US Patriot Air Defense Systems in Poland Protect Aircraft Delivering Supplies for Ukraine

April 14, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

RZESZOW, Poland—Just 62 miles from the Ukrainian border in Southeast Poland, a small regional airport has been converted to an international logistics hub where aircraft deliver defense and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine. It is protected by American air defense systems.

Military and cargo aircraft from the United States and across Europe land, unload, and take off in quick succession here. Ukrainian registered cargo and military trucks line the gate waiting for their load, passing American Soldiers stationed next to Humvees. Then, they promptly stream down a nearby highway, over a hill, and out of sight in the direction of the Krakovets, Ukraine border crossing.

After Moscow promised to target defense assistance to Ukraine, the United States established an array of anti-aircraft, anti-missile systems, including Patriots, in Poland to protect this vital airfield and cargo transfer center. Camouflage netting covers command-and-control points scattered throughout. Even miles away, military equipment is strategically positioned on hilltops.

“It’s balanced risk,” Polish Chief of the Air Force Directorate Brig. Gen. Ireneusz Nowak told Air Force Magazine by videoconference from Warsaw.

“We are constantly at the edge of NATO, so we have this awareness that we face a full-scale threat from the Northeast,” he said, referring to Russia’s military positions in Kaliningrad and Belarus. “We cannot afford the situation [of] Ukraine losing the war.”

Russia’s heavily fortified ex-clave of Kaliningrad is situated between Poland and Lithuania on the Baltic Sea.

There, Russia possesses a heavily fortified sliver of land, complete with advanced anti-access/aerial-denial S-400 systems that force Poland to fly daily within an A2/AD bubble.

On Poland’s eastern border is Belarus, which has allowed Russia to position its troops and equipment within its borders to mount an invasion. Should Russia take Ukraine, almost all of Poland’s eastern border save the 68-mile “Suwalki Gap” that connects Poland to the Baltic countries, would be in Russian control.

“If you imagine a situation [where] Ukraine were to lose this war, that would be very dangerous for us and for all of NATO because in that case, Russia would be closer,” Nowak said.

That’s why Poland is hosting an important defense logistics hub for Ukraine.

“The airfield in Rzeszow, located in Southeast Poland, is currently the hub for defense or humanitarian aid to Ukraine,” said Nowak.

On a recent sunny day, a C-130 cargo plane from the Turkish Air Force could be seen on the runway at Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport. As it unloaded, an Antonov An-12 run by the Ukrainian charter cargo company Cavok Air landed and pulled up next to it, departing within the hour.

The same afternoon, a C-130 bearing the red-white colors of Poland on its tail also landed and departed within an hour. So, too, did a British C-130, landing and departing within 30 minutes. A Ukraine International commercial jet also landed and parked alongside the military aircraft.

While no U.S. aircraft were spotted in a four-hour afternoon period at the airfield on April 12, Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said “roughly eight to 10” flights full of supplies and equipment for Ukraine, including advanced air defense and anti-tank weapons, arrive to Eastern Europe each day.

Although Nowak considers the possibility of a Russian strike on NATO soil targeting the defense logistics hub to be “low,” protecting against the possibility is necessary, he said.

Still, commercial flights come and go, and life in the city of Rzeszow carries on. The only signs of nearby war are the full hotels and shows of solidarity: Ukrainian and Polish flags flying side by side, yellow and blue ribbons fastened on the jackets of businessmen.

“In the most pessimistic scenarios, yes, they can strike us. That’s why we build this whole defense system over, I would say, vital points here in Poland,” Nowak said.

Poland received foreign military sales approval to purchase its own Patriots in 2017 but deliveries are not expected until later this year.

“The U.S. Air Force and the U.S. Army actually jumped in, and they brought Patriots to Poland,” said Nowak. “This place is actually very well protected.”

On March 25, President Joe Biden touched down at Rzeszów–Jasionka Airport, meeting with 82nd Airborne Division troops at the nearby G2A Arena. He praised humanitarian efforts and Poland’s acceptance of more than 2 million refugees from Ukraine.

Nowak said each time Russia has threatened, the U.S. Air Force has been the first to support Poland.

In 2014, after Russia invaded Crimea, some 200 miles from NATO’s shores, a U.S. Air Force A-10 squadron was the first unit to arrive.

“Even then, in 2014, eight years ago, we had this strong impression that the U.S. Air Force is a very reliable ally for us, the Polish Air Force,” he said.

On Feb. 10, two weeks before Russia’s invasion of of Ukraine, the 48th Fighter Squadron’s F-15Cs and F-15Ds from RAF Lakenheath, U.K., deployed to Poland’s central Lask Air Base to conduct enhanced Air Policing mission. The Air Force continues to rotate fighter aircraft through Polish Air Bases to conduct air policing.

“Nowadays, it’s an even stronger action from the U.S. Air Force,” Nowak said. “They support us, no matter what, no matter what the situation is, no matter what the risk is, and they show up as the first and they stay as required.”

What, Exactly, Is ‘Airmen’s Time’? The New Initiative, Explained

April 14, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

A new initiative announced by Air Force leadership this week is aimed at leadership development and unit cohesion—and thus far, it has drawn mixed reactions on social media.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass took to Facebook on April 12 to release a memo detailing “Airmen’s Time.”

“The intent of Airmen’s Time is to create a safe space, be present, and ensure that our Air Force culture invites healthy conversation for every Airman,” states the memo, which is signed by Bass and Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.

The effort dovetails with the Air Force’s overhaul of how it develops its enlisted force. Under the new Enlisted Force Development Action Plan, released in January, the service aims to revise its “Little Blue Book” of Air Force Core Values and its “Little Brown Book” defining the enlisted force structure. The service also introduced “Airman Leadership Qualities,” new standards for assessing both enlisted and officers.

“Airmen’s Time” will further those efforts by pushing leaders to engage with their Airmen and help “elevate connection, growth, and enhance the well-being of individual Airmen while building unity within our teams,” the memo states.

“The concept of ‘Airmen’s Time’ certainly isn’t new—many units have been doing it for years,” Bass said in a statement provided to Air Force Magazine. “This memo is meant as a call to action for our leaders to ensure we are devoting the time needed to help deliberately develop our Airmen.”

What exactly that will look like, however, is going to be up to unit-level commanders.

“The ‘Airman’s Time’ initiative is part of our push to deliberately develop our Airmen, build that Airman of 2030 and beyond,” Master Sgt. Jarad A. Denton, public affairs advisor to the CMSAF, told Air Force Magazine. “And so as we’re deliberately developing our people, the team that’s working on that identified that, ‘Hey, we can’t just push out things saying, develop people here, do this, follow this program.’ You have to build leaders by allowing them to lead and ‘Airman’s Time’ is a way of doing that.”

That open-endedness has been the source of frustration for some Airmen—in particular, posters on the Air Force’s unofficial Reddit page have written more than 500 comments about the memo, the vast majority of them expressing confusion as to what “Airmen’s Time” will actually entail.

“I have no idea what it is [Bass] is asking us to do,” one of the top comments reads.

However, the lack of precisely defined expectations and tasks was intentional, meant to allow lower-level leaders to decide what is best for their teams, according to Denton.

“The thought process behind it goes back to … leaving it up to those leaders at unit levels at all the different levels throughout the organization, to really use this initiative as a way to define what their culture in that unit is going to look like, how they deliberately develop their Airmen to best get after the individual missions that they have to accomplish,” Denton said. “So that’s why it’s not a prescriptive program out of the Pentagon. It’s really kind of going back to that initiative to empower our leaders to actually help develop our Airmen into what we need from them.”

Asked for examples of what “Airmen’s Time” could look like for individual units, Denton indicated that it could be informal if commanders decide that is best.

“Some organizations have their own formalized programs. Some have initiatives,” Denton said. “But it can be as simple as a conversation under the wing of an aircraft on the flight line, saying, ‘Hey, we got a little bit of time in between jobs. Let’s chat about something. Let’s chat about your development. Let’s chat about the direction the Air Force is going in. Let’s chat about any of these things.’ So it doesn’t have to be ‘Hey, let’s all come together and sit down.’ Unless that is what would work best for that unit.”

On Facebook, more than 400 comments have been logged on Bass’ post sharing the memo, many of them providing examples of units that have already started programs or efforts to boost morale and team-building.

“At the [55th Medical Group] we have implemented wingman Wednesdays, first and third Wednesday, where we hang out and get to know one another,” one commenter wrote. “Also, implemented in the flight I work we do flight lunches every Friday.”

It’s examples like that, Denton said, to which those who are confused by the idea should look to understand what “Airmen’s Time” can be.

“It falls on those units to find out what’s best going to work for them, and what level of accountability they want to have with this,” Denton said.

Bass, however, expressed confidence in “Airmen’s Time” taking root.

“As with any new initiative, there are going to be innovators, early adopters, the early and late majority, and laggards,” Bass said in a statement. “Right now, the feedback has been largely positive, but these things take time to implement at all levels. I would ask that Airmen look at this memo as one step in a larger process toward building the Air Force we need in 2030 and beyond.”

Brown: Aircraft Planned for Divestment Likely Wouldn’t Go to War Anyway

April 13, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The 250 aircraft the Air Force is seeking to divest in fiscal 2023—with potentially a net 1,000 coming out of the inventory over the five-year defense plan—are largely airplanes the service considers obsolete for air combat and wouldn’t take to war anyway, said Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown, Jr.

In a roundtable discussion with defense reporters, Brown characterized the fiscal 2023 budget as the second bite at his “accelerate change or lose” approach to transitioning the Air Force to the capabilities it will need in the future.

Brown said “raw numbers” of aircraft don’t tell the whole story. He needs to push the aircraft inventory from war-irrelevant systems to ones that will be war-winning in the future. However, he acknowledged the near-term risk against a backdrop of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and China’s increasingly threatening posture toward Taiwan. “We all feel a bit of discomfort” about it, he said.

Brown said he appreciates that Congress, in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, allowed the retirement of “some things we had not been able” to divest previously, with the notable exception of the A-10, but said there’s much more to do.

When asked if USAF would refuse to send the aircraft it’s asking to divest to war, Brown said, “To an extent, yeah.”

It’s a “transition” he said, because “you’re going to have to maintain some level of capacity and capability” in the near-term while preparing for the future.

“The capability we have today, is not … the capability we’re going to need in the future, vis a vis the threat,” Brown said. If “you hang on to all the capability we have today, you’re not going to be better in the future.”

The 2023 budget is carefully constructed to have enough capacity to take on near-term scenarios while building toward a future force that can meet all comers, Brown said. Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has characterized the requested retirements as being the billpayers for the research and development of future capabilities, like the Next-Generation Air Dominance (NGAD) program and related systems.

The Air Force would only buy 57 fighters in the 2023 budget proposal, but has said in recent years that it must buy 72 fighters annually to keep the fighter fleet from aging beyond its current average of 29 years.

Asked if 72 is still the goal, Brown said the Air Force must find the funds for the “once-in-a-generation” recapitalization of the nuclear command and control system and the “two-thirds” of the nuclear triad the Air Force is responsible for. He didn’t say how long USAF will tap the fighter accounts to pay for nuclear modernization.

Of USAF’s “4+1” fighter scheme for the next 15 years or so, Brown said he’s anxious to retire the “+1”, which is the A-10, because it lacks the survivability needed to make a contribution to a war with a peer adversary, and it consumes resources—people and funds—that could be used to accelerate bringing on needed new systems.

“I’m focused on aircraft with multirole capabilities,” he said, and the A-10 doesn’t meet that test.

Brown defended the acquisition of the F-15EX, saying its avionics and other improvements put it ”in some ways … on a par with fifth-generation” fighters, providing near-term fighting capacity and a useful “bomb truck” able of carrying many weapons and oversize munitions. He indicated that the F-15EX alone among the current fighter fleet will be capable of carrying the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile, or HACM, and shouldn’t be discounted simply because it has “a fourth-generation outer mold line.”

Brown said the NGAD and a new “B-21 family of systems” will likely have uncrewed escorts that will carry additional munitions and perform electronic jamming.

He has upped his engagements with members of Congress, trying to convince them that the Air Force’s strategy is the right one and the near-term reductions in the force are a necessary but worthwhile investment. Experience has shown, he said, that presenting Congress with a “take it or leave it” plan will not work, and USAF must be flexible enough to “work with” lawmakers to smooth the transition.

Giving members “a better idea of where I’m coming from” was largely successful in getting needed divestments in the 2022 budget, he said, and he plans to maintain the pace of engagement this year, with attention to the issues that have been “of interest” to them in the past, Brown said.

Eielson Days Away from Achieving Full Complement of F-35s

April 13, 2022 | By Amy Hudson

Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, will receive its final two F-35 strike fighters in the coming days, making it the Air Force’s second fully-equipped combat-coded F-35 wing and the first for Pacific Air Forces.

Once the beddown is complete, Eielson will have a total of 54 strike fighters in two squadrons. Eleventh Air Force Commander Lt. Gen. David A. Krumm told Air Force Magazine that when combined with the two squadrons of F-22s at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska will have more operational fifth-generation assets than anywhere else in the world.

Krumm channeled Gen. William “Billy” Mitchell’s prescient 1935 comment to Congress: “Whoever holds Alaska will hold the world.” The line is drummed into every Airmen and Guardian assigned there, and it is often quoted by senior Air Force leaders. From the two major Air Force bases in Alaska, USAF fighters are within an eight-hour sortie to any place in the northern hemisphere, Krumm noted. And, the massive Joint Pacific Alaskan Range Complex, which is roughly the size of Indiana, also provides unique training space, allowing crews to “fully test out those fifth-generation capabilities,” he added.

“It’s a synergy of being able to organize, train, and equip in a place that few others can replicate along with the ability to then go to the sound of gunfire wherever we’re needed,” Krumm said.

Three more F-35As are delivered to the 354th Fighter Wing at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, on March 29, 2022. The wing needs two more aircraft to complete its beddown of 54 strike fighters. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman 1st Class Jose Miguel T. Tamondong

Acclimating to the Arctic

The Air Force selected Eielson to be home to the first operational overseas F-35s in 2016 and the 354th Fighter Wing accepted the first two aircraft in April 2020.

“We’ve stood up our F-35s here an order of magnitude faster and more aggressively than any other F-35 base. And, we’ve done it at 50 below” zero, 354th FW commander Col. David J. Berkland told Air Force Magazine during a March visit to Eielson. “There’s a certain pride of doing things up here in the extreme Arctic environment” that motivates Airmen.

To prepare for the fighters, the Air Force spent $600 million on 39 military construction projects at Eielson, to include individual heated shelters to protect the aircraft and aircrew from the elements. With temperatures regularly dipping well below zero, aircraft parked outside won’t function properly, and maintainers can’t work on them outside most of the year without risk of frostbite. Berkland compared the shelters to a hospital operating room.

“Our maintainers take great pride in those facilities,” he said. “And with these airplanes being stealth, everything on them is just pristine. And the maintainers make sure it stays that way.”

Even after the last aircraft arrive, however, it will take some time before the service declares initial operational capability.

“The stand-up and the buildup, I would argue, is still definitely ongoing,” said Lt. Col. Samuel Chipman, commander of the 355th Fighter Squadron, which will receive the final two aircraft this month. “The F-35 community, if you look at it and compare it to the F-16 community or the A-10 community, has definitely not matured yet. There is not enough experience to go around … For instance, a lot of my guys are young captains. They are extremely motivated and extremely focused on what they do when it comes to the mission, [but] they are still extremely inexperienced.”

Chipman acknowledged the squadron’s 33-percent experience rate is “extremely low,” saying he’d love to have it above 50 percent, and preferably close to 75 percent. “It’s a little bit of a heavy lift right now, because we’re literally building both an F-35 squadron and [we’re] also building the F-35 community at the same time,” added Chipman, who served as the director of operations for the 356th Fighter Squadron as it was bedding down its Lightning IIs, before moving across the street to lead the 355th. “[The] good news is, they’re not conflicting with each other.”

He often tells his pilots, that if they can fly out of Eielson, which is located about 100 miles from the Arctic circle, they can fly anywhere in the world.

“It’s nothing for us to land on a snow-covered runway. It’s nothing for us to apply the brakes on this aircraft, either taxiing or on rollout from landing,” and not get a response. “That is a normal thing here and we pride ourselves” on being able to handle it, he said.

Learning to operate in such an environment takes practice, which is part part of the reason the wing’s operational tempo is so high. Berkland said the 354th Fighter Wing flies 44 F-35 training sorties a day, plus another 14 daily lines with its F-16 Aggressors. Both F-35 squadrons have already deployed with the jets: the 356th Fighter Squadron went to Exercise Cope North at Andersen Air Fore Base, Guam, in 2021, while the 355th recently returned from its own deployment to Guam.

“It’s awesome to be able to have that kind of communication, which is really key,” noted Chipman. “Although we’re separated by buildings and a roadway, we definitely … stay in touch and we make sure that lessons learned are getting passed.”

Part 1: Q&A with Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom on the Future Fighter Fleet

April 13, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie and Tobias Naegele

Air Force Magazine Editor in Chief Tobias Naegele and Pentagon Editor Abraham Mahshie sat down with Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, Air Force deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, for an exclusive interview that touched on everything from the the Next-Generation Air Dominance platform to the Air Force’s plans to replace the aging AWACS fleet.

This is part one of that interview, which has been edited for length and clarity.

Lt. Gen. David Nahom: Even though there’s a lot of money at play, these are resource challenge times. … There [are] some significant investment items the Air Force has to make, and we have some significant things weighing us down, No. 1 of which is the nuclear recapitalization.

We’ve been talking about, for years, what a nuclear bow wave is going to look like. Well, it’s here. And, you know, it’s not just RDT&E money anymore, it’s procurement of the nuclear articles that are inside the FYDP—so GBSD and B-21, and LRSO, associated NC3, as well, including the E-4 recap. And these are some significant budget items that are zero fail, and they’re 100 percent funded, and they should be; Our nation needs that.

The Air Force is old. [Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.] will talk about an aging fleet of 30 years plus, and I’ll tell you, an aging fleet comes with challenges. It gets very expensive; Our … weapon system sustainment costs go up in excess of inflation every year. And it’s money that we struggle every year to make sure that, not only can we meet the WSS that we have, but meet the WSS as it increases. And every year, that’s a challenge.

Aging and excess infrastructure—we as an Air Force have gotten smaller over the years, but our infrastructure has stayed relatively static, and that certainly comes with a bill. So there’s challenges.

The Air Force has never been more in demand. And you look at what the combatant commanders ask of our Air Force around the world, it’s flattering, because they actually see what work we do and our Airmen do every day. But I’ll tell you, it’s exhausting. It’s exhausting on our airframes, exhausting on our people. And it not only affects the ability to recapitalize our assets, but also certainly works against our readiness. And so those are concerns going forward.

… I think if you look at some of the big things that you expect an Air Force to do—air superiority, I think we’re heading in the right direction. I really do. The Secretary outlined his operational imperatives, and you talk about the Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems, and where we’re going with that, I think our strategic direction is in the right place.

There are going to be some funding challenges along the way. But it is exactly what is expected of our Air Force and I think we’re on a path to make sure we can secure air superiority at a time and place of our choosing against any adversary worldwide. … The Chief outlined last year a 4+1 [approach], we’re kind of talking four right now. Because we can talk about the A-10, but when you talk about the Next Generation Air Dominance and the family of systems associated, certainly the F-22 in the meantime until that’s ready, the F-35, the F-15 platform, and then the F-16 low-cost platform. I think we could talk about each one of those individually.

The nation also expects global strike. I think not only with B-21, but with some of the advancements in the F-35, certainly the F-15EX, many of our advanced weapons, the Air Force is going to continue to make sure that we can strike any point on the planet at a time and place of our choosing.

And the last big category I’ll say is rapid global mobility. What happened in Afghanistan over the summer was not by accident. And no other Air Force could have pulled that off. …

The one question you may have is on the tankers. We are committed to recapitalizing the tanker fleet, the KC-46, and ensuring we eventually get the older tanker platforms out of service. Right now, you’re seeing us starting to divest the KC-10s to make room for the KC-46. And obviously we’re going to continue to chip away at the KC-135s, many of them that were built in the early 60s. So they’re aging platforms, and we need to recapitalize. The KC-46 is a wonderful jet. It’s developing well. We’ve still got some work to do with the Remote Vision System, and we’re working very closely with the manufacturer on that. ..

Air Force Magazine: Let’s do a two-minute elevator speech on the five-year defense program. So we understand that we’re going to bring down the F-35s, we’re investing in NGAD, and we’re paying for nuclear, and so on. But some of that, … like the F-35, we can’t see, where does that go in Year 2, 3, 4, 5? … We’re not asking you to go line item by line item.

Nahom: Yeah, in general, the F-35 is gonna be a big one. Because, as you saw, the number is a little lower than it was last year.

Air Force Magazine: A lot lower.

Nahom: I will say, though, … we have not backed off our investment in the F-35. … When the F-35 was first brought on as a developmental program 20-plus years ago, there was a different threat. And as the threat has evolved, the systems that we need to put on the F-35 have evolved. And there’s a cost there. When you talk about getting to the next block of the F-35, and the systems we need for a peer fight, we are investing quite a bit of money on the F-35, and we intend to get not only that capability, but eventually get the capacity we need too. There are limits though. Would we have bought more F-35s if we had more resources? Yes, absolutely.

The Chief has been very consistent, and going back to [former Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein] too, we’ve said we seek 72 new fighters a year. And what does 72 new fighters a year do? … Our fighter fleet age continues to rise. When you get to 70-plus fighters, we actually start taking the age down, and we start getting some of these older platforms [out].

I tell you, we never intended for some of these platforms to be in service this long. I mean, there’s no reason F-15Cs—and I grew up in the F-15C—there’s no reason we should still be flying it right now. We should have recapitalized those squadrons with new airframes by now. So we’ve got to get to the numbers.

Now, the threat says we’ve got to get to the [future] capability. In a perfect world, would I like the capability and a lot more F-35s—and [F-15]EXs? Absolutely. But, right now we’ve got to concentrate on making sure we get the F-35 we need. We continue the development, and then we buy as many as we can. And if we can get more, then there’s some goodness there.

Air Force Magazine: Do you anticipate that we get to 72 at the end of the FYDP? I mean this year, you’re at 57, so you’re nowhere close. The last few years you’ve been at 60 … So when do we start seeing 72?

Nahom: We’re going to get as much as the resources allow. We know we need the numbers. If you look at our fighter fleets right now, we’re trying to get the F-15Cs retired as quickly as possible. We can talk about the A-10s later. There’s certainly some older block F-16s and older lot F-15Es and older Raptors.

Air Force Magazine: Are you going to divest?

Nahom: We have to, because if you keep them, you’re going to spend some money. And we have to make sure that we’re not only getting the capabilities we need with some of the modern systems, but we also can’t waste money on aging systems that are not going to give us the years and the capability we need. And so there’s a balance there.

Air Force Magazine: So that’s why you’re looking to divest those F-22s?

Nahom: There’s just not a payoff. Now, I will say there’s a lot of money invested in the F-22, because we’re modernizing the F-22 in many ways, because it’s going to be our air superiority hedge for our nation for the next decade. It just is. And we have to make sure we modernize that appropriately.

So there is good money invested in the Raptor program, as well as modernization in F-16s, to get certain systems on the F-16s. There’s money still in the F-15Es, and certainly the F-15EX and associated systems with that. So we have a lot of investment in our fighter portfolio. Do I wish there was more numbers? Absolutely. I tell you, if you look at the average age of our fighter fleet, and you look at the average age of other fighter fleets around the world, including our Navy and our Marine Corps fighter fleets, and some of our closest allies, we’re nearly twice the age of all those fleets. And it’s just, it’s not where we want to be right now. And the only way to do that is to buy new—or have missions go away. But going back to that conversation about the combatant commanders and what they need out of the Air Force, we can’t reduce the size of fleets.

Air Force Magazine: So in one sense, you’re stuck kind of saying the only way to do that is buy new, and we’re buying less new?

Nahom: There’s a balance there. Because, should I just buy all new and then not modernize the F-35 systems to where the threat is telling us we have to modernize it to? Well, that wouldn’t be smart either.

The problem is when you look at our budget, especially with many of these upgrades and systems that are of the classified nature and we don’t discuss them openly, they’re very critical to make sure we can meet the threat. And we are very well invested there. So there’s a balance there. Again, do I wish we were buying more new fighters? Absolutely. But I think given the resources that we had in this POM cycle and where we invested, we’re pretty comfortable with where we invested.

New Air Force Leave Policy Gives Time off for Fertility Treatments, Sexual Assault Recovery, More

April 13, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Department of the Air Force updated its leave policies in early April, adding time off for Airmen and Guardians seeking fertility treatments, recovering after a sexual assault, or preparing for employment in civilian life.

Under the April 6 update to DAF Instruction 36-3003, commanders can approve up to 35 days of permissive temporary duty at a military medical treatment facility for service members seeking fertility treatments. Those 35 days do not have to be consecutive and can be split up if recommended by a medical advisor. The new policy is open to male and female Airmen and Guardians.

There are six military medical treatment facilities where service members can seek fertility treatments:

Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Bethesda, Md
Tripler Army Medical Center, Honolulu, Hawaii
Womack Army Medical Center, Fayetteville, N.C.
Madigan Army Medical Center, Tacoma, Wash.
San Antonio Military Medical Center, San Antonio, Texas
Naval Medical Center San Diego, San Diego, Calif.

“My wife and I have had our own struggles with starting a family, so I recognize what a strain this can be on our Airmen and Guardians, personally and financially,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in a statement. “I wholeheartedly support this program, and I hope our teammates take full advantage of it.”

According to an Air Force release, the policy change was advocated for by the Women’s Initiative Team, part of the department’s Barrier Analysis Working Group, or BAWG. The BAWG has established seven subgroups to study specific barriers facing minorities in the service and to propose efforts to address those barriers.

“I am passionate about this because I believe in taking care of our Airmen and Guardians,” USSF Chief Master Sgt. Martha Burkhead, the WIT lead for this initiative, said in a statement. “I have had several members struggle with fertility issues and can attest to the rippling effects it has across the military.”

Another update included in the leave program is a policy allowing commanders to authorize up to 30 days of convalescent leave for Airmen and Guardians who are survivors of sexual assault. That change is in line with one of the recommendations from the Pentagon’s independent review commission on sexual assault in the military, which Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III accepted and directed the services to implement.

Other updates include changes in leave policy for Airmen and Guardians set to transition out of the service. One allows PTDY for such service members who are within a year of retirement and want to attend a DOD-sponsored employment seminar under the Transition Assistance Program “when the member cannot schedule one locally.” Another allows for non-chargeable leave for service members participating in the SkillBridge program, which offers civilian employment training for service members in their last 180 days of Active-duty service.

China and Russia Space Fleets Grow by 70 Percent in Two Years, DIA Report Says

April 12, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

China and Russia have dramatically boosted their presence in space in the past several years, increasing security concerns for the U.S. now and in the future, according to a new report from the Defense Intelligence Agency.

In particular, the “Challenges to Security in Space” report highlighted the dangers of China seeking to use counterspace operations to cripple U.S. military capabilities, and the potential military implications of China and Russia increasing exploration and use of cislunar space, the moon, and beyond.

“Evidence of both nations’ intent to undercut the United States and allied leadership in the space domain can be seen in the growth of combined in-orbit assets of China and Russia, which grew approximately 70 percent in just two years,” Kevin Ryder, Defense Intelligence Agency senior analyst for space and counterspace, said in an April 12 press briefing. “This recent and continuing expansion follows a more than 200 percent increase between 2015 and 2018.”

The first “Challenges to Security in Space” report was published by the DIA in 2019. The 2022 follow-on, based largely on public information and press reports, “examines the expansion of space operations and details Earth-focused space services, as well as growing efforts to explore the moon and beyond,” said John Huth, DIA defense intelligence officer for space and counterspace.

The expanded focus on moon exploration is a new addition to the latest version, with the report noting that if China and Russia are successful in their effort there, “it will likely lead to attempts … to exploit the moon’s natural resources.”

The national security implications of such attempts for the U.S. are still unknown, Huth and Ryder said. But particularly for China, any lunar capabilities have to be watched with caution, they said.

“What we’ve seen so far has been more civilian in nature. However, China emphasizes in their writings civil-military integration and dual-use purpose space capabilities. So while we do understand that right now, it is civil in nature, we continue to monitor for any possibility of military activity,” Ryder said.

“Technologies that are used for scientific purposes, to get somebody to another body, i.e. the moon, could also have that dual-purpose or that military-civil fusion aspect that could translate into military capabilities, but we’re not seeing that right now,” Huth added.

China has hopes to land its astronauts on the moon by the mid-2030s, while China and Russia have combined forces for plans for a lunar research base with construction starting by 2025.

More immediately, the report stresses that China perceives the U.S. as reliant on its space-based capabilities in conflict—without them, the Chinese believe the U.S. and its allies would struggle with precision-guided munitions, reconnaissance, communication, navigation, and missile warning.

As a result, China has sought to incorporate space and counterspace operations into its broader military, viewing space superiority as a “critical component to conduct modern ‘informatized warfare’,” the report states.

With the dramatic expansion of in-orbit assets for both Russia and China comes concerns about space situational awareness, as “the probability of collisions of massive derelict objects in low Earth orbit is growing and almost certainly will continue through at least 2030,” the report states.

Part of that is due to the sheer number of vehicles currently in orbit and slated to launch in the coming years. But Russia and China have both also amped up anxieties with anti-satellite tests. Russia’s most recent such test in November 2021 was an early challenge for U.S. Space Command’s domain awareness, and the report notes that the Russians are reportedly developing an air-launched anti-satellite weapon.

China, meanwhile, “probably intends to pursue additional ASAT weapons that are able to destroy satellites up to” geosynchronous orbit, the report states.

Such weapons can create massive debris fields, making them one of the key issues for the future of space identified in the report.

Hicks to Congress: Be Patient, Allow Some Failures in New Development Programs Like Hypersonics

April 12, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks urged Congress to be more patient with the Pentagon as it develops new systems, like hypersonic missiles.

Speaking during an April 12 Defense Writers Group breakfast, Hicks touted the recent successful test of the Lockheed Martin version of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC), which set a new record for hypersonic flight under scramjet power. The March flight test likely achieved about 327 seconds of hypersonic flight under scramjet power, versus 200 seconds achieved by the Boeing X-51 Waverider in 2010, based on figures provided by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Despite multiple failures of the Air Force’s AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), Hicks said “the biggest concern I would have right now” is that the U.S. “used to be first in class” at a willingness to “test, learn a little, test, fail, learn some more.”

The Pentagon sees “real resistance … on Capitol Hill” to that approach, “and so you get curtailment of programs, … concerns over concurrency, concerns about technically risky approaches.”

The U.S., she said, “has to be willing to fail. I think this is a place we want to increase the trust the Congress has in the Department, as it goes after improvements and capabilities.”

She added that it’s not the Defense Department’s approach to hypersonics to “match dollar for dollar, …or munition-to-munition” with adversaries.

“It is to understand how hypersonic systems fit into the way in which we would prosecute the most effective operations,” she said. “That’s really important to understand.”

Asked if she favors curtailing any hypersonics programs and advancing others that have been more successful, Hicks said, “I think we were pretty clear in our budget request about that portfolio. I’ll let that stand.”

The Air Force’s 2023 budget request emphasizes HAWC over the boost-glide AGM-183A Air-Launched Rapid Response Weapon, or ARRW, but USAF budget director Maj. Gen. James D. Peccia III said the service is “not walking away” from ARRW—yet. Peccia said the service is continuing to assess that program.

Hicks also cited “good conversations” with the Air Force and Northrop Grumman at the B-21 factory in Palmdale, Calif., last week, saying she can report that the program is on time “and there are no barriers …to get in the way of Northrop staying on schedule.”

The B-21 is “a good exemplar—but not the only one—where we’re seeing the promise of ‘digital thread’ [methods] both on cost and schedule.” The program will be studied to “see what we can learn from” that approach to provide better value to the taxpayer, she said.

Hicks was asked where her next trip will be to, and she said “back to California, … very soon,” possibly indicating that the rollout of the B-21, predicted for the April/May timeframe, will happen on schedule.

Pentagon: ‘Roughly 8 to 10 Flights a Day’ Full of Aid for Ukraine Pouring into Europe

April 12, 2022 | By Greg Hadley and John A. Tirpak

Roughly eight to 10 flights full of supplies and equipment for Ukraine are landing in Eastern Europe every day, Pentagon press secretary John F. Kirby told reporters on April 12, as the U.S. and other nations race to get their aid packages into the hands of Ukrainians combatting Russia’s invasion.

“There’s more than 30 other nations contributing various amounts of material—some weapons, some not, some a mix, and we are helping coordinate the deliveries into Ukraine of all that material, not just ours, but of others at various trans-shipment sites in the region,” Kirby said during a briefing hosted by the State Department’s Brussels Media Hub. “And that flow continues.”

All told, more than two dozen countries ranging from Japan to Canada to North Macedonia have pledged to send billions of dollars worth of military equipment to Ukraine, presenting a daunting logistical challenge as those nations look to deliver that equipment at speed.

It’s an issue that U.S. Transportation Command boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost addressed several times at the end of March when appearing before Congress.

“We work very closely with European Command as they integrate with Ukraine and prioritize the needs of Ukraine, so that we are able to ship and get [material] close to Ukraine and onward-moved very quickly, as we manage not only the nodes or the airports and seaports to get stuff there, but the people that work there and the flow in,” Van Ovost said during a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing.

In a Senate hearing, Gen. Tod D. Wolters, head of U.S. European Command, praised TRANSCOM for delivering “miracles at the point of need” in the Ukraine-Russia war. Similarly, Kirby touted the Defense Department’s ability to track, ship, and deliver aid.

“There’s roughly eight to 10 flights a day coming in to these trans-shipment sites from all over the world. And that stuff is not sitting around in warehouses,” Kirby said. “We’re helping get it on pallets and helping it get on trucks and helping it get into Ukraine every single day.”

In mid-March, President Joe Biden authorized an $800 million package of defensive assistance for Ukraine, followed by another $100 million in early April. Kirby said on April 12 that the Pentagon expected those packages to be completed in a matter of days and delivered “by the middle of this month.”

Speaking during a Defense Writers Group event on April 12, Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks said there are packages of U.S. military aid to Ukraine soon to be announced that will include longer-ranged weapons than have been provided so far. She did not name the weapons.

“Those are presidential decisions,” Hicks said of the new aid packages, and “I don’t want to get in front of those.” However, the Pentagon is “moving quickly” on weapons that would “provide a little more range and distance” than what has been given to date, and “you’ll see more in the coming days,” she told defense reporters.

The new weapons would be in addition to Javelin man-portable anti-tank weapons and Stinger shoulder-fired anti-aircraft weapons, Hicks said. She said Stingers and Javelins, as well as artillery rounds and “other ammunition” are “incredibly important” to Ukraine, noting, “We’ve moved a lot of that, and that will continue,” she said.

When asked if the U.S. would provide weapons that Ukraine could launch into Russia, Hicks said the U.S. is in continuing talks with Britain and 30 other countries about how best to provide “capability that the Ukrainians request” that sends “a clear signal, in terms of the U.S./Russian dynamic.”

Ukraine has requested aircraft, or a NATO-established no-fly zone over the country, as well as other weapons.

The U.S. is reviewing “a wide range of systems,” for Ukraine, she said. In addition to weapons and cash aid, the U.S. has been providing intelligence assistance to Ukraine, “which I would call ‘high-end’ help,” Hicks said.

The urgency to get that equipment into Ukraine fast has increased as Russia has begun to reposition its forces and focus its efforts on eastern Ukraine, raising fears that the war’s brutality could increase even more and become, in the words of one Pentagon official, a “knife fight.”

“We are mindful of the time,” Kirby acknowledged, noting the Pentagon has shortened the time it takes to actually get equipment into Ukrainian hands “down to between four to six days.”

Calling that speed “unprecedented” across his time in the Pentagon, Kirby did note that not all shipments have been that fast.

One of the most high-profile pieces of the U.S. defensive aid packages being sent is the batch of Switchblade drones—loitering munitions that are sometimes referred to as “kamikaze” drones. The Pentagon confirmed on April 6 that a small number of Ukrainian troops, already in the U.S. for professional military education, were being trained to operate the Switchblades, and on April 10, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III held a video call with those service members on the same day they were slated to return home.

“He … wanted to know [how] they felt the training went, and he was quite gratified to hear that they were pleased by what they were trained on, not just in terms of Switchblade, but other things,” Kirby said of Austin’s conversation with the Ukrainians. “So, we are continuing to try to get the Ukrainians the systems and the weapons that they need, that they’re using most effectively.”