A Plan to Keep the Space Force’s Future AI Safe

May 4, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

The Space Force’s chief technology and innovation officer has an idea for how not to let the military’s artificial intelligence get out of hand.

Lisa Costa’s office focuses on “asymmetric, disruptive technology,” she told members of the press at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., in April. “We’re really looking at leap-ahead capability as opposed to just keeping up.”

The office’s role isn’t to sustain anything, Costa said, but instead to “come up with some of the innovative ideas, get them started.”

Costa predicted that artificial intelligence and machine learning (AI/ML) will become “critically important,” though conceded that so far, “a lot of people talk about it—but have not necessarily implemented it—for space.”

Yet she imagined that the combined experience of the world’s space companies and military space organizations gathered for the expo would ultimately inform AI algorithms.

Consider the facts that the Space Force is the smallest service but has the largest physical domain, Costa said.

“We have to rely on machine learning and AI to be able to focus the attention of our Guardians on the things that are the most important, right? What is normal?” she said, referring to the practice of space domain awareness. “What is behaving as, you know, not expected?”

Assuming that some degree of future military AI was a given, NATO’s Assistant Secretary General for Emerging Security Challenges said upon the publication of NATO’s AI strategy that the allies need to be “early to the party” to “bridge a gap of mistrust” in AI.

“In a situation where regulation comes after the broad misuse of technology,” Van Weel said NATO members need to “make sure that we understand new technologies—not to militarize them, no—but to understand the security and defense implications.”

In an emailed response to questions, Brig. Gen. John M. Olson, the Department of the Air Force’s chief data and AI officer, told Air Force Magazine the department is “carefully assessing areas where we can drive the greatest operational effectiveness or return on investment” in AI.

Olson described how AI could contribute to a resilient space architecture, the No. 1 “operational imperative” of Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall.

“The system of systems, nodes, and elements within an architecture can benefit from the enhanced situational awareness that drives more informed, accurate, and appropriately-optimized responses, plus increased adaptability and improved learning,” Olson said.

“For the Air Force and Space Force in the near-term, our goal is to defend what we have and continue to rapidly evolve and transition to resilient, hybrid, and AI/ML-enhanced system architectures.”

Costa said securing commercially developed AI “would be a great problem to have,” but she also perceives AI’s vulnerabilities and has an idea for how the government could proceed safely.

“I fundamentally believe that we need to protect certain algorithms,” Costa said. “And that starts before acquisition.

Code development environments can be instrumented, Costa said, “so that you know what’s being coded.”

“And when we have vendors that are bidding, we need to have language that says, ‘You will use this DevSecOps environment as a server. We will provide your company with the log-on credentials. You will log on, and you will build those algorithms on our networks.’”

Digital Transformation: A Necessity for Aerospace and Defense

May 4, 2022 | By Dale Tutt

Under pressure to modernize operations, aerospace companies and defense agencies around the world are seeking to transform themselves and their businesses to be faster, more agile, innovative and sustainable – while at the same time, reducing their overall program risk and cost to improve program execution.

Already A&D companies are grappling with modern-day challenges such as how to build existing systems and platforms faster within budget; how to best embrace our current wave of innovation to develop new, highly integrated and connected systems and products faster; the increased integration of mechanical, electrical, electronics and software systems/subsystems into a single platform; and how to better support products once in service or deployed.

The Great Digital Transformation

If the industry is to survive or even thrive in this increasingly challenging environment, it is incumbent upon aerospace companies and defense agencies to digitally transform their operations to be more productive, innovative and collaborative. The key to their business transformation is digital transformation.

Let’s take a look at a few examples.

Electric aircraft startup, Bye Aerospace, has embraced the digital transformation to develop and integrate structural and mechanical systems quickly and more easily, along with creating significant advances in aerodynamics. By implementing a seamless, end-to-end development process, the company benefits from cost savings and improved overall operating performance across the entire product development lifecycle.

Leading aircraft manufacturer, Airbus, has also instituted its own set of digital transformation processes. In the area of electrical/electronic (E/E) systems development, the company will have a highly unified design environment in place for its multi-country development team for engineering and manufacturing of electrical systems and wire harnesses.

We’re also seeing adoption in the defense sector as well.

A good example is the United States Air Force. To fulfill its vision during these times of intense competition and growing program complexity—the USAF decided to fight these head winds by adopting a digital transformation plan. In early 2021, USAF announced plans to use Teamcenter as the foundational system to support modernizing its digital acquisition and sustainment strategies for design, build and repair.

A short time after the USAF announcement, Northrop Grumman, announced that they too would be expanding their use of Siemens Xcelerator to complement their digital initiatives. The company will leverage Xcelerator as part of their technology stack to help manage the digital engineering design process, integrate repositories of program data, seamlessly share product performance, and a whole lot more.

The old saying “time is money” resonates loud and clear in this industry. Nothing is more critical to lowering program costs than reducing cycle time and getting those capabilities into the hands of customers. When Lockheed Martin Aeronautics selected the Xcelerator portfolio for all new and existing programs, the primary driving force was the idea that the company could transform its business with a modern, integrated and open digital solution approach which could reduce program cycle time by greater than 50 percent. The power of the comprehensive digital twin connected with a robust foundation of digital threads enables a robust understanding of the new systems capabilities (and how to produce them), streamlines workflows, and acts as an authoritative source of truth, fostering both transparency and visibility – exactly what companies need to effectively lead their programs.

Whether it’s an agency like the U.S. Air Force, a large OEM like Airbus, or a startup like Bye Aerospace, the goal is the same – to not just bend the cost and schedule curves, but to break them in an era where new aircraft are exponentially more complex. Companies are embracing digital transformation in a way that benefits their unique demands and challenges.

Defining the ‘Digital Transformation’

To successfully complete a digital transformation, aerospace and defense companies—along with their supply chain partners—need to have both a digital twin and digital thread in place. When we talk about a “digital transformation” we’re talking about both a digital twin and multiple digital threads. A comprehensive digital twin enables a company to better predict product performance and production processes by analyzing, simulating and verifying before physical production begins. “Flying it before you build it” can significantly reduce development time and costs and speed delivery of the final product.

Now here’s where it gets interesting, while a digital twin can be set up for just about anything in the engineering or manufacturing disciplines, if it’s not connected or integrated to all phases of product lifecycle development, companies are not realizing the twin’s full potential. In the aerospace and defense sector, we see examples of the digital twin and 3D CAD implementations. But it’s more than just managing 3D CAD – teams need a digital thread that seamlessly connects all aspects of the product twin to other phases of the development and production program for the continuous exchange of data – the automation of data – up and down the product development lifecycle (Figure 1).

Verify on the Fly Siemens — Figure 1: By implementing a digital thread, teams can verify requirements of complex systems faster – and share that information with teams from other product design domains.

With the digital thread, all processes are connected. Customers gain a deeper understanding and greater visibility into all product development phases up and down the value chain.

Digital Transformation and the Future of Manufacturing

Ultimately, if aerospace teams and defense agencies are to succeed in their digital transformation, global collaboration along with the latest tools must be introduced into the production and assembly process. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies will play a key role in the future.

Siemens AR on factory floor — Figure 2: AR on the factory floor – a key component to an end-to-end, model-based enterprise.

VR and AR technologies strengthen the link between the virtual design world and the physical factory floor (Figure 2). With a proper set-up, teams are able to replace 2D drawings and work instructions with 3D augmented reality. This allows users to locate parts using the rich features already available in the 3D models, thus completing an end-to-end, model-based enterprise operating in real time.

Tailored work instructions using AR is another feature of the smart factory. In most situations, work instructions are based on the complexity of the installation; how often the task is performed, or whether the installation has changed since the last time it was completed. With AR tools, teams receive automatic verification notices once the part is installed, and the work is completed. This type of data can be shared across teams and across multiple locations. On the factory floor, this can be implemented via smart wearables freeing up the technician to do other activities simultaneously.

Time to Make the Digital Transformation Part of Your Short-Term and Long-Term Goals

At Siemens, we are committed to the overwhelming success of our aerospace and defense customers whether it’s large established leaders or emerging startups. Our goal is to help our customers achieve their strategic objectives for innovating new products faster with a focus on digitalization and sustainability. Siemens Digital Industries Software offers the broadest solutions for aerospace engineering and manufacturing. And as a trusted A&D partner, and through the power of our Xcelerator portfolio, we enable the further enhancement of automation and collaboration across all domains from engineering to manufacturing to product sustainment.

Considering a digital transformation within your agency or company – at a pace that fits your goals and objectives – is exactly what the industry needs right now. Let’s all join together to build products faster, at less cost, and in the process, create something that’s truly a game-changer.

Dale Tutt is the Vice President of Aerospace and Defense Industry, for Siemens Digital Industries Software. He is responsible for defining the industry strategy for Siemens, leading definition of industry solutions for Aerospace and Defense customers.

Austin: Need to Consider ‘Range of Capabilities’ in Developing Hypersonic Weapons

May 3, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

As the Pentagon continues to aggressively expand its development of hypersonic weapons, officials will need to consider the “range of capabilities” the Defense Department actually needs, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told a congressional panel May 3.

In its 2023 budget request, the DOD included $4.7 billion for the research, development, test, and evaluation of different hypersonics programs, its biggest ask for the technology yet. The budget also outlined plans for the military to field its first hypersonic missiles within the next five years.

Yet while Austin has pushed both DOD and private industry to accelerate development, he also told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee that thought will have to be given to how hypersonics will figure into the broader force.

“What’s important is that we need to consider … the range of capabilities, the mix of capabilities that we’re going to bring on board to support our warfighting concepts,” Austin said. “So hypersonics is an important capability. But there are other things that add to this equation as well.”

Austin’s comments follow those made by Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, who has warned that hypersonic weapons may not always be the most cost-effective or practical solution.

“We have to think about what’s most cost-effective for us … [Hypersonic systems are] very expensive compared to conventional weapons. So we’ve got to look at that very carefully and decide where we need to be in that tradeoff. I don’t think enough work has been done on that,” Kendall said in a January webinar.

Still, Austin expressed his continued support for more hypersonic research and development during the hearing, calling it “important to us,” and offered an endorsement for one effort in particular

SkyRange

A consistent issue in hypersonics development has been limited flight-test infrastructure and ranges, with not enough room or spots available for the various programs seeking to test their technologies.

One of several proposed remedies to that problem is SkyRange, which uses unmanned aircraft to clear the test space and relay telemetry in an effort to do more with the range space already available. The program addresses a “critical throughput shortfall for supporting the number of hypersonic flight tests required, as a sufficient number of existing assets does not exist,” budget documents state. “SkyRange augments existing air, sea, and land test support assets referred to as the ‘string of pearls,’ reducing the high costs associated with traditional flight test support.

In October 2021, the Air Force transferred four retired RQ-4 Global Hawks to Northrop Grumman to repurpose for SkyRange.

Sen. John Hoeven (R-N.D.) represents both Grand Forks Air Force Base, where the RQ-4s came from, and Northrop Grumman’s Grand Sky facility, where the modifications are taking place. And in the May 3 hearing, he took the opportunity to ask both Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley if the Joint Chiefs support SkyRange’s continued development.

“Yes, I do support it. And again, the Air Force will continue to work to make sure that the right capabilities are in place to support that effort,” Austin said, with Milley agreeing.

SkyRange was included in the Office of the Secretary of Defense’s research, development, test, and evaluation budget documents for 2023 as part of the request for the High Speed Systems Test project. The Pentagon is asking for $111 million for the entire project, building off $191 million appropriated in 2022.

In addition to RQ-4s, the program is also using MQ-9s, the budget documents state, and will “demonstrate initial capability” in 2023 and provide support using “telemetry, multispectral imaging, and atmospheric sensing sensor packages.”

Hypersonic Defense

Also during the May 3 hearing, Austin highlighted the importance of not only developing hypersonic weapons but also working on defensive systems to counter hypersonics being developed by the likes of China and Russia.

“In terms of defending ourselves, this is a priority for me, Austin said. “And as soon as we came onboard, I tasked my staff to make sure that we pulled the right elements together to make sure that we were pressing forward rapidly to increase our efforts in developing our defenses against the hypersonic threat. You’ve seen us engage industry on this issue, and we’ll continue to press. You know, we’ve made some progress, but we have a ways to go yet.”

As Number of US Javelins Dwindle, Biden Pushes for More Funding to Replenish Stockpiles

May 3, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

President Joe Biden traveled to the Troy, Ala., Lockheed Martin production facility for Javelin anti-tank weapons to highlight that weapon’s role in helping Ukrainian soldiers push back Russia on the battlefield. Biden is calling for passage of a $33 billion supplemental bill that would begin to replenish American stocks.

“We’re at an inflection point in history,” said Biden, after describing how American firepower defended European democracy during World War II and is now keeping American troops out of another world war. “There’s an ongoing battle in the world between autocracy and democracy.”

Biden said Russian President Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping are bent on changing the world order by force. He called the Russia-Ukraine war “the first real battle … to determine whether that’s going to happen.”

“We built the weapons and equipment and helped defend freedom and sovereignty in Europe years ago. That’s true again today,” the President said.

The United States has already given Ukraine $3.7 billion in assistance since the start of the conflict, including more than 5,500 of the Javelin missiles. But legislators are now worried that American stocks will be depleted and that the U.S.’s ability to defend the homeland may be in danger.

“Our cupboards will be bare,” said Senate Armed Services Committee member Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.) in a statement calling for use of the Defense Production Act, or DPA, to increase the amount and shipment of arms to Ukraine.

“Our latest surge of weapons to Ukraine marks a major challenge to manufacturers,” he said. “America is rapidly depleting its inventories of key arms—needing urgent restocking.”

Blumenthal said one-third of American Javelin missiles have been given to Ukraine, noting that the DPA is needed because at current capacity, producing 1,000 Javelin missiles takes a year.

Biden made only passing reference in Alabama to the potential problem when he called on Congress to pass a $33 billion supplemental budget that would support defensive, humanitarian, and economic assistance to Ukraine for approximately five months and begin to replenish American stocks.

“I urge the Congress to pass this funding quickly to help Ukraine continue to succeed against Russian aggression, just as they did when they won the battle of Kyiv, and to make sure the United States and our allies can replenish our own stocks of weapons, to replace what we’ve sent to Ukraine,” he said.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, in congressional testimony May 3, said it is possible for the U.S. to replace its stocks within a year with the supplemental funds requested.

“It’s not only possible, but we will do that,” Austin said in response to a question from Sen. Roy Blunt (R-Mo.) at a Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee hearing.

“We will always maintain the capability to defend this country and to support our interest,” Austin added.

At his April 26 meeting with more than 40 allies and partners at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Austin spoke with defense ministers from countries giving assistance to Ukraine that do not have large stockpiles of reserves like the United States. Eastern flank NATO defense officials have expressed to Air Force Magazine their concern about giving from their limited stocks. In some cases, the U.S. is believed to have provided assurances to those nations, or facilitated additional protection, such as the temporary deployment of Patriot missile systems to Poland.

“This will help us to not only replenish our stockpiles, but also replace some of the capability that we’ve asked our partners and allies to provide,” Austin said.

In a May 2 Pentagon press briefing, Press Secretary John F. Kirby said the depleting stockpiles are not impacting American readiness.

“With every drawdown package, we make an assessment about the impact on our readiness,” Kirby said. “We can assure the American people that we are more than capable of continuing to defend the homeland, and we look at this with every single package.”

Kirby said that in recent weeks, Austin met with defense production CEOs to talk about production lines and that an entire session at Ramstein was devoted to the defense industrial base across the nations providing assistance to Ukraine.

“We have not seen any negative impact on our ability to defend this nation across a range of military capabilities,” Kirby said. “That is not something we take lightly.”

Greater Threat Doesn’t Necessarily Mean More B-21s Needed: Brown

May 3, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Heightened threats from Russia and China don’t automatically translate to a need for more than 100 B-21 Raiders, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. told the Senate Armed Services Committee on May 3. The service may simply bolster the number of escorts that go with the new bomber to do the long-range strike role, he said.

There is an “ongoing analysis” of how many B-21s the Air Force should ultimately buy, Brown told the SASC, and those are looking at whether to acquire “either more B-21s, or other capabilities that work with the B-21,” he said.

Brown and Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall also fielded questions on inflation’s effect on the Department of the Air Force; the procurement of E-7 Wedgetails to replace AWACS; retirement of some F-22s; lessons learned from Ukraine; and the possibilities of accelerating various programs.

On the B-21s, Brown said the Air Force is “working through crewed and uncrewed collaborative platforms that can work very closely with the B-21, so it may not mean, necessarily, an increased number of B-21s, but additional capability to go with the B-21, as well.”

Kendall has set as one of his seven “operational imperatives” the need to field strategic, unmanned collaborative platforms to be part of the B-21 “family of systems,” which could become available toward the end of the decade.

Brown acknowledged that there will always be some number of B-21s involved with training and maintenance, leaving fewer aircraft available for operational missions. But he said the program “is on track” and USAF will ensure it’s “easier to maintain … to increase aircraft availability.” The service would get the benefit of more aircraft if the ones it has are available more of the time.

Kendall said USAF is “concerned about inflation across the board” and that “our biggest, immediate concern is fuel prices—they’ve gone up substantially.” Kendall said the Air Force will have “about a $2 billion shortfall this year” for fuel “that we’ll have to address through one mechanism or another.”

There’s no way to predict what inflation will be like in 2023, “and we don’t know how different aspects of the economy will be affected,” Kendall said. “So we’re going to need to work with the Congress to make adjustments as we go forward.”

A number of senators criticized the Administration for offering a defense budget that increases at less than the rate of inflation, calling it a defense “cut.”

Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) noted the planned retirement of 33 F-22s in the fiscal 2023 budget and pointed out that the F-22 had originally been sold to Congress as having a service lifetime to 2060. She said she “applauds” the Air Force for “making the tough call” to retire instead of upgrade them, but suggested they had not been properly tested before a commitment to production, and this now contributes to their lesser capability.

She said the F-35 was also bought before being adequately tested and quoted the Government Accountability Office estimate that it will cost $11.7 billion to modify older models to the Block 4 configuration.

“You know where I’m going with this,” Warren said, quoting back to Kendall his onetime assertion that the F-35 was “acquisition malpractice.”

Kendall responded that what he meant at the time was that a production commitment to the F-35 had been made before flight testing had begun, and “It wasn’t a stable design,” he said.

“My rule of thumb for aircraft programs is that you should have about a year of flight testing under your belt—at least—before you commit to production,” a rule that may signal the timeline for programs such as the Next Generation Air Dominance aircraft.

“There’s always this tension, Senator, between people who are anxious to get … that new, wonderful airplane that’s coming out, and they don’t want to wait another two or three years to have you finish the design and then put on the upgrades that are coming,” Kendall asserted.

He added that “almost all of our aircraft evolve over time to respond to the threat.” The F-15 and F-16 have gone through this, and the F-35 “is now going through Technology Refresh 3 and Block 4 … The threat keeps changing.”

With that changing threat, the F-22’s capability has diminished, Kendall said, and it would cost “$50 million apiece” to bring the 33 F-22s being retired up to combat standards—an amount Kendall said would be better applied to new weapons.

Warren said the F-22 and F-35 bear lessons for the NGAD. “It’s largely classified. It may be necessary, but it’s also going to get even less oversight,” she noted “No public reports, less scrutiny from the GAO, the DODIG, and from the press, and this lack of transparency that we’ve already seen fail us becomes an even riskier process.”

Seeking a ‘Grand Bargain’

Chairman Jack Reed (D-R.I.) noted that the Air Force plans to acquire the E-7 Wedgetail sole-source from Boeing, and given that, asked about a way to “get the aircraft faster” by executing a “grand bargain” along with other countries, such the U.K., that are already signed up to buy it.

“We are exploring options to try to do that [but] it’s not clear” that it can be done, Kendall said. He admitted it is likely to be no less than four years to buy the Wedgetail, because “we’re buying new commercial airplanes and then modifying them” to the Wedgetail configuration.

“Getting the airplanes is about a two-year process, and then modifying them is another two-year process,” he said. It might be possible to “get access to aircraft earlier,” and there may be “ways to reduce risk and make that schedule.” Kendall said he’d work with the committee on the issue because “getting the aircraft quicker is something we all want.”

The Wedgetail uses the fuselage and wings from the 737-700 and the landing gear from the 737-800, creating a hybrid aircraft.

Lessons from Ukraine

Asked what lessons can be learned from the conflict in Ukraine—and whether Russia’s heavy loss of aircraft and armored vehicles indicates that those platforms are obsolete—Kendall said it highlights the criticality of “sophisticated” aircraft and the need to overcome ground-based air defenses.

“Control of the air is critical to military success. And the failure of the Russian military to gain control of the air is a major contributor to the difficulties they’re having,” Kendall said.

“On the other side of the equation, the Ukrainians have used the air defense systems that they have quite well. They’ve been able to keep them survivable against the threat, which I think says as much about the lack of capability of the Russians as it does about the capability of the Ukrainians. So, you may need to be careful about learning too many lessons from this until we really study it carefully,” Kendall asserted.

The conflict thus far has “reinforced my views about the importance of airpower, … but airpower must be sophisticated enough to deal with the threats that it faces, including ground-based air defenses like the ones the Ukrainians are employing,” Kendall said.

Asked for his perspective, Brown said, “Air superiority cannot be taken for granted.” A successful air force must be able to defend against air-to-air as well as surface-to-air threats, and “that’s what we, as the United States Air Force, are focused on, [making] sure we have the capability to do both, and train to that as well.”

Brown couldn’t say why Ukraine is not flying all its aircraft and suggested that Ukraine may be holding some in reserve to deter Russian air attacks.

Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, chief of space operations, said the war in Ukraine shows “the character of war has changed … This war shows the value of space providing information” to the defenders “as well as the value of commercial capabilities in intelligence being able to share information broadly … and shape the gray zone operations.”

Kendall said none of the lessons learned from Ukraine would suggest the Air Force has been precipitate in retiring the KC-10, and Brown noted that the KC-46 was in Europe for five weeks, and Airmen were “pleased” with how it did “in a deployed environment.”

Brown said USAF has “come to an agreement with Boeing” on the Remote Vision System, that “in about a year” the process of converting the aircraft to RVS 2.0 should begin.

He also said “we’re about eight airplanes away” from full certification of the KC-46 with all the types it needs to be able to refuel. Other issues with the airplane are “being worked out.”

On munitions, Kendall said that although the Air Force is buying only 88 Long Range Anti-Ship Missiles—a variant of the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile—the LRASM is “not the only anti-ship missile” the service is buying and that USAF will “definitely need more anti-ship capability going forward.”

The AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) hypersonic missile “has to have some success before we can go into production,” Kendall said, noting that the missile has “had some test failures.” And while engineers learn from failure, he doesn’t want to commit to production until the missile demonstrates it can work, he said.

“There are two tests that are planned over the next several months,” he reported, and those should indicate the health “and where we are” in the program, he said.

Calvelli to Be Sworn In as First Space Acquisition Chief This Week

May 3, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Frank Calvelli will officially take his place as the first assistant secretary of the Air Force for space acquisition and integration later this week. In the newly created position, confirmed by the Senate on April 28, Calvelli will work to streamline decisions the Space Force requires to catch up with the heavy spending of space adversary China.

Calvelli brings deep public- and private sector-space experience to the new organization, Secretary of the Air Force, Space Acquisition and Integration, or SAF/SQ.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall released a message via Twitter when Calvelli was confirmed, noting the “long-awaited Senate confirmation.”

“Frank’s experience and leadership will be invaluable to putting meaningful military capabilities into the hands of U.S. Space Force Guardians and developing the space-based capabilities that enable and protect our partners across the Joint Force,” Kendall said, according to the Office of the Secretary of the Air Force’s official page.

The new position reflects Kendall’s effort to speed up decision-making to get weapons into the hands of war fighters. In his February nomination hearing, Calvelli said he would bring his 30 years of experience at the National Reconnaissance Office, including eight as its principal deputy director, to “drive speed” into the acquisitions process.

“We are at a critical juncture for our defense space architecture, and there is a real sense of urgency,” he said. “The nation needs to outpace its adversaries and maintain the technological advantage we get from space.”

Calvelli’s position was created by Congress more than two years ago, but he said he would make up for lost time.

He also described the role he intended to play moving the force toward a more resilient space architecture, to include: taking advantage of diverse orbits, adding new technical capabilities, using smaller, more proliferated satellites, improving space situational awareness, rapid reconstitution, and integrating commercial capabilities.

Calvelli will take over for interim acquisitions chief Brig. Gen. Steven P. Whitney, whose had served in the role since August 2021.

Biden Nominates Army’s Cavoli to Be New EUCOM, NATO Commander

May 3, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

President Joe Biden has nominated Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli to become the new commander of U.S. European Command and Supreme Allied Commander Europe, the Defense Department announced May 3.

If confirmed, Cavoli would replace Air Force Gen. Tod D. Wolters. That transition will be especially critical as Europe and NATO deal with the fallout of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, one of the continent’s biggest security crises since World War II.

Cavoli speaks Russian and has served as the Joint Staff’s director of Russia for and as a foreign aArea officer with a concentration on Eurasia. He currently serves as commander of U.S. Army Europe-Africa, overseeing more than 60,000 Soldiers, though that number has grown recently with new U.S. deployments to Europe to bolster NATO’s eastern flank and to provide deterrence against Russian aggression.

Starting in January 2018, Cavoli assumed command of U.S. Army Europe until October 2020, when he took over the newly consolidated U.S. Army Europe-Africa. Cavoli has also served as commander of the 25th Infantry Division, the 7th Army Training Command, a batallion, and an infantry brigade combat team.

Wolters confirmed in a March 29 hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that he would be stepping down in the near future after taking command in May 2019. News of Cavoli’s nomination was first reported by the Wall Street Journal in April but not officially announced for several weeks.

With a dynamic situation still unfolding, European force structure could look far different in the coming months and years. Already, Germany and Italy have pledged to boost their defense spending dramatically, while Sweden and Finland are moving quickly to potentially join NATO.

At the same time, the Pentagon has emphasized that Russia remains an “acute” threat, and some fear that Russian President Vladimir Putin may resort to biological, chemical, or even nuclear weapons in his war against Ukraine, which has dragged on far longer than expected and is becoming increasingly brutal.

Against this backdrop, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III recently visited Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to host 40 other nations for the Ukraine Defense Consultative Workshop, dedicated to better coordinating the rapid transfer of weapons to Ukraine and considering the country’s future defense needs against Russia.

The U.S. alone has delivered billions of dollars worth of lethal aid to Ukraine in the form of millions of rounds of ammunition and a long list of weapons including anti-tank Javelin and anti-air Stinger missiles, with billions more likely on the way. If confirmed, Cavoli will have to help oversee a massive logistical effort to deliver that aid to Ukraine.

With Wolters’ upcoming departure, two Air Force generals will be left among the 11 combatant commanders—Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, head of U.S. Northern Command; and Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, head of U.S. Transportation Command.

In Time for Fire Season, Meet TAK, the US Govt.’s Suite of Free Situational Awareness Apps

May 3, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

A U.S. government-built app for situational awareness is bringing wildland firefighting into the internet age.

Originating as a product of the Air Force Research Laboratory aimed at improving the precision of close air support, Air Force units have adopted the military’s version of TAK—Tactical Assault Kit—for improving the precision of other activities, such as parachute jumps.

Meanwhile, the free downloads and plugin architecture of TAK’s civilian version—Team Awareness Kit—are giving firefighters, among others, the ability to layer real-time information over satellite images. They can track the locations of team members, vehicles, fires, and a potentially unlimited array of factors to help guide first responders in an emergency.

AFRL still has an office supporting TAK along with a practical reason for wanting more civilian first responders to adopt the app: “Because we want to have everybody on the same page,” said Ralph Kohler, an AFRL principal engineer who promotes TAK to agencies and departments inside and outside the federal government.

Released for Apple iOS earlier in April, the TAK smartphone apps were already running on Android and Microsoft mobile platforms before going live on the Apple App Store.

TAK grew out of the problem of fratricide in close air support, which became apparent in Afghanistan in 2001 when a U.S. service member called in an air strike on his own location—a mistake that occurred after he changed the batteries in his GPS device.

“The number that came up was his position, when he replaced the batteries, not the position he had worked up where he wanted the bomb to be,” Kohler said.

The explosion killed three U.S. troops and five Afghan fighters and injured then-transitional Afghan government leader Hamid Karzai, among dozens of others.

The mistake came down to having “insufficient technology to plot coordinates on a map,” explained Ryan McLean, director of the TAK Product Center at Fort Belvoir, Va.

“So a lot of efforts kicked off out of that,” McLean said. “One of the things that shook out of those problem-solving efforts was through the Air Force Research Laboratory—something called Android Map—which became TAK, which has now become this family of products.”

Locations of interagency resources tracked on the Tamarack Fire in California and Nevada in 2001, viewed in the iTAK app, which is the iOS version of TAK (Team Awareness Kit). Department of Homeland Security illustration.

Akin to one of the Air Force’s software factories, McLean described the TAK Product Center as “a unique organization in the U.S. government” that isn’t funded by any one department but collectively by multiple federal agencies. TAK merged with other apps along the way, and the TAK Product Center has incrementally improved TAK and aspires to achieve “TAK continuous delivery.”

TAK works for fighting wildfires for the same reason it works for close air support, McLean said. Both call for “friendly force identification and target correlation.”

“If you can do those two things, you can do close air support in the military. If you can do those two things, you can also do a lot of other things.

“We can add all these great features—plugins, radios, some pretty novel stuff with geospatial data, open interfaces, open source, all that—but at the end of the day, it’s a capability for friendly force identification and target correlation.”

TAK’s 250,000 users work for local, state, and federal agencies, including 18 DOD and other federal programs of record, with some foreign military sales.

“We’ve all been just absolutely amazed by the combination of friendly force identification/target correlation, with open source [code], with a usable interface. Those three things came together at the right time, and now we’ve seen TAK proliferate and become this massive ecosystem that it is,” McLean said.

The Air Force could find that TAK benefits its part-time Airmen in addition to their Active-duty counterparts. Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks said in remarks at the Worldwide Logistics Symposium 2022 that the number of personnel days the National Guard spends firefighting has gone up from just 14,000 to more than 176,000.

Firefighting

Back at the fire station, with good internet, firefighters can call up information on wildfires burning all around the U.S.

“We can see perimeters. We can see satellite heat detections. We have this wealth of knowledge,” said Brad Schmidt of the Colorado Center of Excellence in Advanced Technology Aerial Firefighting. Schmidt is the center’s wildland fire project manager.

“The part that’s kind of unbelievable in the year 2022 is that when you actually get out onto the fire line … all that intelligence really goes out the window, and we end up relying solely on our walkie-talkie voice radios to communicate with each other and figure out where people are,” Schmidt said.

TAK, on the other hand, can import the shape of a fire, mapped by airplane, and display it along with the positions of the personnel. An example of a plugin add-on, which is in development by Schmidt’s center and the U.S. Forest Service, maps the shape of a smaller fire as a firefighter circles the perimeter, potentially on foot, with a smartphone.

The Corona Fire Department in the city of Corona, in Southern California, borders the Cleveland National Forest. Through mutual aid with the U.S. Forest Service, the local department may be the first to respond to a fire within the U.S. jurisdiction, said Fire Chief Andreas “AJ” Johansson.

“That initial assay of ‘where’s that fire’—that incident commander, that’s what they want to know. ‘How far over the ridge is it?’ If we don’t have an aircraft or a sensor to give us that from a UAS, it’s boots on the ground that will be doing it, so that plugin—we’re getting ready to train our folks on it here pretty soon,” Johansson said. “They are very excited about just the simplicity that Brad has built into this plugin. It really makes it like two clicks to start mapping.”

As a local leader, Johansson appreciates the freedom to freely download TAK, and even to inexpensively add a new feature, without having “to go to a board of a directors for a product that you subscribe to or pay for and say, ‘I need this.’” Because TAK’s code is open source, any department could hire a developer to build a new plugin.

The familiar platforms keep development costs low, said AFRL’s Kohler. “That model has really helped us get a common baseline and get everybody on the same page.”

Getting everyone in sync has included users overseas.

“We’ve integrated with radios in Europe recently to help our European partners, and those integrations are very small efforts,” McLean said. “It doesn’t take a program office budgeting two or three years for that to happen. We can do that very quickly.”

The Future

Colorado’s center for high-tech aerial firefighting envisions a version of TAK to run on augmented reality headsets for aircraft crews who supervise firefighting from above, Schmidt said.

“They kind of have a two-fold job,” he said. “One is to coordinate the whole firefight—get on the radio with dispatch, order resources, talk to the firefighters on the ground, make sure they’re safe, and help them do their job.

“And their other function is to coordinate all the other aircraft that are coming in to actually attack the fire. So all the bigger planes that are dropping fire retardants, all the helicopters that are dropping water, they coordinate that—they do it all—with voice radios.”

Augmented reality goggles, on the other hand, could allow someone “to look out the cockpit with these goggles and see annotated, in their field of view, where people are on the ground,” Schmidt said.

That new degree of awareness—simply on a screen, for now—sums up TAK’s value proposition. As AFRL’s Kohler put it:

“When you know where everybody is, you can figure out what to do.”

Tyndall and Offutt Rebuilds Need More Funds; Projected End Date in 2027-’28

May 2, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

It has been more than three years since Tyndall and Offutt Air Force Bases were devastated by natural disasters just a few months apart—and the rebuilding process will still take years to come, lasting most of the 2020s, a top Air Force official told Congress.

And while the Air Force has already received $5.3 billion in 2020 to rebuild the bases, the service will need more funds in fiscal 2023 and 2024, Brig. Gen. William H. Kale III, the Air Force director of civil engineers, told the House Appropriations military construction and veterans affairs subcommittee April 28.

Kale’s update on the rebuilding process came in response to questions from Rep. John Carter (R-Texas), the subcommittee’s ranking member, who noted that as part of its 2023 unfunded priority list, the Air Force included $286 million for natural disaster recovery at Tyndall, Offutt, and Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va.

“Yes, we do need more funding in [fiscal year] ’23. That amount is included in our unfunded priority list. … And as of right now, the way the market is working and how things are going, I suspect that we will also need some money in FY ’24 for that,” Kale told Carter. “I can’t give you an exact amount right now on that.”

Carter also asked Kale for an updated timeline on when all projects related to the recovery at the two bases would be finished, “so we all can have a party.” Kale put that projected end date in the “FY ’27- ’28 timeframe as when everything will be done program-wise.”

Lengthy timelines and rising costs are not new to the process, given the widespread destruction caused by Hurricane Michael at Tyndall and flooding at Offutt. Initial estimates for rebuilding Tyndall jumped from $3 billion to $3.6 billion, with a projected timeline of up to a decade. Meanwhile, Offutt’s cost estimates started at $650 million and are now topping $1.1 billion, with the projected end date slipping from 2024 to 2027.

Kale’s timeline is largely in line with the latest estimates, which could mean a decade-long recovery process for both bases.

However, the need for more funds to be appropriated by Congress is also running up against a military construction budget that is slated to shrink in 2023, as evidenced by the natural disaster recovery money getting pushed to the unfunded priorities list.

On top of that, what money is in the $2.26 billion MILCON budget request is mostly dedicated to the beddown or support of new weapon systems. The biggest chunk of that is for the LGM-35A Sentinel, or as it was called until recently, the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent.

All told, the Air Force is seeking $444 million in military construction for the Sentinel in 2023, and up to $2 billion in the next five years, Carter said. Acting Assistant Secretary for Installations, Environment, and Energy Edwin H. Oshiba acknowledged that it “is a big, humongous project.”

However, Oshiba said the MILCON projects for Sentinel are on track and proceeding in lockstep with the development of the weapon system itself. Still, even with the focus on the new system in the budget, there is potential for delays, Kale warned.

“The two things I’m most worried about [are] No. 1, you know, when we have delays with [continuing resolutions], that can have a huge impact to this program, in particular, and we would ask to work with the committee here for help on that,” Kale said. “And then No. 2, this is a very highly technical and complex program, and there will be times where we are going to have potential cost implications, and with the reprogramming limits at $2 million and such a low percentage, that can add a significant time increase to that program.”

Such reprogramming limits have caused issues in the past, including for the natural disaster recovery efforts that are still ongoing, Kale noted.