USAF Looks to Small Businesses for Some F-22 Upgrades

Jan. 14, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is looking for a host of F-22 Raptor upgrades and will seek small businesses to offer potential solutions, according to a draft “open topic” on the AFVentures Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) page. No timing was stated for the upgrades.

According to a recent but undated “Focus Topics” summary in the AFVentures system, which is run by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Air Force is looking at 14 potential F-22 upgrades, including:

Integrating the Thales Scorpion helmet-mounted display/weapon cuing system
A long-range infrared search-and-track sensor
Manned-unmanned teaming
Pilot-assisted autonomy
A GPS-alternative navigation system
Simulation of “red air” threats
Algorithms for “optimized intercepts”
Combat identification of threats
Cyber intrusion detection and prevention
Predictive maintenance
Synthetic data generation
Sensor fusion
Improved sensing
Real-time debriefing

The Air Force has been evaluating the Scorpion helmet for at least seven years. The F-22 is the only frontline Air Force fighter not to have a helmet-mounted display and targeting system; the F-15 and F-16 both use the Joint Helmet-Mounted Cuing System (JHMCS), and the F-35 has its own unique helmet-mounted display system (HMDS).

For various reasons—mostly budgetary, but also due to the size of the helmet hampering pilot movements under the F-22 canopy—the helmet system has been consistently deleted from planned F-22 upgrades over the years.

The AFVentures announcement says the service is willing to entertain small business proposals to process aircraft data and provide an interface to the Scorpion helmet, not to provide the helmet itself. The “desired functionality” is to include “displays of threats, battlespace lines, aircraft state information, weapon information, and navigation information.” The overall goal is to improve battlespace situational awareness; “usability and processing intensity are considerations.”

Another longtime Air Force goal is to equip the F-22 with an infrared search and track system (IRST), but using one of those available for the F-15 and F-16 has been problematic because of the challenge of integrating them with the jet’s stealth profile. The F-35 uses a stealthy faceted aperture under its nose for various infrared sensing functions. The AFVentures draft didn’t give many specifics, saying only that it’s looking for “novel hardware and software solutions” that would work at long ranges.

An IRST is considered a key sensing capability now that adversary air forces are employing stealth aircraft that have greatly reduced radar cross sections. An IRST would have to be integrated with the F-22’s other sensors—mainly its active electronically scanned array (AESA) radar—to provide a holistic view of the battlespace. The AFVentures “improved sensing” subject area speaks to this, saying “methods of interest include machine learning for radar systems, cognitive radar algorithms, radar waveform modernization, sparse sensing, and more.”

In a 2017 interview with Air Force Magazine, Ken Merchant, who was at the time Lockheed Martin’s vice president for the F-22, and more recently headed F-35 sustainment and now has his own company, Life Cycle Solutions, said the F-22’s internal layout does not have the necessary “real estate” available to accommodate an F-35-style electro-optical system. However, he suggested that if the F-22’s early-generation flat panel displays—which are thick and heavy—were swapped out for the latest slim and light versions, then space in the cockpit area might be found for an IRST. At the time, Merchant said only that the Air Force was looking at “other options.”

The F-22 could not use the Lockheed Martin “Legion Pod,” which flies with the F-15 and has been fitted to the F-16 and various drones, because it would require external carriage and defeat the F-22’s low observable features. If the F-22 carried an IRST in its “cheek” internal weapon station, where short-range AIM-9X missiles are carried, it would still require the station doors to open, also negating the jet’s stealth profile and creating asymmetric drag for extended use.

For manned-unmanned teaming, AFVentures is looking for a system to help the F-22 pilot with “monitoring and control” of an unmanned escort aircraft. The application is to take in all available information and provide the pilot with a “god’s eye view of the battlespace;” package and send commands over certain data links; and employ a touchscreen tablet as the user interface.

Likewise, the “pilot assisted autonomy” system would help the pilot by “suggestion actions” based on inputs from sensors, identify immediate risks, “reason about intentions,” and alert the pilot to hazardous situations.

For the GPS alternative, AFVentures said only that it wants “a more layered approach” to navigation and position that can provide “accurate and real-time” position without using GPS. Recent Air Force technology discussions have speculated about using extremely sensitive, nano-scale inertial measurement systems for this purpose.

The “predictive maintenance” system sounds like the F-35’s Autonomic Logistics Information System/Operational Data Integration Network (ALIS/ODIN), and would automatically monitor all the maintenance calls and aircraft condition reports on the F-22 fleet while providing predictive maintenance recommendations. The product will be evaluated on “accuracy, usability, and effectiveness in improving F-22 maintenance.”

For “synthetic data generation,” the Air Force wants the F-22’s large volume of classified data to be simulated so contractors can develop software for it without accessing secret data. The F-22 system program office wants “a synthetic data generation platform that can generate unclassified data with the same statistical significance as the original classified data for purposes of rapid testing and development;” presumably, of software and hardware being added through open mission systems.

For “optimized intercept,” the Air Force wants a system that will take in all the data available to the F-22 pilot and plot “an optimized pathway to intercept adversary aircraft,” presumably avoiding ground- and air-based radars and threats. The AFRL wants a system that could be flown “by a single Blue fighter against many Red fighters,” with the ability to expand to a four-ship of Blue aircraft. The pilots would need to see a display with a three-dimensional route, which is constantly updated based on sensor inputs.

“Real Time Debriefing” is described as being able to give the pilot immediate feedback on performance during Basic Fighter Maneuver training, rather than having to land and debrief. The envisaged system would compare the pilot’s actions against what the computer calculates as the best tactics to employ.

The Air Force has said it does not plan to retain the F-22 beyond around 2030, due to the advance of counter-stealth systems and the F-22’s small fleet size, but it will continue to upgrade the aircraft to keep it relevant against the toughest threats until the Next Generation Air Dominance system is fielded.

Air Force Needs Data to Address German Tax Issue, Bass Says

Jan. 14, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Airmen, joint service members, and civilians stationed in Germany have complained for months that local officials have sought to tax their pay or collect penalties, sometimes for amounts in the tens of thousands of dollars.

Now, in order to effectively advocate, the Air Force needs more data and more stories of families being affected, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass said.

Bass, speaking during a recent virtual Coffee Talk with Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., pledged to keep working on the issue. At the same time, though, the problem is one that goes “way beyond the service,” she said.

Differing Interpretations

The issue in Germany effectively results in troops having their pay taxed twice—once by the U.S. and once by the host nation. In certain cases, German tax officials have reportedly gone to aggressive lengths to build cases against service members and seek penalties, which many service members have resisted paying.

At the heart of these disputes are differing interpretations of Article X of NATO’s Status of Forces Agreement (SOFA). Under SOFA, service members and civilians stationed in foreign nations don’t have to pay income taxes to the host nation—such agreements are crucial for allowing U.S. troops to be stationed in locations such as the United Kingdom, Italy, and Germany, among others.

SOFA, however, includes a clause saying service members and civilians are exempt only if their reason for being in the host country is “solely” due to being part of the military or a civilian component.

That clause has been cited by German officials as justification for seeking taxes from some service members.

“A marriage between a member of the U.S. forces and a citizen of Germany or a German taxable in Germany is considered an indication that a designated tax office may become active,” German law firm BlumLang Rechtsanwälte’s website states. “And children resulting from such a marriage also play a role in the examination of the tax liability—just as a common residential property.”

Across social media and in media reports are accounts of U.S. service members marrying German citizens, buying German cars or houses, or other actions, only to then face taxes or penalties from the local government. BlumLang Rechtsanwälte states that some cases have been over as much as 300,000 Euros, or more than $340,000.

Diplomatic Problem

When Bass visited Ramstein Air Base, Germany, in early December, she “heard loud and clear that we do have service members and some of our civilians that are over in Germany that are being taxed,” she said during the Coffee Talk.

A quick scroll through Bass’ Facebook posts from the trip confirm that, with more than a dozen people commenting about their frustrations with the taxation issue.

The issue has reached the highest levels of the Pentagon, with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III reportedly raising the topic with his German counterpart in a June 2021 meeting.

Ultimately, though, the problem is a diplomatic one.

“The Department of State and U.S. Embassy Berlin are actively engaged with the German Ministry of Foreign Affairs in finding a solution,” a spokesperson for U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa said in a statement. “Department of Defense efforts are nested within those of the Department of State as the lead federal department for foreign affairs, and the matter has been and will continue to be addressed in high-level engagements with our German allies.”

A spokesperson for the Department of State said “we cannot get into specific discussions” on any sort of progress.

“However, we can assure you that the U.S. government has expressed at very high levels our eagerness to see the long-standing issue resolved,” the spokesperson said. “We will continue to engage with our German partners on this matter.”

Questions of Scale

While Bass and others say they’ve heard from plenty of Airmen about this issue, exactly how many families, Air Force or otherwise, have been affected remains unclear.

“German tax offices have told us they do not track cases by nationality, making it difficult for them to answer repeated efforts to know how many service members and civilians, covered under the NATO SOFA, have been affected,” the USAFE spokesperson said.

To that end, Bass asked Airmen to report their issues to commanders so the service can more accurately track the numbers and present them to German authorities.

“What I would ask you to do is our USAFE team and EUCOM [U.S. European Command] teams are out there trying to get an accurate number of, what is the problem? And how big is it? And how many of our uniform wearers, as well as our civilians that we have sent over there, what is the impact?” Bass said. “And so I’m told that there are some groups out there that are already compiling the data. We need to have that data, and we need to have some vignettes of what the challenge really is.”

Meanwhile, USAFE is taking steps to inform and educate service members about the SOFA before they deploy overseas, the spokesperson said.

Air Force Launching New App for Enlisted, Officer Evaluation Systems

Jan. 14, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Airmen and Guardians will get to familiarize themselves with the Department of the Air Force’s new enlisted and officer evaluation system application starting Jan. 18, as the department continues its overhaul of talent management.

myEvaluation, or myEval, was first made available to human resource professionals starting Jan. 4. After a two-week familiarization period for Airmen and Guardians, it will be opened for full use and functionality starting Feb. 4. It will be accessible through the myFSS platform landing page.

The new application succeeds the Virtual Personnel Center platform, but vPC won’t be going away immediately—officer and enlisted evaluations with a close-out date of May 30 or earlier will continue to be processed in vPC, while everything after will be in myEval.

“Shifting to a 21st century IT application, like myEval, enables the department to greatly improve our performance feedback and evaluation systems, synchronizing and complementing the many updates we’ve made to our talent management systems over the past couple of years,” Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly, deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, said in a statement. “The myEval application reduces administrative burdens, enhances the user experience, and provides leaders with performance data to assist in making informed talent management decisions.”

myEval is just the latest change to how the Air Force is approaching talent management. Early in 2021, the service unveiled its Airman Leadership Qualities—10 categories ranging from “emotional intelligence” to “adaptability” to “innovation”—as an optional companion to the Airman Comprehensive Assessment for senior noncommissioned officers and officers.

In December, the service announced that the ALQs would be integrated into feedback for all Airmen across ranks starting March 31, 2022. The Air Force also said the ALQs would form the basis of new officer and enlisted evaluation systems to be released later in 2022.

The transition to myEval, Kelly said in a statement, will begin “the evolution” to those new evaluation systems based on the ALQs. The Air Force’s release states that ALQ-based evaluations will start in the fall of 2022.

The Space Force, meanwhile, will transition to myEval but will continue to use Airman Comprehensive Assessment feedback forms and current officer and enlisted performance reports until the new service announces a transition decision. The Space Force released its first human capital plan, “The Guardian Ideal,” in September 2021.

While myEval is set to launch in the coming days, enhancements will be rolled out over time, the Air Force promised, including the auto-population of information directly from the Military Personnel Data System and “integration with other myFSS applications, such as myFitness, to auto-populate performance-related data.”

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

There have also been changes to the platforms used for talent management—myFitness was launched in June 2021 to centralize PT assessments and schedule PT tests, and for paperwork.

“The journey of improving our evaluation system for both the enlisted and officer corps is in full swing,” Col. Laura King, the Air Force Talent Management Innovation Cell director, said in a release. “There are several milestones along this journey to a competency-based evaluation system that enables increased transparency and more direct feedback between Airmen and their supervisors. The launch of myEval is a big step towards reaching our end goals.”

AI, Networks, Hypersonics Are the Pentagon’s Top Research Priorities

Jan. 14, 2022 | By John A. Tirpak

Artificial Intelligence, integrated networks, hypersonics, and microelectronics are among the top priorities for Heidi Shyu, undersecretary of defense for research and engineering. In a wide-ranging discussion with reporters Jan. 13, Shyu also said hypersonics test capacity will see a big boost in the fiscal 2023 program objective memoranda and that a major experiment in joint all-domain command and control will take place in February, connecting platforms from all the services.

Shyu said she had planned to reduce the 11 top priorities created by the previous administration.

“I thought I could neck it down quite a bit, but I sort of failed, and I think I’ve ballooned it instead,” she said. The new list should be published soon. Shyu didn’t want to get ahead of the announcement but mentioned “trusted AI” and integrated networks as high on the list. The latter is necessary “to use autonomy on an unmanned system,” she said. She also mentioned hypersonics and microelectronics, which were the top two under the previous administration. Microlelectronics displaced hypersonics as the top priority on the previous list in 2020.

Microelectronics is “a critical piece that’s in everything,” Shyu said, adding that she is working with the Department of Commerce on the area and that Congress “is interested in giving us additional funding” for the work.

‘Pushing’ Hypersonics

Shyu said the Air Force’s AGM-183 Air-launched Rapid Response (ARRW) boost-glide hypersonic missile has suffered from both supply chain disruptions and the COVID pandemic, and this has contributed to setbacks in the program.

All the services are “pushing” hypersonics contractors “on an accelerated, … very aggressive schedule,” she said, and problems are to be expected. She said the Army’s hypersonic missil e will likely become operational in 2023, and the Navy’s should be operational in 2025, because “it’s the same” platform, just sea-launched. She did not comment on the timing of the ARRW.

Without specifying any one program, Shyu likened the hypersonics enterprise to SpaceX: “Have they had failures? Yes. Are they considered successful? Yes. They’re considered a very successful company, but they’ve had quite a number of blow-ups.”

She said she will continue to push the hypersonics contractors “hard.”

“I have to give the Army and Navy a lot of credit for not just working collaboratively together … but working very closely with industry and [the] laboratories,” she said.

While the Air Force’s air-breathing hypersonic missile programs will likely be “cheaper” than all the services’ boost-glide systems, they won’t have “quite the same range as ship-launch and Army [ground] launch. So you really need all of the above … You need diversity.”

She acknowledged that the Pentagon’s hypersonic test ranges and wind tunnels are operating at full capacity, which has slowed some of the test effort, and said “a significant increase in our test infrastructure” is “embedded” in the fiscal 2023 program objective memoranda.

Shyu said her office is working closely with contractors to develop the hypersonics “ecosystem” that will create the industrial capacity to make hypersonic systems at scale. The initial examples of all hypersonic missiles will be high, she said, but she is working to “drive the cost down” with an effort to “productize” the systems and build them in quantity, which should reduce unit cost, she said. Shyu also is working to “automate” hypersonics construction processes “rather than hand-build them.”

“If we automate some things, the cost will definitely come down. And if you buy materials … in bulk, it’s cheaper than buying onesies and twosies,” she said, comparing it to the bulk food store Costco. But “we’re looking at different technologies, … different materials, … that can help drive cost down as well.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and Congress are highly supportive of hypersonics efforts and Congress is going to “give me the money, so I’m going to be sprinting” to operationalize the technology.

She declined to offer analysis of Chinese, Russian, or North Korean hypersonics capabilities because of classification. But Shyu said she is “not interested [in being] in a horse race with China or Russia” in hypersonics. “’You have 1,000 rockets, therefore I need to be having 1,000 rockets.’ That a losing proposition.”

Demonstrating JADC2

A major exercise is coming next month that will demonstrate major advances in JADC2, Shyu said.

“In February, there’s going to be a demonstration in which we literally stitch together Army, Navy, and Air Forces,” she said. “So I’m pretty thrilled. And I’m going to fly out and observe the system, … the demo, myself.” She declined to elaborate, except to say that “we will be able to demonstrate that platforms, across services, can literally talk to each other.”

Shyu’s billet now has a seat on the Joint Requirements Oversight Council (JROC), made up of the service vice chiefs, who deliberate about the department’s highest operational needs. Shyu said she’s had the opportunity to voice her technical concerns and that they have been listened to.

At the last such meeting, Shyu reported, she “poked at … billions” being spent to fill a “capability gap” in a space system.

“To close a capability gap on an old system made no sense to me,” she said. “That chunk of money is much better spent on developing a brand new system.” The then-chairman of the JROC, USAF Gen. John E. Hyten, gave the services direction to “come back with a revised plan” as a result, she said. She said having her position on the JROC is “working fantastic.”

She also said the Pentagon is “absolutely headed” toward a “resilient space architecture.” It’s also looking at “how to leverage a lot more of the commercial satellite capability, the commercial launches, just to drive the cost down.”

Shyu expects the fiscal 2023 research budget to be the largest ever for the Pentagon. She hosted members of Congress for a mid-December meeting “and they were thrilled. Halfway into my briefing,” they asked her, “’How much do you need?’” So “there’s a lot of enthusiasm for stuff I’m doing … I’m very happy” with the numbers, she said.

Broadly, Shyu said she is stepping up her engagement with industry, having monthly meetings with top prime CEOs and chief technology officers, as well as groups of small businesses.

Biden Turns to Military to Fill COVID-19 Medical Gap

Jan. 13, 2022 | By Abraham Mahshie

Present Joe Biden has again turned to the military to fill staffing shortages and to help hospitals surge medical staffs as the omicron variant of COVID-19 continues to strain hospitals nationwide.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell joined Biden on Jan. 13 to announce that 1,000 Active-duty military medical personnel would form six medical teams to deploy to hospitals in New York, New Jersey, Ohio, Rhode Island, Michigan, and New Mexico. DOD will source personnel from across the services in coming weeks to join 400 military medical personnel already assisting health-care providers and overwhelmed emergency staffs.

“When you need something done, call on the military,” Biden joked before beginning his address from the Eisenhower Executive Office Building.

“This is a pandemic of the unvaccinated,” Biden said. “As long as we have tens of millions of people who will not get vaccinated, we’re going to have full hospitals and needless deaths.”

The President, Austin, and Criswell were then briefed by military and medical teams already on the ground in Arizona, Michigan, and New York.

In summarizing his administration’s plan to confront the omicron surge, Biden emphasized the importance of vaccination, now required in the military. Air Force personnel were required to vaccinate by Nov. 2, 2021, with the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve deadline Dec. 2, 2021. The latest deadline has been set for the Army National Guard on June 30, 2022.

Across the military, 1.6 million service members were fully vaccinated as of Jan. 12, and 340,000 were partially vaccinated. In the Air Force, 446,000 were fully vaccinated and 53,000 partially vaccinated.

Biden said nearly 210 million Americans have been vaccinated for COVID-19 and that 80 million Americans have received booster shots. The military does not yet keep records of booster shots received, and a booster requirement is still under discussion, Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby said June 13.

Biden said he would also use military tools to boost testing capacity.

In January 2021, America was conducting 2 million tests per day and now is conducting 15 million tests per day, the President said. By the end of January, the U.S. will have 375 million at-home rapid tests, but that still falls behind demand.

Biden said he would use the Defense Production Act to acquire 500 million at-home rapid tests and use the tool to ramp up production of an additional 500 million to distribute to Americans for free. Insurance providers will be required to reimburse Americans for eight tests per month.

In addition to the Active-duty personnel deployed and preparing to deploy, 14,000 National Guard members have been activated in 49 states to help governors combat COVID-19.

Kirby said the new military medical personnel who will deploy soon will act as a “relief valve” for health-care workers.

“They’ll be providing relief, triaging patients, helping to decompress overwhelmed emergency departments, and freeing up health-care providers to continue other life-saving care,” he said. “They’ll be working alongside health-care workers on the front lines to give them the support they need.”

Kirby said the 1,000 are just the “first wave” of deployments.

“Teams will continue to be mobilized and deployed where they are needed over the coming weeks to confront the omicron variant,” Kirby told defense journalists before conducting a series of live TV interviews to promote the President’s initiative and DOD role.

Pentagon Nominee Says US Should Be Faster to Aid Ukraine Than It Was in 2014

Jan. 13, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

In 2014, Celeste Wallander was the senior director for Russia and Central Asia at the National Security Council, under President Barack Obama, when Russia launched its invasion of the Crimean Peninsula, seizing the territory from Ukraine.

Now, nearly eight years later, Wallander is President Joe Biden’s nominee to be assistant secretary of defense for international security affairs, and Russia is once again threatening to invade Ukraine, massing troops along the border and thus far resisting calls from NATO members to de-escalate the situation.

Looking back at what happened in 2014, the U.S. needs to be faster and more forceful in response to any Russian aggression, Wallander told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee at her confirmation hearing Jan. 13.

“I believe that the lessons of 2014 were that the United States needs to be, first and foremost, unified with our allies and partners, not only in Europe, but globally, in order to promote a unified front to the Kremlin and make them understand that they cannot divide us,” Wallander said. “And the second lesson would be to rapidly develop ways to impose costs on the Russian leadership and to support Ukraine in defense of its territorial integrity and sovereignty.”

Pressed by Sens. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) and Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), Wallander added that the 2014 response was “too slow and too incremental” and that to provide aid to Ukraine—weapons such as the FGM-148 Javelin, an anti-tank missile—would have been “appropriate and necessary.”

In 2022, the situation has not yet devolved to the point of open conflict. But there are plenty of fears that it will. On Jan. 13, Polish Foreign Minister Zbigniew Rau, the chairman-in-office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, warned that the risk of war in Europe “is now greater than ever before in the last 30 years,” according to media reports.

Driving much of those fears is the seeming lack of progress in diplomatic discussions. Russia has demanded that Ukraine be barred from ever joining NATO and that the alliance withdraw all troops and weapons from any countries that joined NATO after 1997. The U.S. has rejected those ideas as “non-starters.”

Some analysts have suggested that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s demands were never intended to be part of a negotiation and instead might even be a pretext for invading Ukraine.

Sen. Angus King (I-Maine) seemed to voice that very concern in questioning Wallander, saying Putin is “setting up these negotiations to fail, and leaving himself very little option other than either a humiliating retreat or invasion.”

“What do you make of this unusual negotiating strategy where you make demands that you know aren’t going to be met?” King then asked Wallander. “And is this just a pretext for an invasion?”

Wallender seemed to agree.

“Senator, I share your analytical assessment of the possible courses of action and the reasons for the demands that Russia has made publicly,” Wallander said. “And it concerns me greatly for Ukraine’s security and, indeed, for European and Euro-Atlantic security.”

At least for the moment, though, the Pentagon is still publicly holding out hope for avoiding any conflict.

“We have no indication that President Putin has made a decision to launch another incursion into Ukraine,” DOD Press Secretary John F. Kirby said in a press gaggle Jan. 13. “He clearly continues to have a military capability that would allow him to move on Ukraine. And we’ve seen no indication … that he has decreased that capability in any way. But we still don’t believe that a final decision by Mr. Putin has been made. And that’s why we continue to believe that there’s still space for diplomacy and hopefully time for diplomacy, and we support that effort.”

Pentagon Editor Abraham Mahshie contributed to this report.

Report: Nuclear Engines Could Help the US Keep Pace in Space Maneuver Warfare

Jan. 13, 2022 | By Amanda Miller

Maturing nuclear thermal propulsion to maneuver satellites out of the way of attacks could also keep the U.S. apace with Chinese and Russian advancements, according to a new paper.

In the policy paper “Maneuver Warfare in Space: The Strategic Mandate for Nuclear Propulsion,” the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies argues that new nuclear engines are at least as safe as today’s chemical propulsion while more faster and more fuel efficient.

“In either case, the impact on our national security from not operationalizing this technology is far greater than the safety and environmental concerns that have been solved thanks to decades of research and testing,” writes author Christopher Stone, senior fellow for space studies in the institute’s Spacepower Advantage Center of Excellence.

Stone, in a briefing with reporters Jan. 13, pegged safety fears inspired by Chernobyl-like disasters as the likeliest barrier to speeding up the development of space nuclear propulsion. But the nuclear thermal systems in question—unlike their chemical counterparts—don’t even involve combustion but instead heat up hydrogen gas.

On the other hand, the technology could unlock the ability for the military to move satellites rapidly between Earth orbits or out to cislunar space and back versus staying limited to predetermined orbits and station-keeping-type maneuvers for slight corrections. Considering how little fuel satellites have onboard, defensive maneuvering could amount to “bleeding out propellant,” Stone said.

With longer, more fuel-efficient run times than chemical engines and lower mass, nuclear thermal-powered vehicles “can achieve higher velocities, hence shorter flight times,” Stone writes.

Underlying much of the military’s space planning—its new point of view of space as a “warfighting domain”—is the fact that its existing satellites probably couldn’t withstand or avoid an attack such as by a direct-ascent anti-satellite weapon to knock it to pieces or an in-space laser to confound its optics. Russia tested an anti-satellite weapon by destroying a defunct Soviet satellite in November 2021.

Stone said the people who designed today’s satellites weren’t thinking defensively.

“The situation is now radically different,” he writes. “China has already shifted to a strategy of maneuver warfare in space that leverages space-based and ground-based weapons systems”—and by 2040, they expect that architecture to include satellites with nuclear thermal propulsion.

“Do we want to be behind the power curve?” Stone said.

The paper says the U.S. should:

“Rapidly adopt a new space force design capable of decisive maneuver warfare in space.”
Develop and field nuclear thermal propulsion in partnership with NASA and the Department of Energy.
Advance the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s DRACO program—Demonstration Rocket for Agile Cislunar Operations—from science and technology development to a program of record. DRACO’s low enriched uranium requires less oversight to launch (the President doesn’t have to sign off) than high enriched uranium.
“Deploy ground-based and space-based kinetic ASAT weapons systems capable of holding Chinese and Russian targets at risk. … DOD could achieve this objective by repurposing existing initiatives, including its standard missile and ground based mid-course missile defense interceptor programs.”
“Hedge against risk by deploying the [Mission Extension Vehicle] to provide GPS and other vital satellite constellations the ability to conduct limited defensive maneuvers while preserving their onboard chemical propellant.”

The paper says the Space Force, in particular, should “educate the public and Congress on the growing threat to U.S. space systems and the need to create a more robust force design that will enhance deterrence.”

Civil Agency Should Take Over Space Traffic Management, Says Pentagon Nominee for Space Policy

Jan. 13, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

The push to move responsibility for space traffic management from the Pentagon to a civil authority has stalled, frustrating members of Congress who want the Department of Commerce to take over the mission from the Space Force.

The first-ever nominee to be Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space Policy endorsed that effort during his confirmation hearing Jan. 13 and pledged to help Congress determine what is needed to make that happen.

John Plumb, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee, called space traffic management “absolutely essential” to the domain. And in response to questions from Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), he promised to increase DOD transparency on the cost of that mission, an issue Shaheen said was preventing Senate appropriators from allocating the proper amount of funds to the Commerce Department.

“I do agree that it should be conducted by a civil agency, not the Department of Defense, and I will commit to you to work to help discover the right amount of resources and training and opportunities needed to make that shift,” Plumb said. “It is a difficult shift, but I think it’s needed.”

The question of space traffic management took on renewed importance after a Russian anti-satellite weapon test this past November created a massive debris field, forcing astronauts on the International Space Station to take shelter in return ships and threatening access to space for countries around the world.

That test—the latest conducted by the Russians and similar to a 2007 test by China—underscores the need for “norms and rules of behavior” in space, Plumb said, echoing a common refrain among Defense Department and Space Force officials over the past few months.

“I think one of the issues that makes space unique is that a destructive test like the Russians have recently conducted challenges access to all spacefaring nations, and we need to find ways to prevent that type of problem,” Plumb said.

The most direct way to do that would be an international treaty to ban kinetic anti-satellite tests, a measure Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks endorsed at a recent meeting of the National Space Council and one Plumb also said he supports.

But while China and Russia have co-sponsored treaties submitted to the United Nations seemingly aimed at avoiding a space arms race and destructive tests, their actions in the domain have proved them to be “disingenuous,” Plumb wrote in advance policy questions submitted to SASC.

Those treaties, Plumb wrote, “do not provide pragmatic, equitable, or verifiable mechanisms that would enhance U.S. national security interests.”

Speaking at the confirmation hearing, though, Plumb stopped short of saying he thought the U.S. would never be able to find common ground on the issue with China and Russia.

“I do think there is a need for rules and for norms in space behavior. And I hold some deep kernel of hope that we could come to an agreement with Russia and China on that in some not-too-distant future,” Plumb said. “At the same time, nothing there would, in my mind, prevent us or preclude us from pursuing both offensive and defensive capabilities to ensure that we can defend our own assets and prevail in a conflict.”

One capability the U.S. can and should build to discourage destructive behavior, Plumb said, is resiliency in its satellite constellations so that DOD can “withstand a blow to one or several satellites.”

“I think being able to reconstitute quickly and having a resilient architecture makes the attractiveness of a target much less, and I think that’s a really important place,” Plumb said. “I don’t think we’re moving fast enough, and we need to get going.”

Resiliency in space architecture is a topic other Pentagon and Space Force officials also have stressed, as plans for a large constellation of low-Earth orbit satellites unfold. The hope is that by launching larger numbers of satellites, the destruction of some by an anti-satellite weapon wouldn’t cripple the Pentagon’s space capabilities.

“As soon as you start moving out of single-digit spacecraft, the ability to stitch them all together in a resilient communication mesh is going to be a critical enabler to overcome the threats and the challenges that we face and [to] build a much less brittle architecture,” Stephen Forbes, Blackjack program manager at DARPA, said at a recent Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event.

Plumb aligned himself with previous comments from top DOD space officials on one other front during his confirmation hearing. When asked by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.V.) if he believed there should be a Space National Guard, Plumb said his personal belief was that “there is value in Guard and Reserve support for the Space Force.”

Airmen, Guardians Now Allowed to Include Pronouns in Signature Block

Jan. 13, 2022 | By Greg Hadley

Airmen and Guardians are now allowed to include their pronouns in the signature block of emails, memoranda, letters, and papers.

The change, made official in the Department of the Air Force’s writing guide, was announced Dec. 20.

The inclusion of pronouns, such as he/him, she/her, and they/them, in signature blocks has become an increasingly common practice in the business world and helps to ensure that transgender and nonbinary individuals are identified as they desire. It also helps individuals with gender-neutral names.

The department’s change makes it the first military department to have an official policy on pronouns in signature blocks, according to Military Times. It was advocated for by the LGBTQ Initiatives Team, or LIT, a subgroup of the DAF Barrier Analysis Working Group, along with the Pacific Islander/Asian American Community Team and the Women’s Initiatives Team.

“The change request was driven by awareness of a restrictive policy that was being used against transgender Airmen and Guardians who were authentically representing themselves,” said Lt. Col. Bree Fram, an LIT Transgender Policy Team co-lead, in a statement. “It was also important for many individuals often confused as being a different gender in their communications.”

According to an Air Force press release, official signature blocks should include name, rank, service affiliation, duty title, organization name, phone numbers, and social media contact information. Pronouns are now authorized but not required and should be placed immediately after the name in parentheses or on a separate line within the signature block.

“An inclusive force is a mission-ready force, and I’m thankful to the LGBTQ Initiatives Team for helping us realize this opportunity to be a more inclusive force,” Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones said in a statement.

The effort to introduce this change in the official writing guide was started by Master Sgt. Jamie Hash, the other LIT Transgender Policy Team co-lead, as part of her base’s Diversity and Inclusion Committee, the Air Force said.
The Air Force officially stood up its department-wide Office of Diversity and Inclusion in January 2021.

Since then, the Air Force has updated standards such as those involving women’s hair in an effort to better address differences in hair texture and density, and Jones became the first openly lesbian and second member of the LGBTQ community to serve as undersecretary. Since then, she has championed several diversity initiatives within the department.