New Generation of Rockets Queue Up to Launch From Florida Facilities in 2022

July 5, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

NASA, SpaceX, and United Launch Alliance are all preparing to launch their next-gen rockets from Florida’s Space Coast, two of them before the year is out.

One is expected to liberate the U.S. launch enterprise from its reliance on Russian-made RD-180 engines, while all three rockets could eventually carry astronaut crews.

Vulcan Centaur’s Engine Delivery Is Imminent

United Launch Alliance expects the first flight of its Vulcan Centaur rocket to take place by the end of 2022, said Gary L. Wentz Jr., ULA’s vice president of government and commercial programs, on a call with reporters ahead of the Space Force’s USSF-12 mission. The Vulcan Centaur will replace ULA’s Atlas 5.

Departing from Space Launch Complex 41 at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, the partially reusable rocket’s inaugural mission, carrying a robotic lunar lander, will also serve as the new rocket’s certification flight, Wentz said.

Delayed since 2020, ULA awaits delivery of BE-4 engines from Blue Origin.

“We’re expecting those here in the summer, and we’re on track to launch Vulcan and be able to support both the national security need as well as our commercial customers,” Wentz said.

He confirmed prior reports that ULA still has enough of the Atlas 5’s Russian-made RD-180 engines on hand to complete that rocket’s manifest. He said Atlas 5 flights will wind down at the same time the Vulcan Centaur’s are spooling up.

“We’ll be flying the Atlas 5 into 2024—the last flight is currently manifested in the latter part of 2024—and we’re working to integrate our operations across Vulcan and Atlas,” Wentz said.

The Space Force’s Col. Erin Gulden confirmed that “from the Space Force’s perspective, we don’t see any issues or concerns at this point with a gap in capability or ability to launch” in the transition from the Atlas 5 to the Vulcan Centaur.

The Space Force’s first launch on a Vulcan Centaur is planned for late 2023, the officials said.

Two crew vehicles may eventually launch on Vulcan Centaurs. Boeing’s Starliner capsule, designed to transport astronauts to and from the International Space Station, is so far lined up to launch on Atlas 5, but ULA is “definitely capable of launching Starliner on Vulcan” and looking forward to “continuing to support the team if that’s what they choose to go forward with.”

Meanwhile, the uncrewed Dream Chaser spaceplane is on the manifest to go to space for the first time on the second Vulcan Centaur en route to deliver supplies to the ISS. Its maker Sierra Space still hasn’t given up on Dream Chaser’s original crewed design.

SLS Moon Rocket Shows Signs of Progress

NASA fueled up its first Space Launch System rocket in June on the fourth try of the wet dress rehearsal required before the rocket’s first flight, which could take place from Launch Complex 39B at Kennedy Space Center as soon as August.

In development since 2011 and now years late and billions over budget, the SLS, made largely by Boeing, “will be the most powerful rocket we’ve ever built,” according to NASA.

The expendable SLS repurposes the space shuttle fleet’s RS-25 engine and, for early flights, incorporates actual refurbished RS-25s from the space shuttle program, a part of the design that was supposed to have made the rocket faster and cheaper to develop.

The SLS’s first mission, Artemis 1, launches a Lockheed Martin-made Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle on its first flight since 2014—the only other time Orion has flown. Artemis 1 calls for an uncrewed circuit of the moon and return flight to Earth by Orion, splashing down in the Pacific.

A crew will make the same trip on Artemis 2. On Artemis 3, NASA expects to land astronauts on the moon as soon as 2025.

Starship Infrastructure Appears on Falcon 9 Launch Pad

Even more powerful than NASA’s SLS for Artemis 1 will be SpaceX’s Starship and Super Heavy Booster. NASA has selected a variant of the Starship vehicle as its first lander to ferry astronauts between the Orion capsule in lunar orbit and the surface of the moon.

SpaceX has said it’s eyeing this month for the first orbital flight of its reusable Starship, launched on the reusable Super Heavy booster, from the company’s Starbase facility in Texas—though the approvals needed to launch from there still weren’t guaranteed.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk said in February that the Florida launch site could serve as backup if things don’t work out in Texas, estimating a delay of six to eight months were that the case.

NASA’s independent Aerospace Safety Advisory Panel, however, cited “obvious safety concerns” with the new tower’s proximity to SpaceX’s existing Falcon 9 launch tower at Kennedy’s Launch Complex 39A—the towers are only 300 meters apart—and NASA has reportedly said that while it approved SpaceX’s construction of the new tower, it wouldn’t approve an actual launch without an additional safety review.

Concern surrounds the potential for an accident like the 2016 explosion of a Falcon 9. If a Starship exploded and damaged the Falcon 9 infrastructure—the only place where SpaceX launches its Crew Dragon capsules—that could prevent astronauts from getting to the ISS.

Valiant Shield Adds ACE Partners in the Pacific, Tests Dispersion, MQ-9 ‘Drop-In’

July 5, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

JOINT REGION MARIANAS, Guam—Laid out across a vast wooden table made in the woodshop of a Navy ship repair facility in Guam in 1967 was a map of the Pacific Ocean island chains of the Northern Marianas, Palau, and Micronesia.

As large as the map was—spread out at the rounded head of the historic table that once hosted a meeting between President Lyndon B. Johnson and South Vietnamese representatives—it showed only the small region of the South Pacific where the exercise Valiant Shield took place June 6-17. Across thousands of miles of Pacific Ocean, the exercise included 15 surface ships, more than 200 aircraft, and about 13,000 personnel from across the services.

Aside from practicing fifth-generation agile combat employment and joint fires integration to sink a decommissioned Navy frigate, the biennial exercise demonstrated the progress the Air Force has made in adding partners in the region while also testing how far is too far to disperse and how to incorporate more platform types.

“This is a pretty … extensive swath of area,” Joint Region Marianas commander Navy Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson told Air Force Magazine during a visit to his headquarters office in Guam.

“All throughout Palau, we’ve got a number of different forces operating there,” Nicholson explained before the exercise concluded. “We’ve got assets from our naval construction battalion, the Seabees, that are down there. There’s Marine Corps assets there. There’s Air Force assets. There’s Army assets.”

Nicholson reached across the table to point to the southernmost island of the Palau island chain, Angaur, in the Philippine Sea, to explain the Marine Corps’ role.

Pacific — Joint Region Marianas commander Navy Rear Adm. Benjamin Nicholson describes the island chains that fall under his authority in an interview at the region’s headquarters building in Guam, June 13, 2022. Staff photo by Abraham Mahshie.

“The Marine Corps just recently did a HIMARS launch from Angaur, which was pretty neat down there. It’s the first time we’ve done something like that in a long time,” he said.

Expanding the ACE Portfolio

The Air Force is expanding ACE operations beyond the Northern Mariana Islands, which include the U.S. territories Guam, Tinian, and Saipan. Now, PACAF can count on the Republic of Palau and the Federated States of Micronesia to practice landing, re-equipping, and quickly launching from unfamiliar, austere islands locations.

The result moves the Air Force closer to realizing the ACE operational concept to confound an adversary’s targeting by spreading out.

“We’re constantly trying to operationalize these concepts,” said Col. Jared Paslay, a Valiant Shield planner who spoke to Air Force Magazine by phone from PACAF’s headquarters in Hawaii after the exercise concluded.

“We’re trying to pedal as fast as we can and integrate as quickly as possible,” Paslay said.

He said one operational concept tested and deemed “widely successful across the joint force” involved joint all-domain command and control, known as JADC2.

In the test, with military comms cut, technicians passed encrypted messages over civilian communications infrastructure.

“Imagine the possibilities when you can actually use the local environment, like a cell phone tower or a Starlink terminal, to actually pass messages back and forth and continue to do a crisis response type of operation,” he said. “It was a massive enabler for not just the Air Force, but the entire joint force.”

Another element of the exercise involved F-35s practicing integrated air and missile defense, with the Army firing Patriot missile defense systems from Palau’s Roman Tmetuchl International Airport on the main island of Babeldaob.

“A lot of awesome firsts for a very important regional partner with the Palau piece,” Paslay said.

Another first was participation by MQ-9s from Creech Air Force Base, Nev., in what Paslay described as “expanding the envelope” of the ACE concept beyond fighters to include transport as well as intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft—”all the other aspects that you would need as an air component and as a joint force to fight forward in a distributed operating environment,” he explained.

The ISR “drop-in,” as Paslay described it, helped the Air Force better understand what the ACE footprint for an MQ-9 should look like.

“How would you take a valuable asset like that and actually drop it in with a small footprint of folks, and launch and recover it forward?” he posed. “Trying to figure that out in a peacetime environment is a pretty big emphasis item for us—and I think there was a lot of goodness that was had by that, the MQ-9s out of Palau.”

Dispersion With Balance

With Valiant Shield, the Air Force learned a little more about how to disperse to multiple operating locations in the Pacific.

“In a contested, distributed operating environment, we’ve got to get light. We’ve got to get lean. We’ve got to cover down. We’ve got to bake resiliency into our support personnel so we can do a lot more from a versatility standpoint, with even less people than before,” he explained.

Paslay said that beyond the exercise’s South Pacific operational area—which included the so-called Second Island Chain of the Island Chain Strategy—Navy surface vessels were situated near the Korean Peninsula, Japan, and the Philippines, which constitute the First Island Chain; and command-and-control took place at Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, part of the Third Island Chain.

“So, for a couple of weeks of an exercise, it was a pretty large scope and scale geographically,” he said.

But deciding how much to disperse also requires balance.

“I want to disperse far enough away—that way I can mitigate an adversary’s kinetic attacks,” he said. “We’ll spread out to multiple operating locations that are far enough away to make sure that they’re survivable but they’re not so far away that they’re not sustainable. Otherwise, it is just an idea on paper, and it’s actually not executable.”

Schmidt Succeeds Fick as New F-35 PEO; Two USAF Directors in a Row May Signal JPO Break-Up

July 5, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Air Force Lt. Gen. Michael J. Schmidt took command of the F-35 Joint Program Office on July 5, succeeding Air Force Lt. Gen. Eric Fick, who is retiring. The succession of an Air Force PEO by another—breaking more than 25 years of back-and-forth joint leadership—may signal that the JPO is being prepared to split into two entities.

In a Washington, D.C., ceremony presided over by William A. LaPlante, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, Schmidt accepted command of the JPO remotely, as he had recently tested positive for COVID-19.

Fick had led the JPO since July 2019 and was the deputy PEO for two years before that. He managed it through “significant challenges” such as the COVID pandemic, rising sustainment costs, engine availability headaches, and the expulsion of Turkey from the program, LaPlante said. “His fingerprints are going to be on this airplane forever,” which LaPlante said will amount to “more than 50 years” of future service.

Fick said a continuing challenge for the program is the Tech Refresh 2 and 3 effort, both necessary to prepare the F-35 fleet for the introduction of the Block 4 upgrade and step-change in production. He said, “we can see … light at the end of the tunnel” in getting the F135 engine power modules flowing to the field more rapidly, but it is “one alligator” among many that must be managed. Still, “we got there much, much faster than anyone though that could happen.”

Lt. Gen. Eric Fick speaks prior to transferring authorities and duties of the F-35 Joint Program Office to Lt. Gen. Michael Schmidt during a command change ceremony at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., July 5, 2022. Photo by Senior Chief Petty Officer Michael ODay.

Repeating a comment he said he has made often with the JPO, Fick said, “time is your only non-renewable resource” and that the F-35 must advance along many fronts simultaneously. His motto has been “readiness, relevance, reality, and ramp,” and he said he is proud that the program has reached an annual software release, despite the original plan for a twice-annual release.

The F-35 is “utterly dominant in the battlespace today,” he said, but must be continuously updated to remain that way. Affordability must be brought “into every conversation we have.”

LaPlante called the selection of Schmidt “the right person for the job at the right time,” noting Schmidt’s holding five PEO jobs during his career, in three of which he succeeded Fick.

Neither Fick nor LaPlante mentioned the Lot 15-17 contract, overdue since November. Negotiations on Lot 15-17 have been held up by the services’ reduction of the number of aircraft they will buy in those lots, as well as sharp increases in inflation since last year.

Also not mentioned was the fact that the program is breaking with its tradition of switching program leadership back and forth between the Navy and Air Force. Since its inception, the PEO has reported to the other-service’s acquisition executive, and the deputy was also from the other service, with each job swapping services when the next PEO came in.

The pattern, established in the Joint Strike Fighter charter, was meant to ensure the program was as joint as possible.

Schmidt, an Air Force general officer, is succeeding Fick, also an Air Force officer. Either the Navy or Marine Corps, by program tradition, would have supplied the new PEO.

When asked for an explanation of why the longstanding pattern is being abandoned, a Pentagon spokesperson said that “as with all previous leadership changes in the JPO, the best candidate for the job was selected.” The JPO charter allows for “flexibility” in choosing PEOs, she said.

The Pentagon did not respond to questions as to why there wasn’t a sufficiently qualified officer in the Navy or Marine Corps ready to accept the job, but Pentagon sources said the timing was such that the Department of the Navy would have exceeded its billets for three-star flag officers if it supplied the new PEO. However, it did say that Schmidt’s appointment “is not temporary” until a Navy or Marine Corps flag officer can take the job.

The deputy program executive officer is also now a civilian—Sean Burke—who took on that assignment in February of this year.

Sources also said Schmidt’s selection may be an indication that the Pentagon is preparing—as Congress has directed—to break up the program office such that each service manages its own fleet of F-35s. The Air Force operates F-35As, which take off and land conventionally and which comprise by far the largest component of the all-variant F-35 inventory, worldwide. The Marine Corps’ F-35Bs have short takeoff/vertical landing capability, while the Navy/Marine Corps F-35Cs can operate from conventional aircraft carriers.

Congress has said it believes F-35 sustainment costs could be sharply reduced if the services were allowed to organize sustainment according to their own needs.

Asked if Schmidt’s appointment has to do with that transition, the spokesperson said, “The Department continues to define executable options to move the F-35 enterprise forward.” Its goal will be to implement congressional direction in the National Defense Authorization Act “with no degradation to the capabilities we collectively develop, deliver, and sustain for our joint and international war fighting customers.” The spokesperson said the Pentagon will provide “updates on the way ahead as available.”

Fick has been resistant to those changes to the JPO’s purview, insisting that a joint approach to program management saves the most money and reduces duplication of effort; but has also said the JPO will do as Congress instructs.

The Air Force is grappling with whether it wants to use one of the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) powerplants in the Block 4 version of the F-35. The engine would give the jet more range and electricity-generating capability, as well as some improvement in stealth, but Fick has insisted that “you have to pay to be different” from the other users, and the Air Force would have to integrate a new engine into the F-35 at its own cost. Pratt & Whitney has pitched an upgraded version of the F-35’s F135 engine as one way to address the need for more power, but it and GE Aircraft are also pushing for their AETP powerplants.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said he has discussed getting the Navy to bear some of the AETP integration costs on the F-35, but that the discussions are still in early stages.

Air Force Awards JADC2 Contract, Worth up to $950 Million, to 27 Companies

July 1, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force’s plans for its portion of joint all-domain command and control, or JADC2, have taken a major step forward. The service awarded an indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity, multiple-award contract worth up to $950 million July 1.

The IDIQ deal will give 27 contractors the opportunity to compete for work related to the Pentagon’s ambitious effort to connect sensors and shooters across all domains into one network.

What exactly the contractors will be developing for the Air Force was not specified in the JADC2 contract announcement, but it will have to do with the “maturation, demonstration, and proliferation” of technologies that are part of JADC2, the contract announcement states.

The award also says that companies will have to leverage “open systems design, modern software, and algorithm development” as part of their development.

The locations of work are also still unknown, but the award states that those will be determined by May 28, 2025.

The nearly $1 billion contract was awarded through the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, which selected some large companies, such as AT&T, but also included plenty of startups and smaller enterprises.

The awardees include:

ADDX Corp., Alexandria, Va.
Capella Space Corp., San Francisco
AT&T Corp., Oakton, Va.
Applied Information Sciences Inc., Reston, Va.
Atmospheric & Space Technology Research Associates LLC, Louisville, Colo.
Credence Management Solutions LLC, Vienna, Va.
Edge Technologies Inc., Arlington, Va.
EOS Defense Systems USA Inc., Huntsville, Ala.
Exfo America Inc., Richardson, Texas
Hermeus Corp., Atlanta
Ierus Technologies Inc., Huntsville, Ala.
Cyberspace Solutions LLC, Herndon, Va.
Labelbox Inc., San Francisco
Nalej Corp., New York
OST Inc., McLean, Va.
Praeses LLC, Shreveport, La.
Real-time Innovations Inc., Sunnyvale, Calif.
Riverside Research Institute, New York
Saber Astronautics LLC, Boulder, Colo.
Shared Spectrum Co., Vienna, Va.
Shield AI Inc., San Diego
Skylight Inc., Sarasota, Fla.
Sparkcognition Government Systems Inc., Austin, Texas
Tenet 3 LLC, Dayton, Ohio
Trace Systems Inc., Vienna, Va.
Ultra Electronics Advanced Tactical Systems Inc., Austin, Texas
BrainGu, Grand Rapids, Mich.

JADC2 is intended to be a massive “network of networks,” sharing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance from sensors across air, land, sea, space, cyberspace, and the electromagnetic spectrum, identifying the proper units or platforms to deal with threats and connecting them with the necessary information.

In order to realize the concept, the Pentagon will have to use cutting-edge technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine learning, cloud computing, and new communication methods, experts say.

The Air Force’s portion of the enterprise, the Advanced Battle Management System, has been in development for several years, but Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has pushed in recent months for more urgency in having ABMS provide operational benefits faster instead of focusing on more experiments.

Spending on the project, meanwhile, hit $268.8 million in fiscal 2022 after Congress slashed funding in 2021, forcing the service to adjust its plans. In 2023, the Air Force is requesting $231.4 million, but the program is expected to grow significantly in the years ahead—the Future Years Defense Program is projecting at least $550 million per year through 2027, peaking at $870.8 million in 2026.

Pentagon Awards $80 Million for Work on F-35 Engines, Weapons Integration

July 1, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Pentagon handed out more than $80 million in contracts for work on F-35 engines and weapons integration June 30, as well as another $25 million to support the development of a joint simulation environment for the F-22.

The largest of the deals handed out went to engine-maker Pratt & Whitney. The contractor received just shy of $69 million to provide a one-time look at the F135 engine for “early identification, development, and qualification of corrections to potential and actual” operational issues with the engine, including safety and maintenance problems.

The order provides for “continued engine maturation … improves operational readiness; and reduces engine maintenance and life cycle costs,” the contract award reads.

Another $12.6 million went to Lockheed Martin as a modification to a previous agreement, with the money going toward analysis for “common weapons integration … captive carriage flight testing, and weapons delivery accuracy testing” for the Air Force, Navy, Marine Corps, and the F-35’s international partners.

The F-35’s engine has been a source of headaches for the Joint Strike Fighter program for some time. Air Force leaders told Congress in July 2021 that more than 40 F-35As were without engines due to maintenance issues, though those numbers had improved somewhat by April 2022.

Lt. Gen. Eric T. Fick, F-35 program executive officer, has said Block 4 versions of the fighter will likely need “increased power and increased thermal management capability,” and lawmakers on the House Armed Services Committee have voiced harsh criticism of the program’s engine sustainment issues.

Still, Pratt & Whitney recently received a $4.385 billion contract from the Pentagon for 178 more F135 engines, and the company has pitched the DOD on modifications to the F135 that it has billed as an “Enhanced Engine Package.”

Meanwhile, the Air Force continues to consider a second engine option for the F-35 from its cutting-edge Adaptive Engine Transition Program. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has said he anticipates a decision on that front in the fiscal year 2024 budget.

Both deals were contracted through Naval Air Systems Command, with the Air Force and Navy splitting costs, along with funds from the Foreign Cooperative Project for the weapons integration testing and analysis.

Work on the weapons integration testing and analysis is slated to be done by December 2024, with the F135 work finishing by December 2025.

Meanwhile, Boeing received slightly more than $25.5 million to work on a “visual display system to support high-fidelity F-22 joint simulation environment flight simulation.” The joint simulation environment (JSE) was originally designed to support testing for the F-35, but the Air Force has sought to expand its uses to other fifth-generation fighters, including the F-22, and future platforms. At Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., the Air Force Test Center is building a 72,000-square-foot facility for the JSE, and a 52,000-square foot facility is also being built at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

DOD Announces $820 Million in Aid to Ukraine, Including Norwegian Air Defense System

July 1, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

The Pentagon announced an $820 million aid package to Ukraine that includes the same advanced Norwegian air defense system used to protect the White House. Coupling that with recently arrived multiple-launch rocket systems, the Defense Department said it expects rapid battlefield gains in the Donbas region.

The aid package announced July 1 was previewed by President Joe Biden a day earlier before departing the NATO leaders’ summit in Madrid. A DOD news release confirms the details of the package, which amounts to $770 million in U.S. purchases for Ukraine that include two Norwegian-made National Advanced Surface-to-Air Missile Systems (NASAMS) for air defense; 150,000 additional rounds of 155 mm artillery ammunition; and four additional counter-artillery radars.

An additional $50 million in the package for Ukraine consists of the 14th presidential drawdown, or transfer of U.S. stocks to Ukraine, consisting of additional ammunition for high-precision High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS) that have begun delivery to Ukraine.

“This is something that we have been asking for,” Yuriy Sak, adviser to the minister of defense of Ukraine, told Air Force Magazine by phone from western Ukraine just prior to the official announcement.

“That’s very good for us,” he added. “These are modern, NATO standard systems which are capable of protecting the Ukrainian sky from these missile strikes.”

Sak said the NASAMS are better equipped, have a longer range, and are higher-precision than the systems Ukraine currently has in its inventory, which include Soviet-era S-300 missile defense systems donated by Slovakia in April.

A Norwegian defense official told Air Force Magazine the Norwegian-developed system has a “pretty good range” and will help defend critical infrastructure and military assets alike. The range of the system will depend on the effectors, or missiles, used.

“This is an air defense system that will be longer-range and will be an added asset for the protection of the courageous and brave Ukrainian military units and population,” the official said.

In recent days, Ukraine has suffered cruise missile strikes on civilian targets by Soviet-era Russian X-22 anti-ship missiles.

“These are not high-precision weapons,” Sak said. “The kinds of missiles that were used by these war criminals to strike the Kremenchuk shopping mall as well as the Odesa recreation place today in the morning.”

Sak expected the NASAMS to immediately make Ukrainian citizens feel more secure.

“This is going to prevent Russia from employing these terror tactics that [are] trying to terrify the peaceful citizens of different Ukrainian cities,” he said.

The Norwegian defense official expressed high confidence in the capabilities of the defensive system, which has been used to protect Washington, D.C., since 2005.

“It basically takes out what’s coming at you,” the official said. “It’s a reactive system as well, and there are opportunities to integrate with other systems as well so you can have a more coherent air defense.”

A senior defense official who briefed Pentagon journalists following the announcement also described the offensive success Ukraine has enjoyed from recent delivery of High Mobility Artillery Rocket System (HIMARS), which have allowed Ukraine to target Russian command and control, and Guided Multiple Launch Rocket Systems (GMLRS).

“Ukrainians are actually systematically selecting targets and then accurately hitting them, thus providing this precise method of degrading Russian capability,” the official said.

Despite the Russian consolidation of its gains in the eastern Donbas region of the country, the official described Russia’s progress as “halting” on the battlefield and said the combination of the defensive system and the new offensive weapons can reverse battlefield gains for Russia.

The Ukrainian defense official said that once the new systems arrive, they can also help protect Ukrainian forces on the front line.

“These systems are used to create a shield for Ukrainian armed forces who are trying to liberate Ukrainian temporarily occupied lands in the south region,” said Sak.

With the HIMARS, the senior U.S. defense official said Ukraine can continue to degrade Russia’s operational capabilities.

“We’re seeing them having a good deal of success in employing these HIMARS to include things like targeting command posts,” the official said. “This is a capability that enables Ukrainians to be able to target the Russian targets that they need to.”

EUCOM Command Changes Hands at a ‘Hinge in History’

July 1, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli took the lead of U.S. European Command on July 1, succeeding USAF Gen. Tod D. Wolters and facing “a hinge in history,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said. Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has dramatically transformed security on the continent.

The change of command ceremony at Patch Barracks, Germany, was marked by both celebrations and praise for Wolters and Cavoli and references to the historic situation still unfolding.

“Russia’s premeditated malice and baseless aggression against Ukraine [pose] the greatest threat to European security since the end of World War II,” Austin said.

Troops are “standing watch right now during one of the most pivotal and dangerous times in our lifetime,” added Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley.

Cavoli, for his part, also briefly acknowledged the challenging circumstances in which he is taking the job, thanking Austin, Milley, and President Joe Biden for their trust in him.

“I understand just how heavy the responsibilities are at this time in Europe,” Cavoli said. “I will not let you down.”

Wolters praised Cavoli as the perfect person to serve as commander of EUCOM and NATO’s Supreme Allied Commander Europe in this moment.

“When you talk about quicker, smarter, faster, and more capable in the next generation of commander, that is exactly what USEUCOM is getting with Chris,” Wolters said.

He’ll face a dynamic, tense environment from Day 1. The U.S. has upped its presence in Europe to 100,000 troops in recent months, and Biden highlighted a series of force posture movements in a June 29 press conference at the NATO summit in Madrid, Spain. At the same time, NATO has announced plans to expand its Response Force dramatically, from 40,000 to 300,000.

Meanwhile, Russia’s invasion has dragged on, leaving tens of thousands dead and millions as refugees. The U.S. has continued to send billions of dollars worth of military and humanitarian aid to Ukraine, as have dozens of other countries. U.S. European Command’s EUCOM Control Center Ukraine helps to coordinate the logistics of delivering all that aid to the front line inside Ukraine.

All of this comes less than a year after EUCOM shifted rapidly to help with the influx of refugees from Afghanistan in the wake of the U.S. withdrawal from that country. U.S. bases in Europe erected entire “cities” to house the refugees.

Given all those challenges, Milley credited Wolters for “masterfully” leading EUCOM.

“It’s not an exaggeration that Tod Wolters, as the EUCOM commander and as the Supreme Allied Commander Europe, has faced more challenges than any SACEUR since Eisenhower,” Milley added. Later in the ceremony, Milley pinned the Defense Distinguished Service Medal on Wolters.

But while Russian aggression remains the most pressing concern for NATO and Europe, Austin said Cavoli, the former head of U.S. Army Europe and Africa, will also need to consider other challenges.

“Gen. Cavoli is exceptionally well prepared to further strengthen NATO’s posture on the Eastern Flank—and to help forge a truly 21st-century security architecture for Europe. Because NATO, Chris, as you’ve said, ‘cannot be a one-problem alliance,’” Austin said. “And as you’ve also noted, NATO must stay vigilant across 360 degrees—from aggressive behavior from [China] to terrorism to climate change.”

Cavoli’s move to the head of EUCOM is just one of several changes to the top Pentagon leadership positions in Europe in the past few days. Cavoli formally handed over the command of U.S. Army Europe and Africa on June 28 to Gen. Darryl A. Williams, and Gen. James B. Hecker succeeded Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian as head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa on June 27.

Wolters’ retirement leaves two USAF generals as combatant commanders at the moment. Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost leads U.S. Transportation Command, and Gen. Glen D. VanHerck heads U.S. Northern Command. Gen. Anthony J. Cotton has been nominated to take command of U.S. Strategic Command.

F-16 Modernization Sale to Turkey Now Awaits Congress After Biden, DOD Voice Support

July 1, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

The fate of a $6 billion deal with Turkey to modernize its F-16 fleet is in the hands of the U.S. Congress, President Joe Biden said June 30. Biden also denied any “quid pro quo” to incentivize Turkey’s lifting of objections to Finland and Sweden joining the NATO alliance.

“We should sell them the F-16 jets and modernize those jets as well,” Biden said in a press conference following the NATO leaders’ summit in Madrid. “There was no quid pro quo with that—it was just that we should sell. But I need congressional approval to be able to do that, and I think we can get that.”

A day earlier, the Defense Department also signaled its support for Turkey’s modernization effort.

“The U.S. Department of Defense fully supports Turkey’s modernization plans for its F-16 fleet,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs Celeste Wallander said in a June 29 press call.

“These plans are in the works. And, you know, they need to be worked through our contracting processes,” she added. “The United States supports Turkey’s modernization of its fighter fleet because that is a contribution to NATO security and therefore American security.”

News reports have indicated that Turkey is interested in buying 40 Block 70 airplanes and 80 modification kits with a rough value of $6 billion. Turkey has said in the past that it hopes to use the $1.4 billion already invested in the F-35 program, which the country was kicked out of in 2019 when it purchased the S-400 Russian missile defense system.

The new F-16 Viper Block 70 and 80 modernization kits provide advanced electronically scanned array (AESA) radar with a new avionics architecture, structural upgrades to extend aircraft life by 50 percent, new software, and advanced datalink, targeting pod, and weapons, according to Lockheed Martin.

Lockheed Martin referred questions from Air Force Magazine about the F-16 sale to the U.S. government.

The State Department’s office of Foreign Military Sales (FMS) declined to comment to Air Force Magazine on any “potential or pending arms transfers before they are formally notified to Congress.”

FMS, however, provided a statement in support of the U.S.-Turkey defense partnership.

“The United States and Turkey have longstanding and deep bilateral defense ties, and Turkey’s continued NATO interoperability remains a priority,” a State Department official said.

The chair and ranking members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the committee’s press office did not immediately respond to inquiries from Air Force Magazine.

Senate Foreign Relations Committee chair Sen. Bob Menendez previously told Air Force Magazine that he opposed selling Turkey the F-16s in comments following a ceremony to welcome the first two KC-46 refuelers to Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., in November 2021.

“It’s not Turkey—it’s Erdogan,” Menendez said, citing Turkish President Recep Erdogan’s human rights record. “At the end of the day, he needs to change course. We’ve given him off ramps.” Menendez took exception to Turkey’s jailing of lawyers journalists and opposing U.S. interests in Libya and Syria.

Meanwhile, Finland’s and Sweden’s formal approvals to join NATO may hang in the balance if Turkey is not granted any real or perceived requests. Each of NATO’s 30 members must approve the ascension of Finland and Sweden in their domestic parliaments.

An agreement signed in Madrid between the three countries gave Erdogan assurances that concerns about perceived terrorists and terrorism financing by opposition group members residing in Sweden would be addressed.

“First, Sweden and Finland must fulfill their duties, and those are already in the text,” Erdogan said after the NATO summit, according to media reports. “But if they don’t fulfill these, then, of course, there is no way we would send it to our parliament.”

Hybrid Approach to Imaging Advances Space-based ISR

July 1, 2022

Multi-domain intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) is a key tool for counterterrorism and counterinsurgency efforts in the post-9/11 era. But the recent Russian invasion of Ukraine is highlighting new use-cases for ISR as well as the advantages of integrating a hybrid approach – multiple types of ISR imaging satellites – to capture a fuller picture of developing threats.

“The modern threat is more advanced and it’s evolving to the point where we need these satellite-based ISR systems more and more because airborne systems are vulnerable,” said Jason Kim, CEO of Millennium Space Systems. “A wide range of ISR imaging capabilities is more important than ever. With the current conflict in Ukraine as an example, whether ISR is being used for the threat environment or for disaster relief, small satellites bring unique advantages to the table.”

Panchromatic imagery is a pivotal imaging sensor for military defense missions. Kim calls it, “the workhorse of ISR.”

“It supports battlespace awareness, technical intelligence, as well as other non-ISR applications like natural disaster response and humanitarian relief operations,” he said. “Panchromatic imagery provides useful insight into areas of interest, especially with image resolution getting better than ever as the technology advances.”

When used alone, panchromatic imagery has its drawbacks.

“One limitation of high-resolution panchromatic imagery is that as you get higher and higher resolution, your coverage area gets smaller,” Kim said. “This means your ability to look at large swaths of area suffers with higher resolution. Another limitation is that you need daylight and clear weather to get good images.”

But when combined with other types of ISR imagery, those limitations can be overcome.

“When you combine [panchromatic] with other types of imagery, like multispectral and hyperspectral, you can really increase things like spectral resolution and identification and detection of targets, enabling overall better image quality,” Kim said. “Together, these sensors help paint a complete picture of the battlespace and provide continuity of custody for the warfighter so that they never miss anything.”

Hyperspectral imaging, especially, can provide significant advantages for ISR missions.

“Hyperspectral imagery is different because it’s not based on high resolution, it’s breaking each image pixel down into hundreds of adjacent spectral channels,” Kim explained. “You’re not just looking at the spatial 2D image of the target, you get a better contrast from the background and information on the materials of the surface and the elements surrounding the atmosphere. A good example is detecting a methane gas leak.”

Kim says that’s why using multiple types of ISR imagery together is the future of space-based ISR missions.

“With its large swath of coverage, hyperspectral imaging is more of a bellringer in that it can tip and cue the high-resolution panchromatic sensors to look at the specific area warfighters are really interested in,” Kim said. “When hyperspectral is combined with panchromatic, it helps you find targets through camouflage to detect hard-to-find things like landmines by distinguishing between different surfaces. That’s why a hybrid approach of panchromatic and hyperspectral imaging gives you the best of both worlds in terms of capability.”

With a hybrid approach is implemented through a constellation of small satellites, more advantages can be realized through lower costs, e.g., low time latency between image collection and distribution.

“With the conflicts we’re seeing today occurring in large, countryside areas, if you have a ‘soda straw’ type of viewpoint that panchromatic imagers offer, it’s going to be very challenging to synoptically search an entire area in a very timely manner,” Kim said. “This would require a high number of satellite-based panchromatic sensors and that becomes an expensive proposition. But a low-cost constellation of small satellites enables frequent revisit times to refresh technology, keeping ahead of the threats and making coverage more affordable.”

“What makes Millennium different is that we can get more performance out of these hyperspectral imagers because we’re able to bring over two decades of experience supporting national security space missions,” Kim said. “We work very closely with our customers. We listen to them, and we work with them on providing the end-to-end solutions because at the end of the day, they need that data fast to win the mission and we’re able to focus on giving them solutions rapidly and affordably.”

ISR capabilities can be further enhanced with additional imaging sensors like Synthetic Aperture Rader (SAR) and Radio Frequency (RF) sensing.

“Customers need a diverse set of imagery because there is still that day-night weather challenge with panchromatic and even hyperspectral imagery,” Kim said. “The good thing about SAR and RF sensing is they can see and sense through the weather, no matter if it’s day or night and provide that additional capability on top of panchromatic, hyperspectral, and multispectral imagery.”

For current context, Kim points to the long Russian convoy that was based outside of Kyiv, Ukraine for several days.

“[The convoy] was parked on the roads for several days and if there’s no movement, that’s where RF signals could really come into play,” Kim said. “If everything is visibly static but you’re seeing a lot of radio signals, then you’re starting to get information that shows there’s going to be some impending change and movement. That’s an example of how the RF sensing can help.”

Similarly, because SAR relies on radar signals, it can also provide relevant information that isn’t visible with panchromatic, hyperspectral, or multispectral.

“SAR picks up radar signals that are pinging the background and the scenes even through clouds and poor weather,” Kim said. “You can then process that data and turn it into these virtual images and that allows you to look through the cloud cover and gives you that added information that you’re not always getting with the other sensing modalities.”

Using a variety of different sensing modalities to quickly identify areas of interest and to detect potential threats will enable time-critical decisions to be made on tactical timelines.

“Warfighters have to find, fix and track targets to engage and assess in what is called the ‘kill web,’” Kim said. “These ISR modalities are a critical part of that sequence of events and the faster we can do that with higher confidence in quality-assured data, the more you speed up that kill web. Speeding up that timeline for the warfighter will ensure they can perform what they need to do to keep us safe.”