Kabul Airlift Continues After Suicide Bombing Kills 13 Troops, Dozens of Afghans

Aug. 26, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The U.S. airlift mission in Afghanistan is continuing, following one of the deadliest attacks on American forces in the 20-year war.

An expected Islamic State Khorasan (ISIS-K) suicide bomb attack killed 13 U.S. service members and injured 15 more at a gate leading in to the Hamid Karzai International Airport on Aug. 26. Dozens of Afghans crowding the gate to the airport in desperation to leave the country also were killed, and many more injured.

“These American service members who gave their lives … were heroes. Heroes who have been engaged in the dangerous, selfless mission to save the lives of others,” President Joe Biden said in remarks at the White House.

U.S. military commanders were “unanimous” in their recommendations to continue the mission of evacuating Americans and qualified Afghans from the country, Biden said. The U.S. “will not be deterred by terrorists. We will not let them stop our mission.”

American officials believe they know the ISIS-K members behind the attack, and those responsible will be hunted down.

“To those who carried out the attack, … we will not forgive, we will not forget,” he said. “We will hunt you down and make you pay. I’ll defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command.”

U.S. Central Command boss Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, Jr., in a briefing, said he expects more attacks on American forces as the airlift continues, but American planes will continue to airlift Afghans and U.S. citizens from Kabul.

“We continue to focus on the protection of our forces and the evacuees as the evacuation continues,” McKenzie said. “Let me be clear, while we’re saddened by the loss of life, both U.S. and Afghan, we continue to execute the mission.”

U.S. forces have monitored “threat streams” of more possible attacks by ISIS, including targeting aircraft taking off. Some coalition planes have seen small-arms fire, and while aircraft such as U.S. Air Force C-17s, have countermeasures, he does not believe ISIS has a surface-to-air missile threat. The group is also reportedly looking to use other suicide bombs, including vehicle-borne ones, to target the airport.

U.S. forces have shared “versions” of this intelligence to the Taliban outside the gates of the airport, and McKenzie said he does not believe the group is connected to or allowed the Aug. 25 attack to occur.

At the airport, U.S. forces are flying surveillance aircraft such as MQ-9 Reapers and other drones to monitor the situation. Navy F/A-18s, USAF F-15s and MC-130s, and Army AH-64s also are flying above the airport.

While the U.S. troops have attempted to push back some of the perimeter for safety, there’s no other way to search potential evacuees than face-to-face.

“This is close-up work,” McKenzie said. “The breath of the person you are searching is upon you. While we have overwatch in place, we still have to touch the clothes of a person that’s coming in. I think you all can appreciate the courage and the dedication that is necessary to do this job, and to do it time after time.”

As of Aug. 26, service members at the airport had searched approximately 104,000 people as part of the evacuation mission. After the attack, there were 5,000 people at the airport awaiting airlift, and “a number of buses” came on to the airfield in the hours following, McKenzie said.

“The plan is designed to operate while under stress and under attack,” he said. “And we will continue to do that. We will coordinate very carefully to make sure that it’s safe for American citizens to come to the airfield.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, in a statement, said terrorists killed the service members “at the very moment these troops were trying to save the lives of others.”

“We mourn their loss. We will treat their wounds. And we will support their families in what will most assuredly be devastating grief,” he said. “But we will not be dissuaded from the task at hand. To do anything less—especially now—would dishonor the purpose and sacrifice these men and women have rendered our country and the people of Afghanistan.

Department of the Air Force leaders in an Aug. 26 statement expressed sympathy to the U.S. servicemembers and Afghans killed in the attack.

“U.S. Air and Space Force personnel will continue our work supporting the safe evacuation of U.S. citizens and other evacuees from Afghanistan,” the statement said. “Our collective resolve will not be deterred by these senseless attacks, and we will remember and honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice in service to others.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 6:07 p.m. on Aug. 26 to include additional information from the White House.

Boeing Anticipates Anti-Jamming Advancements in Next Two Years

Aug. 26, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

Two programs to help prevent or mitigate the jamming of communication signals from satellites could become operational in 2022 and 2023, according to a top defense contractor.

Rico Attanasio, director of tactical military satellite communications for Boeing Defense, Space, and Security, briefed reporters on the programs Aug. 23 at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo.

Boeing’s legacy Wideband Global SATCOM constellation of 10 military communications satellites provides “a majority” of the military’s “high-data-rate SATCOM capability,” supplemented by commercial contracts to add resilience and meet demand, Attanasio said.

“And that demand just keeps growing,” he said. “Today’s platforms generate tons of data, right?” At the same time, threats have to be contended with that could disrupt WGS communications for users on the ground. “They have to have that connection,” he said. “That’s vital.”

Attanasio said Boeing often develops technology commercially that it then applies on the government side of the business, including space technology over the decades. He equated the advances Boeing is trying to make in satellite broadband with the advancement of smartphones and smart houses.

He provided updates on some of those advances, including MAJE, or Mitigation and Anti-Jam Enhancement, a ground-based upgrade to the WGS constellation that takes advantage of the satellite fleet’s inherent “flexibility and reprogrammability” to “geolocate interferers and mitigate them with beam shaping.”

MAJE is expected to locate sources of jamming, or interference, and reshape a satellite’s coverage area to exclude those sources and lower the signal interference.

A series of virtual tests in the last quarter of 2020 proved the system could locate sources of interference. Boeing is “in the process of preparing to do the steps it takes for final checkout and deployment,” Attanasio said.

He said MAJE will be deployed at five ground stations around the world over the course of several months starting in 2022.

Meanwhile, initial operational capability on another anti-jamming system could happen by the second quarter of 2023.

PTES, or Protected Tactical Enterprise Service, would allow two radios, for example, to communicate via a government-developed wave form with “anti-jam capability,” Attanasio said. Boeing’s part of the project is to develop “the system around it—how do we manage it, how does it work, and so forth.”

He said PTES has proved to be a “true agile development program,” with rapid iteration and partners collaborating in the cloud. Boeing and MIT Lincoln Lab demonstrated “the PTES capability” in recent weeks using a commercial satellite.

13 US Troops Killed in Kabul Airport Explosion, Deadliest Attack in Afghanistan Since 2011

Aug. 26, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Editor’s note: Pentagon officials later said in a briefing Feb. 4, 2022, that an investigation revealed the attack was conducted by a single bomber and no gunmen.

Two explosions rocked Kabul on Aug. 26 just outside Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and injuring more than a dozen others, Defense Department officials have confirmed.

The attack, coming just days before President Joe Biden’s Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw from Afghanistan, is one of the deadliest against American troops in nearly 20 years of war. These are the first U.S. combat deaths in Afghanistan since February 2020 and the most in a single day since 2011.

In a series of tweets starting the morning of Aug. 26, Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby first confirmed an explosion near Abbey Gate outside the airport, then a second one at the Baron Hotel, located near the Abbey Gate.

At first, Kirby said there were “a number” of casualties to U.S. personnel and civilians. Several hours later, however, he released a statement confirming service member deaths. At a press briefing that afternoon, U.S. Central Command boss Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie confirmed reports that a dozen service members had died. U.S. Central Command later released a statement announcing a 13th service member had died.

McKenzie also confirmed reports that the explosions were caused by suicide bombers, believed to be members of the Islamic State’s Khorasan branch, followed by gunfire from other fighters. ISIS later claimed responsibility for the attack.

In remarks delivered the evening of Aug. 26, Biden said he had directed military commanders to develop plans to strike back against ISIS-K’s “key assets, leadership, and facilities” in response to the attack.

“Those who carried out this attack, as well as anyone who wishes America harm, know this: We will not forgive.
We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay,” Biden said. “I will defend our interests and our people with every measure at my command. Over the past few weeks … we’ve been made aware by our intelligence community, that the ISIS-K … has been planning a complex set of attacks on the United States personnel and others.”

According to a report from the BBC, at least 60 total people died in the attack, and more than 140 others were injured.

Defense and intelligence officials had warned of an attack by ISIS-K. In a press briefing Aug. 25, Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said that there was a “very real possibility” of an attack by the terrorist group, and Biden said in a speech the same day that “every day we’re on the ground is another day that we know ISIS-K is seeking to target the airport.”

ISIS-K and the Taliban are not allied—in fact, the two groups have fought in the past. However, media reports, citing defense officials, have said ISIS-K is targeting the airport in an attempt to cause mayhem as the U.S. withdrawal reaches its final hours.

On Aug. 25, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul issued a security alert, telling Americans to avoid traveling to the airport and instructing citizens at three gates to leave immediately because of security threats. One of the three gates—Abbey Gate—is where the Aug. 26 explosions occurred.

Despite the Aug. 26 attack, though, the U.S. military will continue its evacuation efforts, McKenzie said. Since the end of July, the U.S. has evacuated 101,300 Americans, Afghans, and third-country citizens fleeing the Taliban, who seized control of the country with shocking speed in the past several months. The vast majority of evacuations—over 90,000—have taken place since Aug. 13.

There are still around 5,000 people left at the airport seeking to be evacuated, McKenzie said, as well as thousands of U.S. troops who will have to withdraw by Aug. 31 as well. Blinken also said Aug. 25 that there are hundreds of American citizens still in Afghanistan too. That leaves just a few days to complete the massive airlift operation, all while monitoring “threat streams” for additional ISIS attacks, McKenzie said.

Prior to Aug. 26, Biden had stuck firm to his commitment that the U.S. would depart Afghanistan completely by Aug. 31, though he also said he had directed the Pentagon to draw up contingency plans in case troops needed to stay longer. After the attack, he reiterated his plan to leave by Aug. 31, saying “we must complete this mission and we will.” At the same time, however, he pledged to rescue any American who wishes to leave, saying that even after troops withdraw, “we will find them and we will get them out.”

The Taliban, meanwhile, has said it will not willingly accept any American military presence after Aug. 31.

Even before the two bombings, the security situation at the airport, which is located just a few miles from Kabul’s city center, had been tense, with instances of violence and chaos since the evacuation mission began.

On Aug. 16, hundreds of Afghans breached the airfield and swarmed U.S. Air Force planes. In one instance, a C-17 took off with Afghans clinging to the outside of the plane, and at least one person then fell to their death. On Aug. 23, there was a brief firefight outside the airport when an unidentified shooter opened fire, killing an Afghan soldier, before U.S. troops returned fire. There have also been numerous reports of the Taliban establishing checkpoints outside the airport, stopping Afghans attempting to flee the country and even beating them.

Editor’s Note: This story was last updated at 6 p.m. on Aug. 26 with new information from the White House.

Kendall Moves Forward Reorganizing Space Acquisition

Aug. 25, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall says his approach to any departmental reorganization is “to move quickly to get the big parts right.” Now, less than a month since his confirmation, he has announced changes to the department’s acquisition structure.

Kendall told an audience at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo., on Aug. 24 that the Department of the Air Force’s Space Acquisition Directorate is moving under the department’s more newly established space side of acquisitions. He also said he plans to speed up the process of moving the Space Development Agency inside the department.

Specifically, the Space Acquisition Directorate moves from the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics, known as SAF/AQ, to the newer Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, which will report directly to the Secretary of the Air Force. Meanwhile, Kendall said he’s changing the abbreviation for the space acquisition assistant secretary’s office from SAF/SP to SAF/SQ to better reflect is focus on acquisition.

The Space Development Agency was expected to become part of the Space Force by October 2022, but Kendall now wants to move it under SAF/SQ. The Air Force has not yet announced a timeline for that move, but Kendall wants it to happen before the original deadline.

In introducing Kendall, Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond described the new Secretary as “custom built” to lead the department because of a “half century” of experience in national security, starting with his service in the Army and including about five years as the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics from 2012 to 2017. (Kendall in return followed up to describe Raymond as the “father of the Space Force.”)

The position of assistant secretary for space acquisition and integration dates to December 2019, but no appointee has ever served as a confirmed assistant secretary. Kendall announced during the speech that Brig. Gen. Steven P. Whitney will take over leading the office until an assistant secretary is in place. Whitney will be military deputy to the new appointee. Meanwhile Shawn J. Barnes is leaving the position of deputy assistant secretary to become the legislative liaison at the department’s financial management office.

While the reorganization is effective immediately, SAF/AQ will retain the authority of service acquisition executive for both assistant secretary offices as long as the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act is in effect, according to a spokesperson for Kendall’s office.

European Bases Increase Support for Fleeing Afghans as Airlift Continues

Aug. 25, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

U.S. bases across Europe are building up their capacity to temporarily house and screen Afghan evacuees fleeing Taliban rule, as the Aug. 31 deadline to withdrawal U.S. forces from Afghanistan looms.

So far, 82,300 people have been airlifted out of Afghanistan as part of the overall evacuation since Aug. 14. In a 24-hour period ending early Aug. 25, 90 aircraft departed Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, including 37 U.S C-17s and five U.S. C-130s. This meant an aircraft was taking off once every 39 minutes.

Another 10,000 people were in the airport waiting for flights, as thousands more crowded the gates to the facility hoping to get through before U.S. forces leave.

“Our mission remains unchanged, said Maj. Gen. William D. “Hank” Taylor, the Joint Staff’s deputy director for regional operations in an Aug. 25 briefing. “For each day of this operation, we have carried out the direction of the President and the Secretary of Defense. Until that mission changes, we will continue to put forth our maximum effort to safely evacuate as many people as possible.”

U.S. bases in Europe, such as Ramstein Air Base, Germany, are increasing their capacity to bring on these evacuees. Once they arrive, evacuees are immediately given food, water, and shelter, said U.S. European Command boss Gen. Tod D. Wolters in an Aug. 25 briefing. Some of the arriving evacuees have required additional medical care.

Notably, an Afghan woman on Aug. 21 gave birth when a C-17 landed at Ramstein. Wolters said he spoke with the parents, and they named the baby girl “Reach” after the aircraft’s call sign for the flight.

“Being an Air Force fighter pilot, it’s my dream to watch that young child called Reach grow up to be a U.S. citizen and fly United States Air Force fighters in our Air Force,” Wolters said.

As of Aug. 25, Ramstein had 5,783 evacuees on base. Flights first arrived on Aug. 20, with follow-on flights taking evacuees to the continental United States starting on Aug. 23. To date, 1,605 evacuees have left Ramstein for the U.S.

Naval Air Station Sigonella, Italy, and Naval Station Rota, Spain, are beginning to take in personnel, with other locations across the continent preparing for possible arrivals. This includes Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, and small Army posts in Germany and Kosovo, Wolters said.

Other USAF bases are sending personnel to help with the operations. For example, Airmen with the 48th Medical Group and security forces with the 501st Combat Support Wing at RAF Mildenhall, England, deployed to Ramstein to help. Aerial porters with the 728th Air Mobility Squadron at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey, deployed to Southwest Asia to help run port operations.

Wolters said the arriving evacuees are screened for COVID-19 and are beginning to be offered vaccinations when they arrive at Washington-Dulles International Airport. There are preliminary discussions to offer vaccines at the European bases.

The evacuees are also screened for security reasons, by both the U.S. military and the Department of Homeland Security. So far, 52 people have required additional screening and were then cleared.

Wolters said he expects the pace of arriving refugees at these bases to remain high as the evacuation continues.

“I believe the flow that we are going to embrace in the next 24 to 48 hours will be the flow that we can expect to see for the next several days,” Wolters said. “So, we are building to what I would say is a plateau that we are very, very close to getting to. And my sense is, obviously, as far as the machine is concerned, from what we get from the Middle East to here in Europe, we’re ready, willing, and able to accommodate that flow.”

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a separate Aug. 25 briefing, said his department estimates there were as many as 6,000 American citizens in Afghanistan who wanted to leave. Within the past 10 days, about 4,500 of them have left.

“For the remaining roughly 1,000 contacts we’ve had, who may be Americans seeking to leave Afghanistan, we’re aggressively reaching out to them, multiple times per day, through multiple channels of communication—phone, email, text messaging—to determine whether they still want to leave and get the most up-to-date information and instruction to them … on how to do so,” Blinken said. “Some may no longer be in the country, some may have claimed to be Americans but turn out not to be, some may choose to stay. We’ll continue to try to identify the status and plans of these people in the coming days.”

As the security situation in Kabul continues to deteriorate, U.S. commanders have directed additional missions outside the wire of HKIA to bring in people. This included a helicopter flight late Aug. 24 into Kabul to pick up “less than 20” individuals and fly them to the airport, Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said.

Retired Lt. Gen. Robert Springer, Air Force Memorial Foundation Director, Dies

Aug. 25, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Retired Lt. Gen. Robert D. Springer, former vice commander of Military Airlift Command and a driving force in the creation of the United States Air Force Memorial, died Aug. 19 at the age of 88.

Springer entered the Air Force in 1952. He earned navigator wings and served in B-29s before becoming a pilot in 1958, assigned initially to KC-97 tankers. He later switched to C-130s and served in Southeast Asia from 1965-1966, both as an intelligence officer and pilot. There he flew 72 combat missions, earning the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Bronze Star, among many other decorations.

Among his staff assignments and field commands in tactical airlift, he headed the Air Force Manpower and Personnel Center, commanded 21st Air Force at McGuire Air Force Base, N.J., served as Air Force Inspector General, and in his last post was vice commander of MAC. He received both a bachelor’s and master’s degree from George Washington University, in social science and international affairs, respectively. Springer retired in 1988.

After his retirement, Springer served as president of NovaLogic Systems from 1999-2007 and president of Bsone, Inc. from 1999 to 2013. He and his wife Bonnie Springer also worked closely with the Arnold Air Society, the ROTC-oriented branch of the Air Force Association, and Angel Flight (now Silver Wings), a sister organization focused on community service and aerospace education. He was also highly active in AFA, as president of the Aerospace Education Foundation from 1992-1994, and was a senior vice president of the Airlift/Tanker Association from 1989-1994.

In 1992, Springer was tapped by the AFA to serve as the first executive director of the Air Force Memorial Foundation, seeing the project through its origins and change of location and design to its present site and configuration. Springer recruited corporate leaders to lend their expertise, influence, and fundraising skills to the campaign, and formed alliances to pursue the project with other USAF-oriented organizations, such as the Air Force Sergeants Association.

“Bob led us through the Legislation, Capital Planning Commission, the Commission of Fine Arts, and a multitude of challenges confronting our mission,” said Thomas McKee, former chairman of the Board of AFA. The task was daunting, he said, because a legislative time limit allowed only seven years to raise funds and get construction underway.

The initial site of the memorial, near the Marine Corps Iwo Jima monument in Arlington, Va., was challenged by various local groups and the Marine Corps itself. Although the Foundation consistently won legal challenges to the planned location, Springer helped broker a deal in 2001 to secure a new and superior site overlooking the Pentagon, which drove a new design for the Memorial.

Springer worked with the Pei Cobb Freed architecture firm, and James Ingo Freed, who re-designed the Memorial for its new situation.

“The ‘Spires’ were immediately recognized as outstanding, and the right design for the right location,” McKee said. Springer helped AFA choose his successor, and was an honored guest at the Oct. 14, 2006 dedication of the memorial presided over by President George W. Bush; coincidentally, the 54th anniversary of Springer’s enlistment as an Airman Basic. He later served on the Air Force Memorial advisory committee as its chairman.

“Bob Springer literally got the Air Force Memorial off the ground, and soaring into the Washington, D.C. skyline,” said AFA President, retired Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright. “The memorial reminds us of the selfless courage and commitment of our Airmen, Guardians, and their families, and Bob’s commitment and devotion was essential in making this iconic landmark a reality.”

Austin Mandates COVID-19 Vaccine, Directs Secretaries to Set ‘Ambitious Timelines’

Aug. 25, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III officially mandated the COVID-19 vaccine for the military, sending a memo announcing the news Aug. 24, a day after the Food and Drug Administration granted full approval to the Pfizer-BioNTech version of the shot.

However, Austin’s memo does not establish a deadline by which service members will have to be fully vaccinated, instead leaving it to the Secretaries of the military departments to set “ambitious timelines for implementation.”

Air Force Magazine has reached out to the Department of the Air Force seeking clarification on its timeline. In a statement released on social media, newly installed Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the department is “in lockstep” with Austin’s order.

“This is about protecting our Airmen, Guardians, and the people they love from this deadly disease, and keeping ourselves and our teammates ready to defend the Nation,” Kendall added.

Secretary Kendall's message following @SecDef Austin's announcement about mandatory COVID-19 vaccinations for military members. ⬇️@USAirForce @SpaceForceDoD https://t.co/0WLzUN1qk3 pic.twitter.com/ymkpXBSRmJ
— Office of the Secretary of the Air Force (@SecAFOfficial) August 25, 2021

Austin’s formal announcement was widely expected after the FDA’s approval came down Aug. 23. Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said at the time that DOD was “prepared to issue updated guidance, requiring all service members to be vaccinated.”

Austin had already said Aug. 9 that he would either make the vaccine mandatory when it received FDA approval or seek a waiver from President Joe Biden on Sept. 15 if it was still under Emergency Use Authorization, whichever came first.

The Pfizer-BioNTech shot is currently the only vaccine to receive full FDA approval, while other vaccines made by Moderna and Johnson & Johnson are currently under Emergency Use Authorization (EUA). In his Aug. 24 memo, Austin wrote that only fully approved vaccines will be mandatory. Service members who have already received other vaccines with EUA approval will be considered fully vaccinated, as will those who receive those vaccines moving forward.

Austin’s pronouncement will affect “all members of the Armed Forces under DOD authority on Active duty or in the Ready Reserve, including the National Guard,” who are unvaccinated, a figure that likely stands at hundreds of thousands of troops.

The most recent Defense Department data from Aug. 18 show that more than 1.07 million active service members are already fully vaccinated, with nearly 250,000 more at least partially vaccinated. Those figures include all Active duty, Reserve, and National Guard components, putting the total percentage of the force that has been at least partially vaccinated in the range of 62 percent.

The percentage of Active duty troops who are vaccinated is higher. Kirby said Aug. 25 that 68 percent of Active duty troops are fully vaccinated, with 76 percent at least partially vaccinated.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass took to Facebook after the Aug. 25 announcement to once more urge Airmen to get vaccinated.

“At the end of the day, the COVID-19 vaccination mandate comes down to readiness,” Bass wrote. “We are an all-volunteer force that has to be ready to fly, fight, and win … AirPower anytime, anywhere.”

Bass also pointed out that the military already mandates vaccinations for a host of other diseases—at minimum nine and up to 17 based on the service member’s role and location.

Biden: Withdrawal On Pace to Finish by Aug. 31, But DOD Drawing Up Plans if Extension Needed

Aug. 24, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

With a rapidly approaching deadline to withdraw all U.S. troops from Afghanistan, President Joe Biden said the evacuation mission is on pace to finish by Aug. 31, though he has asked the Pentagon for contingency plans should that change.

U.S. and coalition efforts have evacuated approximately 70,700 people in 10 days as the Taliban has taken Kabul, with another 5,000 evacuated in the weeks prior to Aug. 14. There’s untold thousands more U.S. citizens, Afghan special immigrant visa applicants, and other vulnerable people awaiting a plane to leave.

Biden said the “sooner we can finish, the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops.”

In just a 12-hour span, 19 U.S. military flights, including 18 C-17s and one C-130, flew out 6,400 evacuees. Earlier in the day, a Pentagon briefing outlined another 24-hour span, ending early Aug. 24, during which U.S. Air Force airlifters had dramatically increased their operations, again. In that timespan, 32 C-17s and five C-130s departed Kabul with 12,700 evacuees—well more than the 5,000-9,000 pace the Pentagon had predicted days before. Including charter flights and others, more than 21,000 people departed Kabul during that time period.

The bulk of the evacuees have been Afghans. The Pentagon said in a statement that approximately 4,000 U.S. passport holders and their families have been evacuated since the effort began. The State Department is expected to provide an update Aug. 25 with more detail on the number of Americans remaining.

Maj. Gen. William D. “Hank” Taylor, the Joint Staff’s deputy director for regional operations, said aircraft are departing the airport at a pace of one every 45 minutes, bringing people “out of harm’s way, … and on their journey to a better life.”

“We continue to make progress every day in getting Americans, as well as [special immigrant visa] applicants and vulnerable Afghans out, … and the vast, vast majority of these individuals are Afghans,” Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said in a briefing. “We are remaining committed to getting any and all Americans, that want to leave, to get them out.”

U.S. forces will need to pack up to leave in the days running up to the deadline, which would slow down and eventually halt evacuation operations. The Pentagon said Aug. 24 “several hundred” troops left Afghanistan. These included headquarters staff, maintenance, and “other enabling functions that were scheduled to leave and whose mission at the airport was complete. Their departure represents prudent and efficient force management. It will have no impact on the mission at hand.”

The Taliban said Aug. 24 it would pressure Afghans to not travel to the airport, in an effort to prevent educated and skilled people from leaving the country as the group tries to build its government, Al Jazeera reported.

Outside of Afghanistan, airlifts also continued, with private Civil Reserve Air Fleet aircraft taking passengers from interim staging bases such as Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, to follow-on facilities and ultimately to the United States. The sheer amount of people at these bases, especially in Qatar, has caused sanitation and other humanitarian problems.

“We’ll be the first to admit that there were conditions at Al Udeid [that] could have been better,” Kirby said. “They are improving now. I’m not going to stand up here and tell you that they’re perfect because they’re not. Because evacuees continue to flow into Qatar and there’s a lot on the ground right now.”

Within the same 24-hour period, four flights landed at Washington-Dulles International Airport with more than 1,000 passengers, who will go on to the four military bases identified to serve as temporary homes for the evacuees.

‘Space Junk’ is Greatest Shared Threat to Space Force and NASA, Says Administrator

Aug. 24, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Colorado Springs, Colo.—Low-earth orbit is too crowded, and not only with satellites from around the world, but also with debris created by “irresponsible” spacefaring nations, NASA administrator Ben Nelson said when describing the civilian agency’s greatest shared threat with the Space Force.

“Space is a big place, but the biggest risk to all of our satellites right now is the space junk,” Nelson said at the Space Symposium in Colorado Springs, Colo.

“We’ve had irresponsible folks that have launched and blown up assets and there are thousands of pieces of space junk that are flying around at 17,500 miles an hour,” he said referring to a 2007 Chinese anti-satellite test of a ground-based missile. “They’re in that altitude range where our space station is, indeed where the Chinese space station is as well.”

Nelson declined to respond specifically to the threat that may now exist when military payloads share space with commercial and satellite payloads. He instead focused on areas of cooperation between the civilian and military space organizations.

“There are many things that we do together,” he said, describing deconfliction of launches at the newly renamed Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., where both commercial and military launches occur. “There’s a lot that the Space Force and NASA do to work together, all with the common goal of having [uninhibited] exploration of space.”

“Often, the Space Force, for launching defense payloads are using rockets that were developed for NASA,” he said, referring to the high demand for monthly Atlas V launches.

Bradley Cheetham, CEO of commercial venture Advanced Space, a small business highlighted by Nelson, told Air Force Magazine that sometimes Space Force and NASA are at the same table when he is discussing new capabilities.

“What we can do to help a commercial company optimize a constellation of low Earth orbit satellites for communications, that same capability can help the national security mission figure out how to deploy sensors for different coverages they want,” he said.

Cheetham said the NASA Capstone mission to test a planned lunar orbiter will provide valuable cislunar information for the Defense Department.

“That is the high ground of space, right?” he said. “So, when you’re above geo[stationary orbit], everything that is a traditional orbit that we use is below you.”

Advanced Space has information sharing agreements with Space Force, and he has thus far noticed fluid coordination among civilian and military space.

As for where the Space Force-NASA relationship will go in the coming years, Nelson said it’s anybody’s guess.

“The Space Force is evolving,” he said. “So just give it some time and see how it evolves.”