Federal Judge Blocks Air Force From Enforcing Vaccine Mandate for Officer at Robins

Feb. 16, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

A federal judge has blocked the Air Force from enforcing its COVID-19 vaccine mandate for an officer at Robins Air Force Base, Ga., issuing a temporary injunction Feb. 15.

U.S. District Court Judge Tilman Self III issued the ruling after the anonymous female officer, described in court documents as having more than 25 years of service and currently “in Reserve status, serving in an administrative role that doesn’t require deployment or engagement in physical military operations,” sued Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall, and Air Force Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Robert I. Miller, claiming that the department’s mandate was forcing her to choose between her career and her religious beliefs, in violation of the First Amendment and the Religious Freedom Restoration Act.

“All Americans, especially the Court, want our country to maintain a military force that is powerful enough to thoroughly destroy any enemy who dares to challenge it,” Self wrote in his order granting the temporary injunction. “However, we also want a military force strong enough to respect and protect its service members’ Constitutional and statutory religious rights.”

The Air Force officer is being represented in her case by lawyers from the Thomas More Society, which describes itself as a “not-for-profit, national public interest law firm dedicated to restoring respect in law for life, family, and religious liberty.”

“This is a great victory for religious freedom,” Stephen Crampton, senior counsel with the Thomas More Society, said in a statement. “ … It is disgraceful how the military in general has disrespected fundamental First Amendment rights. We are grateful that the court has restored the Free Exercise rights of this courageous officer and are hopeful that her victory will help to protect the rights of conscientious objectors everywhere.”

In arguing their case, the officer and her lawyers asked Self, who sits on the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Georgia, to grant a nationwide preliminary injunction stopping the vaccine mandate from being enforced across the entire DOD.

Instead, Self wrote that his ruling “will be narrowly tailored and will only apply to [the] Plaintiff.”

This is not the first instance of the courts siding with service members refusing to receive the vaccine. A federal judge in Texas granted an injunction in January for 35 Sailors claiming religious objections, and another district court judge in Florida did the same in early February for a pair of Navy and Marine officers

This does mark the first time the Air Force has been halted from enforcing the vaccine mandate.

“The Department of the Air Force is aware of the preliminary injunction and will abide by the Court’s Order until the matter is legally resolved,” Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek told Air Force Magazine in a statement. “The Air Force has no other comments about this ongoing litigation.”

In filings, the officer’s lawyers argued that as a devout Christian, she “sincerely believes that receiving a vaccine that was derived from or tested on aborted fetal tissue in its development would violate her conscience and is contrary to her faith,” adding that receiving “‘a novel substance of unknown long-term effects’ such as a COVID-19 vaccine would violate her belief that her ‘body is the temple of the Holy Spirit,’” Self noted in his ruling.

The officer has also followed rules requiring unvaccinated service members to test regularly for COVID-19, wear a mask, and practice social distancing while on base, her lawyers said. She requested a religious accommodation to the vaccine mandate, but her request and subsequent appeal to the Air Force surgeon general were denied.

Under rules set forth in a memo from Kendall, once the officer’s appeal was denied, she had five days to make a decision—start the vaccination process, request to separate or retire, or continue to refuse and face the start of administrative discharge proceedings.

The officer put in her retirement request, and as a result “stands to lose more than a million dollars in salary and benefits,” her lawyers said. With the temporary injunction, the Air Force is now prohibited from forcing her to retire.

“Very few scenarios paint a bleaker picture than giving up your livelihood in order to follow your religious beliefs,” Self wrote in his order.

According to the Air Force’s most recent data, more than 3,300 Airmen and Guardians have had their religious accommodation requests denied at the major/field command level, with more than 500 having their appeals denied. To date, just nine religious exemptions have been granted across the entire department. Thousands more are still pending. More than 150 Active-duty Airmen have been separated for refusing the vaccine

Meanwhile, 1,432 Airmen and Guardians have received medical exemptions to the vaccine, and 1,824 have received administrative ones—administrative exemptions can include those who have requested to separate or retire.

Self cited these other exemptions in his ruling, writing that they undermine the Air Force’s argument that not receiving the vaccine is incompatible with military service.

“It seems illogical to think, let alone argue, that Plaintiff’s religious-based refusal to take a COVID-19 vaccine would ‘seriously impede’ military function when the Air Force has at least 3,300 other service members still on duty who are just as unvaccinated as her,” Self wrote.

While a preliminary injunction has now been granted for the officer, her case will continue in court.

Only Small Inventories of Hypersonic Missiles in USAF’s Future, Due to Cost

Feb. 15, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The high cost of hypersonic missiles will likely drive the Air Force to build only small inventories of them, relying more heavily on other types of munitions such as lower-speed cruise missiles, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Feb. 15.

“Hypersonics are not going to be cheap anytime soon,” Kendall said on a streaming broadcast with the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “So I think we’re more likely to have relatively small inventories of [hypersonic missiles] than large ones, but that still remains to be seen, and hopefully, we can drive down the cost to where they’re more attractive.”

Kendall’s comments came the same day the Pentagon released an assessment of competition within the defense industrial base, raising an alarm that too much hypersonic expertise is being consolidated among too few companies, potentially leading to slow or little innovation and high costs.

Existing hypersonic projects such as the boost-glide AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW) and the air-breathing Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) will “continue … in one form or another,” Kendall said, and he’s unwilling to “pre-judge” their success.

“I think there’s room for both” boost-glide and air-breathing hypersonic cruise missiles “in our inventory,” Kendall asserted. However, air-delivered hypersonic weapons are at a disadvantage, he said, because “the idea of getting there fast is sort of countered by the fact that you have to fly the airplane there before you launch the missile. So you lose some of that advantage” versus forward-based ground- or sea-launched missiles. He said he doesn’t begrudge the Army pursuing hypersonics for long-range strike because the Air Force is happy to have help in knocking out air defense systems and redundancy gives an enemy more dilemmas.

But, “the specific applications are going to have to be based on cost effectiveness and a number of other factors.”

Kendall reiterated previous comments that the U.S. and China, which is pursuing hypersonic missile technology aggressively, have different weapons needs based on their strategy. China aims to keep U.S. forces at a long distance, while the U.S. needs hypersonics mainly as a deterrent, Kendall said. The U.S. needs to be able to hit a multitude of moving targets, and “earlier versions of hypersonics tend to be [optimized more for] fixed targets.”

He said it “isn’t obvious that just because China’s doing hypersonics,” the U.S. should pursue them the same way. “And the quantities that we need might be different, certainly, than the quantities they would need.”

Kendall wonders whether “you could do the job with cruise missiles at less cost, [but] just as effectively?” Hypersonic missiles are useful “but they’re not the only way” to hit the time-sensitive targets the Air Force needs to strike.

“You could penetrate defenses with stealth and countermeasures, and so on, with a combination of tactics,” Kendall said. “So we need to look across the spectrum and make smart decisions about the munitions we buy.”

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall speaks with retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula during a virtual Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event on Feb. 15, 2022.

Asked if his publicly stated “disappointment” with the performance of the ARRW, which despite multiple attempts, has not yet made a complete free flight, means he might cancel it and shift resources to HACM, Kendall was noncommittal.

The ARRW “has had some test problems,” he acknowledged. “That’s not unusual in a development program.” The Air Force is still investigating the most recent test failure, and he hopes “that we’re learning from that experience.” But the service will have to “make some decisions about that weapon system, … like everything else,” depending on the results of the investigation.

Consolidation among defense suppliers is also a factor in moving the technology forward, according to the Pentagon study released Feb. 15.

On the heels of Lockheed Martin abandoning its bid to merge with Aerojet Rocketdyne after the Federal Trade Commission sued to block the deal, the Pentagon warned that “vertical integration” is harming competition in the hypersonics field.

“Many primes, first-tier subcontractors, and first-tier material suppliers are positioning themselves to acquire lower-tiered hypersonic contractors and material suppliers,” the report said, not specifically discussing the Aerojet Rocketdyne deal.

“This vertical integration will likely lead to reduced competition and may eliminate it altogether,” it said.

Further consolidation “will effectively prevent any other company from entering the market, thereby leading to reduced or limited competition, and capacity issues for the future,” the Pentagon said. That, in turn, would lead to sole-source contracting, which the Pentagon said would slow innovation and raise prices.

What F-22s Arriving in UAE Can Offer After Recent Iranian-Backed Houthi Attacks

Feb. 15, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

F-22s from the 1st Fighter Wing landed at Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, on Feb. 12, fulfilling a pledge by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III to deploy fifth-generation aircraft to the Gulf nation.

The fighters are from the 27th Fighter Squadron based out of Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., the Air Force announced in a release.

“Through the vital support of the 192nd Wing and the 633rd Air Base Wing, we were able to get the 27th Fighter Squadron out the door on short-notice,” Col. William Creeden, 1st Fighter Wing commander, said in a statement. “Our Raptors are modernized, highly capable fighters, operated by the finest Airmen, and they bring decisive airpower wherever they go.”

The decision to deploy fifth-generation fighters, instead of F-15s or F-16s, presents several advantages for the U.S. and UAE in their efforts to combat the recent airstrikes, retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, told Air Force Magazine.

“The fact of the matter is, either the F-35 or the F-22 has a series of sensors that can provide an integration of sensing modalities and capabilities that no other combat aircraft has,” Deptula said. “And so they can then take that information and turn it into an actionable decision, again, in a fashion that no other combat aircraft can, and use that synthesized information to effectively counter whatever threat happens to be posed.”

Austin made the commitment in the wake of escalating drone and missile strikes against the UAE launched by Iranian-backed Houthi rebels from Yemen. Several of the Houthi missile attacks specifically targeted Al Dhafra, killing several people and forcing American troops to shelter in bunkers. Americans launched Patriot missiles in return. But with F-22s, commanders in the region will have greater situational awareness, Deptula said.

“Remember that after the Russians moved S-400s into Syria, there were no aircraft that flew inside of Syria without F-22s being airborne—not because they needed to be there to shoot down other airplanes, but because of the ability to gain and maintain situational awareness and to provide it to the other aircraft that were operating in the area,” Deptula said.

In a Feb. 1 phone call with Crown Prince Mohammed Bin Zayed Al Nahyan, deputy supreme commander of the UAE Armed Forces, Austin said he would send fifth-generation fighters, as well as the USS Cole, to the UAE to bolster its defenses. Commander of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. later specified in an interview with a state news agency that the aircraft would be F-22s.

The F-22’s stealth capabilities could also prove useful. McKenzie said in his interview, “We would like to work against drones what we call ‘Left of Launch,’ [which means] before they can be launched.”

“Fifth-gen aircraft have a degree of sensor integration and capabilities that no other combat aircraft have,” Deptula said. “At the same time, they have the ability to operate in contested airspace without being observed, which provides and yields great advantages if you’re going to employ weapons with respect to a particular situation,” he continued. “So it helps achieve the objective and advantage of surprise, and the sensor integration provides a degree of situational awareness that no other combat aircraft can provide.”

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors arrive at Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, Feb. 12, 2022. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Chelsea E. FitzPatrick.

Department of the Air Force Leaders Will Pick Tech Winners, Losers Based on What’s Fieldable, Kendall Says

Feb. 15, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Secretary Frank Kendall and his two service Chiefs are sifting through Department of the Air Force technology efforts in search of the ones most likely to “make a difference” and be fielded, with plans to discard the ones that might be a lab success but impractical for operational service. The culling will be concluded in time for the fiscal 2024 budget request.

“In a world in which we were by far the dominant military power, we could afford to let a thousand flowers bloom,” Kendall said in an event streamed by the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “We can’t do that anymore. We’ve got to focus our efforts on the things that we really need, or that are going to make the greatest difference on the battlefield.”

“We’re going to try to do some sorting, if you will, to make sure we’re focused on the things that have the highest payoff,” he added.

Kendall said he’s trying to bridge the so-called “valley of death” between laboratory successes and programs of record that lead to fielded systems. Too many concepts have “piled up” to pursue them all, he said.

“You have to be disciplined about the things you start,” Kendall said. “I’ve seen a few projects—I’ll be blunt—that I don’t think are ever going to go to the field, whether they’re successful or not. I’ve seen a few others that almost certainly should go to the field if they’re successful. And we need to distinguish [between] those two and emphasize the ones … in the latter category.”

Kendall, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond “are all going to be sitting down, looking at all of our programs in the [science and technology] world, particularly the demonstration projects, and trying to make a determination about whether we think that they will make the cut,” he said. The criteria will be cost effectiveness and affordability, “whether they would be operationally viable,” and whether “they’re going to confer an operational advantage that matters,” Kendall added.

Those that “meet those tests, we’re going to make sure they’re funded to go on” in the coming five-year plan, Kendall said. “And we’re going to try to accelerate the transition wherever we can.” Those not making the cut will get more analysis with an eye toward cost-effectiveness.

Many such projects sound good on paper, but those pushing them “don’t necessarily think through all the implications” of what fielding them would entail.

Kendall said there’s “no shortage” of innovation or technology, but “we need to make smart decisions” about what to pursue. While it’s too late for these choices to affect the fiscal 2023 budget submission, now in its final stages, Kendall said the work will be done in time for the 2024 budget request.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall speaks with retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, during a streamed event on Feb. 15, 2022.

“Enough work has been done on the tactical level” to convince Kendall that the time is right to launch programs that will produce unmanned flying teammates for manned fighters and bombers.

“The technologies are coming together” in machine learning, autonomy, and aircraft design so that an unmanned fighter teammate could emerge at the same time as the Next Generation Air Dominance fighter, Kendall said. Such an unmanned fighter will be able to work with the F-35, he added.

“There are a lot of possibilities,” he asserted. Manned-unmanned teaming “opens up to you … some really interesting technical options that you don’t have when you only have manned aircraft, so we’re going to go forward with that,” he said.

“We’ll need a platform upon which to embed those technologies as they mature … [to] get to what I’ll call a minimum viable product.”

A bomber escort would be a different kind of platform, he said.

“I think there’s a lot of potential there as well, but I’m not as certain about what the rules of the uncrewed platforms are,” Kendall said. Would the unmanned platforms simply be off-board carriers of munitions, “or do they have more sophisticated functions? … And what degree of stealth might be appropriate?” Conceptual work is underway to make those determinations and “what the right mix is there.”

While he wouldn’t give a timeline as to when these systems would be in the hands of developmental testers and doctrine-writers, “My mantra for acquisition is, ‘Get meaningful military capability to operate as quickly as possible.’ And some of the programs I mentioned earlier, the technology programs, they’ll continue in parallel.” The unmanned aircraft, for example, will come along in “roughly the same timeframe” as NGAD.

“I believe operator experimentation is going to be a big part of this,” he added. Operators are very creative about “ways to use things that engineers like myself didn’t necessarily think about. And so we need to make that opportunity available as soon as we can.” He said it might be possible to do this work in simulation before the hardware is available, and “I hope we get the opportunity to do that as well.”

He also noted that his top seven technology priorities all have “co-chairs” leading them—“an operator and an engineer.” That way there will be constant feedback between what the operators need and what engineers can feasibly provide.

“I’ve felt for decades that this is the right way to approach this,” he said. Handing requirements to an engineer and waiting for the ultimate product “doesn’t work very well.”

Kendall’s imperatives, which he laid out in December, are:

The space order of battle
Air base resiliency
Advanced Battle Management System
Air and ground moving target indication
Supply chain
The new unmanned fighter escort
The unmanned bomber escort.

USAF Should Take Advantage of Secondhand Parts Market, Pentagon Nominee Says

Feb. 15, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

As the Air Force looks to boost its aging aircraft’s mission capable rates and to control sustainment costs, the Defense Department should encourage the service to take full advantage of the secondhand market for parts, the nominee to lead the Pentagon’s sustainment enterprise told Congress on Feb. 15.

Christopher Lowman, nominated to serve as assistant secretary of defense for sustainment, told the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing that “used serviceable material,” or USM, which includes everything from engine parts to avionics systems, could be part of “addressing supply chain risk and building resilience” for the Air Force fleet.

Lowman’s comments were prompted by a question from Sen. Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), who noted that the Pentagon already has a used serviceable material program, whereby the Federal Aviation Administration provides the DOD with parts from Boeing’s 737 and 767 aircraft. The Air Force’s C-40 Clipper and KC-46 Pegasus are based off those planes, respectively.

The USM program’s savings are projected at $1.5 billion over the next seven years, Duckworth claimed. But it is not standardized and, in some cases, is harder to use than more costly options, she added.

“I’ve seen reports where purchasing officers have a program … function on their keyboard F7, where they just hit a function and it populates a form and they can buy brand new parts. But it is multi steps to use this program that exists for used parts,” Duckworth said, asking Lowman how he would incentivize or even require offices to use the USM program.

USM programs are nothing new in the commercial sector, Lowman noted. Indeed, the market accounts for billions of dollars, and observers have predicted the COVID-19 pandemic could lead to a surge in secondhand spare parts available.

The Air Force and the other services should be free to pursue that market, Lowman said.

“If confirmed, I’ll work closely with the services … to make sure there are no policy barriers to use of the USM,” said Lowman. “And I would work with the interagency community, in particular the FAA, to make sure that the necessary airworthiness documentation is available to guarantee the life of the part—the repair history, for example; the hours currently consumed by that particular part. So I look forward to taking this on.”

Lawmakers in Congress have become increasingly concerned about the cost of spare parts, as programs such as the F-35 and KC-46 have run into issues with sustainment that have cost tens of millions of dollars.

Sustainment of legacy fleets, meanwhile, has become a contentious topic at the Pentagon and in Congress as the Air Force looks to retire older aircraft and take the money used to keep them flying to procure new systems. Observers have noted, though, that this may result in a short-term decrease in readiness, with Duckworth expressing particular concern about the service’s airlift capabilities.

“It’s really a balance … between modernization and sustainment, and the need to appropriately allocate the resources to sustain our current capabilities, especially in the inter- and intra-theater lift, as you noted, but also to modernize those fleets in a sustainable fashion over time,” Lowman said.

“The second balance … is the balance across the Active and reserve components, to make sure that the resources the reserve components need to sustain their fleets [are available], and that they have the sufficient lift capability built into the [combatant command] logistics plans, so that the Department not only sustains the lift capability that they need, but also modernizes that over time.”

UCMJ Changes

Also during the Feb. 15 confirmation hearing, the nominee to become the Air Force’s top lawyer pledged to review staffing levels to ensure the Department of the Air Force has enough people and resources for its special victims office.

Peter J. Beshar, nominated to be general counsel for the DAF, made that commitment after being prompted by questioning from Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Gillibrand noted a 2020 DOD inspector general report that found that the Air Force had assigned special victim-certified prosecutors to six percent of eligible cases, “by far the lowest among the services,” she said.

“Fostering a culture of integrity and inclusion within the department is extraordinarily important. I think that diversity is what makes the Armed Forces the greatest in the world. I am not familiar in my current position outside of government with the level of staffing, but certainly trying to have a number of qualified investigators able to look into those types of matters would be important, and if confirmed, I would work toward that goal,” Beshar told Gillibrand.

Earlier in the hearing, Beshar seemed to agree with comments from Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.), who noted that recent reforms to the Uniform Code of Military Justice, which takes the decision to prosecute certain crimes like sexual assault out of the chain of command, will take time to implement. The 2022 National Defense Authorization Act gives the Pentagon two years to enact those changes.

“The changes that the Congress [has] approved, taking specific crimes out of the chain of command, as well as the IRC recommendations that have been embraced by the Department of Defense, are substantial undertakings, and they’re going to require really sustained commitment from military commanders across the field, as well as the other senior leaders within the organization,” Beshar said. “And so the goal is to get it right, naturally, and if confirmed, that’s what I would try to do.”

Inhofe added, “And to get it right, it does take time, sometimes.”

‘Cautious Optimism’ as Moscow Hints at Diplomacy, Withdrawal Ahead of NATO Meeting

Feb. 15, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

NATO defense ministers from across the alliance arrived in Brussels on Feb. 15 eager to verify Russian claims that it is withdrawing forces and open to a diplomatic solution to end the Russia-Ukraine crisis, even as tens of thousands of Russian troops remained on Baltic borders.

With more than 130,000 Russian troops surrounding Ukraine on three sides and a continuous buildup of military equipment, Russian President Vladimir Putin appeared to change course Feb. 14. In a televised exchange with Putin, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov suggested a diplomatic solution was still possible. Meanwhile, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced Feb. 15 that some units had completed their tasks and were returning to their military garrisons.

But NATO is hesitant to take Putin at his word.

“What we need to see is a significant and enduring withdrawal of forces, troops, and not least [of which] the heavy equipment,” NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said at a pre-ministerial press briefing Feb. 15, in response to a question about Lavrov’s comments a day earlier.

“So far, we have not seen any de-escalation on the ground from the Russian side. Over the last weeks and days, we have seen the opposite,” Stoltenberg added. “A continued military buildup with more troops, more battlegroups, more high-end capabilities, artillery, air defense missiles, and a lot of support elements that makes it possible for Russia to move into Ukraine for full-fledged invasion or a more limited military incursion with hardly any warning time at all.”

However, Stoltenberg said there is “some ground for cautious optimism” based on the signaling from Moscow.

A Russian Ministry of Defence article Feb. 15 describing joint exercises with Belarus and planned live fire exercises Feb. 19, also mentioned that some troops were preparing to return.

“The units of the Southern and Western military districts, having completed their tasks, have already begun loading onto rail and road transport and will begin moving to their military garrisons today,” the story read.

U.S. permanent representative to NATO, Ambassador Julianne Smith, told reporters early Feb. 15 that she was hopeful for a diplomatic solution and that claims of a drawdown by Russia must be verified.

“This is something that we’ll have to look at closely and verify in the days ahead,” Smith said during a teleconference from Brussels, noting that Russia made a similar claim in late December.

“What’s important is that we try to verify based on the fact that we’ve seen other instances in the past where Russia has claimed to be de-escalating, and in fact, facts on the ground didn’t prove that to be true,” she added.

After the comments, reports emerged that Ukraine’s defense ministry and two banks came under cyberattack. Defense officials have of late voiced concerns that Russia would commence any conflict with cyber, informational, and hybrid warfare tactics.

Meanwhile, the ranking members of House committees for Armed Services, Foreign Affairs, and Intelligence introduced a bill to sanction Russia now instead of threatening sanctions should Putin order an invasion of Ukraine. The bill cites Russia’s military buildup and the hybrid warfare tactics already committed against Ukraine, and calls for additional support to Ukraine and allies on NATO’s eastern flank.

U.S. Force Movements to Deter Russia

Smith underscored that the U.S. and NATO position was two-track: to pursue diplomacy by welcoming continued dialogue with Russia; and to reinforce NATO against potential Russian aggression.

The U.S. has already unilaterally reinforced eastern flank allies by sending 5,000 troops to Central and Eastern Europe, including 3,000 Soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to Poland and 1,000 from a U.S. Stryker squadron at Vilseck, Germany, to Romania.

Stoltenberg said the U.S. additions are meaningful.

“I saw the Stryker units coming into Romania, coming into Constanta, and there are more U.S. planes, there are more German, Italian, and other allies [who] have also stepped up,” he said.

In addition to troop movements, the U.S. Air Force has now sent eight F-16s and 16 F-15s to the eastern flank.

Eight additional F-15s from the 336th Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter Wing, at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C., deployed to Lask Air Base, Poland, on Feb. 14 to augment the eight F-15s already there from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., U.S. Air Forces in Europe confirmed to Air Force Magazine. Eight F-16s from the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, deployed to Fetesti Air Base, Romania, on Feb. 11. The fighter jets in both locations will take part in NATO enhanced air policing missions and joint training.

The U.S. also maintains on high alert an additional 8,500 troops in the United States to act as a NATO Response Force if called upon.

A NATO official from the eastern flank told Air Force Magazine the alliance has “not seen anything specific” with regard to threats emanating from Russia, but that hybrid activities, including propaganda against border areas of Poland, Lithuania, and Latvia, continue.

A heavy Russian troop presence in Belarus, which borders the Baltic countries, is also worrying because it has shrunk indications and warning time.

The official said the Alliance is watching Russian activities closely to see if actions match recent statements.

“I think everybody is waiting and watching with caution for those messages to be confirmed,” the official said.

A Feb. 14 move by the Russian lower house Duma to draft resolutions recognizing the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk, in southeast Ukraine, as independent states also worries NATO.

“That would obviously be a new shift in in the escalation,” Smith said, adding that the recognition would violate Ukraine’s territorial integrity and break Russia’s commitment to the Minsk protocol, which reduced conflict in 2014 after Russia invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea.

The NATO eastern flank official also cited the Duma resolutions as concerning.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III was scheduled to leave Washington, D.C. Feb. 15 to attend the Meeting of NATO Ministers of Defence, scheduled for Feb. 15-16, before traveling on to Poland and Lithuania, where he will meet with his counterparts and American troops. Before leaving Brussels on Feb. 17, Austin and the other defense ministers of the 30-member Alliance will meet with the defense ministers of aspiring members Ukraine and Georgia.

Putin has made clear that he does not want NATO to expand eastward, and he has specifically called for barring Ukraine and Georgia from entering the alliance. NATO and the United States have stood firm on the so-called NATO “open-door policy” that allows any country to pursue membership.

Still, NATO leaders believe there is a possibility of averting a Russian invasion.

“We believe the best path is through dialogue and de-escalation. And we have urged them at every turn to come back to the table,” Smith said of dialogue with Russia. “We do not understand fundamentally, none of us do, what is inside President Putin’s head. And, so, we cannot make any guess how, where all of this is headed.”

Electronic Warfare Guardians’ New Homegrown, Fast-Deploying Spectrum Monitoring Tool

Feb. 15, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

Members of the Space Force’s 16th Space Control Squadron put their heads together to figure out the features they’d want on a mobile spectrum monitoring tool to detect electromagnetic interference, and they’re building the system themselves.

Described as experimental, the Multiband Assessment of the Communications Environment, or MACE, can load up onto a single aircraft pallet. Once it’s in the field, no one need stick around—the Guardians have designed it to run remotely and for linked MACE systems to ferry data from one to the next.

The squadron is part of Space Operations Command’s Space Delta 3, which is dedicated to space electronic warfare. Space Delta 3’s headquarters is at the Peterson-Schriever Garrison, Colo.

Paying for the project with “delta innovation funding,” the creators—Tech. Sgt. Vince Couch and Master Sgt. Robert Hicks III—wanted MACE to be able to deploy quickly to tough places, according to a news release. Their design incorporates a Giggasat FA-150 antenna to “aid in detecting and identifying electromagnetic interference.”

“Due to its small size, MACE has the ability to significantly cut down on deployment timelines while increasing the ability to access challenging deployment environments,” Tech Sgt. John Idleman, the squadron’s mission assurance engineer, said in the release. “MACE can be deployment ready in one day following ops checks.”

The squadron stated that the spectrum monitoring tool could help the Space Force “compete in strategic competition.”

“It is truly a story of grassroots innovation at the tactical level,” said the squadron’s commander of operations Maj. Kevin Aneshansley in the release. Members “worked hard to think outside the box to develop a capability that could inform defensive space electromagnetic solutions.”

The Space Force has flagged the prospect of electromagnetic warfare as “a tremendous risk to the viability of military spacepower,” according to the service’s “Space Capstone Publication: Spacepower Doctrine for Space Forces.”

In addition to detecting interference, the command causes it. Space Delta 3’s 4th Space Control Squadron operates the Counter Communications System Block 10.2, which went into service in 2020, and is the service’s “first offensive weapon.”

Russia Paves the Way for Ukraine Invasion as Austin Travels to Eastern Flank

Feb. 14, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III departs Feb. 15 for a NATO defense ministerial meeting in Brussels and for meetings with his Polish and Baltic counterparts that will take him to the Russian border just as U.S. intelligence predicts an imminent Russian invasion of Ukraine.

“This will not be bloodless. This will not be easy,” Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said from the briefing room podium Feb. 14 while discussing the implications should Russian President Vladimir Putin order an invasion of Ukraine.

“[Russia] clearly has shown aggressive tendencies here,” he added—”an alarming buildup of military capabilities. And certainly [he] has shown no sign yet of being willing to de-escalate … to take those capabilities off the table and to find a real diplomatic path forward.”

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, in a televised Feb. 14 exchange with Putin, seemed to suggest that a diplomatic solution was still possible.

When asked by Putin whether there was a chance of reaching an agreement to address Russia’s security concerns, Lavrov said:

“It seems to me that our possibilities are far from exhausted,” he said, according to press reports. “At this stage, I would suggest continuing and building them up.”

Over the weekend, President Joe Biden spoke to Putin by telephone with no resolution to the crisis, while on Feb. 11 from the Pentagon, Austin spoke to his NATO ally counterparts in Poland, Germany, Canada, France, Romania, and Italy about the Russian military force posture around Ukraine.

Austin also ordered the remaining 1,700 Soldiers from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division to Poland for a total of 3,000 troops, and he directed 160 members of the Florida Army National Guard who had been deployed to Ukraine since November on a training mission to re-position elsewhere in Europe.

“It is obviously not the safest place for them to be,” Kirby said in response to a question from Air Force Magazine. “Given the mosaic of the information that we’ve been getting over the course of the last 48 hours, and the information we continue to receive even as early as today.”

Russian Preparation Continues

Kirby also described Russia’s military buildup on the Ukrainian border, citing an estimated 130,000 Russian troops rounding Ukraine on three sides, including Russian “infantry, its armor, its artillery, its air missile defense, as well as offensive air.”

Kirby said Putin’s sizable naval power on the Black Sea includes at least six Landing Ship, Tank (LST) vessels designed for delivering troops ashore. The spokesman also said Russia is expected to precede any conflict with cyber operations, information operations, and hybrid operations that could cut off Ukrainian communications to the outside world.

In recent weeks, Ukraine has been approved to receive third-party transfers of American-made air defense systems from its eastern flank neighbors, including Stinger man-portable air-defense systems. However, Kirby confirmed to Air Force Magazine that no U.S. personnel would be in Ukraine to help train on the air defense systems.

Currently, the U.S. Air Force with Ukrainian permission flies a variety of intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft in Ukrainian airspace, including the high-altitude, long-endurance unmanned RQ-4 Global Hawk, the RC-135 Rivet Joint, and P-8 Poseidon, among other aircraft, a Ukrainian defense official told Air Force Magazine.

“Global Hawk is flying regularly over Ukraine,” the official said. “All types of ISR aircraft are flying regularly.”

Kirby said the U.S. government has been transparent in its intelligence sharing with Ukraine. That would cease if Russia invades and controls Ukrainian airspace.

Political Preparations for Invasion

The Russian lower house Duma Council began drafting two resolutions Feb. 14 for the recognition of the two Russian-backed breakaway republics in southeastern Ukraine. In 2014, Donetsk and Luhansk once received “little green men,” Russian troops and military hardware that helped push back Ukrainian forces.

While the hot war ended with the signing of the Minsk protocol that year, a low-intensity conflict has continued for seven years and involved Russian elite snipers and entrenched Ukrainian soldiers who perish on a weekly basis. A formal declaration recognizing the breakaway republics as independent states could be a violation of the Minsk protocol and a provocation to Ukraine.

U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and other administration officials have warned of a “false flag” operation to be conducted inside Ukraine by Russian operatives as a pretense for invasion.

The Donbas region of eastern Ukraine is known to have a sizable Russian ethnic minority. Putin in the past has stated that Russia has an obligation to protect Slavic peoples even beyond the borders of Russia.

Kirby said Russia is likely to “begin to sow the seeds for potential armed conflict to include creating some sort of pretext that the Ukrainians would react to that then they could claim [it] was a threat to their national security.”

Kirby confirmed to Air Force Magazine that an incursion of Russian forces into the Donbas would constitute a “new incursion” by Russia, the often-cited trigger for new U.S. sanctions against Russia and additional reinforcements of NATO eastern flank Allies.

Austin travels to the region for a defense ministerial meeting Feb. 16-17 in Brussels, followed by travel to Poland and Lithuania, countries that both share land borders with Russia. Lithuania also borders Belarus to the north, the country where Russia has amassed some 30,000 troops for joint military exercises scheduled to end Feb. 20, but that many believe to be a pretext for positioning an invasion force just north of Kyiv.

In both eastern flank countries, Austin will meet with U.S. troops who have been sent to the NATO front line to support U.S. Article 5 obligations to defend NATO allies.

The U.S. has readied an additional 8,500 troops as part of a NATO response force that could deploy to the eastern flank, if necessary.

Kirby said the U.S. troops that have already been sent to Poland and Romania, including fighter jet squadrons participating in NATO enhanced air policing, are meant to deter aggression against the alliance and to conduct joint training. The troops in Poland may also assist from within Poland should Americans attempt to evacuate Ukraine across the land border.

“The President has made clear that U.S. troops are not going to be fighting in Ukraine,” Kirby said. “They’re not going to accidentally be drawn into Ukraine.”

Airborne Lasers, New Kinetic Weapons Paired in Virtual Test

Feb. 14, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force Research Laboratory has already experimented with airborne lasers on the virtual battlefield. Now the lab’s latest test has combined those lasers with next-generation kinetic weapons to see how they could work together.

Seven pilots, weapon systems officers, and air battle managers took part in one of AFRL’s Directed Energy Utility Concept Experiments from Jan. 24 to 28 at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. The DEUCE series of experiments aims to test how operators use directed energy weapons in simulated situations. This most recent experiment, however, went a step further in trying to explore “synergies between directed energy and kinetic concepts,” according to an AFRL release.

The experiment, dubbed the Directed Energy and Kinetic Energy Directed Energy Utility Concept Experiment, or DEKE DEUCE, featured collaboration between AFRL’s Directed Energy and Munitions directorates as well as work by the Office of Naval Research.

“An urgent need exists to rapidly field and integrate viable next-generation weapons, both [directed energy] and [kinetic energy], in response to increasing capabilities and aggressive intentions from our adversaries,” said Darl Lewis, the DEUCE lead and wargaming principal investigator. “This DEUCE focused on identifying capability and joint integration gaps that can be addressed by systems under consideration, as well as potential future tactics and procedures.”

Using computers and simulators, Airmen were placed in situations in which the mission called for the combined use of directed and kinetic capabilities. Specifically, the simulations focused on “an airborne high energy laser pod and two future kinetic concepts,” per the AFRL release.

All three weapons were simulated on an F-15, Lewis told Air Force Magazine.

“Experiments like the DEKE DEUCE allow critical collaboration between the warfighter and the developers of our future capabilities,” said Col. Matthew Crowell, chief of aviation safety at the Air Force Safety Center and the leader of five aviators who took part in the experiment. “It provided an amazing opportunity for both communities to learn from each other and keep our Air Force out in front of our peers with technology.”

A previous version of DEUCE simulated a weapon similar to the Self-Protect High-Energy Laser Demonstrator (SHiELD).

The conceptual laser simulated as part of DEKE DEUCE, called the Advanced-Flight High Energy Laser (AF-HEL), “builds on the lessons learned during several previous high energy laser programs. However, it is not expressly tied to any single predecessor,” Lewis told Air Force Magazine. Data gleaned from DEKE DEUCE and similar experiments will help to “drive requirements for a physical system that is optimally aligned with the needs of the warfighter,” Lewis said.

AFRL’s release did not specify which future kinetic concepts were tested in the experiment, but in response to an Air Force Magazine query, Lewis said the kinetic systems were used in both defensive and offensive capacities.

“DEKE DEUCE gave the Munitions Directorate a great opportunity to put our kinetic weapons concepts in front of the warfighter,” said Rusty Coleman, the unit’s technical adviser for the modeling and simulation team. “It allowed us to see novel employment concepts that we could not have seen otherwise. The pilots virtually flying the aircraft provided feedback beyond what we could have gotten from any other venue.”

DEKE DEUCE also featured the AFRL’s Weapons Engagement Optimizer, “an artificial intelligence-based battle management system” aimed at analyzing data and helping decision-making in complex battlefields, as well as the Navy’s ELEKTRA, a similar AI-based battle management concept.