Kendall: Modernize Now to Counter China

Sept. 20, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

China is “acquiring a first-strike capability” with its nuclear forces, and the Department of the Air Force does not have “a moment to lose” in modernizing its conventional and nuclear capabilities, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said in his keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

Kendall confessed he “worked hard to get this specific job” because of his grave concern about China’s military advance—saying his priorities are “China, China, and China”—and said the Air and Space Forces are the key national security instruments to match and deter China’s capability. He also warned Congress that the Air Force will fall behind its Chinese counterparts if it must continue to field irrelevant gear for the sake of constituent jobs.

He revealed that the Air Force has five B-21 stealth bombers in production, and Kendall is scrutinizing the Advanced Battle Management System, which he called “not focused,” to get it to do what the service needs it to. He also pledged faster prototyping and better linking of prototypes with quickly-fielded capabilities.

China has moved away from a “wise and prudent” policy of maintaining a credible “minimal deterrent” nuclear force, Kendall said, and he noted recent revelations in the press that China has embarked on a furious pace of building ICBMs and silos.

“Whether intended or not, China is acquiring a first-strike capability,” Kendall declared. While “No one could rationally desire or plan to initiate a nuclear war”—and he said he’s convinced “China does not”—the missile-building program is cause for deep concern and creates the possibility of “a catastrophic mistake.” The Air Force does not have “a moment to lose” in modernizing its own nuclear forces and matching China’s surge in conventional capability.

To that end, Kendall said five B-21 stealth bombers are in production at Northrop Grumman’s Palmdale, Calif., factory. Program officials have forecast a first flight in mid-2022.

Kendall said that since 2010, he’s been “pounding the drum about how serious a threat” China’s military modernization program is to “the ability of the United States to project power” in the Indo-Pacific.

China is “increasing inventory levels and the sophistication of their weapons and modernizing redundant systems throughout the kill chains that support their weapons,” he explained. These include “hypersonic weapons, a full range of anti-satellite systems, plus cyber, electronic warfare, and challenging air-to-air weapons.”

China has also “invested smartly in anti-access area denial systems designed to defeat US power projection,” with “precision weapons of steadily increasing ranges” and steadily growing numbers, Kendall said.

The range of these weapons has “gone from a few hundred miles to thousands to literally around the globe,” he added, going “from a few high-value assets near [its] shores to the second and third island chains,” and most recently to intercontinental ranges and even to the potential for global strikes from space. China is rapidly fielding new “aircraft carriers, air bases, and logistic nodes in their near abroad.”

Kendall is a West Point graduate but said if the U.S. is going to “win the ‘one fight’ to keep our freedom, it will be because of the success of our Air and Space Forces.” While he respects the roles of the other branches, “without control of space and the air domains, their missions become all but unexecutable.”

“Only the Air and Space Forces have the ability to control the global high ground. Only the Air and Space Forces can project power on short notice to anywhere that it is needed. Only the Air and Space Forces have the ability to confront and defeat aggression immediately, wherever it occurs,” he said. “Only the Air and Space Forces have the ability to come to the aid of our global allies and partners with little to no notice when and where aggression occurs.”

To be stronger, “we are going to have to change,” Kendall said. “Our strategic competitors have studied how we fight, and they have taken asymmetric steps to exploit our vulnerabilities and to defeat us. We have to respond with a sense of urgency, but we also have to take the time necessary to make smart choices about our future and our investments.”

Kendall said he came into office just a few days before the fiscal year 2022 budget request was submitted and noted that it “did not comply with every piece of direction the Department of the Air Force has ever been given by Congress, which seems to have some very strong views on the importance of retaining aircraft that we no longer need and that do not intimidate China. The costs of these aircraft are consuming precious resources we do need for modernization.”

He urged Congress not to cling to “legacy systems” that don’t address existing threats, let alone future ones, and asked members to set aside constituent interests for national ones.

Frequently during his confirmation process, he said, it wasn’t unusual to have a “senator agree with me” on the need to address the Chinese threat “and in the same breath to tell me that under no circumstances could the—take your pick—C-130s, A-10s, KC-10s, or MQ-9s in that senator’s state be retired, nor could any base in his or her state ever be closed or suffer losses that would reduce local revenues.”

The Air Force “will not succeed against a well-resourced and strategic competitor if we insist on keeping every legacy system we have,” he warned. “Our one team cannot win its one fight to deter China or Russia without the resources we need and a willingness to balance risk today to avoid much greater risk in the future. I do understand the political constraints here, and I’m happy to work with Congress to find a better mechanism to make the changes we need, but we must move forward.”

Kendall said the Air Force shouldn’t be “doing demonstrations and experiments unless we can link them to true operational improvements and unless they move us down the field to lower-risk acquisition programs.” He plans to strengthen these links and “use state-of-the-art analytical tools to do so.”

He said he views the Advanced Battle Management System as not having “adequately focused on achieving and fielding specific measurable improvements in operational outcomes.” He will push to “keep our eye on the ball,” meaning “focusing on the fielding of meaningful military capability into the hands of our operational users. It does not mean one or two leave-behind unmaintainable token prototypes that came out of an experiment.”

The Next Generation Air Dominance program, he noted, has been underway in one form or another since 2012 and “has demonstrated key technologies in an experimental risk reduction prototype that is directly on the path” to a new fighter. He said it’s “more than a next-generation tactical aircraft, however; it is a coordinated systems-of-systems approach to air dominance.”

Space Force is “pursuing a space-based ground moving target indicator, or GMTI, capability,” that will “replace a portion of the JSTARS sensing capability,” Kendall said. “It will surpass the range limitations of current air platforms, and will provide capabilities in both contested and non-contested environments.”

His “observation from outside of government for the last few years is that the Departments of Defense, and of the Air Force, have embraced the idea of innovation and the pursuit of innovation without adequate attention to how innovation should be harnessed to specific operational performance improvements.” That will change under his leadership.

“We must be open minded and objective about the operational doors that technologies like autonomy, artificial intelligence, microelectronics, data analytics, and others can open for us,” Kendall asserted.

He also urged a faster pace to embracing new operational concepts, noting that “we are not accustomed to contending with a capable peer competitor. Even our most senior military leaders have little to no experience dealing with a peer competitor,” and the service has lost much of our ‘muscle memory’” in this regard, having focused on violent extremists for decades.

“We need a strong sense of urgency, but change for change’s sake isn’t the answer. If we don’t get the direction of change right, our actions will be counterproductive, and we will continue to squander our most precious resource, time,” he warned.

Kendall said he’s deeply concerned about surveys that show conclusively that the Air Force isn’t providing opportunities for all its people fairly and pledged to take action to embrace diversity. He also expressed alarm that a third of all USAF women have reported sexual harassment and promised to address the issue with urgency.

“My intent is to actively address each of these issues,” Kendall said. “There are some programs already ongoing in each of these areas. The Department has not ignored them by any means, but I believe we can do better.”

With regard to sexual assault and harassment, “we will be implementing the Independent Review Commission’s recommendations and any statutory guidance regarding separate reporting and prosecution channels that comes out of the Congress this fall. I intend for the Department of the Air Force to be ready to implement that guidance immediately once it becomes law.”

Kendall praised the efforts of Airmen to evacuate both military and civilian personnel from Afghanistan, chalking it up as one of the unique capabilities of the Air Force to accomplish such a feat. However, he said the fall of Afghanistan to the Taliban offers a lesson “that we, as Americans, and we as Airmen and Guardians, should not miss.”

That lesson—“painfully clear”—is that the Afghan government and military “were not ‘one team’ engaged in ‘one fight.’ Even when faced with an existential threat to their freedom, they could not overcome their internal divisions and unite against a common enemy. As a direct result, the people of Afghanistan have lost their freedom.” The Department of the Air Force, the U.S. military, and the nation need to recognize the need to act in unison to address common threats, he said.

He also pledged a closer working relationship with industry members and to exploit the expertise in the academic and nontraditional industrial communities to address the threats faced by the Department.

“There is not a moment to lose,” Kendall asserted.

AFSOC Seeks ‘True Amphibious’ Capability for MC-130J With Demo Flight in 2022

Sept. 20, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Air Force Special Operations Command needs a “true amphibious” platform to enhance capabilities in the Indo-Pacific theater and plans a demo flight of an amphibious version of the MC-130J by late 2022.

AFSOC commander Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife said the command is at an “inflection point.” It will increasingly prioritize support to the Air Force, rather than Special Operations Command, and seek capabilities to operate in an island environment in the South China Sea and East China Sea. In that effort, AFSOC is moving forward to make its most versatile and flexible platform, the MC-130J, capable of personnel infiltration and exfiltration, logistics, resupply, and personnel recovery in aquatic environments.

“Our regional focus around the world has obviously shifted,” Slife said at a media roundtable at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in National Harbor, Md.

“The Indo-Pacific Region writ large is, you know, it’s obviously a region most appropriately characterized by the vast bodies of water that are there,” Slife said. “Rather than wholesale, clean-sheet acquisition programs, we need to be looking at how to use the relatively modernized fleet that we have in new and novel ways.”

AFSOC recently announced efforts to develop a twin-float amphibious modification of the aircraft. Slife said digital engineering will make a flight test of one aircraft possible in calendar year 2022.

“If there is a way that we can use an MC-130J in an amphibious capability, that’s something we’re very interested in,” he said.

“Right now, this is a bit of an experimentation effort to see if it can be done,” Slife added, noting that an acquisitions plan had not yet been developed. “Ideally, we’d like to do a flying demo next year … that is a very aggressive schedule for something of this nature.”

Slife said AFSOC has already considered a variety of configurations. Digital design and digital engineering will make the flying demo possible in late 2022, but he could not say when procurement and fielding of the new amphibious platform would be possible.

“It’s going to depend on how that demo turns out, what performance trade-offs would be required in order to field that capability,” he said. “We haven’t made any decisions on whether we would field that for the entire fleet or a number of kits that would be available when needed.”

Lockheed Says LMXT Bridge Tanker’s Range and Refueling Gear Set It Apart

Sept. 19, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Officially launching its bid to supply the Air Force’s KC-Y “bridge” tanker, Lockheed Martin said its solution would offer the service longer range and persistence than current tankers by virtue of the aircraft’s larger size. To sweeten the deal, if Lockheed Martin wins the KC-Y contest, Airbus will build A330 airliners, on which the LMXT is based, in the U.S. at the same location.

Tony Frese, Lockheed Martin vice president for air mobility and maritime missions, said range is one of the “big discriminators” for the LMXT, which stands for Lockheed Martin “Next” Tanker. The aircraft meets the Air Force’s desire for a proven, commercial derivative tanker, he said, as it is based on the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport (MRTT), a version of which lost out to the KC-46 in the KC-X competition. Lockheed Martin submitted information about the updated LMXT to the Air Force in August, in response to a USAF request for information.

“We see [LMXT] as complementary” to the Air Force’s extant KC-135 and KC-46 tanker fleets, Frese said. The aircraft would buy back some of the single-aircraft range and refueling ability that will retire with the KC-10 before the KC-Y goes into production.

The Air Force has used the term “bridge tanker” to refer to a tanker that would continue to replace the KC-135 and KC-10 while a new, potentially stealthy, tanker for operations in contested airspace could be developed. The service has not definitively said how many aircraft will be in the KC-Y program.

The LMXT could “nearly double” the KC-46’s reach in the Indo-Pacific, Frese said, with longer time on station, assuming a full load of fuel. Carrying only the same fuel load as the KC-46, it would also be able to get into “30 percent more airfields” in the region—196 versus 150—by virtue of its larger wings generating more takeoff and landing lift, he asserted. The jet’s ability to use many airfields is one question the Air Force has already asked about the LMXT, he said.

In the KC-X competition, the Airbus offering did not fare as well in airfield operations because fewer of the jets could fit on smaller airfield ramps. It’s not clear if the Air Force will weight that factor the same way in the KC-Y contest.

Lockheed Martin established a partnership with Airbus for a potential future tanker competition in 2018 and is evaluating a number of locations where the LMXT could be built in the U.S. It will consider the cavernous space in its Marietta, Ga., facility as a location for final assembly, as that space is now vacant following the completion of the C-5 re-engining and update program. The plant can hold four C-5s and so will be able to accommodate at least four MRTTs, Frese said. Mobile, Ala., where Airbus now builds its A320 airliner, is also under consideration, but Mobile and Marietta are not the only places where Lockheed Martin is looking, he said.

The company has lined up 150 suppliers in 34 states for LMXT and expects that figure to grow, Frese said.

The jet will be fully compliant with “made in America” rules, Frese noted, but he declined to specify how much of the content would be from U.S. manufacturers. That metric is proprietary and still evolving, he said.

Lockheed Martin is also touting a new autonomous refueling system for the tanker, already in testing, as a key advantage in the next head-to-head contest with the KC-46, which has had chronic problems with its boom operator 3-D vision system.

“It’s a highly advanced, fly-by-wire boom system,” which will be “fully automated,” he said.

“It’s already completed developmental testing that’s seen over 330 wet and dry contacts,” and a daytime operation certification is expected this year, he said, with nighttime operations expected to be certified in 2023.

The system has high-definition, panoramic 3-D vision gear “with high processing capability and low latency.”

The system “automatically allows the boom to engage with the receiver, with an operator observing, not having to be in the loop,” he explained. While the specific technology that permits this is proprietary, he said it “relies on the imagery” to work. There are “a couple of international customers” for this capability already, “ahead of the U.S. Air Force.” The work is being done by Airbus for the MRTT, “which we will incorporate into the LMXT,” Frese said. The system doesn’t require any equipment or special activity on the part of the receiver aircraft, he noted.

“Obviously, this is a big discriminator for us,” Frese said. Whether the Air Force opts to reduce crew size to take advantage of the automated systems would be up to the service, he added.

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works advanced development shop also contributed self-defense measures and Advanced Battle Management System technology to the LMXT concept.

The two-deck tanker would also be able to carry cargo on its lower deck, while Frese said the upper deck could be configured for airline-style passenger transport, cargo, aeromedical evacuation, or other missions. The Air Force already has tremendous cargo capacity with the KC-46, he said, as its volume is roughly equivalent to that of the C-17 strategic airlifter, so Lockheed Martin is aiming for different applications.

The LMXT would also be able to serve as a node in the joint all-domain command and control network. There will be three stations on the upper deck for JADC2 operations, and there will be cockpit displays for those operations as well.

The MRTT is a “combat-proven” performer, Frese said, as the U.K. Royal Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force have used it during wartime operations in Iraq. The MRTT has also racked up some 60,000 air refueling contacts across 250,000 hours and has operationally refueled 10 different kinds of U.S. airplanes in joint operations. These include the A-10 attack plane, B-1 bomber, C-17, E-3 AWACS, and F-15, F-16, F-22, and F-35B fighters, as well as the Navy’s P-3 patrol plane. There are 49 MRTTs in service, flown by 13 countries.

Some 1,600 A330 airliners have been built, Frees said. He expects certification of the LMXT to go smoothly, as the jet has been in service a long time and “we have lots of experts” on the certification process.

Frese said the company will participate in an Air Force industry day this week, and “we expect to see more” requests for information “very soon.”

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Senior Master Sgt. Mark Schneider

Sept. 17, 2021

The Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2021 will be formally recognized at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference from Sept. 20 to 22 in National Harbor, Md. Air Force Magazine has highlighted one each workday through today, the beginning of the conference. Today, we honor Senior Master Sgt. Mark Schneider, a paving and construction senior enlisted leader with the Air National Guard’s 200th RED HORSE Squadron at Camp Perry, Ohio.

Schneider led a team of 109 people tasked with delivering a $160 million life support area in support of Operation Inherent Resolve.

Supervising the foreign operating base buildout, he streamlined the delivery of 17 construction projects, providing bed down for 3,000 personnel and three combatant commands. His knowledge and experience expedited the multinational acquisition of $3.2 million in project materials, accelerating the $13.1 million project portfolio two months ahead of schedule.

He steered the construction of two airfield upgrade projects supporting 49 aircraft valued at $25 billion; and spearheaded an NCO leadership course, instructing 37 personnel, amplifying a squadron leadership expertise.

“I had a lot of good influences over the years,” said Schneider in an ANG release. “They’ve tailored me and took me under their wing to prepare RED HORSE for the future, and I’m looking to do the same thing for my fellow Airmen.”

2021 Outstanding Airmen of the Year honoree Senior Master Sgt. Mark Schneider, a paving and construction senior enlisted leader with the Air National Guard’s 200th RED HORSE Squadron at Camp Perry, Ohio. Air Force photo.

Read more about the other Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2021:

Lockheed Must Give Up Data to Get Shot at Long-Term F-35 Maintenance Contract

Sept. 17, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Lockheed Martin must give up proprietary technical data in order to have a chance at long-term performance-based logistics contracts in support of the F-35 fighter, the program executive officer said. If the company fails to satisfy on an initial version of the arrangement, the military services likely will take over more of the jet’s maintenance enterprise.

Lt. Gen. Eric T. Fick, speaking with reporters Sept. 15, said Lockheed Martin got its big maintenance contract this week—worth up to $6.6 billion—with the proviso that it will transfer “provisioning and cataloging data” to the government before a full-up PBL contract is negotiated. If the company performs well on a “skinny” version of the PBL, the government will likely sign up for more. If not, the government will have the data it needs to bring more of the F-35 maintenance enterprise in house, Fick said.

Lockheed Martin pitched the PBL to then-Pentagon Undersecretary for Acquisition and Technology Ellen Lord in September 2019. The Joint Program Office, F-35 users, and the rest of the F-35 “community” assessed it, and “there was a lot of reluctance” to go ahead, Fick said. At the time, the community was “unsatisfied” with how the company was doing on F-35 sustainment.

After a review of options ranging from a “tip-to-tail PBL to standard, annualized, year-over-year contracts,” the community, headed by then-Navy acquisition executive James F. Geurts, decided that “we … as a Department … did not want to be trapped into a bad deal, for the schedule to be weaponized, and for us to have to sign a bad PBL,” Fick said.

Instead, the Pentagon chose a middle path, “where you could achieve most of the benefits of a [PBL] contract by focusing just on the supply chain management and the demand reduction piece,” he said. This mechanism seemed to offer the best return on investment, he added.

The rest of the work could then be offloaded to “a companion contract … more on an annualized basis,” Fick continued. “And so, the recommendation was to pursue that kind of approach. Lockheed, I think, referred to that as a ‘skinny’ PBL. Those were their words.”

“Back in the spring of 2020, we wrote [a memorandum of understanding]”—signed by Fick, Geurts, Air Force acquisition executive Will Roper, and Lockheed Martin’s then-general manager of the F-35 Greg Ulmer—“that really charted a … path [outlining] … what were the things required for us to actually move forward,” Fick said. One of them was the contract awarded this week, which gives Lockheed Martin an initial PBL for 2021, with options for fiscal 2022 and 2023.

“We’re going to start off with a three-year base plus two-year contract—that sets us on a glideslope that moves in the right directions.” If it works out, “we’ll start from a good launch-off point that puts us on the trajectory we think the Department should be on,” Fick explained.

But of it doesn’t work out, the Pentagon “wants options,” he said.

Under the “way the program was established, based upon the TSPR [Total System Performance Responsibility] construct,” the government didn’t get “all the data that we would have, if we had started the program in a more organically focused” way.

So, the MOU mandates that Lockheed Martin provide that “provisioning and cataloging” data, which would allow the services to take over “more of the supply chain management” if the company fails to perform.

“We’re using the incentive of the PBL to get decent pricing on the tech data required, so that at the end of that PBL, the services have an option for moving forward.”

If Lockheed Martin “kills it” and performs well, “and we’d love to stay there, then I think we’ve laid a great groundwork for a second PBL,” Fick said. “If not—if the services and the department and partners are unsatisfied—we have an option to do something different.” He said it is unlikely the F-35’s maintenance would be competed among other contractors.

After the three-year opening effort, Lockheed Martin would get its first PBL from fiscal 2023 to 2027, Fick said. But he hastened to add that the initial PBL is “not a done deal” and there’s no guarantee that the 2022 and 2023 options will be exercised.

Fick also said that while F-35 production Lots 15-17 are in negotiation now, a contract does not have to be inked by the end of the this month, which is the end of the fiscal year. “I’d love to get it done in October,” he said, but he declined to estimate how many aircraft would be in the mix, except to say the figure will “make sense” based on “what has gone before.”

Austin Announces Increased Air Operations, Force Deployments to Australia

Sept. 16, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III revealed Sept. 16 further air defense cooperation measures with Australia and that more U.S. troops will be heading there, going beyond President Joe Biden’s announcement a day earlier that the United States and United Kingdom will share nuclear submarine technology with the Pacific ally in the face of a growing threat from China.

Speaking alongside Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken and their Australian counterparts at the State Department, Austin said the U.S. and Australia will increase exercises, training, and sharing of defense technology.

“We will continue to explore … greater and more frequent engagement and air capabilities,” Austin said. “More training opportunities for our ground forces and increasing our logistical footprint in Australia as well.”

In his first hint at what the now overdue force posture review may reveal, the Secretary indicated Australia will receive more U.S. troops.

“Today, we endorsed major force posture initiatives that will expand our access and presence in Australia,” Austin said in his opening statement, noting further force integration and interoperability would be part of that effort.

Australian Defense Minister Peter Dutton said that would mean more basing for American troops.

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

The Australians said the air cooperation agreement would span all platforms, with Dutton pointing to the multinational Talisman Sabre exercise with the U.S. in July.

In August 2020, B-1s operating from Andersen Air Force Base in Guam and B-2s from Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia participated in a training exercise, dropping training bombs at three Australian training locations. In November, the U.S. and Australia formalized an agreement to cooperate on the development of long-range prototype hypersonic weapons. Austin did not respond to specific questions about the bombers or hypersonic weapons cooperation.

Dutton also said Australia and the U.S. reached a “space framework agreement” to increase his country’s space knowledge and capabilities, but Austin declined to elaborate.

A China Heavy Meeting

The annual “2+2” meeting, held in Washington, D.C., this year due to tight COVID restrictions in Australia, focused heavily on security in the Indo-Pacific region.

Australia and China are in a detente stretching 12 months since Australian comments that the origin of the new coronavirus needs further investigation. China slapped back with export restrictions on Australian agriculture and wine.

China also reacted swiftly to the deal for sharing nuclear submarine technology, calling the move an arms race and promising retaliation.

Australian China-watchers predict further Chinese cyberattacks on Australia but admit the relationship is already at a low with no high-level dialogue occurring between the two nations.

Blinken sought to assure that the United States will not leave Australia alone “on the pitch.”

“The United States will not leave Australia alone,” the Secretary of State said. “We’ve raised publicly and privately our serious concerns about Beijing’s use of economic coercion against Australia.”

Meanwhile, Australia and the United States are now faced with a resulting deterioration in their relationships with France, which loses a major submarine agreement with Australia. The French minister of defense did not respond to an Air Force Magazine request for comment. France moved to demonstrate its displeasure, reportedly canceling a celebration of the U.S. defense partnership scheduled for its embassy in Washington.

Austin also downplayed rising tensions with China in a response to a question from Air Force Magazine.

“On the issue of China, let me just emphasize upfront that this agreement, this relationship, is not aimed at anything or anyone,” he said. “The intent here is to help improve our trilateral cooperation and our capabilities across the board.”

The Australian defense minister was less coy, saying it was indeed about China.

“This is not the first time that we’ve seen different outbursts from China in terms of Australia’s position,” Dutton said in response to the same question.

“It’s formed the basis of much of our discussion here with our colleagues—very significant uncertainty, and more so than any time since the Second World War,” he added later. “We do believe it’s in Australia’s national security interests to deepen our relationship with the United States.”

Under the new trilateral security agreement, dubbed “AUKUS” for Australia, U.K., and U.S., officials will spend the first 18 months determining a path forward for sharing nuclear submarine technology to build a fleet of Australian nuclear-powered submarines. Dutton said the current Royal Australian Navy fleet of conventional diesel submarines will undergo a life extension in 2026 that will take it to the 2040s.

The capabilities that nuclear-powered submarines could deliver to Australia will greatly increase Australia’s reach and help Australia safeguard the Pacific, Dutton said.

AUKUS will also include defense cooperation in areas of artificial intelligence, quantum computing, cybersecurity, and additional undersea capabilities.

B-2 Crashes at Whiteman; No Injuries, But Status of Operations Withheld

Sept. 16, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

A B-2 bomber is lying damaged on the side of the runway at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., after a crash early Sep. 14. Air Force Global Strike Command is withholding information about the condition of the aircraft and the operational status of Whiteman’s sole runway, but no one was injured in the mishap.

The unidentified aircraft—most of the 20 B-2s are named for a state—“experienced an inflight malfunction during a routine training mission” at about 12:30 a.m. local time, an AFGSC spokeswoman said. It was damaged on the runway “after an emergency landing,” she said. There were no personnel injuries and no fire as a result of the accident, and no munitions were aboard the aircraft, she said. Further details will be provided after an investigation.

AFGSC issued a notice to Airmen (NOTAM) shortly after the accident to keep at least six miles away from the base. The initial notice said the airspace would be restricted through Sept. 17. The reason for the NOTAM was given as “to provide a safe environment for accident investigation.”

The command declined to answer questions about whether Whiteman’s runway is operational or whether B-2s are continuing to operate while the crash is being investigated and the aircraft recovered. Whiteman is home to all 20 of the Air Force’s B-2 Spirit stealth bombers, although typically a handful are away from the base on deployment or detached to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for testing.

The accident marks the third major mishap for the B-2 since it began operational service in 1991. One (“Spirit of Kansas”) crashed and burned during a takeoff from Guam in 2008 and was a total loss. A second (“Spirit of Kitty Hawk”) was badly damaged in a 2010 fire, also at Guam. However, that aircraft was partially repaired, flown back to the continental U.S., and received a four-year restoration before returning to service.

Satellite photos of the Sept. 14 mishap, circulated online, show the aircraft having departed the runway but remaining apparently intact, possibly having dug into the ground with one wing. Heavy contact between the flying wing bomber and the runway or the ground would likely involve serious damage to its exquisitely contoured, low-observable surfaces and treatments.

AFGSC could not say how long the accident investigation will take, and it is too soon to say whether the jet can be repaired and returned to service.

Kendall, Air Force, Space Force Leaders Discuss Gender and Racial Disparity Review

Sept. 16, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Six of the the Department of the Air Force’s top leaders appeared together virtually Sept. 16, discussing the results of a recent racial and gender disparities survey released by the Air Force Inspector General.

The survey identified disparities in recruitment, retention, and promotions among women, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Latinos, and Pacific Islanders, after a review released in December identified many of the same issues for Black Airmen.

In a call with reporters when the second review was released, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the report “basically points out very clearly, and I think very convincingly, that there are a lot of disparities within the Air Force, in a number of facets of the Air Force experience,” pledging to address the issue.

Speaking again Sept. 16 in a virtual town hall streamed to Facebook, Kendall once more promised to keep focus on the issue of racial, ethnic, and gender disparities, saying, “This is the start of the process, not the end of it.”

Kendall was joined in the town hall by his No. 2, Undersecretary Gina Ortiz Jones, as well as the heads of both the Air and Space Forces, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, along with the services’ top enlisted leaders, Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass and Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force Roger A. Towberman. Maj. Christine Guthrie moderated the discussion.

Jones, the first woman of color and second openly gay person to serve as undersecretary of the Air Force, said in reading the report that she was struck by what was not in it.

“The report very clearly talks about some of the disparities for minorities and for women. But it’s not talking about disparities for female minorities,” Jones said. “And when we think about having a very targeted approach to ensure that we are addressing some of the unique challenges, some of the unique barriers faced by some of our Airmen and Guardians, we have to understand the intersectional challenges that are presented.”

Speaking with reporters at the time of the report’s release, Air Force Inspector General Lt. Gen. Sami D. Said said the service is not planning any more reviews at the moment to study disparities facing other minorities, such as the LGBTQ community or religious groups. But he did note that he wasn’t “saying no” to the idea permanently.

The most recent review did find that one in every three female service members said they had experienced sexual harassment during their careers. Kendall called that figure “just not acceptable,” with Jones adding that the Air Force is seeking to be “as efficient, as effective as we can be” in streamlining data collection and supporting survivors of harassment and assault.

Beyond harassment, though, Jones also noted that the survey found that 24 percent of female Airmen and Guardians decided to delay telling their unit commanders when they were pregnant, fearing that it would affect their career opportunities. Guthrie, framing that statistic as indicative of a lack of trust in leadership, asked Brown and Raymond specifically how their services were training leadership to better handle those issues.

“One of the areas that I’ve talked about … is how do we develop our first line supervisors,” said Brown. “Whether it’s at the NCO level or the officer level, when we go to Airman Leadership School or [Squadron Officer School], we don’t spend as much time talking about how you understand diversity [and] other people’s perspectives.”

Brown also pointed to the Air Force’s revised wing, vice, and group command screening boards—the service announced Aug. 24 that it was making changes aimed at enhancing “senior leader talent management.” Part of that, Brown said, is by improving diversity. Specifically, he said, boards have been instructed to “not only take a look at [a candidate’s] experience based on their career field, but also look at the diversity of the talent that we have inside of our Air Force, and score appropriately.”

Raymond added that it is important for leaders to speak with and listen to young Airmen and Guardians and framed the issue of diversity and inclusion as one of readiness.

“A more diverse force is a more ready force. It is fundamental to the readiness of our service,” Raymond said.

Bass, the first woman of color to hold her position, also pressed back in her remarks against criticism from some that the focus on diversity and inclusion is unnecessary.

“I might offer that … it’s probably time to wake up and read the over 17,000 comments from over 100,000 Airmen and Guardians that have said that there’s some challenges,” Bass said of the criticism. “So I say, yeah, we do need to wake up.”

Towberman, for his part, stressed the need for respectful dialogue on the issue.

“I can’t change hearts and minds if I don’t first understand hearts and minds, and I can’t understand anything if I’m not willing to listen,” Towberman said. “So, if it’s thinking and if it’s conversation, I’d say in general terms it’s healthy, it’s moving us where we want to be. This is about having conversations, about working together to get through it. We can’t do that if we shut anyone down. If it’s misbehavior, it’s a different thing.”

Kendall echoed Towberman’s point and said he had had a recent experience in that regard, speaking to Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas). Cruz has been a particularly vocal critic of diversity initiatives in the military, and Kendall acknowledged that the two men “don’t agree about pretty much anything.”

In the course of a meeting shortly after he took office, though, Kendall said he and Cruz had a “very good conversation” on the issue of race. Specifically, Kendall said he brought up the example to Cruz of times when he has been pulled over by the police while driving.

“I pull over, and what I’m thinking is, ‘Maybe I can talk myself out of this—maybe I can get my military ID and he won’t give me a ticket or give me a warning,’” said Kendall. “I’ve never been afraid. I’ve never been afraid once when a cop has stopped me at any time at any place.

“There are a lot of our fellow teammates who have not had that experience. They’ve had a very different experience. And for the rest of us to understand that and appreciate it will take us a little ways down the road of being more whatever you want to call it, but I would say just more aware, more conscious of how we all haven’t had the same type of experience.”

Outstanding Airmen of the Year: Senior Master Sgt. Marcus Banks

Sept. 16, 2021

The Air Force’s 12 Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2021 will be formally recognized at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference from Sept. 20 to 22 in National Harbor, Md. Air Force Magazine is highlighting one each workday from now until the conference begins. Today, we honor Senior Master Sgt. Marcus Banks, an installation management flight superintendent with the 316th Civil Engineer Squadron.

Banks led 162 engineers in the sustainment of 1,000 facilities and Kunsan Air Base, South Korea’s power projection platform. His actions propelled 6,000 multinational F-16 sorties that helped quell North Korean aggressions.

He led a tiger team and developed a strategic plan for 38 dormitories, which resolved 5,000 repairs and 178 emergencies. Banks’ leadership closed five congressional inquiries and upheld the quality of life for 2,800 joint service members.

He also advanced the wing’s coronavirus defense plan, driving two courses of action and delivering 2,000 restriction of movement rooms. His efforts isolated 1,000 threats with zero base spread and safeguarded 4,200 warfighters.

As the unit control center superintendent through four exercises and three typhoons, his team proved the wing’s base and airfield recovery capabilities and restored base operations within seven hours.

2021 Outstanding Airmen of the Year honoree Senior Master Sgt. Marcus Banks. Air Force photo.

Read more about the other Outstanding Airmen of the Year for 2021: