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

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

April 12, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

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

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

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

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

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

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

This latest elephant walk shows:

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

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

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

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

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

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

Will Unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft Mean Airmen Need New AFSCs?

Will Unmanned Collaborative Combat Aircraft Mean Airmen Need New AFSCs?

April 12, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Boards Selected Fewer New Air Force Majors in 2023

Boards Selected Fewer New Air Force Majors in 2023

April 12, 2024 | By David Roza

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

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

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

The career fields included:

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

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

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

Congress Aims to Boost Junior Enlisted Pay by 15 Percent in 2025

Congress Aims to Boost Junior Enlisted Pay by 15 Percent in 2025

April 11, 2024 | By David Roza

House lawmakers are pushing for a 15 percent pay raise for enlisted troops ranked E-1 to E-4 as part of a slew of changes meant to improve quality of life for service members and their families.

The changes, which address pay and compensation, child care, housing, health care, and spouse support, were laid out in a new report released April 11 by the House Armed Services Committee’s Quality of Life Panel, which was formed last year to address long-running concerns.

“These 40 pages right here … are going to change the military for the better,” panel member Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) said at a press conference April 11. “We owe it to the men and women who have signed up to fight and possibly die for us, to give them the best.”  

Panel members vowed to act on the report by writing its recommendations into the Fiscal 2025 National Defense Authorization Act, which could be a difficult task due to competing modernization priorities as the military prepares for a possible conflict with China. But lawmakers were emphatic that their recommendations would make it into the 2025 NDAA, and they have powerful voices on their side in HASC chairman Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) and ranking member Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.).

“We’re going to find the room in that bill to do this,” Rogers said. “We’re going to have complications, I’m not going to argue that we won’t. But it won’t be because of this, it’s because of a whole spectrum of threats and platforms and issues. But this is going to be done.”

“By providing a 15 percent pay raise for service members to ensure they and their families can pay their bills, put food on the table, and invest in their future we’re making sure that we recruit America’s brightest,” Smith added in a statement.

A Defense Commissary Agency grocery manager places items outside the store during a sidewalk sale at Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., May 12. (U.S. Air Force photo by Mark Herlihy)

Pay Raises

The report found that the military’s methods for calculating pay and compensation for housing, food, and other needs must be updated. For example, calculations for basic allowance for housing (BAH), which 58 percent of service members use to live off-base, require analyzing prices for a minimum number of local rentals, but the Defense Department came up short in 44 percent of locations and housing types.

“As a result, housing allowances may have been set inaccurately in nearly half of the locations, potentially resulting in hardship for service members,” the report wrote.

Another example is the Cost of Living Allowance (COLA), which offsets the cost of living in high-price areas. COLA is not adjusted fast enough to keep pace with sudden changes, the report found, such as the surge in utility bills for military families in Europe after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. 

A similar problem applies to basic pay, which has not kept pace with inflation or compensation for comparable civilian jobs. The result of less pay and less housing allowance means service members often “take those cuts … in their commissary bills,” Master Chief Petty Office of the Navy James Honea said during a January congressional hearing.

Indeed, the report cited a 2023 RAND study that found 25 percent of troops report food insecurity, meaning they cannot access enough food for an active, healthy life. The Defense Department currently sets its pay benchmarks at the 70th percentile of comparable civilian compensation, but the report called for raising that to 80 for enlisted and 75 for officers.

“The continued recruiting challenges and concerning reports of food insecurity and unaffordable housing costs require an increase in benchmarks for officers and enlisted,” the report said.

The pay issues hit junior enlisted particularly hard, since the earnings for civilian low-income jobs have risen faster than higher-income earnings, while the basic pay for ranks E-1 through E-4 has declined relative to E-5 pay: hence the call for raising that pay 15 percent.

“This will restore real value to basic pay,” the report states.

An Air Force family uses an envelope system as a method of budgeting. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Sadie Colbert)

Staff Shortages

Another recurring theme in the report was a lack of workers in child care, health care, and managers for barracks, which the Air Force calls dormitories. These shortages contributed to monthslong wait lists for child care, weekslong waits for medical appointments, and a long list of barracks health and safety problems including mold, pests, broken heating and air conditioning, cracked sewage pipes, and unsafe water.

Addressing these problems could require updating hiring authorities and raising pay for child care and health care providers. But the report also recommended creating standards for child care, health care, and barracks oversight across the services.

In the child care space, that could take the form of standardizing perks for day care employees, which could encourage more people to take those jobs. In health care, it could mean setting timelines for waiting for an appointment, while in the housing space, it could involve making the military more transparent with how it requests and uses money for sustaining or modernizing barracks.

“I’ve seen for myself, the mold and the infestations of mice and rodents, the windows that won’t close or the electrical panels that are definitely not up to code,” panel member Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.) said at the press conference. “That’s why I can tell you with certainty that this panel’s work will make a huge difference. It will save lives, it will improve our national security, and it will help the United States maintain its posture as the world’s most powerful fighting force.”

The panel’s recommendations include the following:

Pay and Compensation

  • Increase base pay for junior enlisted troops by 15 percent
  • Raise enlisted and officer pay from the 70th percentile of comparable civilian pay to the 80th and 75th percentile, respectively
  • Ensure Basic Allowance for Housing covers 100 percent of the calculated rate for military housing areas. BAH today covers only 95 percent 
  • Improve how Basic Allowance for Sustenance and Cost of Living Allowances are calculated
  • Increase Basic Needs Allowance income threshold from 150 percent of federal poverty guidelines to 200 percent

Child Care

  • Make every service cover 100 percent of child care fees for the first child of a staff member at a military child development program, and cover up to 100 percent for additional children
  • Increase pay for military child care workers to compete with civilian counterparts
  • Eliminate wait lists for child care fee assistance programs by fully funding those programs
  • Require quarterly briefs from the Defense Department on how the services are addressing child care facility requirements and staffing shortages
  • Study whether current hiring authorities for child care workers can be improved

Housing

  • Make the services explain why they do not request 100 percent of the funding required for barracks sustainment, restoration, and modernization
  • Make the services keep closer track of funding for barracks for single service members, be more transparent on where those funds are used, and explain why it defers maintenance
  • Explore what authorities may be needed to expand use of privatized barracks
  • Figure out why there is a shortage of barracks oversight staff
  • Conduct a feasibility study for providing free wi-fi in all barracks

Health Care

  • Direct the Defense Health Agency to evaluate how current access to care standards might be creating long wait times for health care 
  • Make the DHA submit data on the health care wait times at each military treatment facility (MTF) rather than the aggregate of all MTFs.
  • Analyze if new hiring and retention authorities are needed for civilian medical providers
  • Figure out how to retain more military health providers

Spouse Support

  • Make the three-year Military Spouse Career Accelerator Pilot a permanent program
  • Support interstate licensure compacts so licensed military spouses can keep working after moving to a new state
  • Expand eligibility for child care for military spouses seeking employment from 90 days to 180
  • Review the Military Spouse Employment Participation Program for obstacles to participation
First Ever Guardians Graduate Army Drill Sergeant Academy—and May Not Be the Last

First Ever Guardians Graduate Army Drill Sergeant Academy—and May Not Be the Last

April 11, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Two Guardians broke new ground last week when they become the first members of the Space Force to graduate from the Army Drill Sergeant Academy. Now, Tech Sgt. David Gudgeon and Sgt. Yuji Moore are ready to bring their unique experience to the Space Force’s training process for transforming civilians into service members.

What’s more, with two Guardian Drill Sergeants now donning the Army’s iconic “Brown Round” campaign hats, the service hinted at more cross-branch training for its Guardians instructors in the future.

Army Drill Sergeants, just like Military Training Instructors in the Air Force and Space Force, are tasked with training new recruits in basic combat skills, military protocols, and beyond. Space Force recruits attend the Air Force’s Basic Military Training course, with added space-specific curriculum.

The Air Force trains its MTIs at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland in a 35-day course. The first Space Force graduate of that school was in September 2021.

The Army Drill Sergeant Academy, located in Columbia, S.C., includes a 540-hour, nine-week course, training noncommissioned officers to teach civilians how to become Soldiers. The program assesses various skill sets including tactics instruction, proficiency with weapons, and leading a squad in a 48-hour overnight field training exercise.

“The biggest takeaway for me was seeing how controlled stresses and failures worked in an environment with tight timelines and manageable failures,” Gudgeon told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “This effectively built the resiliency and leadership we were looking for.”

Moore said what stood out to him was “the importance of being a coach, leading through tactics and procedures, and being part of the team rather than just instructing. The Army’s field exercises emphasized this approach, with drill sergeants actively participating alongside the trainees.”

Maj. Clinton Emry, commander of 1st Delta Operations Squadron/Detachment 1, said the Army Drill Sergeant Academy was happy to collaborate with the Space Force after already training personnel from the Hungarian Defense Force, South Korean Army, Croatian Army, and British Army.

“This is a unique moment in history where the USSF has Military Training Instructors certified by the USAF and we also have Space Force Drill Sergeants,” Emry told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “By having both under one training unit now, we are positioning ourselves for a more deliberate training experience for the newest Guardians coming to Space Force Basic Military Training.”

Emry described Gudgeon and Moore as “highly qualified Guardians that also had a willingness to be bold and take on a new challenge.” The two initially enlisted in the Air Force before transitioning to the Space Force. Adjusting to another new military culture in the Army wasn’t easy.

Moore said he was not always familiar with the Army’s way of doing things, such as tactics or doctrine, and had to rely on his battle buddies for questions. Fortunately, his fellow candidates helped him feel unafraid to “ask those questions and they made the environment very conducive for me to feel comfortable, to be kind of vulnerable and be the new guy there.”

Despite these concerns, the Guardians excelled academically—Gudgeon receiving a cumulative score of 96 percent and Moore of 99 percent, Army Sgt. 1st Class Brandon Hickey, Chief of Training at the Academy told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

They also gained crucial insight into Army culture—a critical skill given that Soldiers continue to transfer into the Space Force

“I think we’re definitely going to be bringing in a different flavor to that training environment that they haven’t seen yet,” Gudgeon said.

For the rest of the Space Force, Gudgeon and Moore are paving the way for further collaborations with the Army—and other branches.  

“Based on our mission needs and partnerships, the sky is no longer the limit,” Emry said. “As our Space Force BMT curriculum changes and adapts over time, we must partner with other services to learn their best practices and not try to develop everything alone. Each of the services has its own culture and focus areas that they specialize in, some of those specialties are transferable to our Space Force operations, education, and training methods.”

New Satellite Data Layer Connects Army, Navy, NATO—with Link 16

New Satellite Data Layer Connects Army, Navy, NATO—with Link 16

April 11, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Development Agency is fine-tuning and expanding its data transport satellites’ Link 16 connectivity, preparing for them to become the “backbone” of the Pentagon’s ambitious joint all-domain command and control system—and perhaps beyond that to NATO. 

SDA Director Derek M. Tournear said April 10 at the Space Symposium that the agency has signed agreements with the Army, Navy, and other services to use the satellites as they develop their networks to connect sensors and shooters. And it’s not just U.S. forces: Tournear said Norway will host a ground station and demonstrate Link 16 connectivity between satellites and NATO’s terrestrial networks. 

At the heart of it all is Link 16, the waveform used by U.S. and allied forces to transmit data. SDA conducted the first ever Link 16 demonstration from space last November, leading Tournear to say at the time that he could not “underscore enough the significance of this technical achievement.” 

Five months later, Tournear said in Colorado Springs, Colo., that the first demonstration, while critical, was “very rudimentary.” 

“We were able to connect about 50 percent of the time when we were overhead, and we were able to stay connected for about 30 seconds,” he said. “So that’s good but not really something to write home to mom about. But now we’re able to get 100 percent of our passes connectivity, basically with no failure. And we have roughly 10 minutes of connectivity, which is essentially limb to limb as the satellite goes over, so it’s working exceptionally well.” 

Proving the reliability of Link 16 from SDA’s low-Earth orbit satellites is critical for JADC2, which the Pentagon envisions connecting sensors and shooters around the world, regardless of where the data originates or what domain the shooter is in.  

Space Development Agency director Derek M. Tournear. Image courtesy of the Space Foundation

Link 16 is not the only waveform that will be needed—Tournear noted SDA’s satellites can also use Ka band and other signals—and Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks declared in February that JADC2 has reached a minimal viable capability even without SDA’s satellites. 

But the ubiquity of Link 16 and the connectivity offered by the hundreds of satellites SDA intends to launch into low-Earth orbit means they will be critical, and Tournear said the organization has taken steps to formalize that. 

“We have agreements signed with the Army, we have agreements signed with the Navy to make sure that they will utilize us for this JADC2 backbone. So in addition to the Link 16 up and down, we also have Ka that can go down directly to the Army’s Titan systems, or the Navy’s maritime targeting cell—they have one ashore and afloat, which is part of their Overmatch system,” Tournear said. “And so we have [memorandums of agreement] signed so we’re all on board to tie all of those together with Link 16, with Ka, and then we also have agreement signed to use our optical terminals to go down to airborne platforms.” 

At the moment, SDA cannot conduct Link 16 demonstrations over U.S. airspace, part of an ongoing dispute between the Pentagon and Federal Aviation Administration. Instead, the agency has operated from the territory of a Five Eyes partner nation—Australia, Canada, New Zealand, or the United Kingdom. 

“We’ve been in in their country, starting in November when we first did the test, essentially up to Christmas break and then we took off about a month and a half,” Tournear said. “And then we sent the team back out.” 

Beyond that, he said, SDA is starting to work with NATO partners too, starting with Norway. 

“NATO is using Link 16. Link 16 is what we will use in any fight over the next 10 years,” Tournear noted. “And so [Norway has] partnered with us to test later this summer Link 16 from the SDA constellation directly into their country’s forces, using their existing Link 16 connectivity, using the NATO cryptography.” 

Norway has also agreed to host a “ground entry point” through which SDA will be able to connect with their satellites for command and control, Tournear noted. 

USSF Doubles Down on Responsive Space with 2 Contracts

USSF Doubles Down on Responsive Space with 2 Contracts

April 11, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force’s first rapid satellite launch was so nice, it’s next goal is to do it twice. 

Space Systems Command and the Defense Innovation Unit awarded two contracts for the Space Force’s next tactically responsive space mission, dubbed Victus Haze. The deals, announced April 11, go to True Anomaly of Centennial, Colo., and Rocket Lab of Long Beach, Calif. 

Each company will build a satellite and a command and control center for rendezvous and proximity operations by fall 2025. After that, the spacecraft will go through a series of steps to prepare for launch. 

True Anomaly’s bird will launch from either Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., or Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., on a “rapid rideshare” rocket, according to an SSC statement—presumably a SpaceX vehicle. Rocket Lab will launch its own satellite using its Electron rocket, either from either Mahia, New Zealand, or Wallops Island, Va. 

“While this is a coordinated demonstration, each vendor will be given unique launch and mission profiles,” SSC announced. 

Once in orbit, the two spacecraft must demonstrate “dynamic space operations,” maneuvering in orbit and performing domain awareness work.

The Space Force is sharing the cost of the True Anomaly satellite, with USSF’s SpaceWERX innovation arm each contributing $30 million to the project. Funding for the Rocket Lab contract, valued at $32 million, comes through the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit, whose mission is to help the Pentagon embrace and field new technologies faster. SSC’s Space Safari program office will provide programmatic oversight and execute the mission for both satellites. 

“It’s an honor to be selected by the Space Systems Command to partner in delivering the VICTUS HAZE mission and demonstrate the kind of advanced tactically responsive capabilities critical to evolving national security needs,” Rocket Lab founder and CEO Peter Beck said in a statement. 

“The space domain is one of the most challenging environments in which to test and train, and we applaud the service and Congress for their dedication to the TacRS mission set, which is increasingly necessary for deterrence, space domain awareness, and dynamic space operations,” said True Anomaly CEO and cofounder Even Rogers in a statement.

The Space Force hinted at conduding a double demonstration in its 2025 budget request, noting that Victus Haze would include “multiple mission components.” Following Victus Haze, the Space Force wants to “provide initial operational capabilities” for tactically responsive space, the budget documents say. 

TacRS seeks to ensure the Space Force can launch satellites and get them into orbit and operational in a crisis or as a new tactical requirement emerges. The whole idea is to “demonstrate, under operationally realistic conditions, our ability to respond to irresponsible behavior on orbit,” said Col. Bryon McClain, SSC’s program executive officer for Space Domain Awareness and Combat Power, in a statement. 

Victus Nox, the first TacRS demonstration, set out to prove the Space Force and its industry partner, Millennium Space Systems, could build a satellite in 12 months, enter a “hot standby phase” as contractors waited for an alert notification, then launch. That test worked: After receiving the alert, the satellite was transported 165 miles, tested, fueled, and mated it to the launch vehicle, all in just 58 hours. After that, the team went back on alert, waiting for final launch orders and orbital parameters. Once those came in, the satellite launched in 27 hours in September 2023.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman has repeatedly cited that success with pride—and a clear warning that Victus Haze must go even faster.

“I still think we have margin in the schedule,” Saltzman said earlier this year. “And so in Victus Haze, we’re going to set some standards that say nope, we’ve got to compress this more. Five days from warehouse to on-orbit operations is pretty fast. But in the grand scheme of things, when you’re moving at 17,500 miles per hour, five days is still a long time, and a lot can happen in five days. And so I’m going to be pressing the team to continue to reduce that critical path down to hours and hours and hours, rather than days.” 

Space Force officials have noted the demonstrations have also shown the service how it can cut down on bureaucratic processes and move faster when needed. 

More TacRS demonstrations are in the works. Budget documents cite a third mission, Victus Sol, envisioned to launch in late 2025 or early 2026, and a fourth mission is envisioned to get underway sometime in fiscal 2025. 

Kendall: Space Guard ‘Doesn’t Make Any Sense,’ USSF Has New Authorities to Manage Transition

Kendall: Space Guard ‘Doesn’t Make Any Sense,’ USSF Has New Authorities to Manage Transition

April 10, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall offered his sharpest critique yet of a proposed Space National Guard on April 10, telling reporters at the annual Space Symposium that the idea “doesn’t make any sense.”

The Department of the Air Force has a legislative proposal to fold space-focused Guard units into the Space Force, which can now accept part-time members. Absence a switch in service, Kendall argued it would make more sense to leave the units in the Air National Guard rather than establishing a separate Guard. 

The debate over a Space National Guard has raged for several years now, and Kendall expressed frustration that the topic continues to be unsettled and hotly debated. 

“We’ve had much, much more political attention over this issue than it deserves in my mind,” he said. “We’re talking about a few hundred people. The numbers for any state are less than, I think, 2 percent of their Guard people and there are only a handful of states are affected.” 

The issue has surged to the forefront again in recent weeks after Govs. Spencer Cox (R-Utah) and Jared Polis (D-Colo.) issued a statement criticizing the Department of the Air Force for their legislative proposal, which would waive federal law requiring “gubernatorial approval before any modification to Guard units and assets within their jurisdiction.” 

The National Guard Association of the United States also criticized the proposal, repeating arguments that the costs of establishing of a Space National Guard have been overstated and that Guardsmen don’t want to move and want to stay available to perform state missions. 

But Kendall said those concerns are overblown and that the recently passed Space Force Personnel Management Act, which creates a single component of full-time and part-time Guardians, will help mitigate concerns Guardsmen have and ensure their lives aren’t disrupted. 

Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall receives a tour of the flight line from U.S. Air Force Brig. Gen. D. Micah Fesler Assistant Adutant General – Air, and U.S. Air Force Col. Jeremiah Tucker, 140th Wing Commander, Buckley Space Force Base, Colo., Nov 3, 2023. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Capt. Benjamin Kimball

“The flexibility … is going to allow people to manage their lives and their careers much more flexibly than traditional means have allowed,” Kendall said of the law, included in the 2024 defense policy bill. “So people should look very carefully at this before they make a snap judgment about whether they’re comfortable with the change or not.” 

The policy bill also directed the department to conduct a study of three options: starting a Space National Guard, moving units into the Space Force, or preserving the status quo with space units in the Air National Guard. 

That report will be delivered to Congress soon, Kendall said, but he previewed the results. 

“We’ve had [units] as part of the Air Guard for four years now roughly, while they are doing Space Force missions,” Kendall said. “They have been sent to, in many cases, Space Force training and schools, where we can formalize that a little bit more than it is right now. Keeping them where they are is one possibility. The preferred result is to make them part of the Space Force and manage them, for the most part, as part-time Space Force people.   

“The worst option, I think, and I think that this is what our report is going to show, is a separate new Space Guard for a few hundred people. It doesn’t make any sense. It’s going to cost to administer. There is not in my mind, any expectation that it will grow. And it’s going to be administratively difficult. So I don’t think that that’s a very attractive option for a number of reasons.” 

There are approximately 14 space units in seven states with 1,000 Air National Guardsmen. 

Asked about surveys cited by the National Guard Association showing many of those people prefer to stay in the Guard, Kendall said he was “not terribly concerned.” 

“I think when you go to people and say ‘Do you want to stay like you are or jump off a cliff?’ They’re going to stay like they are,” Kendall said. “We’re not asking them to jump off a cliff. We’re asking them to go to another arrangement which will be very, very like the one that they’re currently serving under. They’re not going to see much change frankly, as I see it.” 

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman noted that as Air Force Reserve space units get folded into the Space Force, Guardsmen will see that the transition is worth it. 

“They’ll get to see how we integrate those that are currently in the Air Force Reserves doing space. They’ll see how we integrate them, they’ll get to watch that play out,” Saltzman said. “That’ll give them a lot of valuable information.” 

Details on that transition are still being worked out and will be phased in over time, officials said. Saltzman said they would take a similar approach with the Guard.  

And if ultimately Guardsmen decide to leave military service or join the Air National Guard rather than join the Space Force, Saltzman argued the service will be able to adjust. 

“We can both minimize the risk to mission and minimize the pain associated with whether people want to volunteer to come over or whether they want to stay a part of the Guard,” he said. 

Russian Air Force Has Only Lost 10 Percent of Fleet in Ukraine, US Officials Say

Russian Air Force Has Only Lost 10 Percent of Fleet in Ukraine, US Officials Say

April 10, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

The Russian air force has lost just one-tenth of its fleet while many of its military capabilities remain largely unaffected after more than two years of war in Ukraine, the top U.S. commander in Europe told Congress on April 10. 

“We do not see significant losses in the air domain, especially their long-range and strategic aviation fleets,” Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the head of U.S. European Command and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander, said during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

“Russia’s strategic forces, long-range aviation, cyber capabilities, space capabilities, and capabilities in the electromagnetic spectrum have lost no capacity at all. The air force has lost some aircraft, but only about 10 percent of their fleet,” Cavoli added in his written testimony to the committee.

There is no question that Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has come at an enormous cost in blood and treasure. Russia has lost more than 2,000 tanks and suffered 315,000 casualties in the conflict, Cavoli testified. The full-scale invasion has cost Russia $211 billion to equip, deploy, maintain, and sustain its forces in Ukraine, added Celeste Wallander, the assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs.

But Russia’s efforts to rebuild its military and the Kremlin’s decision to acquire drones from Iran and ballistic missiles from North Korea have boosted Moscow’s fortunes on the battlefield.

“Russia launches very large-scale attacks every few days keeping with their production rate,” Cavoli said of Russia’s aerial barrages. “They produce, they save up, they launch a big attack.”

In the short term, Russia has sought to gain the edge in Ukraine in what has become a battle of attrition, though the Russians’ ability to integrate air, land, and sea capabilities also has its limitations. As U.S. military aid for Kyiv has remained stalled in the U.S. Congress, Russia is using one-way attack drones and long-range missiles to try to overwhelm Ukraine’s air defenses. The Russians are currently firing five times as many artillery shells as Ukraine, and Moscow’s advantage will grow without fresh military supplies from the U.S.

“That will immediately go to 10-1 in a matter of weeks,” Cavoli said. “We are not talking hypothetically.”

In the long term, Russia is striving to develop its global capabilities. Russia has poured resources into its nuclear forces. It is also looking to expand its conventional ground forces in the years ahead. To do so, Russia has raised the upper age for conscription from 27 to 30, which has enlarged the pool of potential conscripts by 2 million. It is also planning to restructure ground forces so that it can deploy new formations in Ukraine and opposite Finland, Cavoli told lawmakers.

“Russia is reconstituting that force far faster than our initial estimates suggested,” Cavoli said. “The army is actually now larger—by 15 percent—than it was when it invaded Ukraine.”

While Russia’s navy has suffered significant losses in the Black Sea, the rest of its naval forces are intact and its worldwide naval activity is at a peak, the NATO commander added. 

Ukraine has achieved some success against Russia’s air force, known as the VKS, including taking down at least two of Russia’s A-50 Mainstay command and control aircraft. 

But Russian aircraft have generally adapted by staying out of the engagement zone for Ukraine’s air defenses, many of which have been Western-provided. U.S.-made F-16s, which will provide greater capability for the Ukrainian air force, are months away. Relying on standoff weapons, Russian bombers have stayed clear of Ukrainian air defenses. When Russian warplanes have ventured into Ukraine’s airspace, they adjusted their tactics—and so has Ukraine.

“What we saw at the beginning of the war were if they got within range of those surface-to-air missiles, they got shot down on both sides,” a senior U.S. defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine in February. That changed soon after the invasion. 

“Instead of coming from high altitude where the surface-to-air missile can see you and then shoot long-range shots, they’ll come in at low altitude, where now they can’t see it because of the curvature of the earth, then come out of low altitude, jump up, drop their bombs, and go out right away,” the defense official added. “They weren’t doing that at the beginning, but that’s obviously a lesson that they learned.”