Spark Tank Finalists: Video Games as the Future of Training?

Spark Tank Finalists: Video Games as the Future of Training?

Feb. 25, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Department of the Air Force’s annual Spark Tank competition takes place March 4, when six teams will take to the stage at the AFA Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. Each team will pitch the most senior leaders in the Air and Space Forces on how their innovations can save money, improve the lives of Airmen and Guardians, and transform the department.

Air Force Magazine is highlighting one team each day from now through March 3. Today, we look at “DAGGER: Developing Airmen and Guardians with Games for Enhanced Readiness,” led by Matthew Correia of Air University’s Eaker Center at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala.

For decades now, the Air Force has used simulators with varying levels of technology to train its pilots—the most modern systems cost millions of dollars and are considered crucial to training future pilots.

But at their core, pilots in simulators aren’t all that different from Airmen playing on an Xbox, contends Correia.

“Simulators are unique, one-of-a-kind products, but in a true sense, they’re actually games,” Correia told Air Force Magazine. “They’re specific, but they’re actually games, just like League of Legends.”

That belief is at the heart of Correia’s pitch for Spark Tank. The Air Force, he said, needs to embrace video games for more than just training pilots to fly, but instead for a range of skills across the entire force.

The thought of using something like League of Legends, a multiplayer online game where players battle using fantastical characters, or Minecraft, a game where characters can explore a seemingly endless blocky 3-D world to mine and build, to train Airmen and Guardians will strike many as strange, Correia acknowledged. 

But in recent months, Air Force leaders have introduced the new Airman Leadership Qualities, which will be integrated into feedback, and those qualities include skills like teamwork, communication, decision making, and innovation. And those skills are things video games can teach, Correia said.

“Let’s practice the competencies of the executive functions, such as critical thinking, resource management, creative thinking, those things,” Correia said. “And within a game, you have the opportunity to do that. The game can be created, or the games actually already exist, where the solution is not one answer, it can be a range of answers, which is what true life is.”

The Air Force already uses a similar concept at Air University, with the leadership reaction course, a series of obstacles used to test leadership and cooperation. 

“That particular course, … the physical course you have to run through, what is called the leadership reaction course, I cannot think of any officer that does not remember that event,” Correia said. “The goal is not whether you make it through. You’re given 20 minutes time to solve the puzzle. … Whether you make it through or not is irrelevant. What’s important is, did you apply good communication, did you apply good decision making, did you apply good teamwork competencies? That’s the most important piece.”

With DAGGER, Correia wants to take the fun aspects of the leadership reaction course and make them digital—and thus global. 

“I could go on to a cyber leadership reaction course here in the United States, with someone in Germany, someone in Korea, and quite literally, so long as the forward operating base has internet access, I could [work with] that person whatever continent they’re on,” Correia said. “And we could practice our competencies.”

But it’s not just for everyday training and fun—Correia’s vision for DAGGER is to completely change the structure of how the Air Force and Space Force approach everything from professional military education to professional continuing education courses, to annual assessments and feedback.

The services should “embrace this opportunity to shift from lectures or computer-based training to game-based training or game-based learning,” Correia said.

That shift would be welcomed by Airmen and Guardians, he argued. An Air Force survey found that tens of thousands of young Airmen identify as gamers, and Air Force Gaming, the department’s gaming organization, has more than 15,000 registered users.

And for those who dismiss games as distractions or something Airmen do just for fun?

“My response is, yes, it is fun. It’s fun to learn accountability, communication, decision-making, leadership. Games are serious. That’s why we call them simulators,” Correia said. “And you know, just because it’s a caricature that doesn’t exist in real life, like in League of Legends, … or it’s sort of a futuristic or maybe fictitious sort of activity, does not lessen it from being a powerful and effective learning instrument.”

Read about the other Spark Tank finalists:

Spark Tank Finalists: How a Dentist Came up With the Idea of Custom Oxygen Masks for Fighter Pilots

Spark Tank Finalists: How a Dentist Came up With the Idea of Custom Oxygen Masks for Fighter Pilots

Feb. 24, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Department of the Air Force’s annual Spark Tank competition takes place March 4, as six teams will take to the stage at the AFA Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. Each team will pitch the most senior leaders in the Air and Space Forces on how their innovations can save money, improve the lives of Airmen or Guardians, and transform the department.

Air Force Magazine is highlighting one team each day from now through March 3. Today, we look at “Custom Facemasks for Fighter Pilots and Beyond,” led by Maj. Ryan Sheridan from the 10th Air Base Wing at the U.S. Air Force Academy.

Hypoxia, or a lack of oxygen to the brain and muscles, is a constant concern for the Air Force—issues with oxygen have caused crashes, grounded fleets, and led to programs studying the problem.

Now, a dentist stationed at the U.S. Air Force Academy believes he has an answer for at least one problem that can lead to hypoxia.

Maj. Ryan Sheridan isn’t a pilot, but he stumbled on a problem one day while deployed and speaking with one of his medical colleagues—the flight surgeon responsible for fighter pilots.

“He was just kind of expressing to me that they were having significant pain, mainly among the bridge of the nose,” Sheridan told Air Force Magazine. Some pilots were even removing their oxygen masks during flight, which can lead to hypoxia.

It’s not the first time that medical professionals have expressed concern about oxygen masks. A 2013 academic study found that half of F-16 pilots surveyed in the Royal Netherlands Air Force had discomfort or pain around the nose as a result of their masks.

Most of the pilots in that study wore MBU-20/P oxygen masks, the same mask that most Air Force pilots use. Studying the issue further, Sheridan was surprised by what he found out about 20/P masks.

“The 20/P oxygen mask has five stock sizes, right? And those five stock sizes are designed to fit … the majority of our pilots,” Sheridan said. “But it’s not designed to fit any one pilot. It’s supposed to fit most pilots.”

Given his professional background, Sheridan was confused.

“For me, making a crown for a patient or making a tooth for a patient, the notion of taking like 10 different stock sizes of crowns and trying to make them fit every single tooth that I have to fix, the notion is just absurd,” he said. “I understand that in the manufacturing world that’s completely different. But for me, you know, my life is made around making customized objects for individuals.”

Sheridan had previously worked on an idea early during the COVID-19 pandemic to build customized N95 masks, taking advantage of the computer-aided design and manufacturing technology already widely used in dentistry, facial scanning technology available on smartphones, and 3-D printers. 

After hearing about the pilots’ discomfort, he shifted the idea slightly to creating custom silicone inserts for oxygen masks. Not only will it be better for pilots, the technology needed is widely available and relatively inexpensive, especially compared to other Air Force efforts.

“To me, this just seems like a logical progression of some of the efforts that we’ve done as the United States Air Force to customize what we’re doing for fighter pilots,” Sheridan said. “Like if you look at the F-35, they have a helmet that requires a full head scan, right? That helmet cost $400,000.”

But Sheridan’s idea almost didn’t make it into Spark Tank. After a PCS move in the summer of 2021, the custom facemask idea fell by the wayside, and he wasn’t planning on submitting it.

Then, around August, an email from Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. went out to the force—“basically, it was just a call to action,” Sheridan recalls. It stuck with him.

“I just decided, you know what, what the hell, I’ll throw it in there,” Sheridan said. “That kind of just lit the fire under me, and I started putting stuff together, and then I submitted it and then when I talked to somebody here at USAFA … she started getting really excited about the idea and, so I just kind of kept rolling with it.”

While Sheridan isn’t a pilot himself, he’s talked to plenty of aviators about the idea, and “there’s some excitement about it,” he said. But as of yet, he hasn’t been able to test out the idea on actual fighter pilots. Small group testing is something he hopes to pursue in the near future, but for the time being, he said, he just wants more information.

“I think the biggest thing that you really need to do is just collect the data. … Do we need to make these for every single pilot? I don’t know. I don’t know if that’s the case,” Sheridan said. “But I think that the biggest thing that we can do is just kind of collect data and allow our senior executive officers to … interpret that data and help them figure out where we need to go with the next steps.”

Read about the other Spark Tank finalists:

Biden Orders 7,000 Troops to Europe, Sanctions Russia but Holds Back SWIFT

Biden Orders 7,000 Troops to Europe, Sanctions Russia but Holds Back SWIFT

Feb. 24, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

President Joe Biden announced new sanctions against Russia and ordered the deployment of 7,000 additional service members to Germany to reassure NATO allies after Russia invaded Ukraine, but the President withheld the most serious punishment, citing disagreement among European partners.

“This is a dangerous moment for all of Europe, for the freedom around the world,” Biden said from the East room of the White House after a day that included a meeting with his National Security Council and G-7 world leaders.

“It’s a large conflict already,” Biden said. “The way we’re going to assure it’s not going to spiral to a larger conflict is by providing all the forces needed in the Eastern European nations that are members of NATO.”

In response to the President’s directive, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III has ordered an armored brigade combat team to Germany, a senior defense official said in a statement.

“They will deploy to Germany to reassure NATO allies, deter Russian aggression, and be prepared to support a range of requirements in the region. We expect them to depart in the coming days,” the statement read.

In recent days, Biden has ordered the repositioning of six F-35s and a total of 24 F-16s and F-15s to the NATO eastern flank to take part in joint training and enhanced air policing missions. He also repositioned an infantry battalion, attack aviation battalion, and attack aviation task force totaling 32 Apache helicopters, multiple Stryker units, and 4,700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division. NATO is set to meet Feb. 25 to discuss further measures, including the possible deployment of 8,500 U.S. troops currently in the U.S. on high alert as part of a NATO Reaction Force. Some of the 7,000 troops set to deploy will come from those already standing on alert, with the bulk of those forces coming from Fort Carson, Colo., and Fort Bragg, N.C., the Pentagon confirmed.

Former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine John E. Herbst told Air Force Magazine additional forces were needed on the eastern flank as a show of force to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Now’s the time to truly increase NATO forces in the East,” he said. “And let it be known to Moscow that this is not on a temporary basis, so that they see their geopolitical position deteriorating, and we make sure we continue the weapons flowing to Ukraine.”

Biden did not say how long the additional forces would remain in Europe, though eastern flank allies have long called for increasing the permanent U.S. troop and capabilities presence.

Punishing Sanctions

Biden also announced punishing new sanctions designed to cripple the Russian economy, military, technology, and aerospace industries.

“Putin’s aggression against Ukraine will end up costing Russia dearly, economically and strategically,” Biden said before outlining a series of coordinated sanctions to target more than $1 trillion of Russian assets, impose new export controls, sanctions on oligarchs close to Putin, and restrictions on Russia’s ability to raise money from investors.

Criticized for not imposing the sanctions before Russia began its attack on Ukraine early Feb. 24, Biden said it could take a month or longer before sanctions begin to impact the Russian economy.

“No one expected the sanctions to prevent anything from happening,” Biden said. “This is going to take time … He’s gonna test the resolve of the West to see if we stay together. And we will—we will—and we’ll impose significant costs on him.”

Biden said he spoke to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky late Feb. 23, promising humanitarian assistance, and expressed confidence in the Ukrainian people to resist a much more powerful Russian military.

The U.S. has provided more than $650 million in defense assistance to Ukraine in the past year, but the President did not comment on continued defense support to the Ukrainian military. A day earlier the Department of Defense said it was exploring alternative means of transferring defense assistance once airspace is closed.

Biden also said Putin had left diplomatic options on the table before launching an avoidable war.

“Putin is the aggressor. Putin chose this war, and now he and his country will bear the consequences,” Biden said. “It was always about naked aggression, about Putin’s desire for Empire, by any means necessary, by bullying Russia’s neighbors through coercion and corruption, by changing borders by force. And ultimately, by choosing a war without a cause.”

The U.S. President did not escape criticism from the White House Press Corps, who demanded why he would not sanction Putin himself or block Russia from the international banking system known as SWIFT.

Biden did not respond to questions about sanctioning Putin, but he indicated he did not have consensus for the action to remove Russia from SWIFT.

“Right now, that’s not the position that the rest of Europe wishes to take,” Biden said. “. .. The sanctions we’ve imposed exceed SWIFT; the sanctions we impose exceed anything that’s ever been done.”

Biden said the sanctions regiment outlined reached a consensus of “two-thirds of the world joining us” totaling more than half the world economy.

Biden declined to comment when questioned as to whether he was pressuring China to isolate Russia.

Herbst said that not including SWIFT was “a mistake, but predictable.”

Still, Herbst said Ukraine has a plan for continuity of government during the war and the Ukrainian people will resist a Russian occupation.

“Any government they install will be installed by Russian bayonets,” Herbst said. “Napoleon said, famously, ‘You can do anything with bayonets except sit on them.’”

Sanctions, Aid, Cyber Concerns Dominate Congressional Response to Ukraine Invasion

Sanctions, Aid, Cyber Concerns Dominate Congressional Response to Ukraine Invasion

Feb. 24, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

As Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began in the early hours of Feb. 24, members of Congress issued a deluge of statements condemning the attack and calling on Russian President Vladimir Putin to cease hostilities.

Now, as the invasion continues to unfold, lawmakers are set to consider massive economic sanctions against Russia, as well as military and humanitarian aid for Ukraine in the coming days, all while watching carefully to see the ripple effects the conflict may have for Europe, NATO, and across the globe.

Sen. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Sen. James E. Risch (R-Idaho), the chair and ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, respectively, had previously worked on bipartisan legislation to impose economic sanctions on Russia for its aggression toward Ukraine.

That legislation wasn’t passed before the invasion started, but in a statement early Feb. 24, Menedez pledged that he was “committed to ensuring that the United States upholds our responsibility to exact maximum costs on Putin, the Russian economy, and those who enabled and facilitated this trampling of Ukraine’s sovereignty.”

Menendez’s House Foreign Affairs counterpart, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), issued his own statement saying the U.S. and its allies “will impose severe & swift consequences for this needless loss of life.”

The call for sanctions has been bipartisan. A trio of top Republicans in the House—Foreign Affairs Committee ranking member Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), Armed Services Committee ranking member Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), and Intelligence Committee ranking member Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio)—issued their own statement saying they are committed “to enacting the strongest possible sanctions and export controls to cripple Russia’s ability to make war, punish its barbarity, and relegate the Putin regime to the status of an international pariah.”

Meanwhile, in a Twitter thread, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that Congress should “unite to punish and crush Putin and his cronies,” adding that he had spoken with Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman and told her “there is broad bipartisan support for an emergency supplemental to include aid to the Ukrainian people and Ukrainian military.”

The need for both military and humanitarian aid is especially crucial now, Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas), a former Air Force pilot, told Air Force Magazine in an interview. 

“They need military aid, they need aid with Stingers, with lethal aid like Javelin missile systems. … The full range of military aid needs to be delivered to them,” Pfluger said. “But in the case of humanitarian aid, I mean, where are the refugees going to go? There’s estimates of up to 5 million Ukrainian refugees, and where are they going to be headed to? How are we going to help them get out of there?”

Pfluger also expressed concern about the need to evacuate American citizens still in Ukraine—the State Department has been urging Americans to leave the country for a month now, and it is unclear how many are still left.

“On my [January] trip to Ukraine, we got estimates [that] there are thousands, but how many still remain? And how is the U.S. government going to help get them out?” Pfluger said. “That’s where air power comes in. I know that the Supreme Allied Commander and the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe … are very worried about this. We want to make sure that the administration has the tools that they need to safely help Americans get out. So far, they said that they do not plan on some sort of noncombatant evacuation order, so I want to know what the administration’s plan is to help get those Americans to safety.”

Beyond these immediate concerns, there are other issues garnering the attention of lawmakers. Speaking on CBS on Feb. 24, Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) expressed concern that Russian cyberattacks on Ukraine could spill over into bordering countries like Poland and trigger NATO’s Article V, which states that an attack on one NATO ally is an attack on all.

“One of the things that I’m gravely concerned about is if Russia unleashes its full cyber power against Ukraine, once you put malware into the wild in a sense, it knows no geographic boundaries,” Warner said. “So if the Russians decide they’re going to try to turn off the power, turn off all the electricity all across Ukraine, very likely that might turn off the power in eastern Poland and eastern Romania, that could affect our troops.”

Rep. Mike Waltz (R-Fla.) expressed similar concerns for the implications for NATO in an interview on Fox.

“A Ukrainian city on Poland’s border … also receiving targeted strikes in Lviv, that’s incredibly concerning,” Rogers said. “And that’s why we have to have our forces on the highest alert, not just in Poland, Romania, and Hungary, but also in the Baltics: Lithuania, Estonia, and Latvia. Those are the final pieces for Putin to put the old Soviet Union back together again. Those countries are NATO’s allies and we are obligated to defend them. And that’s why this is so dangerous.”

More broadly, Russia’s invasion “sends the message globally to powerful nations that they can reshape their borders through military might, and that is something that the international order has been fighting against for 80 years,” Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.), chair of the House Armed Services Committee, told CNN. “We can’t let this stand.”

It’s a concern shared by Pfluger, who specifically pointed to China as an adversary watching current events unfold closely.

“What is China calculating? And with regards to Taiwan, how does this impact their calculus? For a similar situation in Taiwan, you know that the economic impact of the Ukraine is one thing, but the economic impact of an invasion of Taiwan could be catastrophic to the entire world,” Pfluger said. “And so we’re obviously very worried about that.”

F-35s, B-52 Arrive at NATO’s Eastern Front as Russia Invades Ukraine

F-35s, B-52 Arrive at NATO’s Eastern Front as Russia Invades Ukraine

Feb. 24, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 11:25 a.m. on Feb. 24 to include information about the B-52 Bomber Task Force mission.

Six F-35s operating from Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, ordered to NATO’s eastern front by President Joe Biden Feb. 22, arrived to the Baltic Sea and Black Sea regions Feb. 24 to reassure Allies as Russian forces move into Ukraine. At the same time, a B-52 from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., interacted with Polish fighters in the Black Sea region during a Bomber Task Force operation.

“We are facing a dynamic environment, and the deployment of F-35s to NATO’s eastern flank enhances our defensive posture and amplifies the Alliance’s interoperability,” said Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, U.S. Air Force in Europe–Air Forces Africa commander, in a statement.

The F-35s, from the 34th Fighter Squadron at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, will join 24 F-15s and F-16s in Romania and Poland taking part in NATO enhanced air policing missions. USAFE said the aircraft will forward deploy “for a period of time” to the Baltics at Estonia’s Amari Air Base and Lithuania’s Siauliai Air Base, and to the Black Sea region at Romania’s Fetesti Air Base.

A Romanian defense official confirmed to Air Force Magazine that two of the F-35s arrived in Romania the morning of Feb. 24, joining eight F-16s at Fetesti. Romania shares a land border with Ukraine and has led an effort by the Bucharest nine, or B9, NATO eastern flank nations.

“Today [there] will be a B9 emergency meeting at [the] minister level and CHOD [chief of defense] level with U.S.,” the Romanian official said.

USAFE also confirmed that two B-52s from the 5th Bomb Wing deployed on a “long-planned Bomber Task Force Europe mission over the Arctic and Baltic Sea regions.” The bombers “joined forces with Sweden and Poland to enhance partner interoperability.” One B-52 “integrated with Polish MiG-29 aircraft amplifying support in the Baltic region,” according to a USAFE spokesman, while the second strategic bomber worked with Swedish Joint Terminal Attack Controllers to exercise Arctic operations.

France had offered to lead a NATO battle group in Romania, but the official said the alliance as a whole has yet to support the effort. In the meantime, the United States and other individual nations are contributing forces to the countries closest to the Russian threat to shore up the alliance.

Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said Feb. 23 that there were no plans to alter the command structure.

“Right now, they’re going to be under the command of Gen. [Tod D.] Wolters in his U.S. European Command hat,” he said in response to a question from Air Force Magazine.

Kirby could not say how long the strike fighters will be forward deployed.

“I want to remind you that they were already in Europe, they’re simply repositioning elsewhere in Europe,” he explained. “I don’t have a timeframe on how long that repositioning is going to be, except to say that it’ll be as long as we believe it’s necessary.”

Kirby said it also will depend on how long the host nations are willing to have them.

“This is really all about reassuring allies and partners and demonstrating that in tangible ways,” Kirby added.

The 8,500 U.S. troops on alert as part of a rapid NATO Response Force are “ready to go if called upon,” but still remained stateside, Kirby added.

Russia Invades Ukraine, Biden Calls on NATO for ‘Strong, United’ Response

Russia Invades Ukraine, Biden Calls on NATO for ‘Strong, United’ Response

Feb. 24, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Editor’s Note: This story was last updated at 6:15 p.m. on Feb. 24 with new information from a senior U.S. defense official and Ukrainian defense officials.

More than 160 Russian mid-range ballistic and Caliber cruise missiles hit Ukrainian military targets across the country on Feb. 24 after Russian President Vladimir Putin declared Russia was launching a “special military operation” in Ukraine, and a senior U.S. defense official assessed that Russia’s intention is to “decapitate” Ukrainian leadership and install a pro-Russia government.

Before dawn, Russia began a three-pronged land invasion and air attack from positions in Russia, Belarus, and occupied Crimea. Putin’s forces seized control of the Chernobyl nuclear power station and continue a seize on the capital of Kyiv.

“It’s our assessment that they have every intention of basically decapitating the government and installing their own method of governance,” a senior defense official told Pentagon reporters. “We have seen indications that they are resisting and fighting back.”

The Defense Department official described a Russian siege from the Crimean peninsula to the Ukrainian city of Kherson; and several advances from northern positions inside Belarus, two lines approaching Kyiv from the northwest and northeast; and another line from northeast Ukraine to the second largest city, Kharkov, where the heaviest fighting is taking place and Ukraine claims to have destroyed four Russian tanks.

Ukraine reported six control posts destroyed, and 57 people killed, including two children, and at least 169 wounded.

A report from the General Staff of the Ukrainian Armed Forces confirmed that Russia landed 20 KA-52 and Mi-8 helicopters at the Anatov airstrip some 20 miles northwest of Kyiv. Russia made similar successful landings in the southwest near Moldova and north of Crimea.

Ukraine’s Joint Forces Operation, which is responsible for defending the Donbas area in the east, reported that it was able to repel a mechanized incursion, destroy five armored personnel carriers and a military vehicle, repel enemy tanks, and take Russian hostages. A Russian KA-52 helicopter was also shot down north of Kyiv.

The senior defense official said that 75 Russian heavy and medium-sized fixed wing bombers had been detected in the air over Ukraine.

The Defense Department estimated Russia had attacked 10 Ukrainian air bases. Nonetheless, a Ukrainian defense official told Air Force Magazine the air bases remained under government control, including the air base closest to Kyiv where Russia made a successful landing.

“Antonov airfield is under Ukraine control,” the official insisted.

Biden Responds

U.S. President Joe Biden in a statement shortly after the start of the attack promised “further consequences” and a “strong, united” NATO response, as U.S. and NATO leaders condemned Moscow’s actions.

Members of the G7 group of global leaders met early Feb. 24 and Biden addressed the nation from the White House shortly after 1:30 p.m. calling the Russian incursion “a brutal assault on the people of Ukraine without provocation, without justification, without necessity.”

“President Putin has chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” Biden said in his initial statement. “Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way.”

Biden promised continued support and assistance to Ukraine and the Ukrainian people.

Putin’s Promise

Putin’s blunt video address released at the start of the invasion promised the “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine” and warned: “Anyone who tries to interfere with us, or even more so, to create threats for our country and our people, must know that Russia’s answer will be immediate and will lead you to such consequences as you have never before experienced in your history.”

Late Feb. 23 Biden spoke by phone to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky while Ukrainian Foreign Minister Dymtro Kuleba pleaded for immediate international intervention.

“The world must act immediately. Future of Europe & the world is at stake,” Kuleba wrote on Twitter after the attack began. Kuleba called on nations to impose sanctions and bar Russia from the SWIFT financial system, to isolate Russia, and provide Ukraine with more weapons, fuel, and more financial and humanitarian assistance.

Several European nations have resisted the SWIFT option thus far, fearing that Russia would use that as an excuse to default on Western debts.

Kuleba also said U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken promised additional defensive weapons.

In the past year, the United States has provided $650 million in defense assistance to Ukraine, including lethal weapons like anti-tank javelins and ammunition. The United States also approved third-party transfers of American-made weapons, including air defense Stingers, which are ineffective against Russian combat jets.

“It’s very clear that this is bigger than Ukraine,” said retired Air Force Gen. Philip M. Breedlove, former commander of U.S. European Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander, in an interview with Air Force Magazine Feb. 22.

“What Mr. Putin is trying to get to is essentially a rewrite of the security architecture, and arrangements in Eastern Europe,” he said. “If you really look at it closely, it’s a fairly brazen attempt to re-establish the border nations, Russian control over the border nations, and setting up an architecture very similar to the Warsaw Pact or pre-fall of the wall.”

In the February 2014 Revolution of Dignity, Ukrainians rejected pro-Russian leader Viktor Yanukovych and overthrew his government in favor of a pro-European government that later adopted in its constitution goals to join NATO and the European Union.

Putin has claimed Ukraine’s ambition to join NATO posed a national security threat to Russia and began amassing up to 190,000 troops along Ukraine’s borders under the guise of military exercises that were supposed to end Feb. 20.

After several failed “false flag” operations revealed by Biden administration officials in de-classified intelligence as an attempt to prompt an invasion, Putin claimed without evidence that ethnic Russians in the disputed Donbas region were suffering “genocide” at the hands of the Ukrainian government.

Putin recognized the breakaway republics of Donetsk and Luhansk in southeastern Ukraine Feb. 21 and moved in forces that he referred to as “peacekeepers.”

In response, Biden ordered additional U.S. forces to the eastern flank of NATO to protect the former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries that now form Democratic members of the 30-member security alliance.

NATO Forces Gather on Eastern Flank

Biden on Feb. 22 ordered a repositioning of forces in Europe to include six F-35s operating out of Germany to Lithuania, Estonia, and Romania on the NATO eastern flank. In addition, an infantry battalion task force of approximately 800 personnel will move from Italy to the Baltics; an attack aviation battalion of 20 AH-64 helicopters from Germany to the Baltic region; and an attack aviation task force of 12 AH-64 helicopters will move from Greece to Poland.

Earlier, Biden deployed a total of 24 F-15s and F-16s to Poland and Romania for NATO enhanced Air Policing missions, Army Stryker units deployed to Romania, and a planned Stryker deployment to Bulgaria and Hungary. In addition, 4,700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division deployed to Poland.

In all, some 14,000 American troops deployed or re-positioned to the eastern flank, including 12,000 from the United States to Europe and 2,000 within Europe. The new forces augmented 80,000 American troops already in Europe, DOD confirmed.

Still, Russia held back much of its capability, a senior defense official told reporters in a Pentagon briefing.

“We don’t believe that the Russians have employed the full scope of their electronic warfare capabilities, and it’s not clear exactly why,” the official said. Meanwhile, the push by Russian airborne troops continued to threaten the capital. “We do think they have in just the intervening hours they have gotten closer to Kyiv.”

Ground-Based Radars, New Cislunar Data Agreement to Further Space Domain Awareness

Ground-Based Radars, New Cislunar Data Agreement to Further Space Domain Awareness

Feb. 23, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

The Space Force’s goal of improving space domain awareness continues to advance along multiple avenues. New projects include ground-based radars to surveil high Earth orbits and data from a cubesat headed on a unique route around the moon.

Northrop Grumman announced Feb. 23 that it had received a $341 million contract from the Space Force’s Space Systems Command for the first of three ground-based radar systems to monitor geosynchronous and geostationary orbits, above 35,000 kilometers in altitude, in which satellites’ movements sync up with Earth’s rotation. 

The company said in a news release Feb. 23 that the Deep-Space Advanced Radar Capability, or DARC, “will provide an all-weather, 24/7 capability to monitor the highly dynamic and rapidly evolving geosynchronous orbital environment”—whereas “current ground-based systems operate at night and can be impacted by weather conditions.”

The contract includes the design, development, and delivery of a DARC system to be located in the Indo-Pacific region by 2025. Two more follow-ons will be “strategically placed around the world,” with the ultimate goal of global coverage. Communications satellites such as the Defense Department’s Wideband Global Satellite Communications constellation orbit in GEO.

The commander of U.S. Space Command, Army Gen. James H. Dickinson, differentiates the relatively new discipline of space domain awareness from the well established practice of space situational awareness. 

While space situational awareness is more simply “reporting on where something is in space,” space domain awareness, on the other hand, requires observers to understand and assign motive—“the ‘why’—the intent—behind having something in space and where it is,” Dickinson told reporters at 2021’s Space Symposium in Colorado Spring, Colo.

Meanwhile in January, the Space Force added two satellites to its Geosynchronous Space Situational Awareness Program to surveil the high satellite belt, bringing the constellation to a total of six. Collecting data for the National Space Defense Center, the GSSAP satellites are also meant to help better understand the “ever evolving state of affairs” in the GEO belt, according to a statement by the Space Force.

The service intends to extend space domain awareness even farther as well—all the way out to cislunar space to monitor activities on and around the moon. 

A small Colorado company, Advanced Space, announced in February that it would freely share data with the Air Force Research Laboratory from its CAPSTONE cubesat mission, expected to launch in the first half of 2022 to test out a particular lunar orbit for NASA—the near rectilinear halo orbit in which the agency expects to situate its Gateway lunar space station.

Examples of data that might be of interest to AFRL include orbit determination solutions and tracking schedules, and “given the ongoing interest in space domain awareness above the GEO belt, we’ve found that there are many parties interested in coordinating with a mission like CAPSTONE that can provide accurate ‘truth’ states based on our own orbit determination processes,” the company told Air Force Magazine in a statement.

To date, space mission planners have relied on methods created for conventional, two-body orbits—Earth and a satellite—but the three-body orbits of the Earth-moon system present some “specific challenges,” the company said. CAPSTONE will “show what you have to do from a mission design, navigation, and operations standpoint to fly a mission in this orbit. So we’ll be able to answer questions such as: When do our standard linearized orbit determination tools start to break down in this very nonlinear dynamic environment?”

The AFRL has announced additional activities within the past year intended to improve space domain awareness, including $1 million-a-year research grants and a Space Domain Awareness Leadership Workshop on Feb. 15; and it reportedly plans to issue a solicitation by March for the Cislunar Highway Patrol System experiment.

Air Force Grants More Religious Accommodations to Vaccine; Wright-Patt Officers File Lawsuit

Air Force Grants More Religious Accommodations to Vaccine; Wright-Patt Officers File Lawsuit

Feb. 23, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The Department of the Air Force has approved four more requests for religious accommodations from the COVID-19 vaccine mandate, even as the service continues to face legal challenges to the rule.

The latest data released by the Air Force on Feb. 22 indicated that 13 total religious exemptions had been granted, four more than the first batch of nine accommodations on Feb. 8.

So far, the Air Force has granted the lion’s share of the military’s few religious accommodations to the COVID-19 rules—the Marine Corps has approved three requests, while the Navy has granted one conditional approval to a Sailor in the Individual Ready Reserve while still requiring that the individual be fully immunized to return to full service. The Army has not approved any.

It is unclear whether any of the individuals granted religious accommodations by the Department of the Air Force are Guardians in the Space Force—DAF did not immediately respond to a query by Air Force Magazine.

Within the DAF, thousands of Airmen and Guardians have sought religious exemptions. As of Feb. 21, nearly 3,600 requests had been turned down at the major/field command level, and 682 had been denied on appeal.

Meanwhile, more Airmen are going to court in an effort to prevent the Air Force from either forcing them to receive the vaccine or face administrative discharge. According to the Associated Press, a dozen Air Force officers have filed a federal lawsuit after their religious exemption requests were denied. 

Multiple media reports have indicated that most of the officers involved in the suit are stationed at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

This latest legal challenge comes after a Feb. 15 ruling in which a federal judge in Georgia blocked the Air Force from enforcing the mandate or taking action against an officer at Robins Air Force Base, Ga.

In that ruling, U.S. District Court Judge Tilman Self III cited the hundreds of medical and administrative exemptions the Air Force had approved as evidence undermining 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.

The lawyers for the officers at Wright-Patterson offered a similar argument in their suit.

“The granting of more than one thousand medical and administrative exemptions belies any assertion that vaccination is mission-critical and that no exemptions can be granted,” the lawsuit said.

The most recent Air Force data report 1,393 medical exemptions and 1,705 administrative ones—administrative exemptions can include those for people who have requested to separate or retire.

The overwhelming majority of the force, meanwhile, is vaccinated—98 percent of the Active duty, 93.4 percent of the Reserve, and 93.2 percent of the Guard.

Pentagon: 80% of Russian Forces in ‘Forward Position’; Invasion Begins

Pentagon: 80% of Russian Forces in ‘Forward Position’; Invasion Begins

Feb. 23, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Update: 12:22 a.m. Eastern time Feb. 24.

Reports of explosions in multiple Ukrainian cities coincided with a speech by Russian President Vladimir Putin televised early the morning of Feb. 24 in Ukraine. Putin threatened to levy “consequences you have never seen in history” against other countries that try to interfere, according to The Associated Press. 

The AP reported that Putin encouraged Ukrainian troops to “immediately put down arms and go home.” A New York Times story quoted Putin as saying the goal is “demilitarization and denazification of Ukraine.” Both outlets reported explosions in the Ukrainian cities of Kyiv, Kharkiv, and Odessa.

Ukraine’s Minister of Foreign Affairs Dmytro Kuleba tweeted shortly before midnight Eastern time that “Ukraine will defend itself and will win. The world can and must stop Putin. The time to act is now.”

Acknowledging the invasion, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki tweeted that Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken, and National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan had briefed Biden on “the ongoing attack on Ukraine by Russian military forces.” 

The White House published a statement in which President Joe Biden said Putin had “chosen a premeditated war that will bring a catastrophic loss of life and human suffering,” pledging: 

“The world will hold Russia accountable.”

The statement promised Biden would “speak to the American people” Feb. 24 and “announce the further consequences the United States and our Allies and partners will impose on Russia for this needless act of aggression against Ukraine and global peace and security.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 6:50 p.m. Eastern time Feb. 23 to add information from the Pentagon press secretary, the Biden administration, and the former ambassador to Ukraine.

The Defense Department said Feb. 23 that 80 percent of Russian forces surrounding Ukraine are poised to begin a full-scale invasion, with 24 warships in the Black Sea and 120 battalion tactical groups at the ready. A senior DOD official also warned that the intelligence picture in Ukraine will get less clear if Russia invades further and that the department is exploring alternate ways to provide defense assistance to the country should air space be denied.

Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby would not confirm reports that intelligence officials had informed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky that an invasion would happen within 48 hours of the morning of Feb. 23, saying only that Putin was “ready.”

“What that action is going to be and exactly on what timeline, we can’t be sure,” Kirby said at a press briefing that afternoon.

A NATO official, however, said an invasion could happen at “any moment.”

“Hostilities are likely to break out in any moment in the current situation,” the NATO official told Air Force Magazine.

The official said there has been a constant exchange of intelligence from the Joint Intelligence Security Division, but the North Atlantic Council, the decision-making body of permanent NATO representatives, has not been briefed by U.S. intelligence recently.

The senior DOD official seconded the assessment that an invasion could happen at any moment.

“They can go at any hour now,” the official told Pentagon journalists in an off-camera gaggle Feb. 23. DOD has also learned that Putin has called up reserve troops to support a potential invasion of Ukraine.

“We do have indications that they plan to use reserves and their equivalent of the National Guard, and that’s concerning,” the official said. “The implication would be that they have long-term goals here. You don’t call up a reserve force or a guard force like that if you’re not planning to be somewhere for a while.”

Russian forces are believed to number up to 190,000 troops, with high-end capabilities including fighter aircraft, air defenses, artillery, and electronic warfare capabilities, in addition to field hospitals, blood supplies, and command and control. Tens of thousands of Russian troops have also indefinitely extended their stay in Belarus, just 100 miles from the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv. The decision prompted President Joe Biden on Feb. 22 to order additional reinforcements to NATO’s eastern flank Allies.

The repositioning includes up to eight F-35s from Germany to several operating locations along NATO’s northeastern and southeastern borders. In addition, an infantry battalion task force of approximately 800 personnel will move from Italy to the Baltics; an attack aviation battalion of 20 AH-64 helicopters will move from Germany to the Baltic region; and an attack aviation task force of 12 AH-64 helicopters will move from Greece to Poland.

The Pentagon did not provide an update on the deployment of the new forces, and U.S. Air Forces in Europe and U.S. European Command did not immediately respond to inquiries from Air Force Magazine seeking a status update.

The new deployments are in addition to a total of 24 F-15s and F-16s deployed on air policing missions to Poland and Romania, Army Stryker units deployed to Romania and a planned Stryker deployment to Bulgaria; and 4,700 troops from the 82nd Airborne Division deployed to Poland.

The Ukraine crisis escalated Feb. 21 when Russian President Vladimir Putin recognized the independence of the separatist-controlled territories of Donetsk and Luhansk in southeastern Ukraine and sent troops and tanks across the border in what he called a “peacekeeping” force.

Blunting an Invasion

The Biden administration immediately condemned Putin’s recognition of the territories’ independence and subsequent Russian troop movements and announced limited sanctions for officials in the disputed region Feb. 21. President Biden announced more forceful sanctions the following day that targeted two large Russian banks, Russian sovereign debt, and several oligarchs close to Putin.

Former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine John E. Herbst told Air Force Magazine the initial measures were weak, but he commended Biden’s additional sanctions.

“I just don’t understand why they came out with the sanctions on Monday, which made us look like wusses,” Herbst told Air Force Magazine. “I was very pleasantly surprised with the inclusion of sovereign debt.”

The administration went even further Feb.23, announcing sanctions on the company and corporate officers responsible for operating the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, effectively freezing a project that would bring billions of dollars in gas revenue to Russia once operational.

German Chancellor Olaf Scholz blocked certification of the pipeline Feb. 22 following the Russian entry into Ukraine. Biden’s move will be harder to undue, Herbst said.

“It’s, well, not 100 percent—but, like, 80 percent—that Nord Stream 2 is truly dead,” the former ambassador said, citing Biden’s authority to waive sanctions in the future.

Herbst, now senior director of the Atlantic Council’s Eurasia Center, has observed Putin’s brinkmanship for years and studied closely his most recent military buildup and noticed his “unwillingness to pull the trigger.”

“Putin thus far has been a calculating and relatively cautious risk taker,” Herbst said, noting that Putin has backed away from his own ultimatums and deadlines.

“The big invasion that the administration has been hyping—and I assume that’s based upon real intelligence—is still something which is outside of Putin’s modus operandi,” Herbst added.

Then Putin acted differently.

On Feb. 21, in a speech that launched the military operations in Donetsk and Luhansk, Putin rejected Ukraine’s territorial integrity in “very belligerent rhetoric and arguments.”

“Maybe he isn’t the old Putin,” Herbst said. “Maybe now he’s willing to just pull the tablecloth off the table.”