Pratt Testing XA101 Adaptive Engine, Has Two Offerings for F-35 Propulsion

Oct. 1, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Pratt & Whitney is testing its new XA101 Adaptive Engine Transition Program powerplant and expects to conclude testing its two examples by the end of next year, company military engines division president Matthew Bromberg revealed in an interview. He expects that two-thirds of the technology developed from AETP could find its way into earlier engines now flying with the Air Force.

The company is “thrilled” to have two options available for the Air Force and F-35 partners to choose from for an upgrade to the fighter’s propulsion system, Bromberg said. GE Aviation has developed the XA100 AETP engine as a competitor to Pratt & Whitney’s version.

Testing of “our first new fighter engine in 30 years … was successful,” Bromberg said. The first XA101 and its twin will shuttle back and forth between Pratt & Whitney’s facilities and the Air Force’s Arnold Engineering Center in Tullahoma, Tenn., for the next year or so, generating more data. The Air Force and F-35 Joint Program Office will use the data to help decide whether the F-35 should get an all-new powerplant—one of the AETP engines—or take Pratt & Whitney up on its offer of an enhanced version of the F135 engine already in the F-35 fighter.

Pratt & Whitney succeeded in achieving the AETP’s goals, which were to obtain 10 percent improvement in thrust and 25 percent improvements in both fuel efficiency and thermal management, Bromberg said. “We know we can do that,” he said.

“Job 2” is to determine whether the engine will last, and further testing will assess Pratt &Whitney’s use of new materials, created both in traditional ways and through additive methods, to demonstrate that the powerplant can go “years between scheduled maintenance events.” Continued testing will assess how those “structures and materials are performing,” he said.

However, “we’re not going to test everything you would do in a full-blown” engine development program, he said. “We’re going to test items we want to risk-reduce; we want to make sure we understand how the engine will perform at this point in the program.”

The intent of the AETP was “always … to create a sixth-generation propulsion system and an adaptive engine,” Bromberg said. “Now the debate is focusing on modernizing the Joint Strike Fighter. And we think it’s a good time to have that debate.”

Bromberg said he expects that up to “70 percent … of the technologies we’ve developed in the adaptive architecture … will go into other engines as derivative technologies.” This will not include the third-stream adaptive technology itself, but the materials, accessories, and “other mechanical systems” that go with the engine, Bromberg said. “It’s a big part of how you drive efficiency of the engine and control the entire cycle.”

He cautioned that these technologies would need to “buy their way in” to upgrades to the F100 and F119, used on the F-15 and F-16, and F-22, respectively, but “two-thirds-ish could be leveraged” for those earlier systems, and “obviously, every future engine that we design will leverage that entire technology suite.”

The AETP, as sixth-generation engine technology, is “the future of Air Force propulsion,” Bromberg said. It has been “an incredibly successful program” in advancing the state of the art in engine technology.

The AETP achieves better thrust while also improving fuel efficiency by adding a third air stream, which can also be used for cooling. Air Force and JPO leaders have said they will need more thrust and cooling in the F-35 in order to get full capability out of the Block 4 version of the fighter, set to start coming off the production line in 2023.

The House Armed Services Committee, in its markup of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, directed the JPO to develop a plan for mating AETP engines to the F-35 fighter by 2027.

Neither Pratt & Whitney’s XA101 nor GE’s XA100 will fit in the F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing version, however. Bromberg said the reason has to do with the three-bearing swivel nozzle employed by the F-35B being “incompatible” with the third-stream architecture. It might be possible to use the AETP engine in the Navy’s F-35C carrier version, Bromberg said, if the arresting hook system could be moved to accommodate it. He said Pratt & Whitney has had discussions with Lockheed Martin to that effect.

“We could modify it to fit around some of the unique elements of the adaptive engine, but that’s work to be done,” he said.

What happens now is “up to the services,” Bromberg said. “There’s a recognition that we need to modernize the propulsion system in the Joint Strike Fighter,” and Pratt is “unique” in having two solutions to that requirement. But each has its “advantages and disadvantages.” An upgraded F135 wouldn’t have all the advantages of adaptive technology, but using the AETP would require establishing multiple engine support lines for the fighter.

Air Force Research Lab Prototyping DevSecOps Approach for Avionics Hardware

Oct. 1, 2021 | By Shaun Waterman

To build aircraft and weapons systems that are cybersecure by design and hardened against hacking during development, the Air Force plans to take the radical new DevSecOps approach it has pioneered in its software factories and apply it to avionics hardware and embedded systems.

Prototyping that approach is one of the the objectives of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Agile and Resilient Platform Architectures (ARPA) program, launched last year, which began issuing task orders in August, awarding two, each worth up to $200 million, one to Ball Aerospace and the other to Booz Allen Hamilton.

“Just like what the Air Force is doing with Platform One for software, the AFRL vision is to be able to do this for avionics, writ large,” Booz Allen Hamilton Vice President Kevin Coggins told Air Force Magazine.

The BAH task order envisions an end-to-end multivendor digital design and development architecture called an Open Digital Automated Architecture. ODA2 “combines digital engineering, software factories, and current AFRL advanced avionics architecture technologies to advance warfighting capability for current and future Air Force weapon systems,” according to a “statement of objectives ” from AFRL.

ODA2 is important, Coggins explains, because contemporary aircraft, often referred to as platforms, are complex systems of systems—airframe, engines, flight control, weapons—each built by different vendors, which means different, often geographically distant, or even competing, teams of engineers.

“They’re all made by different design teams who didn’t talk to one another; they’re made in different years; they’re built thinking about different cyber or other threats. And then they all come together on the platform,” Coggins said.

But that integration, the way the systems connect together, can create or reveal previously undiscovered vulnerabilities. “So you do an assessment of the platform, right after you start to fly it, and you find out you’ve got all these threats and vulnerabilities now. But to fix them, you’ve got to go back to the same vendors and their individual processes. Each one is trying to fix the same vulnerability, and it’s just not coordinated. And you are going to start spending money.

“How do you ever stay in front of the threat like that?” he asked.

ODA2 will be a collaborative environment, Coggins said: “The work we won is to set up an environment that allows you to solve that problem of time and geographies and different vendors, because they’re using common model-based system engineering [or “digital twin”] approaches, common testing procedures against known threats, and even common [software] libraries for certain things.”

Those common elements were a key part of the ODA2 value proposition, Coggins explained, because it enabled centrally devising a fix for a new vulnerability in some widely used component, for example, and then allowing it to ripple out “in a unified way across vendors and platforms. That’s what we lack today.”

Fixing a single vulnerability once, rather than separately in every different program and platform it affects, would have big cost implications, Coggins pointed out. In the current environment, “Sometimes we decide not to address a vulnerability because it’s not affordable.” The common code libraries and standardized architectures of ODA2 would “bring a lot more [vulnerabilities] into that affordable bucket.”

Common or reusable components could also help speed certification requirements and other red tape that might delay new capabilities, he said. “Through this reuse, and through this ability to test once and deploy anywhere, you can really accelerate that testing timeline.”

ODA2will have three elements, Coggins said.

The digital development environment (D2E) will enable cost savings by rigorously testing software packages and then reusing them across different avionics systems.
The digitally integrated collaboration environment (DICE) is where the Air Force can lay down baseline standards, provide common software libraries or components, and test out how vendors’ solutions interact with each other.
The digitally integrated flight environment (DIFE) is where digital twins of the finished platforms are put through their paces and tested. “It creates this digital environment that enables you to buy down risk across multiple avionics design projects, versus one at a time,” said Coggins.

“In the D2E, I build it,” explained Coggins. “In the DICE, I integrate it with everyone it talks to. But in the DIFE, I prove that I integrated it right and built it right.”

The five-year award is worth up to $200 million, and the work will be done in Beavercreek, Ohio, outside Dayton.

Air Force Activates First F-35 Squadron in Europe Ahead of Fighters’ Arrival

Oct. 1, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

In a move more than five years in the making, the U.S. Air Force activated its first squadron of Europe-based F-35As at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., on Oct. 1, as the service prepares to deliver the first fighters in the coming months.

The 495th Fighter Squadron was activated exactly 30 years after it was designated as a fighter squadron in 1991. Just a few months after that, though, the squadron was inactivated.

In 2015, the Air Force announced that Lakenheath would be the first base in Europe to get the new F-35 fighter, and in September 2020, U.S. Air Forces in Europe announced it was reactivating the 495th under the 48th Fighter Wing.

The 495th will consist of 27 F-35s and around 60 personnel, according to a 48th Fighter Wing release announcing the squadron’s activation. The Air Force plans to eventually base a total of 48 F-35s at Lakenheath in two squadrons.

The first F-35s were originally slated to arrive in Europe in 2020, but construction delays bumped the activation to 2021.

Lt. Col. Ian D. McLaughlin assumed command of the 495th on Oct. 1. The squadron will be nicknamed the Valkyries, after the female figures in Norse mythology who choose who will live or die in battle.

The F-35s are set to start arriving in December, U.S. Air Forces in Europe boss Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian told reporters at a media roundtable at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in late September, a timeline McLaughlin echoed in a statement released Oct. 1.

“Today is an exciting day. There has been a great deal of work done to get us this far, but there’s a lot more that needs to be done prior to getting jets this winter,” McLaughlin said. “The 495th has a proud history, and we’re excited to take the guidon forward to start building the foundation for [the] first USAF F-35As stationed in Europe.”

With American F-35s arriving in Europe for the first time, the Air Force will be able to integrate and operate with its partners in the region, who also operate the F-35, like never before, Harrigian said at the AFA conference.

“We’ve already got some pretty good plans as we start thinking about how we leverage that capability, particularly with many of our partners that already have F-35s in the theater. I really think it’ll be a truly important step as we continue to demonstrate the importance that the F-35 has baked into it from an interoperability perspective,” Harrigian said.

A number of American allies and partners have already received F-35s from Lockheed Martin, including the United Kingdom, Norway, Italy, the Netherlands, Denmark, and Israel. Switzerland announced in June that it would buy the stealth fighter as well.

NATO Supreme Allied Commander Air Force Gen. Tod D. Wolters, speaking at an event in June, predicted that between the U.S. and its allies and partners, there will be 450 F-35s in Europe by 2030.

Aerospace: ‘A Story Every Airman and Guardian Should Tell’

Oct. 1, 2021 | By Scott King

Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John E. Hyten explained the history of the term “aerospace” at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 22, as well as his view on why air and space, even when represented by separate military services, must remain inextricably linked.

Read also John T. Correll’s article, “Air and Space and Aerospace” from the October 2016 issue of Air Force Magazine.

Building on a Proven Platform, Salesforce Eases IT Modernization

Oct. 1, 2021

Paper-based processes are giving way to digital solutions across the military, but the transition from spreadsheets to apps can be tricky. IT modernization efforts “frequently fail to deliver capabilities in a timely manner, incur cost overruns, and/or experience schedule slippages,” noted an April 2021 Government Accountability Office report. Often, the mission gets lost.

One reason many programs go off the rails is that contractors and IT departments try to reinvent the wheel rather than leverage available solutions. Digital platforms, such as Salesforce, offer an express route to problems by providing low-code and no-code solutions using proven, secure cloud technologies.

If you’ve ever used TurboTax or ordered a Domino’s Pizza online, then you’ve used the Salesforce platform without even knowing it. Chances are, your bank and favorite online retailers are also running their systems on the Salesforce platform. Loaded with built-in analytics and artificial intelligence, that same platform can answer a host of defense requirements.

“Anything that can be done manually—spreadsheets, emails, clipboards, checklists—can be converted into a digital workflow,” said Tahera Zamanzada, a principal in digital strategy at Salesforce. That’s true whether you’re running an Air Force logistics program or managing personnel.

Use Cases

The terms “platform” and “platform-as-a-service” can sometimes be confusing. Salesforce is a computer architecture that lives in the cloud; because it’s in the cloud, organizations don’t need to buy or build out the hardware they need to use it. Rather, they can run applications on top of that platform in the cloud and scale to whatever their need is now or in the future. Rather than build those applications from scratch, government IT managers can pick and choose from existing apps and automated processes, accelerating the pace of modernization.

Consider personnel-use cases, such as recruiting, transitioning, separations, and retirements, for example, said Michael Parker, former CIO and for the Air Force’s Manpower, Personnel and Services Department, and a business development VP at Salesforce. “Every interaction can be managed and handled as a single entry point through the SalesForce platform. You’re simply utilizing repeatable workflows to support those business services.”

Board management processes can use the same tools. “Any case that’s managed can be easily and seamlessly built out on the Salesforce platform,” Parker said.

Logistics is another common-use case, simplifying inventory management. Parachute management is a notoriously paperwork-heavy process with the need to carefully document what happens every time that parachute is touched. A digital platform like Salesforce is a natural fit, Zamanzada said. “There’s a digital workflow for it which allows you to do our end-to-end processing, packing, repacking, inspection,” she said. “You know everything from start to finish.”

Platform Approach

Built into the Salesforce platform is a coordinated set of tools, proven security meeting a range of federal requirements, and baseline configurations with a built-in governance model. Those tools enable “drag-and-drop” development rather than a coding task, Zamanzada said. “Sometimes you feel like coding, but most of the work can be done without any type of heavy lift and shift.”

Development then becomes a no-code or low-code process, using existing building blocks. Once the foundational capability is in place, repeatable workflows support incremental development efforts and help ensure timely delivery of needed capabilities.

“Everything is agile and iterative, and constantly being improved upon, versus the kind of long-term waterfall approach to delivering yesterday’s requirement tomorrow,” Parker said.

Moving to the cloud has its costs, but Parker points out that staying put with a legacy system is no bargain, either. “Legacy portfolios are costly and contain technical debt,” he said. “It’s the data center costs, managed-services cost, it’s integration, sustainment, maintenance. A lot of that technical debt can be avoided when you move to Software as a Service and the Salesforce platform.”

Supporting Security

Security and compliance are built in and updates are managed centrally.

“Customers really do inherit the majority of the security controls from Salesforce,” Zamanzada said. “We provide numerous enabling resources, training, and implementation. We help them feel comfortable knowing that their data will be safe and secure on our platform.”

Forensic capabilities are also baked in to ensure compliance with government regulations for data retention and auditability. “We do everything from platform encryption to event monitoring,” Zamanzada said. “The auditing logs are all there, they’re archived and available for up to 10 years.”

Human-centered Design

Salesforce built its success by focusing on the customer, rather than the IT manager, and Parker said that focus is central to its strategy today. It’s about easing the modernization process, which inevitably involves overcoming cultural resistance to process or other changes that come with new digitally enabled processes.

“Culture is everything, It’s the structures and the rituals of an organization. And you have to understand the culture in order to transform the workforce and business environment with modern technology by utilizing change management principles,” Parker said. “Concepts like human-centered design and leveraging the voice of the customer are so important, because that is how you pull everyone in.”

Whose Data is it Anyway?

Central to any modernization strategy is protecting intellectual property—that is, the organization’s data—and ensuring that data is accessible and portable should a time come in the future when another change is necessary. IT managers have learned from experience to beware of vendor lock-in, which can keep them in an unhappy marriage because moving is too hard or expensive, as well as data ownership.

Zamanzada acknowledges this. “Vendor lock-in is a real fear,” Zamanzada said. People don’t want to be trapped in a single pathway or solution set.

“We get that,” she said. “Your data is your data at Salesforce. We consider ourselves the guardians of the data, but it’s your data. You become an annual subscriber to our platform. If for any reason you feel unhappy—which I doubt you will—you can say, ‘Give me my data,’ and you’re on your way.”

Contractor Logistics Services: A Way of Life

Oct. 1, 2021

Service to God, Country, and Family fuels Texas-based King Aerospace. Winning a contractor logistics support contract in 1992 launched King Aerospace and, from that day, established it as a mission-ready, no-excuses aviation services provider.

King’s first CLS contract supported U.S. Air Force E-9A information-gathering aircraft at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. The aircrews of these airborne surveillance/telemetry data-relay aircraft evaluate the air-to-air capabilities of Air Force fighter aircraft and collect data on fired missiles. E-9As also sweep the Gulf of Mexico to ensure it is clear during live missile-test launches. The King team supplied parts, maintenance technicians, mission equipment operators, and engineers.

“CLS isn’t just a job for us. It’s a privilege, an honor, and a calling,” says King president Jarid King. “For three decades we’ve witnessed countless providers get into—and out of—contractor logistics. We stayed and doubled down, refining our services to deliver greater and greater value. Whether we’re serving as a prime contractor or subcontractor, we view CLS responsibilities as our patriotic duty as Americans.”

Part of that duty means delivering maximum value. One of King’s first deliverables for the E-9A contract was to purchase $2 million of spare parts. King shopped for the best prices and came back with the needed parts for half a million under budget. The result: The government asked King to purchase another $500,000 in parts. King did and once again found savings, this time securing 25% more parts for the budget.

It’s About the Mission

Over the years, the company has gained performance-based experience supporting the U.S. government and all branches of the military—Air Force, Army, Coast Guard, Navy/Marine Corps, Department of Energy, Department of Defense, Drug Enforcement Administration, Federal Bureau of Investigation, and Homeland Security. CLS remains a primary focus.

While many CLS providers average five to 10 years for contract retention, King Aerospace typically keeps contracts from 10 to 18 years. Because of this longevity, King often acts as the stabilizing factor as military forces rotate in and out. King shepherds the new personnel as they transition in. More work frequently comes King’s way, which only happens when you’re delivering at a high level.

At King, serving America’s men and women in uniform is a commitment greater than contractual. Talk to team members and you quickly discover a dedication to service greater than self and to the company’s cornerstone principles covering everything from mutual respect and trust to problem-solving and quality in everything.

Most of the military aircraft King supports are commercial-derivative aircraft not designed for military needs. King understands how to modify and maintain these aircraft for the military’s use. It’s also more cost effective for the government—and taxpayers—than building military-specific aircraft and maintaining special parts for them. Aircraft CLS programs cover a wide scope of services from field support technicians who provide maintenance at the flight line to supply-chain management. King does it all.

Meeting exacting military specifications isn’t easy, but King has developed processes and procedures to ensure it does. The military expects MROs to meet the highest standards as they manage and maintain government-owned aircraft fleets and subcontract work from major defense contractors. It helps that the expected highest-possible quality aligns with the operations King has in place for its corporate and VVIP aircraft, including the Boeing Business Jet. King was honored as the 2019 Boeing Supplier of the Year for collaboration.

This E-9A aircraft recently made an unscheduled fuel stop at King Aerospace’s facility in Ardmore, Okla. The contract to support this mission-critical aircraft for Tyndall Air Force Base launched King Aerospace in 1992. Pictured here: Founder and Chairman Jerry King.

Ensuring Troops’ Mission Readiness

King Aerospace operates AS9110C-certified facilities and FAA repair stations at Biggs Army Airfield, Fort Bliss, El Paso, Texas; Kirtland Air Force Base, Albuquerque, N.M.; and Camp Humphreys, South Korea. It also operates 24/7 logistics outposts around the world, even in the most remote, hostile, and harsh locations. Hearing gunfire—or being shot at—is not unusual.

“Sometimes our CLS services take us to some pretty sticky places, so these programs are not for the faint hearted,” says Jarid King. “The men and women who wear the King Aerospace wings could use those challenges as an excuse, but do not. They get the job done.”

Troops can’t fly if aircraft don’t. King’s team rapidly deploys wherever and whenever needed. It’s no small thing to get parts and people into challenging environments where travel is restricted. It calls for dedicated, mission-focused people who do the right thing for the right reasons with the right attitude when no one is looking. Because many of King’s team members are themselves veterans, they embrace King Aerospace’s passion for God, Country, and Family. They treat each other like brothers and sisters.

“I witness acts of servant leadership everywhere I look,” Jarid King says. “Our team members have each other’s back—and our military’s.”

Equipping Warfighters to Win

As a privately owned, family-focused business, King has proven itself over time. Since 2017, it has maintained the Army’s Special Electronic Mission Aircraft (SEMA) fleet used for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR). These include highly modified King Air (C-12), De Havilland Canada Dash 7 (DHC-7) and Dash 8 (DHC-8) turboprop aircraft.

It’s also provided aircraft services for the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) since 2019. The transportation of national security assets falls under NNSA’s Office of Secure Transportation (OST). The fleet of Boeing 737-400 and DC-9 passenger/cargo aircraft, housed at Kirtland Air Force Base, move national security cargo to NNSA customers, support DOE emergency capabilities and transport federal-agent task forces.

In March 2021, King Aerospace was recognized along with the Office of Secure Transportation Aviation Operation Division as the best aviation organization within the DOE for FY2020. Craig Campbell, King Aerospace flight operations specialist for the U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Secure Transportation, Aviation Operations Division, received the Federal Interagency Committee for Aviation Policy (ICAP) Aviation Professional Award for Operational Support. King Aerospace team member and nominee Arthur Ray earned the DOE’s Maintainer Award.

“The urgent nature of the aircraft support services we provide as a government prime contractor makes these honors extremely meaningful and gratifying,” says Greg Mitchell, King Aerospace vice president of government services. “Our no-excuses culture and proactive problem solving uphold the DOE’s overarching mission to ensure America’s security and prosperity. It’s a role we proudly fulfill.”

Congress Passes Stopgap Funding as Pentagon Waits for 2022 Budget

Sept. 30, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Congress passed a continuing resolution Sept. 30 to keep the Pentagon and the rest of the government funded through Dec. 3, avoiding a shutdown with just hours to spare.

The stopgap measure, approved 65-35 in the Senate and 254-175 in the House, means the Defense Department will start the new fiscal year, which begins Oct. 1, under a continuing resolution for the 12th time in 13 years, according to the Government Accountability Office.

Under a continuing resolution, funding levels remain set at the previous year’s levels, which can limit the ability of the Pentagon and other governmental organizations to pay for and start new programs. It can also “lead to repetitive administrative tasks or incremental planning,” leaders told the GAO.

On the other hand, no continuing resolution would have meant service members would still have to work but would not be paid, while tens of thousands of civilian DOD employees would have been furloughed, under recent guidance issued by Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks in advance of the Sept. 30 vote.

Now, DOD officials will be in a holding pattern as they wait for Congress to pass bills authorizing and appropriating funds for fiscal 2022.

The House passed its version of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act on Sept. 23, but the Department of Defense Appropriations Act, 2022, which actually appropriates the funds, was introduced back in July after clearing the House Appropriations Committee and has not been voted on since.

Meanwhile, Senate Armed Services Committee chair Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) and Ranking Member Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) filed their version of the 2022 NDAA on Sept. 22 after completing the panel’s markup process. But the Senate Appropriations Committee has not voted on any appropriations bill yet.

Once the Senate approves its version of the NDAA, legislators from both chambers will have to meet in conference to iron out the differences between the bills, of which there are many. But even then, an appropriations bill will be needed to actually appropriate the funds.

How long it will take Congress to approve the NDAA and appropriate the necessary funds remains to be seen. Dating back to 2010, the Pentagon has operated under a continuing resolution from anywhere between 76 to 216 days, according to the GAO. There are now 64 days until this new resolution expires.

Potentially complicating the timeline even further, however, is the fact that the legislature continues to negotiate and consider other massive spending bills related to President Joe Biden’s agenda, which will take time and resources.

North Korea Claims Hypersonic Missile Test; Intel Community Unsure

Sept. 30, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

North Korea tested a missile it called the Hwasong-8 “strategic weapon” Sept. 28, suggesting later that it was a hypersonic missile—but the Pentagon said it’s unclear exactly what Pyongyang flew and that it doesn’t change U.S. military posture in the Western Pacific.

Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, head of U.S. Northern Command, told Pentagon reporters Sept. 30 that the U.S. Intelligence Community is “still making an assessment” of what was tested, which he said North Korea has claimed was a hypersonic missile.

“We’ll just have to see,” he said, but even if the conclusion is that the vehicle tested was a true hypersonic glide vehicle, it doesn’t pose a threat the U.S. can’t defend against.

“It would be my assessment that the homeland would be safe and secure” from a North Korean hypersonic missile, Van Herck asserted. He did not speculate on the threat to U.S. forces on the Korean Peninsula.

Pentagon Press Secretary John F. Kirby, in the same briefing, said, “we’re aware of the missile launch, and we’re consulting closely with our allies and partners.” The conclusion of the U.S. military is that the system “does not pose an immediate threat to U.S. personnel or territory, or to our allies.” It does, however, “highlight the destabilizing impact” of North Korea’s “illicit weapons program,” but Kirby insisted that “nothing changes about our commitment to our alliance with … both Japan and South Korea.”

North Korea’s state-run news agency said the missile was “the first test” of a hypersonic missile by that country, and that it was a success.

“National defense scientists confirmed the navigational control and stability of the missile in the active section, and also its technical specifications, including the guiding maneuverability and the gliding flight characteristics of the detached hypersonic gliding warhead,” the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said.

A single image of the weapon’s launch released by Pyongyang shows what could be a hypersonic gliding shape being lofted by a rocket booster. The shape is similar to that of China’s DF-12 hypersonic missile, but the Pentagon did not discuss any tracking data it may have on the missile’s flight path or speed. To be “hypersonic,” a vehicle must fly at a minimum of five times the speed of sound.

Kim Song, North Korea’s ambassador to the United Nations, made a speech at the U.N. right after the test, asserting that country’s “right” to develop and test technologies equivalent to those being developed by the U.S. and South Korea.

A South Korean military press release said that country has defenses against any missile threat from the North. It also said the missile appears to be an early experiment, still a long way from operational status.

A hypersonic missile offers many advantages over ballistic missiles. Such weapons can fly at very high speeds, maneuver to confuse or evade defenses, and sharply reduce a defender’s warning time of an attack.

The U.S. is developing hypersonic missiles of two kinds. One is a boost-glide system similar to what North Korea said it tested, in which a booster rocket accelerates a shape to hypersonic speed, which then glides and maneuvers to impact. The second kind is an air-breathing system, in which a hypersonic motor continues to provide the vehicle with thrust after it separates from its booster, thus increasing its range and maneuverability.

The Air Force’s preferred boost-glide system is the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), while its air-breathing system is called the Hypersonic Air-launched Cruise Missile, or HACM. The HACM will be based on technology from a joint program with the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA), which claimed a successful test of the Hypersonic Air-breathing Weapon Concept (HAWC) earlier this week. The Air Force has yet to make a successful flight test of the ARRW, despite several attempts over the last year. The Army and Navy have their own, cooperative hypersonic missile programs.

Along with the hypersonic aspect, Pyongyang said the new missile marked a successful test of “ampulization,” in which the rocket’s liquid fuel is sealed in the launch canister, eliminating the time needed to fuel a rocket before launch and reducing its response time to a launch order. The fuel can be stored in the canister for years before being activated.

If Pyongyang’s claim is true, it will have entered a “club” of countries having flown a hypersonic vehicle that includes China, India, Russia, and the U.S. Iran is also said to be close to a working hypersonic weapon design.

GAO Expects Space Command Findings by Spring; Colo. Lawmakers Want Basing Work Stopped

Sept. 30, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

The Government Accountability Office expects to report findings in the spring of 2022 in its investigation into the Defense Department’s choice of Alabama as the likely permanent home of U.S. Space Command.

The selection of the Army’s Redstone Arsenal, announced in January 2021, has prompted objections from members of Colorado’s congressional delegation and subsequent investigations by both the GAO and the DOD’s Office of Inspector General. Members of the delegation registered their latest complaint Sept. 30 in the form of a letter to Department of the Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall calling the selection process for the headquarters of DOD’s 11th combatant command a “significant departure” from the norm and alleging, as in past letters, that political angling played a role.

The members of Congress want Kendall to “formally suspend any actions to relocate the USSPACECOM headquarters” until the investigations are complete. The letter is signed by Sen. Michael F. Bennett (D), former Colorado governor Sen. John Hickenlooper (D), and representatives Lauren Boebert (R), Jason Crow (D), Diana DeGette (D), Joe Neguse (D), and Ed Perlmutter (D). Rep. Ken Buck (R) did not sign the letter.

“Congressman Buck has long supported the U.S. Space Command staying in Colorado, having signed multiple letters on the topic in recent years,” spokeswoman Allie Woodward told Air Force Magazine. “Rep. Buck will send his own letter to express his support for keeping it in Colorado, as his priorities remain our country’s military readiness and national security, rather than politics.”

U.S. Space Command’s temporary headquarters is at Peterson Space Force Base in Colorado Springs, Colo., which was home to Air Force Space Command until it inactivated with the creation of the Space Force. The delegation argues that Colorado makes the most sense for the new combatant command, created in parallel with the new military branch, because Colorado is already “the epicenter of operational integration between military and intelligence space assets” and home to numerous military organizations oriented around space. “Additionally, significant evidence exists that the former President’s political considerations influenced the final decision,” according to the letter.

Then-Secretary of Defense Mark Esper assigned the Department of the Air Force the task of evaluating prospective sites in March 2020. He “directed a different approach” from the Department of the Air Force’s usual strategic basing process that also incorporated aspects of the basing process used by Army Futures Command, a Department of the Air Force spokesperson told Air Force Magazine in an email. The department had already announced six locations as finalists but had to start over. The reboot expanded “the number of locations under consideration … by allowing communities to self-nominate,” according to the department spokesperson. The process also provided an opportunity for local communities to pitch incentive packages.

The Department of the Air Force is currently performing an environmental review of Redstone Arsenal’s appropriateness. The review is required before the selection becomes official.

In emailed replies to requests for comment:

A GAO spokesperson said, “GAO’s review of the methodology and scoring of the Department of the Air Force’s decision making process for the location of the permanent headquarters for U.S. Space Command is ongoing. We will be looking into the steps the Air Force took to identify the permanent location and the extent that its process conformed to best practices for analyzing alternatives. We will not have any findings to report until our work is complete. We expect to issue our report in spring 2022.”

A DOD OIG spokesperson said the office had no comment on the delegation’s letter nor the letter’s assertion that the selection process deviated from the norm; and said the office’s work is ongoing: “We do not have a timeline [for completing the investigation].”

A Department of the Air Force spokesperson said, “The Secretary will respond directly to the congressional delegation.”

In addition to alluding to “political considerations,” Colorado’s members of Congress have questioned whether all costs were taken into account in the selection process.

In a December 2020 interview with Central Florida’s Spectrum News, U.S. Rep. Michael Waltz (R-Fla.) took partial credit for upending the original search that had resulted in six finalists being announced in 2019: “Myself, the governor, our senators, [and] a lot of our local officials started asking a lot of tough questions about how this decision was made, what’s the process,” said Waltz, an Army veteran.

In August, former President Donald Trump made headlines by claiming sole credit for the final decision.