USAF Orders 15 Silent Arrow Cargo Delivery Drones for Tactical, Humanitarian Roles

Nov. 29, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

The company Silent Arrow will scale down its 1-ton cargo delivery drone to fulfill an order by the Air Force for 15 of the smaller vehicles, which will be redesigned under the new name Silent Arrow Precision Guided Bundle, or SA-PGB, the company announced Nov. 29.

The smaller vehicle will be based on Silent Arrow’s GD-2000—short for Glider, Disposable, 2,000 pounds—which is already “being delivered and operated to directly serve heavy-payload, autonomous cargo resupply needs throughout the world,” according to a Nov. 29 news release.

The Air Force awarded the company a Small Business Innovation Research Phase 2 contract on Nov. 12 for the work. The aim is for a vehicle that can be deployed at high altitudes and air speeds.

“The SA-PGB is specifically designed for side door and multi-unit (swarm) ramp deployment, compatible with a much-expanded fleet of delivery aircraft ranging from the civilian Cessna Caravan to the military C-17,” the company said. The smaller glider will be for “humanitarian and tactical markets,” it added.

The SA-PGB will be 39 inches long and a maximum weight of 500 pounds with a carrying capacity of 350 pounds. The company cited its existing spring-deployed wing design and 40-mile standoff distance in the release. Design and engineering will take place at Silent Arrow’s Irvine, Calif., headquarters with testing at the Pendleton UAS Test Range in Pendleton, Ore.

“We look forward to an exciting flight test program in 2022 and quickly getting this new capability into the hands of the warfighter and disaster relief organizations alike,” said Silent Arrow’s founder and CEO Chip Yates in the release.

How the Space Force Is Fast-Tracking New Tech to Clean Up Orbital Debris

Nov. 29, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

Small businesses teaming up with nonprofit research institutions have a head start at proposing concepts for mitigating orbital debris and other aspects of on-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing.

A series of webinars in December and January address the broad technical tracks in the Space Force’s Orbital Prime series of contract solicitations leading up to the first deadline Feb. 3 for a Small Business Technology Transfer solicitation. STTR contracts require the participation of a nonprofit institution.

Orbital Prime is the first major effort of Space Prime, which is a part of SpaceWERX that will work on both funding and policy issues surrounding certain market sectors. SpaceWERX describes itself as both the Space Force’s innovation arm and as part of the Air Force’s multifaceted AFWERX innovation hub.

SpaceWERX director Lt. Col. Walter McMillan said in the Nov. 17 announcement of Orbital Prime that a separate Small Business Innovation Research solicitation would also be announced. The next Broad Agency Announcement solicitation for SBIR contracts, which doesn’t require nonprofit participation, is listed as Dec. 1-Feb. 10.

The Space Force doesn’t want to go into the business of on-orbit servicing, assembly, and manufacturing, known as OSAM—of which debris removal is a type—by creating a new program of record but instead hopes to “commercialize an entire mission area,” McMillan said in the announcement of Orbital Prime.

At the same time, the selection of the on-orbit activities is a chance “to really get after a senior leader priority,” McMillan said. He cited past remarks by Space Force Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson and Space Force Maj. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt of U.S. Space Command.

McMillan said SpaceWERX consulted fellow government entities, academic institutions, startups, small businesses, and major contractors about research areas that could make a significant impact.

“For our initial effort, we’re going to be laser-focused on doing an on-orbit demonstration of active debris removal within the next two years,” McMillan said. “It’s a very aggressive schedule, I know. But we’re excited to really move the needle within one specific mission area.”

SpaceWERX defined three technical tracks on which it would like teams to propose ideas:

On-orbit object approach: “Approach and rendezvous with the Resident Space Object (RSO), to include space debris, etc., using approach and Rendezvous Proximity Operations (RPO) algorithms.
On-orbit object acquisition: “Capture and Control the orbital object and/or perform Rendezvous Proximity Operations Docking (RPOD).
On-orbit object service: “Remediate the RSO by repairing, repositioning, refueling, deorbiting, reusing, or recycling, etc.”

McMillan said Orbital Prime is SpaceWERX’s first major effort. But in the meantime, the organization, which was created in December 2020, has partnered with the Air Force Research Laboratory on the 2021 Hyperspace Challenge in which 13 small businesses and 11 university teams were selected to compete for cash prizes by working on six problems ranging from rapid initial orbit determination to rocket cargo for global logistics. The 2021 finalists of the Hyperspace Challenge’s pitch competition will be announced on Dec. 2, according to the competition website.

Meanwhile, officials globally have said orbital debris will be a comparatively greater risk in the next several years after a Russian test of an anti-satellite weapon resulted in the creation of an estimated 1,500 new pieces of debris large enough for the Space Force to track.

DOD Announces Force Posture Changes in the Indo-Pacific and Europe, but Future of Spangdahlem AB Still Unclear

Nov. 29, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

The Pentagon completed its Global Posture Review (GPR), which it said will include a framework for “coherent” force posture decisions, including key movements in the Indo-Pacific region and Europe.

In a Nov. 29 press briefing, Mara Karlin, who is performing the duties of deputy undersecretary of defense for policy, said the Indo-Pacific will be the Defense Department’s priority theater with more rotations, investments, and exercises, while the U.S. will enhance its “combat credible deterrent” to Russia in Europe.

DOD has held close to the vest its decision-making regarding the overdue force posture review, but it confirmed that President Joe Biden’s decision to rescind former President Donald Trump’s troop cap in Germany and share nuclear submarine technology with Australia are part of larger strategic shifts that will eventually lead to troop reductions in other regions.

Biden in February reversed a Trump decision to withdraw 12,500 troops from Germany after that country failed to meet a NATO goal of spending 2 percent of its gross domestic product on defense, hitting pause on the previous administration’s plan to pull USAF F-16s from Spangdahlem Air Base and move them to Aviano Air Base in Italy. The F-16 squadron is the base’s only flying unit and U.S. Air Forces in Europe’s only Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses fighter squadron. In July 2020, then-Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said the U.S. also was cancelling plans to move tankers and special operations forces to Spangdahelm.

The Spangdahlem moves did not come up in a background briefing with reporters or an on-the-record discussion in the Pentagon briefing room Nov. 29, and the U.S. Air Force could not confirm whether the review permanently reversed those moves.

However, the force posture review did keep 500 troops who are part of a U.S. Army Multi-Domain Task Force and Theater Fires Command in Wiesbaden, Germany, officials said. Also, seven military sites in Germany and Belgium previously slated for return to host country will remain in DOD hands.

Additional Russian deterrence measures that could involve more rotational troops are still being negotiated, the official said. Poland currently has 5,500 U.S. troops, while Baltic and Black Sea NATO allies close to Russia have requested additional rotations and more troop presence.

One official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss the classified posture review said the new administration in January “sought to re-establish a strategy-informed, coherent posture decision-making process and restore healthy civil-military relations in the department.” The official later explained that meant strengthening civilian oversight of posture decisions.

“Many of the Global Posture Review outcomes remain classified for operational security reasons and to preserve the confidentiality of our consultations with allies and partners,” Karlin said. “Consistent with the Secretary’s focus on China as our pacing challenge, the priority region for the Global Posture Review was the Indo-Pacific. The Global Posture Review directs additional cooperation with allies and partners across the region to advance initiatives that contribute to regional stability and deter potential military aggression from China.”

The Defense Department has previously expressed a desire to expand basing and access across the Indo-Pacific, including for the Air Force’s agile combat employment concept of operations, which distributes forces to smaller, more austere operating locations and decreases reliance on large, traditional air bases. Military construction projects will also increase in the region, and there will be new fighter and bomber rotational deployments to Australia, Karlin said.

Some of the initiatives had already been announced, with $2.2 billion in fiscal year 2021 funding approved for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative that would benefit Guam and an announcement that Australia would become part of an agreement with the United Kingdom, known as AUKUS, to share nuclear submarine and other defense technology.

In September, Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said more air rotations would be coming.

“I do have an aspiration to make sure that we can increase the numbers of troops. Through the rotations, the air capability will be enhanced, our maritime capability enhanced, and certainly the force posture enhanced,” Dutton said during a State Department briefing alongside Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. “And if that includes basing and includes the storage of different ordnances, I think that is in Australia’s best interest.”

Australian Ambassador to the U.S. Arthur Sinodinos told reporters at a November Defense Writers Group discussion that enhanced air cooperation could mean joint investment, citing the example of the Joint Strike Fighter program and U.S.-Australia partnership on hypersonics research.

Karlin said the U.S. “continues to remain concerned” about North Korea’s “problematic and irresponsible behavior,” noting Austin is heading to South Korea on Nov. 30 where he will discuss “changes to our extended deterrence” in the region. She said the review made the U.S. Army rotational attack helicopter squadron and artillery division headquarters in South Korea permanent.

The official emphasized that the GPR involved interagency discussion and consultation with NATO allies, Australia, South Korea, and a dozen Middle East and African partners.

Excluded from the force posture review were decisions regarding Afghanistan and functional areas, including nuclear, space, and cyber. The rationale for the exclusions were that the Afghanistan withdrawal was a National Security Council-led process and that the functional areas of high importance to national security should be treated separately.

The official said that rather than immediate troop movements in the Middle East, Austin ordered a review of the posture in the region. To deter Iran and to provide protection from Iran’s proxies in Yemen and elsewhere, Patriot missile defense systems will remain in place, and maritime assets will be repositioned.

In Africa, no specifics were revealed other than a recommendation to continue fighting violent extremist organizations. Terrorist groups have expanded in the sub-Saharan region known as the Sahel, where France has led counterterrorism efforts with American air support since 2014. French President Emmanuel Macron, facing mounting public pressure, promised to withdraw his 5,000 troops. After a joint meeting in October, President Biden committed to provide additional assets to Macron, but the White House and DOD have not provided further details.

In December 2020, then-President Trump ordered all U.S. forces out of Somalia, hindering training efforts with local forces fighting the terrorist group al-Shabab. Despite U.S. Africa Command’s complicated maneuvers to fly troops into Somalia for training missions, no announcement was made regarding the repositioning of forces or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets in the country.

In Central and South America and the Caribbean, the GPR recommended continuing the humanitarian and disaster relief mission and fighting drug trafficking, but no mention was made of force movements.

Air Force is 120 Airplanes Smaller Since 2020, But Fighters and Bombers Stay About Level

Nov. 24, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force trimmed 120 airplanes from its fleet in fiscal 2021, gaining the most aircraft among its F-35 fighter squadrons and giving up the most from its B-1 bomber units, according to data provided by the Air Force. With puts and takes, the Air Force’s kinetic shooter fleet, not including special operations, stayed about the same, at 2,301 aircraft.

The F-35 fleet gained 61 aircraft in 2021, with the most—33 airplanes—filling out squadrons at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, in Pacific Air Forces, which now has 43 jets. Another 13 bolstered Air Education and Training Command’s training squadrons, giving it 115 in total. Air Combat Command picked up six F-35s, for a total of 122, and the Air National Guard gained nine, for a total of 20. Air Force Materiel Command has two for test. The Air Force had 302 F-35s as of Sep. 30., the end of the fiscal year. The F-35 fleet is now second only to the F-16 fleet in size.

Global Strike Command gave up the 17 B-1B aircraft the Air Force asked Congress to let it retire last year, leaving it with a force of 45 of the bombers, which remain distributed between Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, and Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D. The other two bomber fleets—the B-2A and B-52H—remained at 20 and 76 airplanes, respectively. Eighteen B-52s are in the Air Force Reserve Command and two “belong” to Air Force Materiel Command, for testing, although former Air Force Global Strike Command chief Gen. Timothy M. Ray predicted as many as 12 may switch from AFGSC to AFMC to support testing of a variety of new weapons, particularly hypersonic missiles.

The F-22 fleet remained static at 185 aircraft, but eight airplanes apparently transferred from Air Combat Command to Pacific Air Forces.

While ACC gained two brand-new F-15EX aircraft, U.S. Air Forces in Europe and the Air National Guard each gave up an F-15C. Air Combat Command has just 23 F-15C/Ds, while the ANG has 136, PACAF owns 53 and USAFE 20, with AFMC having five for test, for a total of 237 F-15C/D.

The F-15E fleet of 218 aircraft are mostly in ACC, with 158; while USAFE has 55 and AFMC has five for test.

The F-16C/D fleet of 937 aircraft—down just one from 2020—is mostly in the Air National Guard, which has 332 of the jets. The next largest operator is ACC, with 168, followed by PACAF, with 135 and AETC, with 134. USAFE has 78 F-16C/D while AFMC, which uses them as chase planes as well as for test purposes, has 36.

The A-10C fleet, which the Air Force says it will not reduce further until around 2030, is at 281 aircraft; unchanged from 2020. The bulk of those, 115, are in ACC, while the ANG has 85, Air Force Reserve Command has 55, and PACAF has 24. The remaining two are with AFMC for test purposes.

The MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft fleet increased by 33 airframes to 323. AETC gained 24 Reapers for training.

Air Combat Command gained one AT-6 light attack aircraft for development of tactics and partnership concepts with coalition nations.

No COVID-19 Vaccine, No PCS Moves, Air Force Says

Nov. 24, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

With several thousand Airmen still unvaccinated against COVID-19, the Air Force is reportedly introducing a new consequence for those without a medical or administrative exemption.

Starting Nov. 29, unvaccinated Airmen will be blocked from moving to new assignments unless they are on existing PCS orders, or have been selected for future PCS, according to a memo from Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, that started circulating on Facebook and Reddit on Nov. 23.

The Air Force did not immediately respond to Air Force Magazine queries about the memo.

Airmen who have out-processed or shipped household goods before Nov. 29 will be allowed to complete their moves, the memo states, but others won’t be able to move until they are fully vaccinated or receive a medical exemption or religious accommodation.

Unvaccinated Airmen will receive an Assignment Availability Code preventing future assignment selection. For unvaccinated Airmen overseas, the code will extend the Date Eligible to Return from Overseas as needed.

The new mandatory policy is in effect for one year and does not apply to vaccinated Airmen or those with exemptions, the memo states.

It is unclear just how many Airmen the new policy will affect. According to the latest data released Nov. 24, there are now 7,874 Airmen and Guardians who are unvaccinated with no exemptions.

For the overwhelming majority of the force, however, it will have no effect—96.6 percent of the Active duty Air Force and Space Force is already fully vaccinated, another 0.5 percent is partially vaccinated, and more than 1,400 have approved exemptions.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has heavily hinted that Airmen who continue to refuse the vaccine will eventually be booted from the service, saying that it’s a “pretty straightforward question” when asked about it in a recent Facebook town hall.

In the same town hall, Kendall also raised the possibility that unvaccinated Airmen would not be able to deploy.

Other services have already put policies in place aimed at forcing out vaccine refusers—the Army, Navy, and Marine Corps have all said they will not allow refusers to reenlist or be promoted. The Navy and the Marines have also detailed their timelines for starting the separation process if unvaccinated service members don’t receive an accommodation.

The Air Force, meanwhile, has yet to publicly detail how it will go about separating vaccine refusers or if it will block reenlistments and promotions. The action to prevent moves, however, comes as the department struggles to work its way through a huge backlog of religious exemption requests. Under Department of the Air Force policy, Airmen and Guardians are supposed to get a ruling on their requests within 30 business days, but as of Nov. 24, it still has 4,756 requests pending—when the vaccine deadline passed Nov. 3, it had 4,933. That slow pace could result in unvaccinated Airmen remaining in the service for weeks or months while they wait for a ruling.

SOUTHCOM Advances ‘Quiet Weapon System,’ Promoting Gender Equality in Regional Militaries

Nov. 24, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

U.S. SOUTHERN COMMAND, Miami, Fla.—Gen. Laura J. Richardson made history as the first woman to lead U.S. Southern Command and the third ever to lead a U.S. combatant command. Seeing a woman in such a senior leadership role is already having a powerful impact on female officers and enlisted personnel in regional militaries.

“Everywhere we went in Colombia, there were women lining up wanting to take pictures with her,” Lt. Col. Duilia Turner, gender officer and chief of SOUTHCOM’s Women’s Peace and Security (WPS) office, told Air Force Magazine on a recent visit to the Miami-based regional command for Latin America and the Caribbean.

“I think because she’s an aviator, when she saw another woman aviator … there was something there that they know what they went through, or they have been going through,” said Turner, who accompanied Richardson on her trip to Colombia Nov. 17-18. “There was the eyeball to eyeball connection that was really special to see.”

Over 70 women and men attended the event at the Tolemaida Air Base in the central Colombian Andes, home to American-made Blackhawk helicopters like those Richardson flew in Iraq and Afghanistan. Colombian leaders discussed opportunities for women in defense and security, training and education, and the development of the senior enlisted force.

“[Richardson] is interested in the force development, the development of the enlisted corps, junior officers,” said Turner. “As well as the idea that talent doesn’t have gender.”

SOUTHCOM’s Women’s Peace and Security office was established in 2020 under the civilian deputy to the commander, while other combatant commands host their WPS offices under directorates. As a priority program, SOUTHCOM’s office is the only one led by a military officer. WPS offices were set up in response to the 2017 Women, Peace, and Security Act signed by President Donald J. Trump that enshrined in law the U.S. commitment to UN Security Council resolution 1325.

Turner, who was born in New York to Colombian parents and raised in Brazil until the age of 19, is using her Air Force training and personal story to help advance Richardson’s progress on the initiative.

The gender officer explained that SOUTHCOM’s outreach related to UNSCR 1325 builds trust with partner militaries and helps the U.S. reinforce its commitment to shared democratic values.

“When we share those values of trust, democracy, equality under the law, we have this connection that can only help us to foster this in our region for stability,” Turner explained. “It’s a quiet weapon system, … and that’s a strategic advantage of women, peace, and security.”

Women comprise 32 percent of the Colombian Air Force compared to the U.S. Air Force at 21 percent. In Colombia, 11 percent of those female aviators are fixed and rotary wing pilots, a Colombian Air Force spokesperson told Air Force Magazine.

Across the region, SOUTHCOM’s WPS office has reached over 20 countries. During COVID, the command’s senior enlisted panels reached 40,000 viewers online and achieved 150,000 engagements.

The biggest challenge that remains, Turner said, is “mindset.”

“I am in the business of changing mindsets,” she said. “The mindset that thinks that women shouldn’t be in the military, that thinks that we’re inferior in any way, physically or mentally, that we don’t belong here, that this is not about combat capability.”

Turner uses education and data to show that women help fill strategic and operational “blind spots,” contributing to mission effectiveness by adding a valuable perspective.

“This is not making concessions for women so that, you know, we can lower the standard so women can hop in. The idea is to allow women who are capable to really flourish and make our force [better],” she said. “This is not wishful thinking, ‘Oh, let’s feel good about it.’ This is a fact.”

Turner saw that Richardson was moved by the impact she made at Tolemaida.

“Sometimes it takes someone on that level to make that inspirational impact to show, ‘Wow, you really can go super far,’” she said of the Colombian aviators and other female service members who were motivated by Richardson’s engagement and presence.

“I was not expecting that,” Turner added. “When I knew she was coming, I was very excited. But I think I’m pleasantly surprised with their reactions and what they can still do.”

New DOD Group to ‘Synchronize’ Efforts to Track Unidentified Aerial Phenomena

Nov. 24, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Defense Department is establishing a new office to coordinate its approach to unidentified aerial phenomena, signaling the Pentagon’s increasing interest in the issue as it becomes less and less of a fringe concern.

The Airborne Object Identification and Management Synchronization Group was announced by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks in a Nov. 23 memo and will be organized underneath the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence and Security, Ronald Moultrie.

The AOIMSG’s purpose will be to “synchronize efforts across the department and with other federal departments and agencies to detect, identify, and attribute objects of interests” in Special Use Airspace such as DOD training ranges and installations, the memo states.

The group will serve as the successor to the Navy’s Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, which is in the process of transitioning to the AOIMSG, a Defense Department spokeswoman told Air Force Magazine.

The formation of the new office comes almost exactly five months after the Office of the Director of National Intelligence released a highly anticipated report on UAP that was mandated by Congress. The report focused on 144 incidents of UAP identified by military pilots dating back to 2004 and was unable to provide explanations for all but one of them.

The majority of those incidents were reported by Navy aviators, and the report noted that the Air Force’s “data collection has been limited historically.” That was just one of the challenges the report identified in analyzing and reaching conclusions on UAP incidents.

The AOIMSG is aimed at addressing those challenges and potential solutions identified in the report, the spokeswoman said. As part of coordinating how departments detect, identify, and attribute UAP, the new group will standardize the reporting process across the Pentagon, the memo states. It will also collect and analyze operational and intelligence data and recommend policy and regulatory changes as necessary.

The group will be overseen by the Airborne Object Identification and Management Executive Council, which will be co-chaired by the undersecretary for intelligence and security and the director of operations for the Joint Staff. The The executive council will appoint an acting director for the group and submit implementation guidance—announcements regarding “organizational membership, roles, responsibilities, and authorities” will come in the weeks ahead, the spokeswoman said.

The new office would seem to fill some of the roles envisioned in an amendment offered to the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act by Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.). Gillibrand’s legislation calls for the establishment of a “Anomaly Surveillance and Resolution Office” in the Pentagon that would take on the duties of the Unidentified Aerial Phenomena Task Force, “synchronize and standardize the collection, reporting, and analysis” of UAP events, and evaluate their threat to national security.

Under Gillibrand’s amendment, the office would also be responsible for ensuring UAP incidents are reported to a “centralized repository,” as well as crafting a “science plan” to develop and test theories “to account for characteristics and performance of unidentified aerial phenomena that exceed the known state of the art in science or technology.” The amendment also calls for twice-yearly briefings to Congress panels.

Gillibrand is also proposing the formation of an “Aerial and Transmedium Phenomena Advisory Committee,” with appointed experts from NASA, the Federal Aviation Administration, the National Academies of Sciences, the head of the Galileo Project at Harvard University, the director of the Optical Technology Center at Montana State University, the Scientific Coalition for UAP Studies, and the American Institute of Astronautics and Aeronautics.

The proposal has bipartisan backing, POLITICO reported, as lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have cited the issue’s potential national security implications as reason to take it more seriously. While much of the public fascination on the subject has focused on the idea of extraterrestrial origins for the UAP, some analysts and lawmakers have raised the possibility of foreign powers using new technologies.

Gillibrand’s office has not responded to a request for comment from Air Force Magazine on the newly announced AOIMSG and how it relates to her amendment. One of the co-sponsors to Gillibrand’s amendment, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), issued a statement to Air Force Magazine.

“Sen. Rubio welcomes greater attention by the Defense Department on the issue of Unidentified Aerial Phenomenon,” the statement reads. “It is important that the DOD and Intelligence Community work together to gather more data on UAPs, particularly those operating in and around military airspace as they may pose a threat to flight safety for military aviators and some have exhibited potentially advanced aviation characteristics or may be foreign intelligence collection platforms.”

Gillibrand isn’t the only lawmaker proposing a permanent office within the Pentagon to study UAP. Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz) included an amendment to the House’s version of the 2022 NDAA that would establish such an office and require an annual report to Congress.

KC-46 Weapons Systems Council Unifies Lessons Learned With USAF’s New Tanker

Nov. 24, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Air Mobility Command’s KC-46 next generation refueler has been operating from five bases nationwide and for nearly two years, but lessons learned and problems encountered were not unified until a Nov. 17-18 Weapons Systems Council at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan.

“The KC-46, being a new platform, it did not have an established Weapons System Council, and so we were really lacking that as a community,” Col. Nate Vogel, commander of the 22nd Air Refueling Wing (ARW), told Air Force Magazine after the event and associated training exercises concluded.

“We’ve matured enough to where different organizations were getting to become experts in the weapon system,” he explained. “We wanted to make sure that as an enterprise, we stayed synchronized, understood the challenges that each other had and the opportunities that were out there, and then decided how best we could move this forward.”

The two-day event discussed problems and best practices, including approaches to agile combat employment (ACE) and aeromedical evacuation, areas that some bases have been practicing more than others. Participants also received a briefing on the KC-46’s cyber capabilities.

The Air Force currently has 50 KC-46 refuelers in its total force inventory and plans to procure 179 as it retires the KC-10 and a portion of its KC-135 flight. The remaining KC-135s will be upgraded until a bridge tanker comes online.

A total of 60 people participated in the weapons system council, including KC-46 wing commanders and senior enlisted leaders, operations group and squadron commanders, and operations experts from Guard, Reserve, and Active duty units. In attendance were representatives from McConnell’s 22nd ARW and 931st ARW, Air Mobility Command headquarters, Air Force Reserve Command headquarters, 4th Air Force, 60th Air Mobility Wing, 157th ARW, 97th AMW, 305th AMW, 916th ARW, 509th Weapons Squadron, and the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center.

Three KC-46s also flew aircrews from McConnell, Altus Air Force Base, Okla., and Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H., to refuel F-16s from the Oklahoma Air National Guard’s 138th Fighter Wing.

“It was a good opportunity for us all to come together and learn from each other,” said Vogel.

Since the first KC-46 was delivered to McConnell on Jan. 25, 2019, it has flown 5,000 real-world missions conducting 25,000 boom and 1,400 drogue contacts. Three recent interim capability releases enable U.S. Transportation Command to task out refueling missions for the F-15, F-16, B-52, C-17, and other KC-46 receivers. The F/A-18A-F and EA-18G can also be refueled through the platform’s centerline drogue system. The TRANSCOM missions do not include deployments and alerts.

“It’s kind of fascinating, honestly, to see across the Air Force who really doesn’t even understand that the 46 is getting after it,” said Lt. Col. Joshua Moores, commander of the 344th Air Refueling Squadron, reflecting on the number of missions the aircraft is already handling.

The weapons council had four core objectives:

Operationalize the KC-46
Drive a “world-class enterprise culture”
Establish a shared understanding of current and future problems
Generate momentum toward initial operational capability (IOC) and full operational capability (FOC).

“With a young airframe, it’s very important to get that culture correct,” said Moores. “It is important that the weapons system council wings are moving toward that, which we had a great opportunity to all discuss, and to synchronize on these issues.”

Bases nationwide have been problem solving the new weapon system for nearly two years, developing local expertise as well as confronting similar challenges.

“Everybody’s getting after it,” Moores said. “But there’s still areas to improve processes. So, local process improvement came out of that, and then at the end was just the ability for all of those Airmen to have an understanding that at any point in time, they can go out and be interoperable with all of the KC-46 enterprise.”

McConnell is now synthesizing feedback on the problem areas discussed and ways forward to share with the group.

“Then we no kidding sit down over the next two to three weeks after that, and really nugget out as far as, ‘What is the exact problem? What do we think is the way ahead? Who is the person that we think should own the problem? And when do we think that it should be fixed,” said Vogel.

“As long as we keep doing that and then we go out and we keep performing and improving on the enterprise, I think that the work will speak for itself,” he added. “It really is starting to take off from our end.”

AFRL Wants to Capture College Creativity in Maturing AI for Autonomous Systems

Nov. 24, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

An $88 million deal with the University of Dayton will hopefully “add a unique fresh look” at maturing artificial intelligence for Air Force autonomy applications.

The agreement between the Air Force Research Laboratory and the University of Dayton Research Institute—a program called Soaring Otter—expands on what Kelly Miller of the AFRL Sensors Directorate characterized as “existing research challenges.” Ranging from students to “extremely experienced technical experts,” Miller told Air Force Magazine by email that the university group’s “very diverse and capable teammates” factored into its selection.

“University partners are always a good way to get fresh ideas and re-energize the research, looking at different perspectives to solve a nagging problem,” Miller said.

Without naming any specific programs the research might benefit or offering any concrete expected outcomes, Miller said the researchers bring the “unique fresh look at complex problems” related to three of the five “transformational capabilities” the Air Force listed in its Science and Technology Strategy released in 2019:

Global persistent awareness, “which may include advances in ‘multimodal sensing’ and developing new laser and multistatic radars,” according to the Air Force
Resilient information sharing, “which may include developing mesh networks and ‘agile systems with real-time spectrum awareness’”
Rapid, effective decision-making, “which may include advances in artificial intelligence, machine learning, and predictive data analytics.”

Miller said Soaring Otter will involve “fundamental through advanced research areas” and “provide expertise in several areas including machine learning”—a branch of artificial intelligence—“to advance, evaluate, and mature Air Force autonomy capabilities.”

In its announcement of Soaring Otter, the university said technologies such as machine learning, artificial intelligence, and neural networks can help autonomous systems gather and process information and “then use the information to solve a problem or execute an action to achieve a goal.”

The name Soaring Otter symbolizes the program’s aim of “making major advancements, taking the technology to the next level, reaching the unexpected,” said Miller, who also acknowledged a personal interest in otters.

At the same time AFRL has brought in the University of Dayton to aggressively advance AI specifically for autonomy, the Department of the Air Force has taken up residence at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to help advise and do research as part of 10 AI research projects while exposing more people from around the Air Force and Space Force to AI.