ISIS Leader Dies in Raid as Pentagon Opts Against Airstrike

Feb. 3, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Islamic State group leader Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Qurayshi died Feb. 2 during a U.S. counterterrorism raid in northwest Syria, President Joe Biden announced, removing a “major terrorist threat to the world.”

The raid was conducted by U.S. Special Operations forces under the control of U.S. Central Command, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said in a statement, with no American casualties. Kirby declined to provide any more information about the personnel who carried out the raid.

The mission had been in planning for months, and troops were on the ground for roughly two hours, Kirby told reporters in a press briefing. Upon landing near the building in Atmeh, Syria, U.S. forces used a bullhorn to “make several call-outs beseeching everybody in that building to leave” peacefully, Kirby said.

Shortly after the call-outs began, six individuals on the first floor were evacuated, but an explosion rocked the third floor of the building. Officials said the detonation was caused by al-Qurayshi, and that in addition to killing himself, it killed at least three other people on the floor.

“In a final act of desperate cowardice, with no regard to the lives of his own family or others in the building, he chose to blow himself up—not just the vest, but to blow up that third floor—rather than face justice for the crimes he has committed, taking several members of his family with him,” Biden said in brief remarks from the White House.

U.S. Central Command leader Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., in a virtual seminar hosted by the Middle East Institute, said the explosion was “more massive than would be expected from a suicide vest,” and that it actually ejected several bodies, including al-Qurayshi’s, onto the ground below.

On the second floor, below al-Qurayshi, one of his deputies and the deputy’s wife engaged the U.S. troops, “firing back on our forces,” Kirby stated. During the subsequent firefight, the lieutenant, the wife, and another child were killed.

Al-Qurayshi’s body was identified using fingerprints and DNA analysis, Kirby said.

Before the U.S. troops left the area, though, a group approached the building. McKenzie said they were “assessed to be linked to the local al-Qaeda affiliate” and armed. Two members of the group were killed “by a gun engagement from a helicopter in defense of U.S. forces,” McKenzie added.

As American forces left, one of their helicopters suffered what Kirby called a “drive train issue.” The helicopter landed safely, but it was abandoned and subsequently detonated and “struck by air launch munitions to ensure that no sensitive equipment would remain in Syria,” McKenzie said.

The Pentagon’s estimates that at least nine people were killed during the raid. The Associated Press cited first responders in reporting that 13 people had been killed, including six children and four women.

However, 10 civilians, including eight children, were spared during the raid, officials said—six from the first floor and four more identified on the second floor.

The choice to conduct a raid instead of an airstrike was made, Biden said, to try to limit civilian casualties. The DOD has been under fire after a series of New York Times reports revealed thousands of civilian deaths in the Middle East caused by American airstrikes with little to no accountability. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has ordered department leaders to draft an action plan to prevent and respond to civilian casualties.

“Knowing that this terrorist had chosen to surround himself with families, including children, we made a choice to pursue a Special Forces raid at a much greater risk to our own people, rather than targeting him with an airstrike,” Biden said.

With al-Qurayshi dead, ISIS is now leaderless, “but their twisted ideology and their intent to kill, maim, and terrorize still threaten our national security and the lives of countless innocents,” Austin said in a statement.

The Islamic State was driven underground in 2019 with the loss of virtually all of its former territory. Since then, however, the group has continued to conduct terrorist attacks, including a suicide bombing this past August in Kabul that killed 13 American service members and dozens of civilians during the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Kirby declined to say whether al-Qurayshi had any involvement in that particular bombing, but he did say that al-Qurayshi was a “hands-on” leader who maintained “situational awareness” of a recent attack on a Syrian prison housing thousands of ISIS fighters that resulted in hundreds of deaths. He was also “directly involved” in the 2014 atrocities of the Yazidi minority in Iraq during which thousands were killed and raped in a campaign the United Nations labeled a genocide.

“This is a man that we should all be happy is no longer walking on the face of the Earth,” Kirby said.

McKenzie echoed that assessment, saying al-Qurayshi was more of a planner and operator than his predecessor, the infamous Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.

“I think it’s going to be a significant blow to them. And look, I don’t want to oversell it, because local variants of ISIS … are going to continue to flourish,” McKenzie said. “… But I do think it makes it harder for them to come up with an integrated global approach.”

Senate Confirms New Air Force Inspector General

Feb. 3, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Senate on Feb. 2 confirmed Maj. Gen. Stephen L. Davis for a third star and assignment as the department’s new inspector general.

Davis previously served as director of global power programs in the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics overseeing the “direction, planning, and programming” of major programs such as the F-35, F-22, B-1, B-2, and Ground Based Strategic Deterrent.

Now, he’ll take over as the Air Force’s top investigator at a time when the service is taking hard looks at several key issues.

Under Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said, the Air Force IG’s office recently conducted reviews that found widespread racial and gender disparities in ascensions, promotions, punishments, and other key areas. Leaders have pledged to continue tracking that data and to conduct root-cause analyses.

Elsewhere, Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. James C. Slife has called for an inspector general investigation after an anonymous complaint that his command lowered its standards to push a female Airman through special tactics officer training. Slife has disputed the complaint, saying the claims are “either factually incorrect or missing important context.”

Also in the past few months, the inspector general was tasked with investigating the erroneous strike in Kabul this past August that killed 10 civilians amid the U.S.’s hasty withdrawal from Afghanistan. That investigation concluded that execution errors and confirmation bias led to the mistaken strike, but subsequent media reporting on other deadly strikes has pushed the Pentagon to expand its efforts to reduce civilian casualties.

Davis started out in the Air Force as a missileer, with his first assignments overseeing ICBMs. Since then, he has held positions with Air Force Space Command, the Air Staff, U.S. Strategic Command, the Joint Staff, and the National Nuclear Security Administration. He also served as commander of the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D. Before his most recent position on the Air Staff, he worked as director of global operations at U.S. Strategic Command.

Davis was nominated to be the new Air Force Inspector General by President Joe Biden on Dec. 15, and his nomination was reported out by the Senate Armed Services Committee on Feb. 1, followed by confirmation via unanimous consent on the floor of the full Senate.

Air Forces Africa Balances Engagement With Human Rights in Rwanda Meeting

Feb. 3, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

AFRICAN AIR CHIEFS SYMPOSIUM, KIGALI, Rwanda—Security is the thing many Rwandans love most about their country. The land of a thousand hills has clean streets, where citizens can safely walk at night. The countrysides of rice and banana plantations are lush and carefully manicured. Police officers man the corners of city streets in the capital, Kigali, and the Rwandan military participates in peacekeeping missions across the continent, with the U.S. Air Force providing strategic lift to Rwandan defense forces.

But another Rwanda emerged since President Paul Kagame’s Rwandan Patriotic Front entered the country from Uganda, overthrew the government, and ended the 1994 genocide that killed nearly a million Tutsis.

Kagame, 64, now presides over a peaceful oasis in a continent plagued by instability, military coups, violent extremist groups, and deep poverty, but accusations of human rights abuses plague the celebrated hero known by most as “his excellency.” President since 2000, Kagame’s government is accused of targeted assassinations, disappearances, and torture, including the deaths of journalists and opposition figures, according to the non-profit group Human Rights Watch.

The president has elevated his international reputation militarily by participating in peacekeeping missions in troubled regions of Africa. This year, Rwanda also co-hosted the 11th African Air Chiefs Symposium with United States Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa Jan. 24-28 in Kigali.

“Most observers would agree, Rwanda is not a stable country,” National Defense University scholar Joseph Siegle told Air Force Magazine in a telephone interview before the symposium. “They’ve just put a lid on all of these building up pressures that are there, even though outwardly, it seems to be so.”

But Rwanda is secure, Siegle amitted, and it has the influence in the Great Lakes region of Africa to prevent instability from spreading from the troubled eastern region of the Democratic Republic of Congo.

“It’s a smoldering set of challenges, and they are pursuing regional solutions,” Siegle explained.

Hence Rwanda’s hosting of this year’s AACS, the first in-person event in two years, with a goal to work toward shared strategic airlift on the continent.

“Many of Africa’s emerging security challenges are transnational, and so, no one country has the resources to respond alone. We must prioritize the benefits of working together,” Kagame said during his brief and much-celebrated symposium attendance to deliver opening remarks amid intense security.

“Security and prosperity are two sides of the same coin, you cannot have one without the other,” he concluded.

USAFE-AFAFRICA commander Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian told Air Force Magazine that balancing human rights concerns with the U.S. military’s strategic objectives requires engagement that can lead to improvements.

“The important part for me personally has been, let’s understand the entire picture,” he said in an exclusive interview before the start of the final conference day.

“Clearly, human rights is important to us, and something that, as the United States, this is who we are. But at the same time, understanding the nuances of what’s happening here was something that was important to me, because it gives context to the relationships,” he said, noting that he had several engagements prior to the event with U.S. Ambassador to Rwanda Peter H. Vrooman. The conference week also helped to deepen U.S. Air Force and Rwanda Defence Force trust and cooperation.

“As we’ve, I’ll call it, ‘matured,’ our relationship with the Rwanda Defence Force here, at least this past week, it’s clear to me, they are extremely professional, dedicated to their mission set,” Harrigian said. “I think it’s in our best interest to stay close to them and continue to grow this relationship because at the end of the day, they will continue to grow their capabilities.”

He added: “We walk the journey together, and if we’re not here, that will come to an end. … I would offer it’s not in our interest to do that.”

Peter H. Vrooman, U.S. Ambassador to the Republic of Rwanda, right, and Rwandan Air Force Lt. Gen. Jean Jacques Mupenzi, Rwandan air chief of staff, center, greet U.S. Air Force Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander, upon his arrival in Rwanda for the 2022 African Air Chiefs Symposium in Kigali, Rwanda, Jan. 24, 2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Brooke Moeder.

Rwanda-U.S. Cooperation

Rwanda’s participation in African Union peacekeeping missions across the continent has contributed to stability and allowed African nations to manage their own crises with reduced external assistance from the U.S. Air Force and European partners.

In January and February 2014, two U.S. Air Force C-17s airlifted a Rwandan mechanized battalion of 850 soldiers and more than 1,000 tons of equipment to the Central African Republic for a peacekeeping mission.

In recent years, Rwanda has sent peacekeeping forces to Mozambique and Sudan, providing airlift, evacuation, and use of air assets in joint actions. Before Rwanda’s participation in the United Nations–African Union Mission in Darfur, which ended in 2016, Rwanda was the second largest contributor of peacekeeping forces in the world. It now stands at fourth, according to the RDF.

In remarks July 21, 2021 at a U.S.-Rwanda preparatory meeting for the 2021 Peacekeeping Ministerial in Seoul, Vrooman highlighted the U.S.-Rwanda partnership, and Rwanda’s peacekeeping efforts over nearly two decades.

“Rwanda undertakes peacekeeping as a constitutional and moral obligation,” Vrooman said, reflecting on how the UN failed to act to prevent the 1994 genocide.

The ambassador noted how the United States has trained and the RDF has deployed more than 45,000 personnel in support of UN missions globally. As of July 2021, Rwanda had more than 5,000 troops, police, and others on UN missions.

In a pull aside interview after his remarks at AACS, Vrooman told Air Force Magazine about the delicate balance between human rights concerns and military-to-military ties.

“I’m really a strong believer in engagement, diplomatic as well as military engagement,” Vrooman said. “Some people don’t always believe in that, but I have found that that’s really how you come to greater understanding. It doesn’t mean that you will always have influence. But, if you don’t try, you won’t have any effect.”

The Rwanda Defence Force cooperates with the United States mainly in the training of some Air Force cadets and senior officers at air staff and command courses, RDF said. Such courses often include human rights and law of war training.

Vrooman said he has seen firsthand the benefits of U.S. training to instill human rights values.

“Rwandans are very receptive to it,” said Vrooman, a former student at the National Defense University.

Vrooman said using pressure tactics like sanctions are hard to roll back, and can limit the opportunity to deepen a partnership and exert positive influence.

“That limits your ability at times to be able to engage. So, it’s a balancing act,” he said.

In written responses to questions from Air Force Magazine, Rwandan Defence Force spokesman Col. Ronald Rwivanga flatly denied that his country commits human rights abuses.

“False and unfounded accusations,” Rwivanga said. “Where the answer is not satisfactory there are courts to deliver individual concerns.”

Asked what is being done to strengthen human rights in Rwanda and the RDF, Rwivanga said: “They are already strong enough.”

“A people centered transformation agenda, a justice system that satisfies Rwanda[’]s needs, and an economy that is steadily growing and strives to improve the livelihood of the citizens is what we consider to be the principle human rights,” he said. “All dissent and contestation is managed through democratic channels by electing the right leaders that people want. This is what is happening and will continue to happen.”

How TRANSCOM is Preparing for Possible Conflicts with Russia, China

Feb. 3, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

The role of U.S. Transportation Command is likely to evolve under the upcoming National Defense Strategy, as the Defense Department shifts its focus to China and Russia.

TRANSCOM commander, Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, predicted the command will need to “meld better into the maneuver force,” based on DOD’s joint warfighting concept. She spoke during a webinar Feb. 2 hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“One thing that has become really clear is that TRANSCOM has been the force that ‘deploys the force, sustains the force, and redeploys the force,’” Van Ovost said.

“Now we’re going to be deploying the force, maneuvering the force, sustaining the force, and redeploying the force,” Van Ovost said. “So what does that maneuver piece mean? What are we going to have to do?”

With Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III having labeled China the department’s “pacing challenge,” Van Ovost predicted that the National Defense Strategy will shift to ensuring “that we can meet the gaps … with respect to that particular competitor.”

While TRANSCOM will maintain its ability to “around the world at a time and place of our choosing,” she said the command also is considering its Pacific posture.

In a “much, much larger theater than even [U.S. Central Command],” she said TRANSCOM is already thinking about, “What will we have to move? What will be there? … How do we build up our allies and partners in that area and shore up some capability? And should we have to go from competition into conflict, what are we going to be moving and where?”

Van Ovost characterized the federal “whole-of-government, whole-of-allies” approach to dealing with Russia, in its surrounding of Ukraine at the moment, as demonstrating “integrated deterrence in action.”

“You’re seeing Department of State, Department of the Treasury. You’re seeing Commerce. You’re seeing sanctions. You’re seeing Congress,” Van Ovost said. “You’re seeing, again, the Department of Defense, all the services, NATO, and our bilateral partners—and you’re seeing us all moving towards a sort of unified objective, unified actions, to achieve objectives of, in this case, Russian deescalation and bringing them to the diplomatic table.”

But she’s also planning for other scenarios.

Part of the command’s job, “especially right now,” is to prepare “for all those ‘what ifs,’” Van Ovost said. With regards to Russia, “There’s an Atlantic portion of that. There’s also a Pacific portion of that,” she said. At the same time, “I think about … our ability to see and counteract Russian activities coming from the Arctic.”

It’s a juggling act, but “when we think about the problem set that’s going on right now, that’s exactly what we’re doing in the background.”

New NDIA Survey Gives “F” Grade to Defense Business Climate

Feb. 2, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The health and readiness of the U.S. defense industrial base business climate got its first failing grade in an annual assessment done by the National Defense Industrial Association and the Govini statistical data company, with key setbacks due to continuing disruption caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. The data in the report lags the current situation by a year, and so conditions may actually be worse than it suggests, NDIA officials said.

The defense industrial base got a composite score of 69 out of 100, which the NDIA grades as “failing,” as it “struggled through the first year of the pandemic alongside the rest of the economy,” the organization said in its conclusions. Improving the health and readiness of the defense industry “continues to be a pressing challenge” for the national security and defense policy communities.

The NDIA emphasized that it is presenting data, not offering recommendations or legislative moves. However, organization president and CEO Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle said the report should serve as a “wake-up call” for the Pentagon and Congress to pay more attention to the conditions facing the defense industrial base, which the numbers indicate is “not isolated” from the general economy. It saw a downturn even though defense is regarded by many as a “safe haven” business. He called the report “sobering,” saying, “We can’t admire the problem anymore.”

The report’s methodology uses a questionnaire about the business environment filled out by more than 400 companies, which report their experience among more than 50 factors, ranging from overall profitability to intellectual property rights, public opinion, the availability of workforce and its qualifications, security clearance time, productivity, and the regulatory burden.

Wes Haulman, NDIA senior vice president of strategy and policy, said the Vital Signs report is unique in that it offers the only comprehensive and unclassified look at the defense industry as a whole.

The biggest negatives in this year’s report were on supply chain and capacity for surge production, both chalked up largely to the pandemic. Supply chain indices were up in last year’s report, from 60 to 71, but have fallen to a score of 63 out of 100 this year. Haulman said the one “silver lining” of COVID is that it has highlighted problems with the supply chain that were already there, but were brought into high relief by the pandemic.

“At a company-by-company level, now, you have greater visibility” into supply chain issues, he said.

Competition was down, with the lowest number of new entrants in the industry since NDIA launched “Vital Signs” three years ago; a 28 percent reduction since 2020.

“This is a risk to innovation, as new entrants represent the infusion of new talent and capabilities,” the NDIA said in a summary. The fall in new vendors slowed, but continued in 2020. It had previously fallen from 12,000 to 6,500, but only dropped to 6,300 in fiscal 2020. “An overreliance on a smaller pool of entrants may create production or innovation shortages in the future,” the NDIA said.

The report highlights “a dwindling supply base,” Haulman said, citing the previous exodus of companies and the diminishing number of new entrants. This creates “more and more fragile networks,” he said.

Tara Murphy Dougherty, CEO of Govini, said the U.S. government, and particularly the Pentagon, needs to “bridge the gap” to make government work attractive to small businesses and innovators.

The “worst performing” of the industry vital signs was industrial security, driven primarily by cybersecurity vulnerabilities, which “continue to rise at a very high rate,” the NDIA said.

A continuing and worsening problem is the ability to find “skilled and cleared” labor, according to the report. The NDIA noted that its study reflects conditions in the defense industrial base before the “great resignation” trend of the last nine months.

The report counts how many hearings and incidents of congressional interest are shown in key areas, and noted that such focus increased on artificial intelligence, microelectronics, and biotechnology, but decreased on hypersonics, space, and other key fields since 2019.

Overall, there is a reduction in government spending on basic research, a troubling trend because “that’s our seed corn,” said Mark Lewis, head of the NDIA’s Emerging Technologies Institute.

Industrial surge capability dropped 15 points over last year; again, owing to pandemic-related supply issues and “weakness in the overall economy.”

Of those that responded, 71 percent said the pandemic has had a “moderate or large negative” impact on their business, while 14 percent said they don’t think their business will return to normal after the pandemic.

On workforce, 67 percent said it is somewhat or extremely difficult to get cleared workers, with similar results for “skilled trade” or STEM—science, technology, engineering, math—workers. There was a slight uptick in the speed at which security clearances are being completed, but at a score of 36 out of 100, there is “a lot of room for improvement.”

There are also issues with the supply of raw materials, particularly rare earth elements that are sourced from overseas, particularly from adversary nations, but polled companies seem to be feeling better about this situation.

Nick Jones, NDIA regulatory policy director, said the U.S only has about 32 percent of rare earth mine production, so “it’s definitely an area of concern,” but the industry perceives improvement, as the “score” regarding U.S. production of rare earths has risen from 10 to 39 in the last two years. The sentiment about rare earth prices has also improved, from a score of 75 two years ago to 83 today.

Higher costs, many attributable to U.S. dependence on foreign supply of rare earths—“a significant risk”—also pushed indices lower, as did Congress’s chronic use of program-disruptive continuing resolutions to fund defense. Use of CRs thwarts new starts and the uncertainty they create prevents companies from making economic orders of long-lead materials and supplies, Carlisle said.

Haulman said Congress makes things hard with continuing resolutions and a slow pace of confirming the Pentagon officials who deal with industrial base issues. Those officials “need to set a strategic vision and they need to carry [it] out,” but many nominations are languishing on Capitol Hill, he said. He also noted sluggishness in the nominations process.

“Without having those folks there, we lose something we can never get back, and that is time … We harp on the fact that time wasted is time that we actually cede to our competitors,” like China, Haulman noted. “Our competitors do not have to operate under a CR” and have systems of laws that mandate the civilian economy support their defense industrial base.

“We don’t want” similar laws, but “we need to leverage the creativity” of the civilian economy, he said, and “the less direction” and the more uncertainty, the less companies will be “willing to make those investments, … or jump into this sector.” Congress should focus in this, as well, he said.

Air Force Pilot Program Identifies Six Techniques for More Efficient Fuel Use

Feb. 2, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force believes it can save up to $80 million per year and increase its mission effectiveness per gallon of fuel by up to three percent under a new pilot program announced Feb. 1.

The Mission Execution Excellence Program is aimed at more efficiently and effectively using fuel and will start by focusing on the C-17 Globemaster III, the Air Force’s largest fuel consumer, at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., and Travis Air Force Base, Calif. The pilot phase of the program will run through December 2022, before the program expands to other bases and aircraft.

MEEP will work with pilots, operations planners, maintainers, and logisticians to identify and encourage ways to minimize excess use of fuel, starting with six “key efficiency techniques” the department says will lower energy demand and increase readiness:

More precise fuel planning, to decrease excess fuel carriage during planned flights;
Reducing the number of engines running during taxi to only what is required for safe operation;
Limiting the use of Auxiliary Power Units during ground operations and utilizing more efficient ground power equipment;
Minimizing the time between engine start and takeoff by reducing engines running or starting the engine simultaneously;
Employing continuous descent operations in a low-drag configuration, with minimal engine thrust;
Flying at optimal cruise altitudes.

The Air Force identified these techniques after meeting with “a number of commercial airlines and freight and transport companies to see how they operate in the most efficient and effective way possible using 21st century tools,” Deputy Assistant Secretary of Air Force Operational Energy Roberto I. Guerrero said in a statement.

The Air Force’s initial estimates are that the service can improve what it calls “energy intensity” by three percent. That would increase efficiency, readiness, and capability, while also saving millions of dollars.

Many of these techniques, Guerrero added, are “low-hanging fruit that we simply need to fund and incentivize.”

Incentives, both financial and personal, are a key component of MEEP—there will be transfers of “operations and maintenance funds or funding of wing priority projects,” funding handed out in proportion to how much units save on energy, and awards and recognition to Airmen and units that “show increased energy-aware behavior.”

The program will also include data collection efforts and education and training initiatives within wings to encourage more energy-efficient practices.

The Defense Department is the federal government’s largest consumer of energy, and the Air Force is the DOD’s largest consumer, making it the most energy-hungry agency in the government. Annually, the Air Force uses roughly 2 billion gallons of fuel, spending billions of dollars to fly planes and power bases.

Looking to improve their efficiency, both the Pentagon and the Air Force have taken steps in the past several months to address their fuel use—the Air Force partnered with carbon transformation company Twelve in 2020 for a pilot program to demonstrate technology that can convert carbon dioxide into viable aviation fuel, and the DOD has released reports calling climate change a national security issue and tying the issue to infrastructure and readiness.

Mitchell Paper: Strategies to Surge US Expertise in Electronic Warfare

Feb. 2, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

The U.S. won’t keep pace with China and Russia in electronic warfare if it keeps “drip feeding” organizations, according to a new paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

While those countries already field “informationized warfare capabilities,” the U.S. military keeps “relearning old lessons,” writes retired Air Force Maj. Gen. Ken Israel, a retired electronic warfare officer, who served as the Air Force’s first program executive for C4ISR (command, control, communications, computers, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance).

Leaders in electronic warfare, or EW, need a substantial plan—not an “aspirational document” but one that “lays out what to do and by when to achieve spectrum superiority,” Israel writes in “Drip Feeding Improvements in EMSO Will Not Work.”

Drawing on his experience, Israel’s policy recommendations include:

Recruit for technical backgrounds. Israel suspects the Air Force produces too few electronic warfare officers—about 80 a year—who may not have a technical background. On the other hand, “operators of the future will need to understand the fundamental physics of a broad array of interrelated spectrum-dominated technologies to include artificial intelligence, networks, 5G, complex waveforms, interferometry, antenna designs, microelectronics, phase reversing phenomena, digital processing, cloud topologies, metadata analytics, encryption, directed energy, and other forms and modes of electronic warfare. He says the Air Force needs to ask the revealing question: how many current electronic warfare officers or combat system officers have written a single line of code or can comprehend the details of specific metadata analytics?”
Create a professional EW community. The Air Force and Space Force employ EW expertise across diverse organizations ranging from aircrews to academia but without a professional association dedicated exclusively for “like-minded professional experts to get together and share operational design, tactics, threat, and real-world experiences.”
Break down the cyber, EW, and ISR silos. Assigning EW officers to “key” cyber and ISR roles will highlight how the fields have aspects in common and “enhance everyone’s appreciation of all aspects of spectrum superiority challenges and opportunities,” writes Israel.
Consistently present timely lessons learned. With tactics continually evolving, EW troops in key posts need regular updates “from ongoing conflicts that involve Russia, China, and their proxies,” according to the paper.
Invoke the Intergovernmental Personnel Act. The DOD doesn’t have time to grow the “diversified spectrum expertise” in house and still keep pace with China and Russia. The law provides for outside experts to receive commensurate placement.
Add funds for advanced training. Committing to fund modeling and simulation for EW training and emphasizing battle management and planning tools will help commanders “understand their ability to maneuver in the electromagnetic spectrum.”

Pentagon Sending 3,000 Troops to Eastern Europe to Bolster NATO Allies

Feb. 2, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Defense Department is moving roughly 3,000 Soldiers to Germany, Poland, and Romania in the coming days. The U.S. looks to bolster NATO’s eastern flank while Russia continues to buildup forces on the Ukraine border, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby announced Feb. 2.

A Stryker squadron of approximately 1,000 service members is moving from Germany to Romania, joining more than 900 American troops already in the country. Roughly 1,700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division stationed at Fort Bragg, N.C., will deploy to Poland, and another 300 members of the 18th Airborne Corps will deploy to Germany.

“The current situation demands that we reinforce the deterrent and defensive posture on NATO’s eastern flank,” Kirby said. “President [Joe] Biden has been clear that the United States will respond to the growing threat to Europe’s security and stability. Our commitment to NATO Article V and collective defense remains ironclad.”

The movements are separate from the 8,500 troops that were put on alert last week to prepare to deploy to Europe for a potential Ukraine contingency within five days. Those forces are intended to be part of the NATO Response Force, which requires consensus within the alliance to activate—which has not been reached yet.

Kirby previewed the troop movements on Jan. 31, saying the Pentagon had been in discussions with allies in Eastern Europe to provide an increased presence via a bilateral agreement. On Feb. 2, Kirby said Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III had spoken with the Romanian Defense Minister last week and the U.S. troops are being moved to the country “at the express invitation of the Romanian government.”

Romania’s interest in hosting more American troops has been public for some time now—Romanian President Klaus Iohannis publicly stated as much in mid-December. The Black Sea nation doesn’t directly border Russia, but it shares a border with Ukraine, and the buildup of more than 100,000 Russian troops along the Russia-Ukraine border has stoked fears of a potential invasion.

Biden has repeatedly said he will not send American troops into combat in Ukraine, and Kirby took pains to emphasize the new movements aren’t aimed at that.

“I want to be very clear about something: These are not permanent moves. They are moves designed to respond to the current security environment,” Kirby said. “Moreover, these forces are not going to fight in Ukraine. They are going to ensure the robust defense of our NATO allies.”

While no Air Force units are being deployed at this time, Air Mobility Command will be tasked with transporting the Army units.

“This is a reasonable amount of forces that Air Mobility Command will be able to transport. I don’t foresee a need for some sort of surge of airlift activity to get these folks over there,” Kirby said.

There are also currently F-15Es from the 4th Fighter Wing based out of Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C, flying in Estonia as part of NATO’s enhanced air policing mission. Those fighters are scheduled to be deployed until the end of the week. Kirby was asked during a press briefing if that deployment might be extended, but he did not have a definitive answer, saying that his “hunch” was that there would be no extension.

Still, more troop movements in the coming days and weeks are possible, Kirby said. The 8,500 put on alert remain so, and Austin has put other units on alert to be ready to deploy as well, Kirby said, though he declined to detail what units those were.

At the same time, France announced it will send several hundred troops to Romania, a move Kirby said the Pentagon welcomed.

First ‘Integrated Warfighting Network’ to Go Live in 2022 for Troops Serving in the Field

Feb. 1, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

Small teams of Airmen serving in far-flung situations will be able to start taking their work laptops on deployments this summer—and expect them to be useful.

The Department of the Air Force’s Chief Architect Officer Preston Dunlap revealed in a webinar Feb. 1 that the first “integrated warfighting network” will boot up in the summer of 2022. The department’s former chief software officer Nicolas M. Chaillan interviewed Dunlap on LinkedIn.

The new network is designed for troops engaged in agile combat employment (ACE) operations, Dunlap said.

“Whether you’re in a conflict with Russia or China, having a handful of operating locations—or one or two operations centers or intelligence centers—is not going to win the fight,” Dunlap said, describing ACE from an IT perspective. “It’s just too risky with too many weapons pointed at you.”

Instead, the department wants troops to be able to take all those activities on the move.

“We want to be able to break up the ability to do intelligence, and break up the ability to do operational … [command and control], to even small echelons and small units,” Dunlap said. The integrated warfighting network, or IWN, “will tie together two things that have been almost totally separated,” he explained—enterprise IT and “warfighting IT.”

“And this summer, they will become the same thing.”

Dunlap pointed out that separate systems means, “I have to train for a different IT system, different communication links, different applications, different C2 approaches. And only certain units can have access to it.”

The IWN, on the other hand, “is the composition of the equation of enterprise IT plus edge IT, and together you have integrated warfighting that allows you to be able to go to various strips in Europe or various islands in the Pacific, take that same mobile-computer-laptop-slash-tablet that you’ve got in your office—which we don’t currently have, generally, but we want to make this pervasive on the enterprise level—and that’s the same device that you use at the classified level going out to operate with in the field.”

Multiple connectivity pathways, including wireless connectivity, are also part of the design; and DOD data environments will be added later.

“So the real cool thing that we’ve been in stealth mode making is an integrated warfighting network,” Dunlap said.