Making Agile Combat Employment Real

Jan. 27, 2022 | By Matthew Donovan

Not since the Cold War with the USSR has the United States faced the specter of high-end conflict with a peer competitor. Therefore, it comes as no surprise that our nation’s defense sits at a strategic inflection point based on the advancing military threats presented by China and Russia.

Today, the global strategic environment is categorized by the reemergence of strategic competition—with now two near-peer competitors—who can operate across all domains of warfare and simultaneously employ all aspects of their national power. Like our other military branches, the Air Force faces these emerging challenges while fielding a force only half the size, following force reductions in the decades since the Cold War.

America’s ability to globally defend the nation and its allies is grounded in its ability to project combat power anywhere on the planet. In the past, this meant maintaining a robust global posture; however, fiscal constraints resulting in reduced force structure, coupled with advances in threat capabilities, present an increased vulnerability to U.S. overseas military assets. Furthermore, our adversaries have studied our force deployment and invested heavily in pervasive intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance and all-domain long-range offensive capabilities that put our global footprint at risk.

To counter this emerging threat, the Air Force introduced Agile Combat Employment as a method to rapidly deploy across dispersed operating locations within a theater without sacrificing combat capability. When employed, ACE enables Airmen to conduct operations faster and at higher levels of complexity, all from distributed locations. Using ACE concepts, combat assets would continue to move from location to location, exploiting opportunities to attack while keeping key assets out of harm’s way.

The Air Force is already demonstrating an initial ability to bring ACE to the battlespace by focusing on non-material solutions like developing Multi-Capable Airmen. However, to fully mature this concept requires attention to the core elements that enable ACE’s operational framework.

By coupling ready-now solutions with the latest technological innovations, the mission essential capabilities required to implement ACE could be significantly bolstered. The Air Force has an opportunity to reimagine how they generate combat missions from austere locations and design tailorable force packages to enable Airmen to quickly conduct operations from bare base airfields in key theaters.

So, what capabilities could the Air Force include in these agile and connected force packages to enable operating combat missions from dispersed locations? Fortunately, many of the fundamental technologies needed to make ACE real already exist. Through a combination of space-based early warning systems, over-the-horizon radars, passive wide-area surveillance systems, and low-band radars, industry can provide commanders the indications and warning capabilities they need to make decisions and take decisive action at a moment’s notice through communications packages that are mobile, survivable, secure, and sustainable across the electromagnetic spectrum.

We can help ensure commanders get the right information, in real time, by deploying mobile, resilient, and protected communications networks with minimal infrastructure requirements. Providing mobile access to the military’s Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite communications network will be critical to closing this capability gap, as will the widespread adoption of other advanced communications technologies. Commanders need the ability to task their forces and provide a common operational picture in denied, disconnected, intermittent, or limited bandwidth environments.

In addition, currently existing directed energy systems represent a cost-effective base defense capability that can quickly transition to countering cruise and ballistic missile threats. Other investment areas include the indications and warning capability that is so critical, particularly in the Pacific theater, to immediately provide access to DOD networks in contested environments. Also currently available are autonomous and transportable Ground Controlled Approach (GCA) radar air traffic management systems, remote virtual air traffic control towers, and mobile precision approach and landing systems that can all be included as part of a support “kit” when establishing a dispersal base location.

ACE is the right strategic choice for the Air Force based on the two near-peer threats, but its feasibility hinges on continued material investment and closing known mission capability gaps to truly equip an agile forward deployed Air Force. Industry has clearly heard the call for action from Air Force senior leaders and is ready to bring our innovative capabilities to bear on meeting this 21st century challenge.

Matthew Donovan was Undersecretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, Acting Secretary of the Air Force, and Undersecretary of the Air Force during the Trump Administration. Today, he is vice president of requirements and capabilities at Raytheon Intelligence & Space, a unit of Raytheon Technologies that provides terminals that connect to the Pentagon’s AEHF network and the Air Traffic Navigation, Integration, and Coordination System, among other programs and systems.

F-15Es Deploy to Estonia to Aid NATO Air Policing Amid Russian Tensions

Jan. 27, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Half a dozen U.S. Air Force F-15Es landed in Estonia on Jan. 26 to aid NATO’s enhanced air policing mission, as tensions in Eastern Europe continue to simmer over a potential Russian invasion of Ukraine.

While in Estonia, the American fighters will integrate with a detachment of Belgian F-16s, NATO Allied Air Command said in a press release. In addition to working on the enhanced air policing mission, they will also work with NATO allies in the Baltics to practice air-to-air and air-to-ground maneuvers, the release said.

The six F-15E Strike Eagles are assigned to the 4th Fighter Wing from Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C, the Air Force noted in releasing photos of the fighters landing at Amari Air Base, Estonia.

The photos also showed Airmen from the 4th Fighter Wing and the 48th Fighter Wing from RAF Lakenheath, England, arriving in a C-130J on Jan. 24 to support the mission.

“Baltic and enhanced Air Policing are enduring NATO missions that deliver constant vigilance of Allied airspace and contribute to the Alliance’s collective defense posture,” Maj. Gen. Jörg Lebert, Chief of Staff of Headquarters Allied Air Command, said in a statement. “The additional aircraft will work closely with the current detachments to increase our readiness, build crucial interoperability, and underline the robust solidarity across the Alliance.”

NATO’s air policing mission is focused on monitoring for “airspace violations, suspicious air activity close to the alliance’s borders, or other kinds of unsafe air traffic,” with fighters being tasked to scramble in response to any threat.

Reuters, citing an official at Amari Air Base, reported that the U.S. fighters will be deployed “until the end of next week”—Feb. 4 or 5.

The deployment of the F-15Es comes just two weeks after the Air Force sent F-16s to Poland en route to Lithuania and Estonia to train with Eastern European allies on air policing. At the time, U.S. Air Forces in Europe stressed in a statement that the deployment was “long planned.”

Still, the deployments come at a time when any military activity in the region is sure to garner interest. Russia has maintained a troop presence of some 100,000 along the Ukrainian border for months now, with sophisticated air force and anti-access/area denial (A2/AD) capabilities that experts believe would allow for a swift invasion.

President Joe Biden has said he will not send any American troops to Ukraine itself, but Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III recently ordered 8,500 troops in the continental U.S. to prepare to deploy to Europe for a potential Ukraine contingency within five days. Biden has also sought to warn Russia off a potential invasion, threatening a “heavy price” for Russian President Vladimir Putin if he does so.

At the same time, NATO allies along the eastern flank have clamored for an increased U.S. presence in their countries—Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, Lithuanian Prime Minister Ingrida Šimonytė, and Romanian President Klaus Iohannis have all indicated a willingness to host more troops in the past few months.

As Air Force Considers E-7A Buy, It Gets a Sneak Peek at Red Flag

Jan. 27, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

As the Air Force considers how and whether to proceed with a rapid acquisition of Boeing’s E-7A Wedgetail, the service will get an up-close-and-personal look at the airborne warning and control aircraft in the coming days.

An E-7A from the Royal Australian Air Force is participating in USAF’s latest Red Flag exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., Maj. Gen. Case A. Cunningham, commander of the Air Warfare Center, confirmed during an AFA Air and Space Warfighters in Action virtual seminar on Jan. 26.

“It’s a really fantastic opportunity to get to integrate and work closely with our key ally on what we all know is a critical and essential capability for the pacing challenges that we face in the Indo-Pacific theater, especially, but in other theaters as well,” Case said.

Maj. Gen. Case Cunningham, commander of the USAF Warfare Center; and Brig. Gen. Shawn Bratton, USSF commander of Space Training and Readiness Command, joins retired Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright for an episode of the Air Force Association’s Air and Space Warfighters in Action on Jan. 26, 2022.

In particular, the Air Force will look to use the Red Flag, which kicked off Jan. 24 and runs until Feb. 11, as an opportunity to “really refine the tactics, techniques, and procedures that it means to work with F-35s and F-22s, for example, in the highly contested environment, as they work in collaboration with the E-7A,” Case said.

And the insight gained through this training won’t just help the Air Force learn how to better integrate and work alongside allies, Case said, “but also will feed into the lessons as we potentially look at bringing the E-7 capability to our own air force.”

The potential addition of the E-7A to replace the aging E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning and Control System, or AWACS, has emerged as a top priority of Air Force leadership in the past few months.

In September at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. called the E-7 a “good platform,” saying he had flown aboard multiple times and it would likely be ready much sooner than other options developed from scratch.

Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, head of Pacific Air Forces, endorsed the E-7 as well, calling it “a proven capability” and saying he’s been impressed with its performance.

In October, the Air Force issued a business opportunity announcement asking Boeing to conduct “studies, analyses, and activities required to ascertain the current E-7A baseline configuration and determine what additional work would be necessary” to make the aircraft compatible with Air Force “configuration standards and mandates.”

Around the same time, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark D. Kelly noted that he needed a replacement to the E-3 “two years ago.”

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall confirmed in December that the service is looking to buy the E-7A as a bridge system to a future space-based moving target indicator system, calling it one of his top priorities.

In addition to Australia, Turkey, South Korea, and the United Kingdom have all ordered E-7As as well.

Somalia Hopes to Reconstitute its Air Force with Renewed US Partnership

Jan. 27, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

AFRICAN AIR CHIEFS SYMPOSIUM, KIGALI, Rwanda—Somalia Air Force Brig. Gen. Sh Ali Mohamed Mohamud last sat in the cockpit of a Somali MiG fighter jet in March 1978.

His country’s civil war decimated the Air Force he joined at age 14 and has been part of for over 50 years. Ravaged by the al-Shabab terrorist group, Somalia now has no aircraft to fight back. Instead, the east African nation depends on the U.S. and African Union partners, but the 75-year-old Somali Air Chief hopes that with U.S. Air Force help Somalia can reconstitute what was once the most powerful Air Force in the Horn of Africa.

“The U.S. Air Force is starting now a cooperation. Before, we did not have any cooperation, Mohamud told Air Force Magazine on the sidelines of the African Air Chiefs Symposium in Kigali.

“No aircraft, no pilots, no technicians. We just secure our base,” he added.

Founded in 1954, the Somali Air Force once boasted MiG-17 and MiG-21 fighters. First a war with Ethiopia, which was backed by the Soviet Union, then civil war, led to the dissolution of the Air Force in 1991. Al-Shabab began to threaten the government and populace in the mid-2000s. The Somali Air Force was reconstituted in 2015.

Mohamud said U.S. Air Force manned and unmanned intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) platforms used the Baledogle Airbase northwest of Mogadishu day and night using their own instruments. The ISR flights were not cooperative in nature but based on access rights.

The counterterrorism ISR missions did not stop when former President Donald J. Trump ordered all American troops out of Somalia by January 2021. The U.S. had been using Baledogle for special forces operations and training of the elite Danab Brigade of Somali National Army commander forces.

U.S. Africa Command declined to comment on questions about intelligence operations and potential future plans with the Somali Air Force, but underscored the U.S. commitment to security in the region.

“Our support to our Somali partners and [the African Union Mission in Somalia] has continued,” AFRICOM spokesperson Navy Lt. Cmdr. Timothy S. Pietrack told Air Force Magazine in a statement. “While we repositioned forces in the region, AFRICOM continued to execute the counterterrorism missions.”

Mohamud affirmed that the ISR missions continued unabated despite the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

“They did not stop, but they reduced the people,” the air chief said. “They stopped the training of special forces, but always they fly.”

Training of the Danab went remote, with Kenya hosting additional U.S. troops and others deployed throughout the region. With trainers flying in from neighboring countries, however, follow-up opportunities were limited.

American troops have now returned to Mogadishu, Mohamud said, and a budding Air Force partnership is beginning anew.

The soft spoken, gray-haired Somali air chief said he hopes the U.S. will help the Somali Air Force with training, and eventually transport aircraft and helicopters.

“Number one is to train the people, pilots, technicians, air traffic controllers, navigators,” he said. “Then we have to have the machines.”

Mohamud cited transport aircraft as a first step in rehabilitating the Air Force.

“We need the air force to support the land force, to support the government, to assist when disasters happen,” he said. “To secure our airspace and sea.”

Off the coast of Somalia, piracy in the Gulf of Aden reached a fever pitch in 2008-2009, with hijackings along the busy maritime route that sometimes led to violence and often too high-priced ransoms paid out to criminal groups. Patrols by international partners have all but halted piracy, though Mohamud said illegal fishing is a new concern off the coast.

The al-Shabab threat to the population and state security persists.

“Al-Shabab we are fighting still, but we still have not eliminated al-Shabab,” Mohamud said of the ruthless Islamic terrorist organization that has kept the federal government weak. “They use land lines, and they attack our forces everywhere.”

The African Union mission in Somalia known as AMISOM aims to diminish the al-Shabab threat and gradually hand over security in Somalia to indigent forces.

The State Department has provided capacity-building to the so-called AMISOM TCC, or troop-contributing countries, which have included Uganda, Burundi, Djibouti, Kenya, Sierra Leone, and Ethiopia.

Still, Mohamud, dressed in a light blue shirt with navy blue wool beret embroidered with the Somali Air Force logo, and gold encrusted leaves on his shoulders, envisions a day when the Somali Air Force will lead the fight and be part of a joint effort to secure his homeland.

“If you have aircraft, you know how to fight al-Shabab,” he said.

“If you fight al-Shabab by the air and the land, you can eliminate them,” he continued. “We are starting from zero, from scratch. We need everything to grow. So, anything can help us.”

Space Force Plans Two New Exercises: Polaris Hammer and Black Skies

Jan. 26, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Space Force will debut a new training exercise this year, aimed at improving the service’s command and control capabilities, the head of Space Training and Readiness Command said Jan. 26.

The event, called Polaris Hammer, will happen sometime this fall, Brig. Gen. Shawn N. Bratton said during an AFA Air and Space Warfighters in Action virtual seminar.

“We had a request before STARCOM even stood up to develop a command and control exercise for the Space Force, really geared at the ops center level—so what would be the AOC equivalents, or for us the [Combined Space Operations Center] out of Vandenberg [Space Force Base, Calif.] or the National Space Defense Center here in Colorado Springs,” Bratton said.

STARCOM officially stood up this past August, making it the newest of three field commands under the Space Force. And with only a few months under its belt, the new command has plenty of work to do to develop the training doctrines and exercises that will shape the new service branch, Bratton said.

“We’ll have our first go here in [2022], and see how that goes and if we’re meeting the training objectives,” Bratton said of Polaris Hammer. “And then, of course, we continue to support the combatant command tier one exercises, getting after that. But … we need to develop a little more of that on the service side, and from my seat, really … tease out the doctrine we need to gain and maintain space superiority.”

That won’t be the only exercise that STARCOM organizes in 2022, though. Bratton said the command is set to host an “initial planning conference” in the coming weeks for an exercise called Black Skies, intended to be a more focused version of the Space Flag exercise.

“We do an exercise today called Space Flag that is probably most akin to Red Flag, but it’s sort of got everything in it, and it tries to be everything to everybody,” Bratton said. “I think we’ll break that out into pieces over time, starting with [electronic warfare.]”

That’s not to say the Space Force won’t continue to run Space Flag exercises, Bratton added, but they hope to develop more specific exercises “modeled” after the Air Force’s Flag exercises.

“I think there’s nothing too creative going on here, but we replaced ‘Flag’ with ‘Sky,’ and I see the Space Force going down that road of Black Skies, Blue Skies, Red Skies exercises to get after the needs of those specific training audiences,” said Bratton.

The Air Force uses Red Flag exercises for aerial combat training, Black Flag exercises as a way to test large weapons and capabilities, and Blue Flag exercises to train participants at the operational level. It also hosts Silver Flag exercises, in which civil engineers practice operating in a contingency environment, and Green Flag, a pre-deployment exercise for Air Combat Command flying units to practice close-air support and precision-guided munitions delivery.

And just as the Space Force is looking to refine its command and control operational capabilities, the Air Force will likely look to refine its own Blue Flag exercises, said Maj. Gen. Case A. Cunningham, commander of the USAF Air Warfare Center.

“Recently, I’m sure many of you saw the news release on the lead wings that came from Air Combat Command,” Case said. “And as we look at what it means to be a lead wing in an Agile Combat Employment environment, at wing-level C2 and distributed C2 in the contested environment, the 505th [Command and Control Wing] is also supporting those efforts to more fully develop what those kind of war games will look like to support Agile Combat Employment and make sure we’re rapidly iterating the capabilities there as we continue to get at that.”

New F-35 Lot 15-17 Deal Hung Up on Inflation, COVID-19 Mitigation Costs

Jan. 26, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Inflation estimates and COVID-19 mitigation costs are prolonging talks between Lockheed Martin and the F-35 Joint Program Office over prices for jets in Lots 15-17, company CEO James D. Taiclet told reporters Jan. 25. He also said the government is moving toward a five-year Performance-Based Logistics contract for the fighter, versus the three-year contract previously discussed.

The Lot 15-17 contract was expected to be inked between October and November 2021, JPO Director Lt. Gen. Eric T. Fick told reporters at the time, but sources have said the agreement may not be reached until March, or later.

Acting Chief Financial Officer John Mollard told reporters negotiations continue but “it’s proven more difficult than we expected to reach agreement on a cost baseline that incorporates the impacts that we see associated with our customer ordering fewer aircraft in Lots 15-17 than were ordered in the prior buys of 12-14.” He said the parties are also “struggling to come to mutual agreement on the impacts of global challenges that Lockheed Martin and our supply chain partners are experiencing, such as inflation and COVID-19.”

“We’ll continue to use a data-driven process for as long as it takes to reach agreement, based on what it’s actually going to cost to build these aircraft,” Mollard said. Both parties are working diligently “in good faith” to reach a deal, he added.

The company is “sticking to our economics,” Taiclet added, and “trying to make sure that our shareholders get an appropriate agreement … negotiated by our team.”

Lockheed aeronautics chief Gregory M. Ulmer said last year that prices for F-35s, which fell below $80 million per jet for the conventional takeoff model in Lots 12-14, would likely be higher in Lot 15-17 because the services are ordering fewer aircraft, and because the Block 4 model of the airplane has new capabilities that cost more.

Taiclet said Lockheed has made “great progress over the past year” in getting the F-35’s sustainment costs down. He said Lockheed, the Joint Program Office, the services and Pratt & Whitney “all realize we have a shared goal to reduce the cost per flight hour and improve the readiness rate of the jet and we’re all working together to do that.” He cited “some success” with “long lead-time spare part orders…through the system” that will put more parts “in the right place at the right time to reduce cost and improve the readiness rate.”

Lockheed has answered a request for proposal on a Performance-Based Logistic contract for the F-35 that focuses, “again, … on the supply chain side” and “less so the labor side.” This will involve better integration of planning for production and sustainment parts—earlier versions of the jet need different parts than those in the new-build aircraft. Taiclet said, “We did move it up with the program office to a five-year PBL” instead of the three-year plan that had been discussed previously.

“The bulk of the value will be in the parts flow, distribution, production, integration, etc.,” he said, adding, the company hopes to get the PBL negotiated “in the coming months or quarters.” Overall, “I think we’re really well on the road to having a much more coherent and integrated industry/customer/program office approach to sustainment.”

Mollard said there are now 753 F-35s in the field, and this will see a “compounded annual growth rate” of 15 percent. Flight hours on the F-35 are growing at 16 percent, he added.

The new plateau production rate of 156 F-35s a year is a consensus decision of Lockheed, its partners, and the JPO, Taiclet said.

“The last thing you want,” Mollard asserted, “is a sawtooth pattern, where you’re ramping up and ramping down.”

The company and the JPO “set a rate that we’re fairly comfortable will result in a production build tempo for the forseeable future,” Taiclet said.

“You have to invest in the capital phase for the peak” of that up-and-down cycle, he said, which is wasteful when there’s “overcapacity where the sawtooth trends down” and then new investment is needed “to bring it back up.”

Because the needs of the Air Force and Navy are “steady and reliable, 156 [aircraft] a year was the right investment level for Lockheed Martin and our supply base over time,” Taiclet said. It may trend up if international sales campaigns succeed in bringing in an expected 900 orders.

As far as a new engine for the F-35, the Block 4 version of which will require more power to meet requirements, Taiclet said he’s visited GE aviation and Pratt & Whitney and has seen their “impressive’ work on an adaptive-cycle engine that could fit the Lightning. Lockheed remains agnostic about which engine would be better, or if the Pentagon should simply go with an upgraded version of the F135 engine, which powers the fighter now.

“It’s up to the JPO, services, and the DOD” how to proceed with future F-35 power, he said. The situation is “evolving,” he said, toward a “wider-use case.”

55 Democrats Urge Biden to Adopt ‘No First Use’ Nuclear Policy

Jan. 26, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

A group of 55 Democratic lawmakers from the House and the Senate released a letter Jan. 26, urging President Joe Biden to declare a “no first use” policy for nuclear arms and to roll back the U.S.’s “reliance on nuclear weapons” in the Pentagon’s forthcoming Nuclear Posture Review.

The letter, spearheaded by Sens. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) and Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), and Reps. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) and Donald S. Beyer (D-Va.), called the NPR “a once-in-a-generation opportunity” to push for a reduction in nuclear arms.

To that end, the lawmakers encouraged Biden to:

Support diplomacy and negotiations with Russia and China;
“Declare that the sole purpose of nuclear weapons is to deter a nuclear attack on the United States and its allies, and that the United States will never use nuclear weapons first;”
Stop the deployment of the W76-2 low-yield Trident submarine warhead and the development of a new nuclear-armed sea launched cruise missile;
“Question the necessity of new nuclear weapons systems.”

The question of “no first use,” in particular, has been a hotly debated one over the past several months in the run-up to the release of the NPR. Biden previously has said the U.S. should move to a “sole purpose” policy, where American nuclear weapons are meant solely to deter nuclear use against the U.S. or its allies. Other Democratic politicians and advocates, however, have pushed for a “no first use” policy.

This past October, the Financial Times reported that U.S. allies, including the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Japan, and Australia, were lobbying Biden to reject a “no first use” policy, arguing that doing so would weaken deterrence against China and Russia.

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) and Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.) referenced that lobbying in a recent statement urging Biden not to change the U.S.’s nuclear policy, noting that “allies across the globe joined a bipartisan chorus in Congress to urge the administration to take a wiser, more measured path.”

The new Nuclear Posture Review is expected to be released in the coming months, but media reports about it have already sparked concerns among both arms control advocates and those pushing for nuclear modernization.

On one hand, the Democratic lawmakers noted in their letter that a recent Associated Press report indicated that Biden’s plans to significantly revamp America’s nuclear weapons strategy have likely been cut back in the face of Russian and Chinese aggression.

On the other, Inhofe and Rogers, the top Republicans on the Senate and House Armed Services committees, issued their statement in response to a Politico report that Biden’s administration was considering canceling several nuclear weapon programs approved by former President Donald J. Trump.

This is not the first time Democrats in favor of reducing and restricting the use of nuclear weapons have publicly appealed to the President. In 2016, Markey, along with nine other Senators, sent a letter to then-President Barack Obama with many of the same requests, such as a “no first use” policy and a rollback of modernization efforts.

In this most recent letter, though, the lawmakers added that they find it “concerning” that the Defense Department has not agreed to “a comprehensive, independent study of whether to pursue the new Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent”—the Pentagon has tapped the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace to produce a report on the future of the ICBM program, but arms control advocates have said that effort does not go far enough.

Only one member of the Senate Armed Services Committee signed onto the letter—Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.). Four members of the House Armed Services Committee signed—Garamendi, Rep. Andrew Kim (D-N.J.), Rep. Sara Jacobs (D-Calif.), and Rep. Ro Khanna (D-Calif.).

How the Burkina Faso Coup Could Impact U.S. Air Force Counterterrorism Operations

Jan. 26, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

AFRICAN AIR CHIEFS SYMPOSIUM, KIGALI, Rwanda—A military coup in the fragile West African country of Burkina Faso may prevent the U.S. Air Force from continuing vital counterterrorism surveillance and targeting efforts in an area where Islamic terrorism is growing, the Burkina Faso vice air chief told Air Force Magazine Jan. 26.

Presidential vehicles were found littered with bullets and soldiers mutinied across the country Jan. 23 while President Roch Kaboré disappeared from public view. Instead, French-educated Army Lt. Col. Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba declared he was in control and would end the reign of terror caused by Islamic militants. Burkina Faso citizens took to the streets in support of the military takeover, but a security expert tells Air Force Magazine that African military coups in the name of citizen security often create a vacuum that strengthens terrorist groups.

“I can’t even reach my chief of defense right now,” Burkina Faso Deputy Air Chief Col. Victor Beloum told Air Force Magazine in a French-language interview on the sidelines of the African Air Chiefs Symposium in Kigali.

Beloum said he left the capital Ouagadougou for the conference co-sponsored by U.S. Air Forces Africa just as the coup began to unfold.

“I’ve been trying to reach out and make contact with folks back home and haven’t been able to get a clear answer on what’s happening,” he said. “Hopefully, the United States will be by our side to be able to set up re -elections as soon as possible.”

In recent days, it was learned that the military dissolved the government, national assembly, and suspended the constitution, detaining the president and several members of his government.

While the State Department has not yet made a determination that the military takeover is permanent, it has temporarily paused most assistance, a U.S. Department of State spokesperson told Air Force Magazine. The military leader so far seems unfazed, dismissing condemnation from the regional Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS), which carries with it the threat of sanctions.

Beloum said the U.S. Air Force had been helping with training, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and targeting data that it shares with the Burkina Faso Air Force.

The State Department provides about $65 million in security assistance, primarily for peacekeeping operations, and the Defense Department provides another $30 million in counterterrorism assistance. When neighboring Mali suffered a coup in August 2020, the State Department cut off security assistance and military intelligence sharing halted. Both nations are part of the arid Sahel region of sub-Saharan Africa.

The five weak states of the Sahel have vast territories and uncontrolled spaces where Islamic State group and al-Qaeda affiliated group JMIN are known to exist. The U.S. Air Force operates ISR platforms out of the Sahel nation Niger from Air Base 101 and Air Base 201, contributing intelligence to French ground forces who have killed terrorist leaders in recent years.

But the terrorist threat has spilled into Burkina Faso.

In June 2021, 100 people were killed in the northern village of Solhan, an attack blamed on terrorists who crossed the border from Mali. In November 2021, another attack killed 50 members of security forces, according to press reports.

The United States has long assisted the five nations making up the G-5 Sahel group, and supported France’s Operation Barkhane, which began in 2014. But even though France rescued Mali from a terrorist siege on its capital in 2013, the citizens of the region have balked at the continued presence of 5,500 French troops. French President Emmanuel Macron has promised to cut his presence in half, preparing to diminish resources containing the threat.

U.S. African Command has been the lead behind confronting the African terrorist threat, but has yet to comment on what will happen when the French depart. The command is still assessing developments in Burkina Faso.

“Along with regional partners, U.S. Africa Command conducts military operations to disrupt, degrade, and neutralize violent extremist organizations that present a transnational threat,” AFRICOM spokesperson Lt. Cmdr. Timothy S. Pietrack told Air Force Magazine in a statement.

“We are following the reports of a military takeover of the civilian government in Burkina Faso,” he added. “The situation is still developing and we do not have any additional information to provide at this time.”

U.S. Air Force ISR Help

Beloum is worried that if U.S. assistance is cut off, his nation of 21 million people will have even less of a capacity to track and target terrorists.

The Burkina Faso Air Force only has three Super Tucano light attack aircraft, but most are grounded.

“It could take up to one and a half to two years to get the spare parts from Brazil so that’s a big showstopper right now,” he said. “The aircraft are not operational, they’re grounded right now.”

An American ISR platform that operates out of Ouagadougou is feeding the military vital intelligence.

“The United States Air Force actually is collecting intelligence and sharing it directly with Burkina Faso because we are lacking this ability,” Beloum explained.

The vice air chief described advances it hoped to work towards with U.S. Air Force assistance, including thermographic FLIR cameras and a Cessna ISR program.

In Burkina Faso, he said the U.S. Air Force collects intelligence on specific target areas, then works in conjunction with Burkina Faso intelligence agencies to queue in the ISR platform on areas of interest.

“They continue to collaborate and that really helps the mission progress because we can actually help to queue the operation and then do the analysis afterwards,” he said.

Beloum described the militant groups in a manner different from international reporting, which focuses on their ideological motivations.

“You have these groups that conduct terrorist attacks to try to discredit or dismantle national authorities so that they can continue to carry out their trafficking whether it’s drugs, arms, weapons, and gold as well,” he said.

The vice air chief acknowledged that there are groups with a political motivation, but he said “banditry” was the bigger problem.

“They’re conducting terrorism to carry out basically illicit activities and organized crime,” he said.

West African Coups Strengthen Terrorist Groups

With four military coups taking place in West Africa in less than two years, National Defense University scholar Joseph Siegle said militaries in the region are beginning to believe overthrowing civilian government is the solution to discontent in the ranks.

“We have a more assertive military, an attitude among some military actors that they have the right to intervene in governance in Africa,” he said.

In the case of Burkina Faso, the third G-5 Sahel country to fall to military rule in two years, citizen security against terrorism was cited as a rationale. But Siegel says military takeovers do not lead to greater protection from terrorism.

“That’s not what’s happening, the security problem is getting worse there,” he said.

“It sort of ignores that their main motivation to take power is to get to the trappings of power,” he added. “It isn’t somehow there to improve the security environment, we aren’t seeing that on the ground. So, it’s a beguiling narrative.”

A State Department spokesperson said embassy officials are still in contact with President Kabore’s government.

“We acknowledge the tremendous stress on Burkinabé society and security forces posed by ISIS and JNIM, but urge military officers to step back, return to their barracks, and address their concerns through dialogue,” the spokesperson said in a statement provided to Air Force Magazine.

Meanwhile, Beloum is already looking ahead, hoping the military will restore civilian control and relations with the United States Air Force will be preserved.

“I think the intention will be to hopefully maintain that partnership throughout this period as we try to quickly re-establish free elections ultimately to protect the civilians and make sure that that security is in place for the civilian populations,” he said. “I can’t really say for sure because like I said, I’m not in contact with my leadership.”

KC-46 Losses Now Top $5.4 Billion as Boeing Takes a New $406 Million Charge

Jan. 26, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Boeing’s losses on the KC-46 tanker program now amount to over $5.4 billion, after the company booked a $406 million charge against the program in its fourth quarter 2021 report, released Jan. 26.

It is the first Boeing charge on the KC-46 since the fourth quarter of 2020 when Boeing booked a $1.32 billion loss on the program, which brought cumulative losses on the Pegasus up to $5.037 billion at that point.

Boeing CEO David L. Calhoun, in a conference call with financial reporters, described the charge as due to “evolving customer requirements” on the KC-46. The Air Force is requiring Boeing to improve the performance of the tanker’s Remote Viewing System, which can create a distorted view of the situation at the back of the tanker for the boom operator, whose station is right behind the cockpit.

In addition to the RVS situation, the charge was driven by “factory and supply chain disruptions, including the impact of COVID-19,” a Boeing spokeswoman said after the earnings call. “While we continue to work closely with the Air Force on RVS 2.0, the KC-46 is currently successfully flying refueling missions with operators, having delivered more than 60 million pounds of fuel to a wide array of aircraft.”

Under the KC-46 fixed-price development program, Boeing is obligated to cover costs exceeding $4.9 billion, so program overruns now well exceed the company’s receipts on development.

Although a preliminary design review was expected to clear the new and improved RVS 2.0 to go forward in the fall, the Air Force recently said the system has not yet resolved deficiencies with the panoramic viewing system and the PDR remains “open.”

Air Mobility Command issued an “interim capability release” in December 2021 for more aircraft to refuel behind the KC-46. The new tanker is now certified to refuel nearly 70 percent of planned receiver aircraft.

“Despite the charge, which we don’t feel great about, by any respect, the tanker today is an incredible asset for our customer,” Calhoun said. “Our job is to continue to deliver the tanker and to do it more expeditiously as we move forward. The good news is, our customer likes the performance of the airplane, and again, we intend to serve that need.”

A Good Start for the T-7A

Calhoun said the Air Force T-7A trainer production line, “based on significantly improved development processes and modeling capabilities, is off to a very good start,” and “the efficiency associated with that process is being realized.”

Brian West, Boeing’s executive vice president and chief financial officer, said the company views the defense market generally as “stable” with bipartisan support for an increased defense budget. Despite the fact that “governments around the world are focused on COVID-19, security spending … remains a priority, given global threats.”

Company fourth quarter revenue “was $5.9 billion, down 14 percent,” West reported, “and operating margin was negative 4.4 percent. These results were driven primarily by lower volume and less favorable performance across the portfolio,” including the KC-46 charge.

West also noted that Boeing got a $7 billion order in the last quarter of 2021 to modernize Saudi Arabia’s E-3 AWACS aircraft. Boeing Defense System’s backlog now stands at $60 billion.

Accompanying documents also noted that Boeing is in flight test, along with Australia, of the “Loyal Wingman” unmanned aircraft, and has delivered the first KC-46 to Japan.

The documents show Boeing delivered 13 KC-46s in 2021, versus 14 in 2020, and delivered 16 F-15s to all customers—including international—versus four the year before. The U.S. Air Force has accepted two F-15EX Eagle II fighters, which are in concurrent developmental and operational test. The service plans to acquire 144 of the jets.