still “several months” away.

The senior defense official briefed Pentagon reporters ahead of a White House announcement of the new presidential drawdown, or transfer of U.S. weapons stocks to Ukraine, that is tailored to current battlefield needs for high-precision artillery to fight Russia in the Donbas region.

“The focus [is] on higher-capability, precision, further-range weapons,” the official said, citing recent Ukrainian successes using HIMARS and Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (MLRS) to target Russian command-and-control and logistics nodes up to 30 miles behind the front line.

The aid package consists of four additional HIMARS to add to the eight already on the battlefield; three tactical vehicles to recover equipment; 1,000 rounds of high-precision 155 mm artillery rounds; and spare parts to keep previously donated equipment operational.

While Russia continues to make incremental advances in Ukraine’s east, the official said each grinding Russian victory comes at a heavy cost.

“The Russians are making very, very incremental, limited, hard-fought, highly costly progress in certain, select, small spaces in the Donbas,” the official said. “What we’ve seen is the ability of the Ukrainians to use these HIMARS systems to significantly disrupt the ability of the Russians to move forward, even where they make that grinding, slow offensive.”

The successful targeting of Russian nodes has also affected resupply of forces as Russia appears to take an operational pause to rest and reconstitute its forces after taking heavy casualties in recent weeks. In the meantime, the United States has trained more than 100 Ukrainians to operate the donated HIMARS.

For Ukraine’s recent precision artillery success, the air defense picture has remained static 135 days into the conflict.

Ukraine is often praised by DOD officials for its skillful employment of legacy Soviet systems to deny Russia air superiority, but in recent weeks, Russian missiles have struck civilian targets, and the Ukrainian Air Force remains limited in the sorties it can fly amid near-total Russian surface-to-air missile coverage.

A July 1 promise by President Joe Biden to buy and deliver sophisticated new National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS), the same used to protect the U.S. capital, still has no delivery date.

“It’s several months,” the defense official said in response to a question from Air Force Magazine. “I can’t give you details of where it is in the contracting process. But, you know, we don’t see any challenges.”

A senior military official who briefed defense reporters later in the day likewise discussed the air picture in Ukraine, saying it’s “still contested space.”

“Ukrainians continue to fly,” the official said. “The Russians certainly are continuing to fly. But the Russians certainly have not claimed any kind of air superiority over Ukraine.”

While the military official acknowledged that Russia has consolidated control of the Luhansk region of the Donbas, the official said it was at heavy cost and likely requires an operational reconstitution of forces.

“The Ukrainians made them pay for that land pretty hard,” the official said, while declining to provide precise numbers. “I’ve got to think that if I took the number of casualties that the Russians took to gain that portion of ground, I’d probably have to stop and refit.”

Both officials painted a picture of a grinding war with heavy casualties on both sides—but one that has seen Russia lose many more soldiers only to take control of mostly evacuated villages leveled by their own antiquated artillery.

The senior defense official said future aid packages now discussed by DOD and partners include more coastal defense and air defense systems that move away from Soviet-era air defenses.

The timeline for providing the aid is also shifting.

“We’re ready for and thinking about Ukraine’s needs over months and years,” the official said.

Wilma Vaught, Who Shattered USAF Glass Ceilings, Honored With Medal of Freedom

July 8, 2022 | By Tobias Naegele

President Joe Biden awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom to retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Wilma Vaught at a July 7 White House ceremony. Vaught is only the eighth distinguished Airman to earn the honor.

Over the course of a 28-year Air Force career, Vaught, 92, was “the first woman to hold every job she ever had,” her medal citation states. Over a 28-year career, she became the first woman to deploy with an Air Force bomber unit, serving in Vietnam, and was among the first women to break into the general officer ranks, retiring as a brigadier general in the Air Force.

After retiring, Vaught spearheaded the creation of the first national memorial honoring the more than 3 million women who served in the U.S. military. The Military Women’s Memorial is the result of that work, located at the gateway to Arlington National Cemetery, where it features a portrait of Vaught as a tribute to her determination to recognize women veterans.

Vaught was among several notable women who received the award at the same ceremony, including former Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords and two female Olympic champions, gymnast Simone Biles and soccer star Megan Rapinoe. Biden said in his opening remarks that Biles’ and Rapinoe’s leadership and success were built on those of earlier pioneers like Vaught.

“Simone and Megan would be the first to acknowledge that they stand on the shoulders of those who came before them, like Air Force Brigadier General (Retired) Wilma Vaught,” Biden said. “Wilma is one of the most decorated women ever to serve in the United States military,” he said, praising her for “shattering conventions, shaping a new tradition of our military,” and founding the women’s memorial.

Seated in a wheel chair in a bright blue blazer and with her left arm in a sling, Vaught saluted the crowd as President Biden fastened the award around her neck, then repeated the gesture, as the President came around and saluted her, offering a quiet “thank you” before he presented the next award.

The seven previous Air Force leaders to be awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom were all men and include three astronauts, a Medal of Honor recipient, and a five-term member of the Senate:

Name	Year	Distinction	President
Buzz Aldrin	1969	Apollo 11 Astronaut	Nixon
Michael Collins	1969	Apollo 11 Astronaut	Nixon
Fred Wallace Haise	1970	Apollo 13 Astronaut	Nixon
Chuck Yeager	1985	Flying Ace, Test Pilot, first to break sonic barrier	Reagan
Barry Goldwater	1986	Five-term Senator and USAFR Brigadier General	Reagan
Jimmy Doolittle	1989	Medal of Honor Recipient and World War II hero	G.H.W.Bush
Richard Myers	2005	Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff	G. W. Bush

Space Force Will Yield ‘Eye-Watering’ Intel Capabilities, Whiting Says

July 7, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

Space Force operators and intelligence specialists will work side by side in the future to deliver the full “TPED” intelligence cycle—“tasking, processing, exploitation, and dissemination”—said Space Force Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting.

Whiting commands the Space Force’s Space Operations Command, or SpOC. In the July 7 episode of the Aerospace Corp’s Space Policy Show, Whiting said intelligence is one of SpOC’s four “core competencies,” alongside cyber, operations, and combat support. Intelligence is an area where he said the service has made the most progress so far.

SpOC’s Space Delta 7—organizationally similar to an Air Force wing—sends intelligence detachments to other deltas around the service. This helps tailor intelligence assets to the given mission, delivering intel “right into their ops floor,” Whiting said. “So if you are at Space Delta 4”—the missile warning delta at Buckley Space Force Base, Colo.—“all of that intel is about missile warning, missile defense, and the threats to those systems.”

The Space Force will add three more intelligence squadrons “over the next couple years,” enabling the command to carry out the full “TPED” cycle, “all focused on space,” Whiting said.

Now that there is a Space Force, intelligence Guardians can be space specialists “instead of bouncing in and out and going and doing other things.” Space operators and cyber specialists will “grow up together” with their counterparts who specialize in intelligence, Whiting said.

“In fact, we talk about a left-seat, right-seat model, where—when our space operators or cyber operators are ‘executing mission’—there’s an intel operator sitting right next to them bringing them that intel that they need,” Whiting said. “And they’re going to figure out new ways of operating that I think are going to be eye watering as we move forward.”

The Space Force in June stood up a second intelligence-focused delta, Space Delta 18, at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to operate the new National Space Intelligence Center. Its 1st Space Analysis Squadron and 2nd Space Analysis Squadron date back to 2008, originally the Space Analysis Squadron and Counterspace Analysis Squadron of the Air Force’s Space and Missiles Analysis Group.

In an interview with AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies in May, Whiting said governments such as China’s and Russia’s can attack satellites in orbit, but that cyberattacks offer a “lower bar to entry” to lesser powers, such as Iran or North Korea. Space systems’ cyber vulnerabilities represent the “soft underbelly” of the U.S. satellite infrastructure, Whiting said.

“So everything we do has to be relative to the threat,” Whiting said July 7. “In fact, the threat is the reason we have a U.S. Space Force.”

PACAF’s Chess Match With China to Build Pacific Partnerships

July 7, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

ANDERSEN AIR FORCE BASE, Guam—A metaphorical chess match is playing out across the Pacific, with both China and the United States offering nations military assistance and training to engender strategic partnerships and gain an edge should a conflict arise.

While China has contributed big-ticket items such as aircraft, ships, and construction of ports, the U.S. posture plan and defense budget call for less expensive, interoperable equipment, the training to use it, and long-term assistance, a Pacific Air Forces air liaison explained to Air Force Magazine.

“It is definitely a chess match on how we end up supporting,” said Lt. Col. Michael Ellis, a PACAF air advisor and commander of the 36th Contingency Response Support Squadron, in an interview at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.

Ellis described security assistance to partner nations in the U.S. Indo-Pacific area of operation:

“The 36th CRSS is aligned for INDOPACOM AOR, which is a pretty hot and heavy topic right now,” Ellis said. “From our position within air advising, we are asked to provide them with equipment and then train them on it.”

INDOPACOM commander Adm. John C. Aquilino’s theater posture plan outlines the countries to which the United States will provide either training or equipment in the coming fiscal years.

In fiscal 2022, air advisers in the Indo-Pacific helped execute 50 missions with 15 different partner nations, delivering $32 million worth of equipment. Three funding streams provided assistance in theater: the Air Force’s BA04 funding for support to other nations; Aquilino’s Asia-Pacific Regional Initiative funds; and congressionally authorized Title 10, Section 333, funds for building partnership capacity.

By one account, China provided $1.5 billion in development assistance to Pacific island nations between 2013 and 2018, but that assistance is believed to be only a fraction of its military aid.

Ellis said the different U.S. funding streams and types of security assistance provide flexibility for the command.

“It could look like 11 fuel trucks; it could look like backup generators for their airport; it could end up looking like forklifts so they can download cargo,” he said. “We train them in their country on this equipment that they’ve just received.”

Ellis gave recent examples, including Palau, where the Valiant Shield exercise concluded in June, and Timor-Leste as two countries in the theater receiving such assistance. The partnership with Timor-Leste, a nation north of Australia that gained independence from Indonesia in 2002, will deepen in coming years with fiscal 2023 Pacific Deterrence Initiative funds slated for military construction that could benefit future U.S. operations.

“We hope, obviously, that it can end up being used for good in the future,” Ellis added. “And, possibly if America needs to partner with them, they have interoperable equipment now.”

Ellis downplayed competition with China in defense assistance, indicating that many countries of the region have made internal decisions as to whether they want to orient their relations more toward China or the United States.

“When [the] cards are on the table, what we show is, even though there might not necessarily be a hospital, maybe there’s not necessarily a ship, [but] there is a support alliance, regional partnership,” he said, describing the process of building a new relationship that often ends with equipment transfers and training.

U.S. as ‘Partner of Choice’

Michael Collat, a retired Air Force intelligence officer who leads Booz Allen Hamilton’s defense contracting work with INDOPACOM in Honolulu, said that often, countries in the region are forced to split their allegiance between China and the United States.

“China is their back door neighbor,” Collat said by video conference from Hawaii. “A lot of them look for China as economic partner of choice, but the U.S. as kind of the security partner.”

A challenge arises when both China and the United States compete for access to a Pacific country such as the Philippines.

“There have been cycles throughout their history of turning west and east, kind of back and forth, as they try and strike that balance, depending on the administration, the party that’s in charge,” he said of the Philippines.

Newly elected Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. recently stated his desire for closer relations with Beijing, including possible military exchanges.

“China has been on this charm offensive for a relatively short period, but I think there’s a lot of countries already seeing what happens in that,” said Collat, referring to China’s predatory lending practices. “They look very attractive in the short term, but there’s a lot of strings that come attached to the offer.”

Ellis visited the Philippines prior to the May 9 presidential election to guide an ongoing security assistance program.

“The Philippines is one of those that will be receiving equipment in the future to support their airfield ops,” he said prior to Marcos’s comments. “Everything that I’ve seen, at least from a [political-military] standpoint, looks like it is favorable for the U.S. military cooperation with the Philippine government. I think time will tell, to be quite honest.”

In a June 9 interview at PACAF headquarters in Hawaii, commander Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach said countries indicate to him that they prefer working with the United States, which shares their desire for a free and open Indo-Pacific.

“As I go around the region and I talk to air chiefs and other senior military leaders, we’re the partner of choice,” the PACAF commander said.

Wilsbach said countries in the region are worried about China’s aggressive behavior, including by Chinese flagged ships where it has maritime disputes with Vietnam, the Philippines, and Japan. China also exhibits “some very bad behavior” in the skies, the commander said, citing a June 4 example of China ejecting chaff in close proximity to Australian and Canadian aircraft that caused damage to one of the engines.

“This is the environment,” Wilsbach said. “Air chiefs go, ‘Yeah, we want to train with you more. We want to come and train with you in your place. We want you to come to our place and train, etc, etc, etc. So, they are seeking interoperability.”

‘The Business is Growing’

China’s largesse across the Pacific led to a new defense agreement with the Solomon Islands in April, but Ellis said the United States is stepping up, too, with budget increases in coming years.

Some examples include further security cooperation with Mongolia and new partnerships with the Marshall Islands and Papua New Guinea in fiscal 2024.

“The business is growing,” he said.

Defense Department projections for fiscal 2024 use of congressional Section 333 funding have just been finalized, Ellis said, and INDOPACOM is expected to get 37 percent of the $1.16 billion allotted to the geographic combatant commands. Ellis said PACAF will be allowed to divvy up 50 percent of that total, or about $215 million.

“The signal is going up that there needs to be more of an investment when it comes to security cooperation—that building partnership capacity in the Indo-Pacific,” Ellis said.

The air liaison referred again to Palau as a success story. After first receiving security assistance from the Defense Department two years ago, Palau has hosted PACAF exercises Cope North 21, Pacific Iron 21, Cope North 22, and Valiant Shield 22.

“When we talk about getting after a pacing threat,” said Ellis—a reference to DOD’s preferred designation for China—working with the Pacific countries is how “they will end up trusting us.”

“There’s a lot of partnership that’s taking place,” he added. “I don’t think I can intelligently answer whether that’s going to result in actual, tangible results in the future, but what I can say is, it’s working towards the policy that needs to be done within the Indo-Pacific.”

2nd Weather Squadron ‘Listens’ to the Sun as It Approaches Peak of 11-Year Cycle

July 6, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

KAENA POINT SPACE FORCE STATION, Oahu, Hawaii—At the rocky edge of a cliff on Hawaii’s Oahu island are poised three antenna dishes that rotate with the sun. Together, they form part of a global network to warn warfighters of solar activity that can disrupt radio signals and potentially send false data to the battlefield, a rising concern as the sun enters a cycle of increased activity.

“We listen to the sun—we don’t look at the sun,” Maj. Matthew Ferguson, commander of Detachment 5, 2nd Weather Squadron, at Kaena Point Space Force Station, Hawaii, told Air Force Magazine during a visit.

The Air Force’s 2nd Weather Squadron, headquartered at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., provides solar electro-optical network operations through the Radio Solar Telescope Network (RSTN), situated at four global sites. Detachment 5 operates one of the RSTN sites, which has three Space Force-owned antenna dishes that listen to eight potentially dangerous frequencies.

In order to have ears on the sun at all times, the Air Force has three other detachments, in Learmonth, Australia; Sagamore Hill, Mass.; and San Vito, Italy.

“We listen to the sun, and we can pick up whenever the sun is causing radio interference through things like solar flares,” Ferguson said.

As the sun enters the solar maximum, an 11-year cycle of increased solar activity, larger numbers of sunspots are expected to occur and affect radio communications.

“We will see more sunspots and solar activity that will cause additional radio interference,” said Ferguson. Ferguson said the more sunspot areas that are detected, the greater the likelihood of solar flares and more radio frequency interference.

On the battlefield, that means radio communications errors, bad GPS data, and failed communication to and from satellites. Just one way space weather can affect GPS accuracy is when the ionosphere becomes “highly disturbed” and the GPS receiver can’t lock onto the signal, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

“If you’re out doing a patrol and your GPS is off, then you could be in the wrong place. Or if their SATCOM is disrupted, they can’t talk back to base,” explained Space Force Maj. Brandon Hammond, commander of the 21st Space Operations Squadron, Detachment 3, at Kaena Point.

To prevent disruptions to missions, Ferguson and the other 2nd Weather Squadron commanders send reports to the Space Weather Operations Center, or Space WOC, at Offutt. There, operators prepare warnings and send them out to the entities with assets that may be affected.

“You can’t fix it—the sun is the sun,” added Hammond. “But that enables our forces to plan around that.”

But Ferguson admits that predicting space weather, specifically solar activity, is even harder than estimating weather patterns on Earth.

“It’s not like the regular weather, but maybe [there’s] a little bit of advance notice,” he said, noting that the solar maximum activity is expected to last for the next two to three years.

With the data the 2nd Weather Squadron collects, units across the joint force could receive as much as 12 to 24 hours of advance notice of a solar event that could impact their assets.

“Or as little as no time at all,” said Ferguson.

The trouble is, with salty conditions in the Pacific Ocean and myriad other threats, the solar monitoring equipment at Kaena Point is old and requires constant maintenance to stay operational.

The downtime of the current systems means sometimes only one antenna monitors the sun at a time or there is potentially a gap in monitoring if multiple systems are down at the same time.

To discuss recent repairs, Ferguson grabbed onto a rusty metal ladder fastened to the side of his detachment headquarters and started climbing to the rooftop. There, with the north and east shores of Oahu behind him, he looked up at the largest antenna he is responsible for at 28 feet.

“A lot of it is obsolete, and it’s overdue for replacements,” he said. He then described mechanical repairs that took the antenna out of operation for two weeks in January.

“That one was ‘Big Bertha.’ She was having some problems last year,” he said with a laugh. “We treat her nice now. She’s been working pretty well for us since the major overhaul.”

PACAF Watches Closely as Philippines Considers Military Ties With China

July 6, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Newly elected Philippine President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. has indicated he desires warmer relations with Beijing, saying he is even open to military ties with China, a move that would complicate Pacific Air Forces’ efforts to protect U.S. interests with a forward presence in the South Pacific.

“We have our relationship not only on one dimension,” Marcos said July 5, according to media reports. “Let’s add to that: Let’s have cultural exchanges, educational exchanges, even military, if that will be useful.”

Marcos’s comments came ahead of a two-day visit by Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi that began July 6 in Manila. Wang will tour Southeast Asia until July 14 and continue China’s effort to enlist new partners across the Pacific who can provide military basing and access.

The boldest statements yet by the new Philippine president are also an unwelcome sign to the Pacific Air Forces, which had begun practicing agile combat employment on the island chain in the South Pacific.

Basing access in the Philippines would give Beijing a footing just 1,500 miles from Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, considered the Defense Department’s “forward edge” for Pacific defense. A multi-layered missile defense system on Guam is years away.

In a June 9 interview at PACAF headquarters, commander Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach told Air Force Magazine he had hoped to deepen Air Force ties with the Philippines under the new administration.

“We’ve done a limited amount, very limited, really, in the Philippines,” Wilsbach said after describing new agile combat employment and other exercises taking place in Palau.

“We have done some ACE operations in the Philippines and certainly hope to do more training with them here and in the future,” he said.

In May, F-16s from the 80th Fighter Squadron, Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, exercised alongside Philippines Air Force F-16s.

“I actually had a chance to visit the Philippines not long ago and got to a couple of their airfields and met with their air chief,” Wilsbach said. “So, it’s a good relationship.”

The U.S. defense relationship with the Philippines soured under the administration of past president Rodrigo Duterte, who also attempted to realign his relations with China despite disputed maritime claims in the South China Sea. In June 2020, Duterte canceled the visiting forces agreement with the United States before reversing his decision four months later.

“I think the Philippines is going to be a tricky one because of Bongbong coming in, but it’s still really important,” American Enterprise Institute Asia-Pacific defense policy expert Zack Cooper told Air Force Magazine in a recent interview, referring to Marcos by his nickname.

“There is stuff that we can probably do with other countries in Southeast Asia, but it’s going to be probably more limited,” he added. “The Pacific islands posture options are critical, and we’re seeing the Chinese making a huge Pacific islands push right now.”

In recent months, Wang visited numerous Pacific islands, and China recently signed a basing agreement with the Solomon Islands, adding an unforeseen challenge to U.S. ally Australia’s defense plans.

In his interview with Air Force Magazine prior to Marcos’s remarks, Wilsbach was confident the U.S. relationship with the Philippines could deepen, but he warned that political uncertainty remained.

“They just obviously had an election, and we’ll see how that transition may change the political environment or not,” he said. “And we’ll go from there.”