Space Force Wrestling With ‘Digital First’ Culture

Feb. 14, 2022 | By Shaun Waterman

The U.S. Space Force—the only military branch born in the information age—has declared itself a “digital first” service. But its leaders are still wrestling with the challenges of digital transformation and working to build a 21st century service culture, they recently told attendees at an industry conference.

“One of our biggest challenges is getting all of our folks’ heads around a new way of doing business,” said Brig. Gen. Kevin G. Whale, a Royal Canadian Air Force officer on assignment to Space Operations Command, or SpOC, to serve as deputy commanding general for transformation. Whale spoke alongside other Space Force and U.S. Space Command leaders during AFCEA’s Space Force IT Day on Feb 10 as part of a panel discussion titled “Focus and Priorities from the Field.”

SpOC is the pointy end of the Space Force spear, the service’s field command—occupying the equivalent organizational rung of a major command in the Air Force—that provides capabilities to U.S. Space Command, the unified combatant command for the battlefield beyond the atmosphere.

“Just to give you a flavor of the kind of challenges we’re working through,” Whale said, SpOC was “trying to move from old ways to new ways” in its business processes, ”transitioning from PowerPoint, quad charts, Excel, and email … to dashboard single source of truth, and … collaboration tools” such as Microsoft Teams.

At 16,000 strong, Whale pointed out, Space Force is dwarfed in size by the Air Force, which has 330,000 Active-duty Airmen and more than double that counting Guard and Reserve members and civilian employees. “We are lean,” Whale said, which makes the Space Force more adaptable.

In an earlier session, Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson even joked that his staff had “asked me what the definition of ‘lean’ is. And oftentimes they asked me to define the difference between ‘lean’ and ’emaciated.'”

For such a small service, automation is a key issue and one of the Space Force’s top use cases for artificial intelligence/machine learning (AI/ML), Whale added. “Even at a staffing level, we are lean enough that the more we can save our staff time with automated processes, we can free up their brain space to be focused on warfighting and operations,” he said.

Whale noted that by assigning one of three deputy SpOC commanders to take charge of transformation, alongside the deputies for operations and training, “our commander has chosen to carve out a team to focus on the future business,” showing his commitment to the digital first ideal.

SpOC was not alone in facing those cultural challenges, Army Col. Mike Teter, chief data officer for U.S. Space Command, told the audience in the room and online. “Our first line of effort is really about the culture and shifting that culture within the space enterprise to pull away from defaulting to emails and defaulting to quad charts,” he said.

It was “odd,” he said, that Space Command had bleeding edge networked technology on orbit “but we use a PowerPoint quad chart to describe it.”

Space Command is the warfighter employing the force presented by SpOC and other service elements, said Teter, and as such, it’s the command’s job to provide requirements to the services so they know how to train and equip their forces.

“What we are is the squeaky wheel. And we have to squeak, because if we’re not squeaking, then that leads to a vacuum for the services. And so they’re not sure what the requirements are,” he said.

But warfighters have to lay out requirements in a future-proof fashion, in a way that describes “the effects that you’re looking for” rather than any particular capabilities,” Teter said. “If I articulate based on today’s capability, by the time that’s delivered in the pipeline, it’s going to be outdated. That’s how we end up with 20-year-old technology,” Teter concluded.

The creation of a service culture was also a top line of effort for Space Training and Readiness Command, or STARCOM, the Space Force field command responsible for testing, training, doctrine, and education for the new service. Col. Aaron Gibson, the director of cyber operations for STARCOM, said the field command is asking itself, “How do we grow Guardians? How do we develop them … so they understand how they contribute to the overall fight?”

Gibson noted that the vast majority of Space Force personnel had joined from another service, and that with an average age in the early 20’s, they were digital natives.

“They came in wanting to make a difference, wanting to not be deterred by a hierarchical structure or bureaucratic process,” Gibson said. The challenge was, “How do we give them the tools and give them the access to the information to be able to make decisions at that speed of relevance to feel like they’re really making a difference? That’s really what we’re trying to get at with the Guardian experience.”

To retain the talent the service needs, the Space Force is focusing on Guardians’ experience the way technology companies focus on user experience. “It’s ultimately our responsibility to ensure that we give them the experience that they are looking for so that they can make a difference,” Gibson said.

The Guardian experience also means, “We have to train like we fight. And in order to do that, we need realistic high fidelity environments,” he said.

And, to train like we fight, those environments will have to include private-sector partners: “You need to have a common environment that everybody can operate off of. We cannot do live virtual constructive training in individual silo environments that are not connected,” Gibson said.

Partnership on commercial satellite communication services was already being taken to the next level by SpOC, Whale said. “At the combined space ops center at Vandenberg [Space Force Base, Calif.], we have a Commercial Integration Cell … with half a dozen or more SATCOM partners [who] have a representative on the operations floor.”

The setup enables commercial SATCOM providers and SpOC commanders to check in with each other in real time about emerging concerns or threats, and Whale predicted it would prove to be a model for other elements of the Space Force. “So that level of integration is just going to keep growing. And I think you’ll see that Commercial Integration Cell concept expanded to some of our other other missions,” he said.

Air Force to Field MRAPs Fitted With Laser, Robotic Arm to Blow Up Unexploded Bombs

Feb. 11, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force will begin fielding reconditioned armored vehicles this fall that are equipped with lasers to detonate unexploded ordnance on airfields following a $40 million development program. If the 13 planned bomb disposal vehicles are a success, the Air Force could order another 21 of them, the service’s Life Cycle Management Center said.

The Recovery of Airbase Denied By Ordnance vehicle, or RADBO, is based on a “Cougar” Mine Resistant Ambush Protected vehicle (MRAP) with four crew stations. The 18-ton vehicle has a robotic arm, with which it can investigate runway craters for unexploded ordnance, and a three-kilowatt Zeus III laser that can detonate “heavily cased” unexploded bombs from as far as 300 meters away. Lighter-cased munitions could be destroyed from even farther away “depending on atmospheric conditions,” an LCMC spokesperson said. The laser heats the casing to “initiate” the explosive fill.

The vehicle is not intended to defuse ordnance, the spokesperson explained.

“Disposal by detonation is often the safest and preferred procedure” for explosive ordnance disposal (EOD) Airmen, he said. After an airfield attack, time will be of the essence in getting it back up and running, so ensuring the field is safe for repairs as quickly as possible is the top priority, he added. The RADBO would be used when the “the area can withstand a high-order detonation.” Research is being done by the Air Force Civil Engineering Center on techniques that could “increase the probability of a low-order detonation over a high-order,” but that effort is still in its early stages, he said.

The RADBO is considered an air superiority asset because “maintainers can’t take care of the aircraft and the aircraft can’t get off the runway” with unexploded bombs on the field, RADBO program manager Tony Miranda said.

EOD technicians will use the vehicles to blow up unexploded bombs “from a standoff range, so we can get back to the business of flying airplanes,” Miranda said. The program is run under the Agile Combat Support Directorate’s support equipment and vehicles division.

The RADBO will be able to quickly assess the airfield after an attack, find unexploded ordnance, and “neutralize” it, according to Al Bello, Mobility and Vehicles Branch chief.

“Once that’s done, heavy equipment can come in and safely repair the damage, to get the airfield back up and running to generate sorties,” he said. The first stage is to create a Minimum Airfield Operations Surface (MAOS), so aircraft can start flying again. After that’s done—and while aircraft begin using the field—the rest of the base would be cleared and repaired “in a prioritized order to get airmen back in the fight,” the spokesman explained.

The RADBO is a new asset that doesn’t replace any existing system; it is “the first of its kind in the Air Force,” the LCMC spokesperson said. Current procedures require an EOD technician in a bomb-resistant suit to place a charge on unexploded ordnance or to attempt to defuse it, a procedure that is “time- and manpower-consuming” as well as highly dangerous, he said.

“Depending on the amount of unexploded ordnance encountered, this can take days or even weeks,” he noted. The RADBO is meant to “prosecute explosive threats in rapid succession, from a safe distance, and from a blast- and fragmentation-protected platform.”

The Air Force is evaluating the laser against an assortment of ordnance, but Miranda asserted it is “quick and absolutely effective.”

The robotic arm—or “interrogator” arm—can move bombs or investigate craters where unexploded ordnance may not be visible from a distance. Although two people can operate the vehicle, it has four stations: for a driver/commander, an arm operator, a laser operator, and an additional technician. The fourth person would potentially control Rapid Mass Mechanical Clearance systems “built to physically plow smaller” unexploded ordnance from the field “without having to engage each one individually.”

The RADBO cannot be operated remotely, but USAF may develop such a capability in the future, the spokesperson said.

The Air Force has been exploring how to rapidly disperse small groups of combat aircraft, supported by Airmen with multiple specialties, using a minimum of transport aircraft, to a wide variety of locations in a war; an effort called agile combat employment. But the RADBO is not meant to be an ACE platform, the spokesperson said.

The “primary mission” for the vehicle is to defend “established airfields,” he said. However, the Air Force EOD community has developed “light and mobile equipment sets to support ACE with small, 2-3 person EOD elements” to be part of an expeditionary force. Joint EOD science and technology programs are also “developing more portable directed energy systems that could also facilitate the ACE concept of operations.”

The vehicle was developed under a $40 million contract to Parsons Government Services in 2020. The contract calls for two prototypes/training vehicles and 13 operational vehicles. The Cougar platforms, which were “divested by sister services,” are already in the inventory of the Air Force, which reconditioned them, and Parsons will install the laser on them. The Cougar was chosen for the RADBO because its armor “mitigates the risk of injury.” A fully-manned MRAP might be the EOD Rapid Explosive Hazard Mitigation (REHM) command-and-control vehicle of the future, the spokesperson said.

The locations where the RADBO will be deployed are still being determined.

Space Force’s Innovation Chief Thinks Investment in the Metaverse Could Pay Off for the Military

Feb. 11, 2022 | By Shaun Waterman

The Space Force’s recently appointed Chief Technology and Innovation Officer Lisa A. Costa is on the lookout for emerging technologies in which investment will allow the service to overtake foreign adversaries.

“It is absolutely imperative that we leapfrog our competitors and that we do that in bet-hedging ways”—ways in which the advantage gained would be “asymmetric,” said Costa at the first ever AFCEA Space Force IT Day on Feb 10. “You’re not going to be able to do that across the board. You’re going to [have to] identify some specific areas where we clearly have some really groundbreaking, unique ideas, cost-imposing ideas, and we invest in those,” she said.

Costa’s office has a logo bearing its name and a catchphrase, or nickname—“Game Changers”—she explained. The logo pictures a chess board featuring both chess and checkers pieces.

“It’s not just about changing where we’re at on the game table. It’s really about, in some instances, actually changing the entire game that we’re playing,” Costa said.

Costa said her work identifying key technologies was ongoing but highlighted several areas of interest, starting with gamification and the Metaverse—the combination of social media and virtual reality touted by Facebook.

“Think about it: If you’re a Sailor, [even in training], you have the opportunity of feeling the sun on your face, the waves underneath the boat, and the smell of the sea. … If you’re a Soldier, you can get out there and feel the mud and the dirt,” she said. ”But our Guardians don’t have that opportunity. The only way that they experience their domain of operations is through digital data,” she said.

Focusing on augmented reality, virtual reality, and haptic devices that provide users physical feedback from a virtual environment would offer novel ways to turn that data into situational awareness for space operators, she said. Doing so could also help them understand faster their options in a given situation, “so that they can make decisions at the speed of mission.”

Focusing on those AR and VR technologies also meant the Space Force could “take advantage of the investments that industry is going to be making in the Metaverse,” she said. “There is really a lot of hype about [the Metaverse]. But on the other hand, there’s a lot of money going into it” as well.

Those technologies could be used for training as well as for operations, she said. And, incorporated into a digital engineering ecosystem, operator feedback could be used to automatically improve the product in its next iteration, she said.

Costa sits in the second layer of the Space Force’s org chart, right below Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond and his deputy Gen. David D. Thompson, alongside the chief human capital officer and the chief operations officer. Organizers said it was just her second public appearance since she was appointed in September 2021. She was previously director of communications systems and CIO for U.S. Special Operations Command.

White House Warns Putin May Invade Ukraine Before Olympics End; Pentagon Coordinates With Allies

Feb. 11, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

This story was updated at 5:32 p.m. Eastern time Feb. 11 to include comments from the NATO official in Brussels.

National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said based on U.S. intelligence and observations of the buildup of 130,000 Russian troops on three sides of Ukraine that Russian President Vladimir Putin may start an invasion before the Winter Olympics in Beijing end Feb. 20.

Sullivan also stressed that American forces deployed to NATO’s eastern flank are “not going to war with Russia.”

Sullivan spoke from the White House press room for 30 minutes Feb. 11 to describe the “very, very distinct possibility” that war between Russia and Ukraine will begin “any day now” and within a “swift timeframe.”

Later Feb. 11, a NATO official from the eastern flank told Air Force Magazine an invasion as soon as this weekend was a possibility.

“The forces are there,” the official said by phone from Brussels. “They could start executing already this weekend.”

Declassified U.S. intelligence assessments have poured out of the National Security Council in recent months in hopes of deterring Russia from invading Ukraine or from mounting a “false flag” operation as an excuse to invade.

Sullivan said President Joe Biden met earlier Jan. 11, virtually, with the leaders of NATO countries Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, and the United Kingdom, plus the NATO secretary-general and the president of the European Union.

“We have achieved a remarkable level of unity and purpose from the broad strategy down to the technical details,” Sullivan insisted, noting that Western countries are more united than in many years in their opposition to the Russian aggression and their commitment to impose harmful sanctions on the Russian economy should Putin invade Ukraine.

Sullivan said the coordinated sanctions, should Russia choose to invade Ukraine, would cause a blow to the Russian economy, including its defense industrial base. He also said, should Moscow be coordinating with Beijing, that China would not be able to compensate Russia for the economic suffering that will ensue.

The national security adviser also provided reassurance that the movement of some 3,000 U.S. troops to Romania and Poland—including Air Force squadrons for NATO enhanced air policing and bilateral training with NATO allies on the eastern flank—are going there to reassure allies and not to fight Russia or to defend Ukraine.

“These are not Soldiers who are being sent to go fight Russia in Ukraine. They’re not going to war in Ukraine. They’re not going to war with Russia,” Sullivan said. “They’re going to defend NATO territory consistent with our Article 5 obligation. They are defensive deployments—they are not escalatory. They are meant to reinforce, reassure, and deter aggression against NATO territory.”

Sullivan insisted that Americans need to depart Ukraine “in the next 24 to 48 hours” while commercial options are still available.

At the Pentagon, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Army Gen. Mark A. Milley spoke by phone with numerous NATO counterparts, including representatives from Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Romania, and the United Kingdom. He also called Chair of the NATO Military Committee Adm. Rob Bauer of the Royal Netherlands Navy to discuss adjustments to U.S. force posture in Europe, and he spoke to Russian Chief of the General Staff Gen. Valery Gerasimov, according to a statement from Joint Staff spokesperson Col. Dave Butler.

No detailed readout was provided for Milley’s call with his Russian counterpart.

Milley and the NATO military committee chief discussed NATO’s current operations and coordinating during adjustments to force posture. The calls are consistent with communication Milley has made in recent weeks.

Sullivan, the national security adviser, reported “a credible prospect of a Russian military action [taking] place even before the end of the Olympics.”

“It is likely to begin with aerial bombing and missile attacks that could obviously kill civilians,” Sullivan said. “Communications to arrange a departure could be severed and commercial transit halted. Nobody will be able to count on air or rail or road departures once military action got underway.”

He added that there is “no prospect of a U.S. military evacuation in the event of a Russian invasion.”

The U.S. maintains some 80,000 troops in the European theater during peacetime. Sullivan did not preview any further NATO reinforcement or deterrence measures but said defensive assistance to Ukraine will continue and that 8,500 American troops remain on heightened alert to serve as NATO swift response, if needed.

The NATO official would not confirm whether a decision has been made yet to call up the NATO Swift Response Force, saying only, “Everything is under discussion.”

The United States has in recent weeks delivered ammunition and anti-tank Javelin missiles to Ukraine while the State Department Foreign Military Sales office has fast-tracked third-party transfer licenses, allowing Baltic NATO allies to share short-range air defense systems, including Stinger missiles, with Ukraine.

Despite the grim warning about a Russian invasion, Sullivan insisted that the United States was leaving all diplomatic options open and said President Biden would be open to another telephone conversation with Putin.

U.S. Jets Deployed to Poland, Romania Are ‘Prepared to Scramble’ in Support of NATO Air Policing

Feb. 11, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Sixteen U.S. Air Force fighter jets have deployed to Poland and Romania in recent days to support Baltic enhanced air policing and to reassure NATO eastern flank allies in the face of heightened Russian activity, U.S. Air Forces in Europe told Air Force Magazine.

Eight F-16s from the 52nd Fighter Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, deployed to Fetesti Air Base, Romania, on Feb. 11; and eight F-15s from the 48th Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., landed in Lask, Poland, on Feb. 10 as part of the enhanced air policing mission and to conduct bilateral training with NATO Allies.

Russia has amassed more than 130,000 troops on three sides of Ukraine and increased its Black Sea naval presence to include landing vessels. On Feb. 10 it began a joint military exercise with Belarus, whose border is just 100 miles from Ukraine’s capital Kyiv. While Ukraine is not a NATO member, eastern flank allies fear a Russian incursion and redefined European borders ultimately will put them at risk.

Commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and NATO Air Command chief Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian said the jets are part of America’s commitment to NATO defense.

“The deployment of U.S. F-15s to Poland elevates the collective defense capabilities on NATO’s Eastern flank and the enhanced Air Policing mission,” Harrigian said in a statement. “The commitment of U.S. aircraft and Airmen demonstrates the solidarity of the Alliance, as we continue to work together in unity to execute our defensive mission.”

USAFE spokesperson Capt. Eric Anthony said the jets will be at the ready for NATO orders.

“They will also have aircraft on standby to scramble, if required to do so, to support the NATO enhanced air policing mission,” he said by phone from Ramstein Air Base, Germany.

While Air Force participation in NATO air policing missions is pre-planned, the additional jets are the result of Russia’s troop buildup on the border of Ukraine, which shares borders with several eastern flank allies.

“There’s a linkage,” Anthony underscored. “We want to support our NATO allies, however possible, and making sure that fighters are in the right location to help NATO’s defensive posture is part of that.”

Since December, the Air Force has increased its air policing missions, first in Lask, then with two rotations in Amari, Estonia, in January that concluded Feb. 4, followed by the deployments in the last two days.

USAFE said the number of jets is meant to increase the air presence on the eastern flank of the alliance.

“You’ve seen the uptick, and the recent intel reports that were declassified and are circulating the net right now,” Anthony said, referring to reports released by the National Security Council.

The Biden administration reportedly has coordinated closely with the National Security Council to release a series of intelligence reports, including Russian preparations for “false flag” operations, in an effort to deter Russia from invading Ukraine.

President Joe Biden was on the phone with NATO allies the morning of Feb. 11, and National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan was scheduled to brief at the White House at 2 p.m. in what many believed would be an announcement about further deterrence measures by the NATO alliance to deter a Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Finland Formalizes Deal for 64 Block 4 F-35s

Feb. 11, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Finland finalized its $9.4 billion purchase of 64 Lockheed Martin F-35s and support services, signing a letter of offer and acceptance, announced Feb. 11, that calls for the jets to be delivered before the end of 2030. The agreement provides Finland with industrial participation on the program.

The F-35A conventional-takeoff jets will be of the Block 4 configuration and replace Finland’s F/A-18C/D fighters, which will be phased out as the new aircraft arrive, starting in 2025. In addition to providing Finland with a fifth-generation fighter, the deal will provide Finnish companies “high technology engineering and manufacturing economic benefits,” Lockheed Martin F-35 vice president and program manager Bridget Lauderdale said in a press statement.

“The production work will continue for more than 20 years, and the F-35 sustainment work will continue into the 2060s,” Lauderdale said. Finland will produce significant portions of the F-35’s forward fuselage for itself and other customers. It will also produce structural components and “equipment testing and maintenance capability,” the Finnish defense ministry said in a Dec. 10 release. Finnish industry may also be involved in final assembly of the fighter’s F135 engine.

Industrial participation was a contingency of the sale. Finland told fighter competitors in 2018 that the acquisition had to include industrial offsets valued at 30 percent or more of the eventual contract.

The Finnish defense ministry, in the Dec. 10 release, said the industrial agreement “is to develop and maintain the production, technology and expertise in the defense and security industry that is critical with respect to national defense, state security and functions vital to society, as well as to improve and safeguard the national security of supply.” The ministry said offsets will directly create “4,500 person-years” of jobs in Finland and 1,500 person-years of indirect labor.

The acquisition will be managed through the U.S. Foreign Military Sales program. It includes engines, maintenance equipment, spare parts, training equipment, and service.

A separate letter of acceptance will be signed later this year for the provision of Sidewinder and AMRAAM air-to-air missiles to equip the fighters, and Finland said it will sign agreements for air-to-ground munitions “later.” Finland already has a number of American munitions types that can be carried by the F-35, including the stealth AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile.

The F-35 was selected over the Saab JAS-39 Gripen, Dassault’s Rafale, and the Boeing F/A-18E/F Super Hornet version of the fighter Finland has been operating since the 1990s.

Finnish defense minister Antti Kaikkonen said in a comparison of “military performance” of the finalists, the F-35 “best met our needs.”

In addition to seven development partners who are buying and operating the F-35, the sale to Finland marks the eighth FMS customer for the jet, making 15 operators worldwide. Turkey, which was an original development partner, and had actually accepted four F-35s, was expelled from the program over that country’s decision to buy the Russian S400 air defense system, which would have compromised the stealth fighter’s secrets.

Finland is an unaligned nation, but the eduskunta, its parliament, has over the past few years discussed joining NATO. Switzerland is also neutral but ordered 36 of the jets last fall; it has not yet formalized the sale with a letter of acceptance. Finnish neighbor Norway, which is part of NATO, already operates the F-35.

Replacing the E-3: USAF Asks Companies How They Could Build Prototypes in 5 Years

Feb. 10, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

Replacing the Air Force’s “challenged” E-3 Sentry fleet came closer to reality with a recent request for information.

The Air Force’s AWACS Advanced Capabilities Branch wants to know how companies can deliver prototypes of a replacement for the airborne warning and control system, or AWACS, airplane by fiscal 2028. The RFI doesn’t guarantee the government will start a program of record, but Air Force officials have repeatedly lamented the aging aircraft’s viability.

In spite of recent upgrades, the E-3 is “challenged at the moment because of how old it is,” commander of Pacific Air Forces Gen. Kenneth F. Wilsbach said at the Air Force Association’s virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium in February 2021. “It’s harder and harder to get airborne.”

Wilsbach said he wanted Boeing’s 737-based E-7 Wedgetail airborne early warning and control aircraft to replace the E-3—itself based on Boeing’s 707-320B. The Air Force asked Boeing in October 2021 to do “studies, analyses, and activities” to figure out the work needed to make the baseline E-7 compatible with the Air Force’s standards and mandates.

Originally made for the Royal Australian Air Force, now the U.K., South Korea, and Turkey have also selected the E-7.

The E-3s perform all-weather surveillance of the air and sea, including airspace in excess of a 250-mile radius “from surface to stratosphere,” according to Air Force Magazine’s 2021 Air Force and Space Force Almanac.

The Air Force has asked companies to explain how they could deliver two prototypes of a replacement, with associate ground and training equipment, within five years starting in fiscal 2023. A list of required features includes an advanced 360-degree radar and the ability to take on six battle management command and control missions, or BMC2, at once.

Companies’ unclassified responses, due by March 10, must address cybersecurity; range, ceiling, and attainable surveillance coverage on a 10-hour mission; and specifics of BMC2 activities involving sensors, tracks, targets, communications, fighter command and control, and tasking.

Unclear Definitions Risk to Success in Fielding Autonomous Aircraft

Feb. 10, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Successfully introducing new, unmanned aircraft in the Air Force, with varying degrees of autonomy, is at risk as long as there’s widespread disagreement about what an “autonomous” aircraft actually is, according to an upcoming paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The think-tank urges the Air Force to set common definitions so that requirements-setters and engineers don’t work at cross-purposes.

The defense community is rapidly coming to “a consensus that unmanned aircraft will be essential to future force designs,” Mitchell researcher Heather Penney said in a discussion with reporters ahead of publication of a new paper, “Beyond Pixie Dust: A Framework for Understanding and Developing Autonomy in Unmanned Aircraft.” Autonomous aircraft can “affordably increase” the size of the air fleet, she said, which is essential because of greater expected wartime attrition “than we’ve experienced over a generation.” Autonomous aircraft will also offer new operational concepts that will present enemies with “operational dilemmas.”

But there are almost as many definitions of “autonomy” as there are people working in the field, she said.

“We need to be on the same page,” Penney warned. Without having “a shared understanding across the entire enterprise” of what autonomy “is and what it means for unmanned aircraft—we face a very real risk of failing in this endeavor.” Common understanding is needed to avoid development delays, failed acquisitions, late-to-need operational concepts, and a resistance in the force to accepting and using autonomous systems.

She said the Air Force plans and requirements shop recognizes the need for a defined autonomy lexicon and is working on “a framework,” but “our development is further along than where they are, right now.”

Existing Pentagon methods of categorizing unmanned aircraft have to do with how large and heavy they are, or the altitudes at which they fly, but don’t assess their level of autonomic action, she noted.

Automation, Penney explained, defines how a washing machine works: it can be programmed to carry out a set series of tasks, but it can’t sense an imbalanced load, stop and “re-balance itself.” Autonomy, on the other hand, can sense and adapt to new conditions, and she made an analogy to the “R2-D2” robot in Star Wars: a machine able to assess and anticipate, and take unplanned action within the limits of its programming.

A “you know it when you see it” definition of autonomy won’t work, Penney asserted.

Mitchell “aligned our understanding of ‘automation’ as deterministic programming, and ‘autonomy’ with machine learning,” because it “matches our expectations of behavior.” Operators tend to believe that automated systems are programmed with “fixed and highly scripted” behavior, “like an autopilot: predictable, rigid, repeatable … The same inputs yield the same outputs” and the system cannot respond in real time to the unexpected. An autopilot can’t fly itself around a thunderstorm, she noted. But operators think of autonomous systems as independent, self-directed, and adaptive.

Penney said the Society of Automotive Engineers has a good starting point in their standards for what constitutes automation and autonomy in driven and self-driven cars. On a five-level scale, Level 0-2 means the human is driving and must supervise operation, even with gadgets such as blind spot warnings, automatic braking, lane centering, and adaptive cruise control operating. But for levels of 3-4, the human is not driving, and the vehicle can operate in most scenarios, with the human taking over at times. At level 5, the car itself can operate safely under all conditions and doesn’t require human intervention.

Using a similar model will help operators talk to engineers about what they need and don’t need the autonomous platform to do, to achieve the desired effect. In some cases, Penney said, “less autonomy is the better solution.” The model will allow definition of levels of autonomy within categories of unmanned aircraft, and “levels of behavior within each category.”

Engineers can then translate what operators need and break it down into functions, technologies, and data. Their expectations will match.

The standards Mitchell will propose don’t govern weapons like loitering munitions, but unmanned aircraft that are expected to return from their missions, Penney noted.

Having a common lexicon is crucial, she said, because pilots who have to collaborate with autonomous machine wingmen will not trust them unless they understand exactly how these new systems will behave under a range of circumstances. Without a common lexicon, confusion across the Defense Department is almost guaranteed, Penney said. And in discussions with many facets of the community, lack of trust was always stated as the No. 1 risk in getting autonomous systems fielded.

Common definitions are also crucial to getting agreement between Congress, “on what it thinks its buying,” and what the Air Force’s “strategic planners envision, what operational warfighters need, and what aerospace engineers” expect to deliver. Differing expectations will thwart rapid development of the field, Penney said, and this is a peril because adversaries are moving rapidly in the field of autonomous systems.

Senior leaders are also divesting systems and “collapsing” force structure “on the belief that these future systems will mature and field on time, and do the things they think they’re going to do,” Penney said. Mitchell wants those decisions to be informed by a true understanding of what unmanned aircraft can or will do.

AFA Leaders Call on Congress to Break Cycle of CRs Funding Pentagon

Feb. 10, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Congressional leaders say they have made a significant breakthrough toward agreeing to a budget for fiscal year 2022—more than four months after the fiscal year began. But Air Force Association leaders are calling on lawmakers to break what has become a nearly-annual tradition of continuing resolutions to fund the Pentagon and other federal agencies.

“Our position is the CRs have got to go away,” AFA chairman and retired Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Gerald Murray said in a virtual press conference Feb. 10, detailing a letter sent by AFA leadership to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), Appropriations Committee chair Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and ranking member Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), urging them to pass a defense budget.

“We’ve got to get back into where there’s regular scheduled budgeting and then the passage of defense bills, because already that’s a six-month delay,” Murray added. “It’s short notice right now for how priorities will be set by both services, and then nothing is even started for next year. And so CRs cannot be the way and should not in any way be the way that we … prioritize defense. That’s kind of the bottom line to it.”

Murray’s comments come one day after appropriators in the House and Senate announced they had agreed to “a framework for fiscal year 2022 appropriations,” setting the stage for Congress to finally pass a full budget. Since Oct. 1, the government has been operating under a series of continuing resolutions, keeping funding levels frozen at the previous year’s level with only a few exceptions.

Pentagon officials have frequently bemoaned the effects of continuing resolutions, saying they delay new starts to programs, slow acquisitions, and keep money stuck in the wrong accounts. In a recent Congressional hearing, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. warned that a full-year CR, threatened by some in Congress, would be “shattering.”

Yet operating under CRs for at least part of the year has become the norm for the Defense Department in recent years—the department has started 12 of the last 13 fiscal years under a CR, with fiscal 2019 being the lone exception.

This cycle not only slows new programs, it also costs money. Murray cited Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) in saying that a full-year CR costs the Pentagon $36 billion in buying power. Those losses are especially crucial given the badly-needed modernization efforts currently being undertaken by the Air Force, added AFA President retired Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright.

“We have a geriatric Air Force, and it’s not just geriatric in [terms of] the age of B-52s, as we’re trying to upgrade them,” Wright said. “But, you know, there are capabilities out there that not only need to be upgraded, but [need to be replaced]. We need to move on, to Next Gen Air Dominance, and a system of systems approach that includes JADC2 and ABMS, to build an asymmetric capability to deter, and certainly to fight and win, against the pacing threats of the Chinese military.”

Both Wright and Murray also pointed to the Air Force’s push to modernize the air and land legs of the nuclear triad as efforts that cannot be delayed. Brown told Congress the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent’s initial operating capability could be pushed past 2029, the Long Range Standoff Weapon by over a year, and the conventional initial operating capability and nuclear certification of the B-21 up to a year if CRs persist.

“Clearly modernization and funding for GBSD and … to field the new bomber … are critically important—never more important,” Wright said, than at any point since he first put on a uniform more than 50 years ago.

But perhaps the biggest impact continued CRs could have is on the fledgling Space Force. Established just over two years ago, the Space Force has existed under a CR for roughly seven months out of its 25 in existence. Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond told the Congressional panel that continued CRs would impact the service’s ability to establish itself, and Murray agreed that a frequent cycle of CRs could cripple the Space Force.

“I don’t see the ability for the Space Force to be able to build [to] where and what it needs to if we’re going to be in a continuous … loop of CRs,” Murray said.

There is hope, though, added Wright.

“What I think I see is great growing bipartisan collaboration, in fact, to recognize the reality of the threat,” Wright said. “Our nation’s at great risk, and we can’t ignore that. The threat doesn’t allow us any longer to just try to keep old cars running.”

While Congressional leaders say they’ve agreed to the basics of a deal, there’s still likely to be one more CR before a budget passes. The current CR expires Feb. 18, and the House recently passed another that would extend that funding through March 11. Schumer, in a floor speech on Feb. 10, said the Senate would look to pass that bill next week. If approved, it would be the third continuing resolution since the fiscal year began on Oct. 1, 2021.