C-17 Crew Who Saved 153 During Afghanistan Evacuation Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross

C-17 Crew Who Saved 153 During Afghanistan Evacuation Awarded Distinguished Flying Cross

April 5, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Four Airmen who crewed a C-17 during the noncombatant evacuation out of Kabul, Afghanistan, in August 2021 received the Distinguished Flying Cross, the nation’s fourth-highest award for heroism, on April 1.

Lt. Col. Dominic Calderon, 1st Lt. Kyle Anderson, and Master Sgt. Silva Foster are Reserve Airmen from the 349th Air Mobility Wing at Travis Air Force Base, Calif., while Senior Airman Michael Geller is Active-duty and is assigned to the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska.

Last summer, those four Airmen were flying on a C-17 tasked with delivering the 82nd Airborne Division to help secure Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul when the capital city fell to the Taliban on Aug. 15.

Faced with a dynamic environment, the mission shifted to evacuating as many people as possible. The minimally-manned crew was able to adjust in chaotic conditions. As crowds of desperate Afghans swarmed the flightline, the C-17 flew out 153 U.S. citizens, allied partners, and vulnerable Afghans, according to an Air Force release.

“The conditions that day were like none I had ever seen,” Calderon said shortly after the mission. “The airfield was breached and there were mass crowds entering the airfield. Still, the crew performed well under enormous pressure. I couldn’t be more proud of the way the entire crew operated.”

Also honored during the ceremony was Staff Sgt. Dennis Gonzales-Furman, from the 437th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., who served as the aircrew’s flying crew chief during the mission in Afghanistan.

Calderon, Anderson, and Foster are the first mobility Airmen in the Reserve to receive the Distinguished Flying Cross since 2004, according to Maj. Gen. Matthew J. Burger, Air Force Reserve deputy commander. There are only 45 Reservists still serving who have been awarded the DFC. 

“This is a special honor for these Airmen and the entire 349th Air Mobility Wing,” Col. Jacquelyn Marty, 349th AMW vice commander, said in a statement. “Having these three Reserve Citizen Airmen recognized for their extraordinary achievement with this medal has woven them into our enduring history.”

Foster, who served as loadmaster during the mission, called the award “the biggest honor I ever experienced,” and Anderson cited the historic nature of the award, which has been given since 1926.

“For us to receive something like this is such an honor,” Anderson said in a statement. “It was an honor to serve alongside such an experienced pilot like Maj. Calderon and a loadmaster like Master Sgt. Foster. It was paramount to our success that evening to have all that knowledge and breadth of experience onboard.”

Digitalization and the Future of Aerospace Program Productivity

Digitalization and the Future of Aerospace Program Productivity

April 5, 2022 | By Dale Tutt

Aerospace development programs are challenged on almost every level imaginable today. Aerospace & Defense (A&D) teams continue to struggle with upfront planning as they start a new program. What tasks are needed? How long will each task take? And how many resources are required? Not having a good grasp at the outset of a program cascades into poor program execution, making it nearly impossible to meet budgets and schedules later in the process. All too often, resources don’t meet requirements, leading to an apparent lack of program discipline, especially when a new requirement emerges or there’s a change in scope. When electronic systems and software are added into the mix, the complexity increases exponentially.

In my nearly 30 years of working in product development, I can’t recall a time when there’s been so much complexity – and so much demand to go faster. A&D teams are without question facing a variety of challenges internally and externally – and yet, it’s also a time of great innovation and promise. 

Digitalization is emerging as the crucial advantage that modern aerospace programs can turn to in the face of so much complexity. Quite simply, digitalization increases productivity by providing visibility into how specific requirements impact downstream engineering and manufacturing. This can be achieved by using a comprehensive digital twin and digital thread, which provide a robust understanding of A&D products and processes. Digital thread-based solutions enable multi-disciplinary processes and weaves relevant data together to present a rich, full view of product, production and process in a coherent, actionable manner. 

Complexity is not something to shy away from, but rather it is something aerospace teams and their tier one suppliers should embrace and turn into a unique competitive advantage. Companies need to move faster. They must lower development costs to decrease production and operating costs. In my experience, successful companies are the ones who have the ability to quickly evolve their business models and out-innovate the competition.

Digitalization and digital threads enable customers to take complexity head-on, allowing greater productivity and innovation. A digital thread is a collection of integrated solutions, software and best practices digitalized to provide visibility, collaboration, automation and traceability within a key domain – connecting to other digitalized domains. Based on the industry needs there are seven areas where digital threads can help address this complexity and encompass the entire product lifecycle:

Program Management

Program planning and execution issues cause significant schedule delays and cost overruns, impacting profits and a company’s ability to invest and win future programs. Consistent program planning and execution excellence is essential to long-term company success, as companies are able to avoid cost overruns and schedule delays.

A digital thread for program management provides teams with a systems-based approach to project planning. It integrates cost, schedule, risk and technical requirements into a fully planned, resourced and budgeted program management solution. It provides one common solution and an integrated view across all domains of a company’s pursuit or program.

Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE)

As complexity increases there is significantly more information that needs to be managed. The document-based and disconnected systems and processes of the past are no longer able to manage this complexity causing schedule delays, cost increases, and lost opportunities – just to name a few. Companies are seeking model-based processes to automate tasks and simplify the management of the product and program data.

An MBSE digital thread can orchestrate the technical program and scope across the entire enterprise and lifecycle, providing the platform for faster and more efficient product development, even in the face of increasing complexity. By facilitating early analyses and simulations tied to requirements and functions, companies can reduce the consequence and impact of “issues” that have historically popped-up at system integration and evaluation. MBSE helps companies move from early system modeling to building the digital thread for the full program lifecycle, and delivers a better development experience and sets A&D teams up for faster success in the future.

Product Design and Engineering

The need to design and develop new products faster at less cost is driving A&D companies to seek new processes for designing and building aircraft. In many cases, companies are looking to adopt agile product development processes. Further, companies must now re-think their product design approaches to innovate and collaborate faster to reach specialized markets faster. As new materials and technologies become available, companies need solutions to quickly implement these technologies to be more competitive – in weeks, not years.

A product design and engineering digital thread can introduce agile engineering into a company. This digital thread encapsulates an integrated and open design ecosystem to accelerate product development by tackling the most complex problems in design and engineering with the best solutions for electrical systems, mechanical systems, and performance engineering. Further, this digital thread has the capability to transform classical engineering approaches to include new materials (composites, additive, electronics) and advanced user experiences (virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality). More than just 3D computer-aided design, the comprehensive digital twin provides multi-disciplinary design and optimization for electrical and electronics design, analysis and simulation, software management and manufacturing simulation.

Verification and Certification

Product complexity is driving new regulatory requirements, which increases the verification burden on companies for new products – increasing cost and risk of schedule overruns. To complicate matters, verification and certification costs have continued to increase, and now represent up to 75 percent of the product development costs, leaving little room in the budget for last-minute, discretionary items.

A digital thread for verification can help make certification an integral part of the overall product development process. It gives A&D companies a robust certification execution plan and incorporates all the needed certification activities within the overall program plan. This digital thread allows companies to create a cooperative relationship with the regulatory authority. Companies can more easily include the authorities within the planning, execution and auditing activities through a dedicated access within the product lifecycle management system.

Supplier Collaboration

Forces of globalization continue to affect the supply chain, partners and workforce.  Supply chains are distributed across the globe, making collaboration and effective management of the supply chain more difficult. Internal collaboration within product teams is also more difficult as the workforce becomes more dispersed, and more employees work remotely. Collaboration and innovation are stymied by document-based or siloed processes, and product certifications become unaffordable based on inefficient and out-of-date processes.

A digital thread for supplier collaboration can provide an interface between functional domains, and suppliers can be automated for improved collaboration. As a model-based process, it builds the comprehensive digital twin to link requirements to source selection and all contract deliverables throughout the product lifecycle. It enables data rights management and intellectual property protection for exchanged data throughout the supply chain, anywhere in the world.

Manufacturing and Production

As companies seek to optimize their production processes to improve quality and reduce cost, production environments require the ability to share data insights from current processes and turn this into actionable information with a digital twin. Companies are looking for a better way to manage capital-intensive manufacturing resources and processes, to accelerate their production ramp-up, and seek to incorporate new manufacturing technologies or concepts faster.

A manufacturing digital thread can orchestrate production processes and bring relevant production data to every aspect of program development. It proves concept viability of products by including manufacturing feasibility analyses through simulation early in the design process using the production digital twin. It validates production readiness with detailed manufacturing planning and virtual commissioning and incorporates design changes quickly to the factory floor to reduce re-work.

Maintenance and Support

A major driver of operational cost is unscheduled maintenance. Scheduled maintenance also increases operational costs. The end customer is seeking predictive health monitoring and on-condition maintenance procedures that can reduce the cost and schedule impacts of scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. To provide predictability of operational costs, many companies are turning to “pay by usage” of products. This is driving the need for higher reliability and better methods to estimate operational costs so that providers can make profit.

A maintenance digital thread can provide manufacturers, owners and service organizations a means to support complex products within a service management environment. This digital twin can plan the entire support system, including spares provisioning and service plans tied to the model-based configuration.

Figure 1: To address increasing complexity in the Aerospace and Defense Industry, Siemens Digital Industries Software has developed seven digital threads leveraging the Xcelerator Portfolio that cover the entire product lifecycle.

Turning Complexity into a Competitive Advantage

Through digitalization, aerospace manufacturers and their supply chain partners can make more powerful, better-informed decisions based on a robust analysis due to the full traceability inherent in a digital thread.  Digital threads not only address increased program complexity, but also increased levels of integration. As the foundation of a digitalization strategy, they enable Program Execution Excellence for A&D companies in a closed-loop process, while promoting organic learning across the organization and/or across multiple programs.

It is incumbent upon aerospace and defense companies to adopt digital transformation, and organizations like the U.S. Air Force, Northrop Grumman, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics and Boeing Defense are leading the way by embracing digitalization.  I’m excited to see what the future holds as A&D companies and teams of all sizes adopt these digital threads and discover how complexity can be a friend, not foe – and how digitalization lays the groundwork for untold and unimaginable innovation and success. 

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

Department of the Air Force Announces Candidates for STARCOM Headquarters

Department of the Air Force Announces Candidates for STARCOM Headquarters

April 4, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Six bases are being considered as the eventual home for the Space Force’s Space Training and Readiness Command, the Department of the Air Force announced April 4.

All five of the locations currently designated as Space Force Bases are under consideration—Buckley, Peterson, and Schriever in Colorado; Patrick in Florida; and Vandenberg in California. In addition, Los Angeles Air Force Base, which is set to be renamed Los Angeles Space Force Base, is a contender.

Site surveys of the bases will begin in late April or early May 2022, DAF said in a release, with assessments based on “mission, infrastructure capacity, community support, environmental considerations, and cost.”

At the moment, STARCOM is transitionally based at Peterson, in Colorado Springs, Colo. 

In addition to STARCOM’s headquarters, the department also detailed the state of the basing decisions for the five Deltas that help make up the field command.

Delta 1, which is focused on training, is permanently located at Vandenberg Space Force Base. 

Delta 10, focused on wargaming and doctrine, only has one candidate location being considered—Patrick Space Force Base, “because of its proximity to a Department of Defense modeling and simulation capability with resident space expertise,” according to DAF. Delta 10 is temporarily located at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Deltas 11 and 12, focused on range and aggression and test and evaluation, respectively, have the same two candidate locations: Schriever Space Force Base and Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. Both locations “offer existing range infrastructure that supports test, training, and exercise activities within close distance to range and aggressor stakeholders,” according to the department release. Delta 11’s temporary location is Schriever, Delta 12’s is Peterson.

Delta 13, focused on education, doesn’t have any candidate locations at the moment. The Department of the Air Force said it will conduct a strategic basing process for the Delta after the Space Force establishes its curriculum and structure. It is currently based out of Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

Site surveys for Deltas 10, 11, and 12, will finish in 2022, the department said.

STARCOM was the last of the Space Force’s three field commands to stand up, and it’s the last still looking for a permanent headquarters—Space Operations Command is headquartered at Peterson Space Force Base, and Space Systems Command is headquartered at Los Angeles Air Force Base.

Air Force graphic
F-16s to Serve Nearly Two More Decades, Replacement Choice Still 6-8 Years Away

F-16s to Serve Nearly Two More Decades, Replacement Choice Still 6-8 Years Away

April 4, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Additional budget documents set to be released later this month will start to map an improvement program for the F-16, to support that type serving almost another two decades, the service’s deputy chief of staff for plans and programs said. USAF doesn’t have to decide on what the F-16’s replacement will be until 2028 or later, he added.

The F-16 will be ideal for a variety of missions not requiring high-end stealth and survivability, Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom told Air Force Magazine in an interview. The jet will continue to be USAF’s low-end, multipurpose force builder.

The F-16 can be that “one airplane that can do a lot of low-end missions, and remarkably cheaper than a fifth-generation platform, and it can do them well,” he said. It can “satisfy an objective in the Middle East and a week later, fly [combat air patrol] over a point on the U.S., and do a homeland defense sortie. It’s pretty amazing. And do that at half … [the] operating cost of any other air platform we have out there.”

Nahom asserted that, “There’s a utility to that. That’s why you’re seeing the investment in the post-block, our latest-model F-16s. Because we think we can get another 18-20 years out of them.”

The A-10, he said, is a good close air support platform for increasingly rare situations where air defenses are thoroughly suppressed or nonexistent.

“But can it do homeland defense? Well, no. …There’s a lot of things an F-16 can do. And I’ll tell you, it does pretty good CAS, too.” The Air Force has limited resources, he said, and so it makes more sense to invest in an F-16 fleet that can do a host of missions rather than the A-10, which “can only do one.”

Rather than a high-low mix, Nahom said USAF’s future fighter force structure would be better described as a bell curve with the bulk being low/medium capability F-16s and medium/high capability F-35s. At the very low end would be a small number of aircraft only able to operate in permissive environments while the upper end would be aircraft like the F-22 and the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter, tuned to the most demanding conditions.

“So now, the question is, what replaces” the F-16, Nahom said.

“Let’s fast forward to the 2035/2036-ish timeframe. Is there still a need for that low-cost platform? I think, right now, there is,” he said. “And what does it look like? Do we replace it with another F-16-looking thing? Did the F-35 come down in cost enough where we can buy more of them? Is it something else? Is it unmanned at that point, because we can do things differently?”

All of that, he said, is “a question for another day. The good thing is, we don’t have to do anything right now. We’ve got 18-20 years of life left on 600-plus F-16s that are doing great work for our nation.” The decision on how it will be replaced is “probably six, eight years away,” he said.

In the meantime, USAF can concentrate on “getting the F-35 right,” recapitalizing squadrons with F-35s and F-15EXs, and increasing the overall capacity of the force, while developing the “NGAD family of systems and upgrading the [F-22] Raptor in the meantime.”

The Air Force doesn’t have to make any decisions about a near-term, low-cost manned platform because it has the post-block F-16s, Nahom said. And, though he acknowledged the modifications are “expensive,” he said, “for what we’ll get out of that airplane, it’s well-spent money.”

Nahom did not discuss what improvements will be coming for the F-16 or whether it will need yet another Service Life Extension Program (SLEP) structural upgrade.

A year ago, the Air Force began discussing its “4+1” fighter roadmap, which forecast a new fighter to succeed the F-16 in the 2030s. Called the “MR-X,” the fighter was notionally described as being “able to affordably perform missions short of high-end warfare.” It would be digitally designed and optimized with capability described as being “generation 4.5,” meaning short of a full stealth platform, to keep its cost down. Documents supporting the roadmap said the F-35 could be that aircraft if its purchase price could be “brought significantly lower,” or the MR-X could be a clean-sheet design built on the rapid turnover plan envisioned for the NGAD, in which new iterations or leap-frog designs appear about every five years.

Nahom said it’s essential to get out of the A-10 business on the planned schedule because the Air Force needs the manpower to maintain and support new platforms like the F-35 and NGAD.

“At some point, we’ve got to move the people that are operating and maintaining A-10s into the F-35s that are actively coming off the line right now,” he said. With unlimited funds, “we’d keep the A-10 as long as we could,” but the service must make choices and it is choosing a fleet that is the most versatile, he asserted.

Air Force Switches to Airman Leadership Qualities-based Feedback Forms

Air Force Switches to Airman Leadership Qualities-based Feedback Forms

April 4, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force replaced the Airman Comprehensive Assessment with a new Airman Leadership Qualities feedback form, which Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr has said will change how the service measures, motivates, and rewards service members.

The move is the latest by USAF leadership to integrate the Airman Leadership Qualities (ALQ) into the service’s training, feedback, and evaluation systems. The ALQs were first introduced in February 2021 and at the time were part of an optional companion document to the Airman Comprehensive Assessment, only for senior noncommissioned officers and officers from O-1 to O-6.

Now, the ALQ-based feedback will be mandatory for all Airmen across the Total Force; any ACAs not completed and signed by March 30 were automatically converted to ALQ feedback forms.

“Supervisors must complete ALQ feedback with their Airmen to access enlisted evaluations closing Sept. 30, 2022, or later, and officer evaluations closing Oct. 31, 2022, or later,” according to an Air Force Personnel Center release.

The Airman Leadership Qualities are broken down into four major categories—executing the mission, leading people, managing resources, and improving the unit—and include job proficiency, initiative, adaptability, inclusion and teamwork, emotional intelligence, communication, stewardship, accountability, decision making, and innovation. 

The ALQs will also form the basis for new officer and enlisted evaluation systems, which are slated to be released in late 2022 or early 2023, the AFPC release states. That marks a slight delay—in December, the service said the new evaluation systems would be released “later in 2022.”

These moves coincide with other changes to Air Force personnel management, such as the introduction of the new-look fitness test with alternate exercises and changes to how Enlisted Performance Reports are scored in the Enlisted Evaluation System. The service also unveiled its new Enlisted Force Development Action Plan on Jan. 12, outlining 28 force development objectives to be completed over the next two years.

For now, the ALQ-based feedback forms can be found in myEval, the new digital application the Air Force is switching to for its evaluation and feedback systems.

The Space Force, meanwhile, will continue to use the current feedback and evaluation programs as it continues to develop policies of its own.

B-52 Flies with F-22s, Nine Other Nations Over Middle East in Bomber Task Force Mission

B-52 Flies with F-22s, Nine Other Nations Over Middle East in Bomber Task Force Mission

April 4, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

A USAF B-52 flew through the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility on March 29, integrating with American F-22s and aircraft from nine other countries over the Middle East, U.S. Air Forces Central Command announced April 2.

The B-52 bomber, assigned to the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., flew over the East Mediterranean, Arabian Peninsula, and Red Sea after taking off from RAF Fairford in the United Kingdom, where it is deployed as part of a bomber task force mission.

The F-22s, from the 1st Fighter Wing at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., that joined the bomber have been in CENTCOM since February—a squadron deployed to the United Arab Emirates to respond to recent drone and missile strikes by Iranian-backed Yemeni Houthi rebels.

A KC-10 also joined the mission, refueling the B-52 over Saudi Arabia, according to images released by AFCENT.

The B-52 also flew with nine other nations’ aircraft, AFCENT commander Lt. Gen. Gregory M. Guillot said in a statement. According to official images released by AFCENT and other nations’ ministries of defense, those included Typhoons from the Royal Air Force, F-15s from the Israeli Air Force, F-15s from the Royal Saudi Air Force, F-15s from the Qatar Emiri Air Force, and F-16s and Typhoons from the Royal Air Force of Oman.

“With each bomber task force mission, [AFCENT] and partner air forces demonstrate the strength of regional airpower,” Guillot said in a statement “An unprecedented nine countries flew with our B-52 today, so this mission clearly signaled our ability to quickly bring forces to the theater and operate seamlessly with our partners during a training event that signals our combined commitment to regional stability and defense.” 

This is the second Bomber Task Force mission to fly in CENTCOM this year—the first took place Feb. 14, when a Minot B-52 flew from RAF Fairford and integrated with a pair of Marine Corps F/A-18s.

Senator: Delays to Picking Space Command HQ Pose Risk to National Security

Senator: Delays to Picking Space Command HQ Pose Risk to National Security

April 4, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

U.S. Space Command won’t reach its full operational capability for years if its headquarters moves to Alabama as planned, a U.S. senator contends—but the already-two-year-old command could get to FOC as soon as the end of 2022 if it stays at its temporary home in Colorado.

In fact, Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) told Air Force Magazine the command could have already reached FOC by now if not for the uncertainty surrounding where it will call its permanent home.

Both the Defense Department inspector general and Government Accountability Office are investigating the Trump administration’s decision to base the U.S.’s newest unified combatant command at Redstone Arsenal, Ala. 

Getting to FOC sooner matters because the military’s vulnerabilities in space affect “almost every aspect of our national security,” Hickenlooper said—even “our ability to deal with the Russian aggression you see in Ukraine.”

As for the five years he estimated the command could take to get to FOC in Alabama:  “We don’t have that time, in my opinion,” Hickenlooper said. “We need all hands on deck right now.”

Hickenlooper addressed the basing decision on the sidelines of touring a small company: Advanced Space of Westminster, Colo., which has an agreement with the Air Force Research Laboratory to share data from a mission to chart cislunar orbits for NASA.

The Department of the Air Force twice searched for U.S. Space Command’s permanent home base after it became the military’s 11th unified combatant command in 2019. The administration scrapped one list of finalists before then-Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper adopted a different process in which local communities got to make pitches. 

Members of Colorado’s congressional delegation have said former President Donald J. Trump gave the headquarters to Alabama “for political reasons,” and after his presidency ended, Trump took credit for the decision.

The command has awaited the outcome of the investigations from its temporary home at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs. Peterson was considered a favorite for the permanent basing decision because of its close connection to the Space Force and Air Force space activities historically.

“We can’t just kind of play politics and kick the can down the road like we’ve been doing,” Hickenlooper said. “We need to take things like Space Command, that have a mission that’s vitally important to this country, and make sure we do everything we can to get them full operational capability ASAP.” 

Hickenlooper said he didn’t think the search process took into account the time to get to FOC. 

Commander of U.S. Space Command Gen. James H. Dickinson said in congressional testimony March 4 that the basing decision is holding him back from getting to FOC “as quickly as possible.”

Though no matter the location, he estimated that the command is “a couple-three years away” from FOC “based on many things,” including “attracting the right expertise within the command, and making sure that I have trained those processes and procedures within the command to be able to do the entire mission set that I have been given.”

Meanwhile, the projected size of the command has shrunk, Hickenlooper said, suggesting it wouldn’t require any new construction at Peterson.

He and eight other members of Colorado’s congressional delegation addressed a letter to President Joe Biden on March 22, pointing out the national security implications of delaying FOC and urging the President to take into account the forthcoming findings of both investigations. 

The letter cites the urgency of U.S. European Command’s “efforts to monitor and respond to the situation in Ukraine” as well as the threat posed by Russia’s launch of an anti-satellite weapon in November 2021 that resulted in a problematic cloud of debris in low Earth orbit.

“As Russia’s war on Ukraine evolves, it is vital for USSPACECOM to maintain operational continuity, and achieve FOC without delay,” the lawmakers wrote. “We remain concerned that moving the combatant command headquarters will slow the progress toward full capability—a delta we cannot afford at this fraught geopolitical moment in history.”

“If we made up our mind tomorrow that that’s what we wanted to do, we could have them at full operational capability by the end of the year,” Hickenlooper said, referring to keeping the command in Colorado.

Gen. Frank Gorenc (Ret.): We Must Have an F-35 Engine Competition to Accelerate Change

Gen. Frank Gorenc (Ret.): We Must Have an F-35 Engine Competition to Accelerate Change

April 4, 2022

“When markets are competitive,” a new Department of Defense report says, “the Department reaps the benefits through improved cost, schedule, and performance for the products and services needed to support national defense.” The report also states that competition leads to a healthier industrial base, more innovation, and ultimately, better national security.

“We hear a clear call from the Air Force to ‘accelerate change.’ Competition is a great way to do it,” says Gen. Frank Gorenc (Ret.). “We have an opportunity in the near-term to introduce competition through a new engine for the world’s most advanced fighter, the F-35.”

Gen. Gorenc, who accumulated nearly 5,000 flight hours in his distinguished Air Force career, knows well the asymmetric advantage the U.S. holds in jet engine manufacturing. He wants to keep it that way.

There is widespread acknowledgement that the current engine won’t be able to accommodate the F-35’s future capabilities—hence Gorenc’s call for competition. The adaptive cycle engines currently being tested through the Adaptive Engine Transition Program (AETP) would offer game-changing capability for the F-35 and enable future capabilities for decades into the future. Engine manufacturers GE (who Gorenc consults for) and Pratt & Whitney are AETP’s two participants.

The Air Force’s stated goals for AETP engines include 25% better fuel efficiency, 10% more thrust, and double the thermal management capability over today’s engines. Those are eye-popping numbers to Gorenc. Having served in a number of high-ranking Air Force positions following his flying career, he recognizes the strategic options that kind of performance would open up for the Air Force.

That’s why he’s “really encouraged” by the request for information the Air Force released in January for the F-35 Adaptive Engine Replacement (FAER) program, as well as the continued investment in AETP requested in the Fiscal Year 2023 budget. It signals serious interest in bringing an adaptive cycle engine to the F-35, according to Gorenc.

“Moving forward from that RFI to an RFP for an Engineering and Manufacturing Development program is the only way to introduce a competition for F-35 propulsion. An upgrade to the existing engine means no competition. The Air Force has invested $4 billion-plus in industry since 2007 to bring these adaptive engines online. You have two companies that received equal contracts to build and test adaptive cycle engines, they both have, and now we have an opportunity to reap all the benefits competition brings to the table for a high-volume program,” he adds.

In reference to a proposed upgrade of the existing engine, Gorenc argues, “Along with not creating competition, an upgrade to the existing engine simply can’t come close to the performance of an adaptive engine. Right now, an upgrade exists only as a proposal.”

Meanwhile, Gorenc says the tests of both companies’ engines indicate considerable progress in maturing the new architecture of these engines—real engines producing real results.

Looking specifically at GE’s progress since December 2020, he highlights testing of its XA100 adaptive cycle engine, which includes ground test campaigns on two separate engines from the company’s Evendale, Ohio, facility. That testing has demonstrated the Air Force’s performance goals, and GE has revealed that its engine will not only fit the Air Force’s F-35A, but also the carrier-based F-35C. GE’s engine began further testing at the Arnold Engineering Development Complex in late March. Pratt & Whitney’s XA101 adaptive cycle engine, meanwhile, fired up in September 2021 and reported “amazing” results.

General Electric’s XA100 adaptive cycle engine in its Evendale, Ohio, test cell. Photo courtesy of GE

“So, we have long-term solutions for F-35 propulsion in AETP engines that have already seen significant investment,” Gorenc says. “Congress, leaders in the Pentagon, and industry agree that something must be done about the engine. I want the engine that gives Air Force pilots an overwhelming advantage for decades, not just an incremental upgrade that we’ll have to revisit over and over again.”

The F-35 is expected to be around for another 40 years. With double the thermal management capability of today’s engine, AETP engines offer room for the F-35 of the future to expand its mission capability with next-gen systems. That’s not to mention the lifecycle fuel and CO2 savings the AETP engines would produce, with second order impacts on the Air Force’s tanker fleet.

With more than 2,400 of these advanced aircraft expected to roll off the line in total, introducing a more capable engine would follow the lead of several 4th generation fighters that received a new engine, including the F-16, F-15, and F-14. “This is a normal evolution of a high-volume program like the F-35,” Gorenc says.

He concludes: “There are lots of people who are invested in the long-term success of the F-35 program. Those people should be invested in a competition for a new adaptive cycle engine. It’s the only path that keeps the F-35 relevant decades into the future. We owe our Warfighters the very best equipment—and the time is now.”

Gen. Frank Gorenc is a consultant with GE Aviation, which paid to publish this this article.  

DOD’s Sexual Assault Prevention Improving—But Still Found Lacking—in Pair of New Reports

DOD’s Sexual Assault Prevention Improving—But Still Found Lacking—in Pair of New Reports

April 1, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III released the findings of a 20-base review of sexual assault prevention and response practices within days of a congressional report that found additional focus needed on prevention along with “continued congressional oversight.” 

The Government Accountability Office published its latest recommendations March 24 in the report, “Sexual Assault in the Military: Continued Congressional Oversight and Additional DOD Focus on Prevention Could Aid DOD’s Efforts.” 

Meanwhile, the Pentagon’s “2021 On-Site Installation Evaluation Report,” posted online March 31, represents a new way ahead for the department.

GAO’s Findings

The GAO acknowledged that “DOD has taken a number of steps to address sexual assault” but found areas where it was lacking, including that its activities focused largely on response rather than prevention. 

DOD could improve prevention by working on its prevention strategy, improving how it measures the effectiveness of prevention efforts, and doing long-term strategic planning, the GAO found. It said DOD could better protect male service members and civilian employees who are victims, finding that “DOD was not tracking all reported work-related sexual assaults involving civilian employees.” 

The watchdog measured how the department had complied with 249 sexual assault-related statutory requirements enacted by Congress from 2004 to 2019 as well as with 30 prior GAO recommendations, finding that “DOD has made progress in addressing some of the recommendations, but sustained leadership is needed to ensure that the remainder of these recommendations are addressed.” Of the 249 statutory requirements, 191 were still in force as of the enactment of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act.

DOD’s Findings

In a March 30 memo by Austin that accompanied the Pentagon’s base-by-base report, he said he’d made “countering the scourge of sexual assault in the military a key priority” since taking office. 

The assessments undertaken for the 2021 On-Site Evaluation Report built on the findings of the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault in the Military. The commission called for “broad policy compliance checks, the assessment and development of prevention capabilities at each installation, … and site visits to a representative sample of military installations,” according to the memo.

The Pentagon report of installations said the DOD had made “steady progress in addressing sexual assault in the military” for a decade but still found “persistent challenges across areas of violence and climate throughout the force.”

Part of the report’s purpose was to hammer out a process for doing on-site evaluations in the future, and it recommends institutionalizing the process. Austin’s memo further sets forth that the evaluations should take place every two years.

Out of the 20 installations evaluated, four belong to the Department of the Air Force: Dyess Air Force Base, Texas; Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas; Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; and Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif. The on-site evaluations took place from November 2021 to January 2022 to verify how the bases assessed their own compliance with DOD rules; and to judge how well positioned each installation was to prevent assaults.

Bases were selected after a force-wide command climate survey done in the first six months of 2021 that asked about risk factors for sexual assault and protective factors. Risk factors included alcohol impairing memory, binge drinking, stress, passive leadership, toxic leadership, racially harassing behaviors, sexually harassing behaviors, and workplace hostility. Protective factors included cohesion, connectedness, engagement and commitment, fairness, inclusion, morale, safe storage for lethal means, work-life balance, leadership support, and transformational leadership.

Of the 20, some were selected because of their high risk factors on the climate survey and some for their high protective factors. Likewise, units at each base were named “units of interest” because of either high risk or high protective factors. 

Evaluators then looked at four categories of “alignment and compliance”—victim assistance, reporting, program/policy, and training—at each base and identified both “strengths to leverage” and “areas for improvement.” 

Dyess Air Force Base, Texas: According to the climate survey, Dyess placed among the less risky bases in the evaluation and one of the most protective—and it was one of only two given a “prevention quality confidence” rating of “high.”  The 7th Operations Group there was deemed a “promising unit.” Areas for improvement included clarifying who is responsible for sexual assault prevention training and appointing an alternative sexual assault response coordinator.

Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska: The combined base of Airmen and Soldiers scored riskiest of the four DAF bases and least protective. Areas for improvement included instability in the Sexual Assault Prevention and Response program because of temporary hires working as coordinators in a high-traffic location that could make victims uncomfortable.

Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas: Laughlin came in fourth out of 20 for protection while while also rating seventh-riskiest. Areas for improvement included budgeting, which had been cut; the fact that prevention activities were rarely performed; and that victims meet “with defense prior to trial, which may further traumatize the victim.”

Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif.: Because so few bases belong to the USSF, Vandenberg was included so the service would have some representation. Its risk score was third-lowest of 20, and its protective score was third-highest. Areas for improvement: Sexual Assault Prevention and Response staff had little understanding of their role; needed another person on the staff; and had limited interaction with the base’s “Violence Prevention Integrator.”