AMC Green Lights KC-46 to Refuel F-15s, F-16s; 62 Percent of Receivers Now Cleared

Oct. 15, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Air Force F-15s and F-16s are now cleared to refuel from new KC-46A tankers using the air-to-air refueling boom, the head of Air Mobility Command, Gen. Mike Minihan, directed Oct. 15. The move means 62 percent of aircraft that “request air refueling support” from U.S. Transportation Command can now be accommodated using the Pegasus tanker, AMC said.

The order is the third “interim capability release” since July clearing aircraft to refuel from the KC-46, which is operationally restricted due to boom operator display problems. The Air Force had been using the aircraft in a transport role before Air Mobility Command issued recent ICRs approving tanking operations for some airplanes.

The first ICR was issued in July and approved the use of the KC-46’s centerline “hose and drogue” apparatus to refuel Navy, Marine Corps, and allied aircraft that use that system. In the hose and drogue method, the receiving aircraft flies a probe into a basket at the end of a fuel hose deployed from the tanker, and the receiving aircraft does all the maneuvering to make the connection.

The second ICR came in August, when then-AMC commander (now TRANSCOM commander) Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost approved several “heavies”—the C-17 airlifter, the B-52 bomber, and the KC-46 itself—to refuel behind the KC-46, using the aircraft’s flying boom system. With the boom method, an operator onboard the tanker flies a hard, telescoping refueling pipe into a receptacle on the receiving aircraft. On the KC-46, the operator is stationed just behind the cockpit and uses a 3-D video display to conduct the refueling. Those displays suffer from latency and blind spots in certain conditions, causing contractor Boeing and the Air Force to restrict the boom’s use.

The latest ICR clears “all variants” of the F-15 and F-16 to tank up from the KC-46, AMC said. The move “allows the Pegasus aircraft to accept operational taskings which would otherwise be filled by the KC-135 Stratotanker and KC-10 Extender, increasing the force’s refueling capacity,” the command said in a press release.

The Air Force is still gauging whether refueling the F-22 and F-35 fighters and the B-2 bomber from the Pegasus is safe. The KC-46 has previously scratched the sensitive treatments on stealth aircraft in testing, potentially compromising their low observability.

“There is no timeline associated with the overall ICR plan,” AMC said in its statement. Rather, aircraft are being cleared to refuel from the KC-46 when it’s deemed safe to do so.

The ICR plan “focuses on establishing incremental confidence measures” that allow the AMC commander “and other senior leaders” to “quantitatively and qualitatively” assess the aircraft’s “achievements at ICR milestones.” Crews flying the KC-46 will continue to “fly training, exercise and demonstration missions until all operational confidence measures are met,” AMC said.

Van Ovost Takes Command of TRANSCOM, Pledging to ‘Underpin Lethality’

Oct. 15, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost assumed command of U.S. Transportation Command during a ceremony at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., on Oct. 15, becoming just the second woman to lead a combatant command.

Taking over for Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons, Van Ovost will lead TRANSCOM as it comes off a string of high-profile logistical challenges.

“You had to keep the American military moving during a historic pandemic, and you delivered,” Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III told the troops of TRANSCOM during the Oct. 15 ceremony. “You had to execute a complex retrograde in Somalia, and you delivered. And you had to conduct the largest noncombatant evacuation airlift in American history in Afghanistan, and you delivered.”

Van Ovost played a key role in these challenges, especially the Afghanistan evacuation, as head of Air Mobility Command, and she has spent much of her career dealing with logistics, previously leading an air refueling squadron, a flying training wing, and the Presidential Airlift Wing.

Those experiences, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said, make her uniquely qualified to lead the more than 122,000 Active-duty, National Guard, Reserve, and civilian personnel who are part of TRANSCOM.

“The sky is the limit with Jackie Van Ovost,” Milley said. “She will take TRANSCOM into the future. She will take you to your next rendezvous with destiny, as we say in the Army.”

Both Austin and Milley emphasized the importance of TRANSCOM to the U.S. in a new phase of strategic competition with peer adversaries such as China and Russia.

“Our overmatch capability will continue to rely on the logistical prowess and the ability to project power by TRANSCOM at great distances,” Milley said.

“Logistics remain at the core of our warfighting concept and our ability to project and sustain combat power,” added Austin. “That’s why this command is central to our operations in the 21st century and to our vision of truly integrated deterrence.”

Van Ovost noted that TRANSCOM’s mission is expansive and not always confined to combat operations.

“We understand our mission is critical for national defense to meet our national security objectives. I also know our role is not always to provide combat power, because we deliver hope on behalf of the American people,” Van Ovost said. “I’ve seen our values reflected in the kindness and compassion demonstrated by our teammates executing humanitarian operations around the globe and right here at home.”

At the same time, she said, as the U.S. shifts from wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to competition with countries such as China, the command’s military demands will change.

“Know that TRANSCOM’s No. 1 priority remains constant: Warfighting readiness is the surest way to prevent war. We expect that our freedom to maneuver will be challenged; our logistics lines will be contested at every level. But together with our coalition partners and our commercial teammates, we will flatten the globe and underpin the lethality of our nation’s military arm,” Van Ovost said.

To meet these new challenges, the military needs “every Jackie Van Ovost that we can get,” Austin said, pointing to her trailblazing career as a test pilot who has flown more than 30 kinds of aircraft for the Air Force.

“Gen. Van Ovost, in the 21st century, careers like yours are a fighting imperative,” Austin said. “And as she likes to say, as young women looking up, it’s hard to be what you cannot see. So Gen. Van Ovost knows the importance of breaking barriers, of getting results in bringing teams together. And she’s used to challenges that have never been tackled before.”

Van Ovost is currently the only female four-star general in the Defense Department and just the fourth in Air Force history. She and Gen. Lori J. Robinson are now the only women to lead a unified combatant command—Robinson headed U.S. Northern Command and NORAD from 2016 to 2018.

Their small club will expand in the coming weeks, though—Army Lt. Gen. Laura J. Richardson is set to receive her fourth star and take command of U.S. Southern Command in a ceremony Oct. 29.

C-17 Pilot is Biden’s Nominee for USAF Installations Czar

Oct. 14, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Biden Administration plans to nominate Ravi Chaudhary, a former Air Force C-17 pilot and member of the Senior Executive Service with the Federal Aviation Administration, as assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, environment, and energy.

The White House announced President Joe Biden’s intent to nominate Chaudhary on Oct. 14.

Self-employed since August 2020, according to his LinkedIn profile, Chaudhary previously served at the Federal Aviation Administration. In his last post, he was director of advanced programs and innovation in the FAA’s Office of Commercial Space Transportation, where he presided over the nascent private launch industry.

He was previously the FAA’s executive director of regions and center operations, where he oversaw safety operations, emergency preparedness, and facilities management. In that position, he was required to coordinate with the Air Force as he oversaw development of the “NextGen” FAA air traffic control system, short for Next Generation Air Transportation System. NextGen has moved ahead in fits and starts as the FAA struggled to stay ahead of new technologies.

Chaudhary served a 22-year career in the Air Force, according to his White House bio, during much of which he was a C-17 pilot. He also worked as a uniformed engineer with the Space and Missile Systems Center, where he was a specialist on Delta II launch vehicle avionics. In his last USAF assignment, he was chief of strategy and integration, and prior to that, was a speechwriter for Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz. He served as a member of the Obama administration’s President’s Advisory Commission on Asian Americans.

An Air Force Academy graduate, Chaudhary holds a doctorate in executive leadership and innovation from Georgetown University.

If confirmed, Chaudhary would succeed John Henderson in the assistant secretary role. Henderson left the position in January with the change of administrations, but his tenure focused on several issues likely to be front and center for his successor.

These include recovery from natural disasters at Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., and Offutt Air Force Base, Neb.; improving base resilience to natural disasters; “off-the-grid” base power generation; improved housing for Airmen; and resolving USAF’s $33 billion backlog of real property maintenance.

Chaudhary would also become the point person for the Department of the Air Force’s re-look at the selection of Alabama as the new headquarters for U.S. Space Command, which has been challenged by members of Congress from Colorado and other states.

Contractor Employees Who Object to Vaccines May Not Get Much Backup

Oct. 14, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

As the military’s COVID-19 vaccination deadlines close in, federal contractors are also demanding employees get vaccinated, driven by President Biden’s Sept. 9 executive order.

Boeing confirmed Oct. 14 that its U.S. employees must be vaccinated by Dec. 8. “To ensure compliance with President Biden’s executive order for federal contractors, Boeing is requiring its U.S-based employees to either show proof of vaccination or have an approved reasonable accommodation (based on a disability or sincerely held religious belief) by Dec. 8,” the company said in a statement. “Boeing will continue to carefully monitor guidance from public health agencies, and requirements from federal, state and local governments to inform our COVID-19 policies. We continue to prioritize the health and safety of all our employees.”

L3Harris and Honeywell reportedly have announced Dec. 8 deadlines as well, and Lockheed Martin says on its website that it is “following a U.S. federal government requirement for all federal contractors and subcontractors with a covered contract to observe COVID-19 safety practices … and become fully vaccinated.”

The orders are setting up potential challenges and conflicts as unions, individuals, state governors, and the courts take up challenges. The Biden administration maintains that the order is within the president’s powers and that federal authority supersedes state regulators with regard to federal contractors.

In defiance of local and state measures prohibiting vaccine mandates, such as in Texas, the Pentagon argued in a statement Thursday that federal law supersedes those rules, according to Defense One.

About 63 percent of working-age Americans were vaccinated as of Oct. 7, according to the White House. Assuming those working for federal contractors are roughly consistent with that trend, that suggests thousands if not tens of thousands of unvaccinated employees stand to lose their jobs if they choose to remain unvaccinated or they fail to get a waiver. Yet what it will take to get a waiver is also unclear, as is who gets to determine what constitutes a “sincerely held religious belief” or who gets to decide which appeals have merit.

Based on “a rapid rise in cases and hospitalizations,” Biden issued executive orders Sept. 9 mandating that federal employees get vaccinated by Dec. 8 and requiring contractors and subcontractors to comply with the same guidance issued by the Safer Federal Workforce Task Force.

Some employees have already begun to object. Protesters rallied against the federal mandates in Florida on Oct. 11, including a Northrop Grumman structural aircraft mechanic who told Florida Today she and coworkers were “backed into a corner.”

The Archbishop of the Catholic Archdiocese of the Military said in a statement that a broad definition of conscientious objection should apply, but others have been less supportive. The American Civil Liberties Union, which often sides with individuals against institutions, supports the government mandate, as does the libertarian CATO Institute, which cautiously acknowledges “a health emergency, which means that suitably modified, narrowly-tailored, time-limited rules may be justified.”

Bomber Task Force Refuels With Airmen-Designed Kit Fit for ACE

Oct. 14, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Master Sgt. Jason Yunker literally scribbled his hot-pit refueling idea on the back of a bar napkin. As of Oct. 11, it became part of the Air Force’s new operational concept of agile combat employment while promising to save his command more than $1 million a year.

At Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, the Airmen-invented Versatile Integrated Partner Equipment Refueling kit, or VIPER, refueled a B-1 bomber for the first time following a Bomber Task Force Mission-Europe operation in the Baltic region.

“It’s making waves—it’s doing great things,” U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa spokesperson 1st Lt. Charis Bryan told Air Force Magazine on Oct. 14.

The Air Force has typically sent refueling trucks to air bases at a cost of $80,000 each by air or $14,000 each over land in Europe, with wait times between three and 10 days. As a non-hazardous material unit, the VIPER kit can empty of fuel in 10 minutes and weighs a sixth of a refueling truck.

The VIPER kit is projected to save USAFE-AFAFRICA nearly $1.3 million annually in fuel truck-shipping costs alone.

The kit uses host nation refueling equipment to refuel any U.S. Air Force aircraft, anywhere in the world, functioning as a universal fuel adapter. It also helps the Air Force implement its Agile Combat Employment concept, which seeks to rely less on large, traditional air bases.

“The big difference is that it can basically adapt to different types of aircraft,” said Bryan from Ramstein Air Force Base following the first bomber refueling. The VIPER had already refueled an F-16.

Yunker and fellow 52nd Fighter Wing, 52nd Logistics Readiness Squadron member Master Sgt. Tim Peters designed the VIPER kit from pre-existing Air Force materials and competed at AFWERX’s 2021 Spark Tank finals during the Air Force Association’s virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium in February.

The innovation, Yunker said at the time, mimics how pitstops quickly service race cars. He said the idea came to him while deployed on a bomber mission in the summer of 2020, when two fuel trucks had to be shipped for one 10-minute bomber refueling.

“That’s when we realized we have to find a better way,” he told a panel of nine celebrity judges that included acting Secretary of the Air Force John P. Roth, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond.

While the innovation did not win the overall $2 million Spark Tank prize, it was the viewer’s choice, and as a top-five finalist, the team received $1.2 million to complete the project.

“The innovation is hopefully going to change the standard for how we do our jobs,” Yunker said in an Oct. 14 Air Force press release.

Yunker underscored how the mobile refueling sled can be used at any NATO-interoperable location or civilian airport, making it employable for hot-pit refueling—one in which engines remain on—at austere locations in the European or Indo-Pacific theaters.

There are currently two fully functional VIPER hot-pit refueling systems. By the end of 2021, USAFE is expected to distribute more than 20 additional VIPER kits to various locations throughout Europe and the Pacific.

“One of the beauties of it is that the crew can actually stay inside the aircraft, meaning that it’s that much faster,” Bryan said.

“Everything is moving as fast as possible, and you’re building up that agility aspect of it—of getting on the ground, refueling, getting back up in the sky,” she added.

When VIPER won fan favorite at the AFWERX Spark Tank competition in February, Yunker recalled the moment he first shared his bar napkin design: “I was like, ‘Hey, is this a good idea?’ And somebody was like, ‘I think so.’ And then, we just went with it.”

Bidder Maxar is Protesting SDA’s Request for 126 SmallSats

Oct. 14, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

On the same day industry proposals were due for a batch of 126 small satellites for the Space Development Agency, one of the contenders filed a protest with the Government Accountability Office.

Maxar Technologies, which provides satellite imagery and builds spacecraft, filed its protest Oct. 8 with the GAO. Offers were due the same day under the request for proposals issued by the SDA for what it calls the Transport Layer Tranche 1.

The GAO will have to issue a report on the protest within 30 days and a decision within 100 days—Jan. 18, 2022.

“Maxar is proud to be able to offer its commercially leading space capabilities to the Space Development Agency’s (SDA) Transport Layer T1TL Request for Proposal,” a Maxar spokesperson said in a statement in response to queries by Air Force Magazine. “Maxar wants to ensure that the government is following its own rules in connection with the procurement and is confident that the SDA is committed to complying with the [federal acquisition regulations].”

SDA characterized protests as “not uncommon”:

“SDA is working with the GAO to achieve fast, accurate and equitable resolution to the protest received on the agency’s Tranche 1 Transport Layer solicitation,” an SDA spokesperson told Air Force Magazine. “SDA is committed to full and open competition and the agency understands protests are a potential and not uncommon part of that process.”

Maxar has won contracts in the past from the Air Force, the Army, U.S. Special Operations Command, and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, among others, to provide satellite imagery, develop AI-based algorithms, and analyze geospatial data.

However, it has less experience in Defense Department contracts for hardware. In 2018, NASA selected the company’s Space Systems Loral unit as one of three prequalified candidates to compete for a contract called Small Spacecraft Prototyping Engineering Development and Integration—Space Solutions, which was intended to help the Pentagon’s Space Rapid Capabilities Office procure commercially-developed small satellites. The company did not announce any further DOD contracts.

Transport Layer Tranche 1 is intended to be one part of a large constellation of Defense Department satellites that officials say will provide missile warning, communications, data coverage and sharing, and other capabilities for the Pentagon. It’s envisioned with multiple layers and multiple tranches, or batches of satellites, per layer that frequently get updated or replaced with newer tranches. All told, SDA has said the constellation could comprise anywhere from 300 to more than 500 small satellites.

The request for proposals called for up to 126 satellites, divided between six orbital planes split between multiple vendors. Each bidder was instructed to develop two of the orbital planes, along with 42 satellites.

SDA had set a timeline of late 2024 for launching Tranche 1 and is still evaluating how Maxar’s protest may affect that timeline. Tranche 0—a collection of 28 satellites that will provide ballistic missile warning and data sharing capabilities—is expected to launch by March 31, 2023.

At a recent virtual forum hosted by Politico, SDA Director Derek M. Tournear said the agency’s goal is to roll out new capabilities, including new tranches, every two years.

“That is essentially as fast as industry can produce those components,” Tournear said.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond have both said the new constellation will provide more resiliency, spreading capabilities out to ensure adversaries cannot disrupt data flow by taking out one or two satellites.

Indeed, SDA said the tracking constellation, when complete, will provide “assured, resilient military data and conductivity” over 95 percent of Earth with at least two satellites at any given time, as well as one satellite covering 99 percent of locations on Earth.

Why the Army Clings to Its Space Troops: ‘Translating Geek to Grunt’

Oct. 13, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

FORT CARSON, Colo.—On Jan. 8, 2020, Iran launched theater ballistic missiles at Al Asad Air Base where American troops were stationed in Iraq. The retaliatory strike was in revenge for the killing of Iranian Revolutionary Guard Quds Force leader Qassem Soleimani days earlier. Hundreds of U.S. Soldiers could have been killed by the barrage of 14 rockets.

The 20th Theater Missile Warning Company, part of the Army’s 1st Space Brigade, was in Qatar receiving direct downlink data from a Space Force constellation at the time of the launch.

“We had a specialist that was an E-4, sitting on crew chief that night” in U.S. Central Command, Col. Donald K. Brooks, 1st Space Brigade commander, told Air Force Magazine during a visit to Fort Carson.

In near-real time, the Army space specialist analyzed Overhead Persistent Infrared/Space-Based Infrared System (OPIR/SBIRS) satellite warning data such as point of origin, point of impact, and missile type for the incoming theater ballistic missiles.

The specialist alerted coalition commands at CENTCOM and the 1st Space Brigade detachment commander at Al Asad, who ordered his 30-person element into bunkers.

“Well before those theater ballistic missiles were warhead events on Al Asad base, we had Soldiers sitting in bunkers,” the commander said. “That’s where we work at the tactical, operational level, [employing] strategic capabilities that the Space Force” provides.

The Army says it needs that tactical and operational capability for its forward Soldiers to maneuver in theater and to conduct defensive and offensive operations in and through space.

The Iran incident proved that Army Space is capable of quickly integrating with the Space Force to protect American service members and interests globally. “Army Space” is how the Army colloquially refers to its space functions such as missile defense, space control, and space support.

“As Space and Missile Defense Command’s operational arm, we really do bring space to the warfighter,” Brooks said.

OPIR satellites orbiting in the geosynchronous belt feed direct downlink data to 1st Space Brigade tactical ground stations in places such as Italy, Qatar, Korea, and Japan.

The Army will retain its FA-40 specialists and its GPS maneuvering and space missile defense capabilities, the Department of Defense has determined, rather than fold them into the Space Force.

“Those things that are strategic in nature, that operate in, through the actual space domain itself, I think that’s where it lends credence to go over to the Space Force,” said Brooks, sitting at a table with the 1st Space Brigade’s emblem—an Eagle perched, with wings spread, atop a globe—draped behind him. “If it has roles and responsibilities at the tactical and operational level, I think it could be retained and should be retained.”

The Army’s Case for Space

The 1st Space Brigade is dispersed across 16 locations in 10 countries, including 160 Soldiers in CENTCOM, 140 in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and 150 in U.S. European Command. Under the brigade are four missile warning companies and five missile defense batteries, all spread among the INDOPACOM, CENTCOM, and EUCOM theaters, plus several units based at Fort Carson.

“To integrate space, you have to be physically present with those other combatant commands,” Brooks said. “Having that presence forward allows us to integrate space not only within the combatant commands, but really at the Army service component command.”

In the Indo-Pacific, for example, the Army uses space for long-range fires, communication, and missile defense. To maneuver on the ground, the Army uses precision navigation and timing, and imagery. In space control, it has offensive and defensive space capabilities to jam adversary communications and prevent jamming of its own communications.

“Maintaining Army Space is critical to how we fight those large-scale combat operations in the future,” Brooks said.

“We all know the Russian and Chinese strategy with A2AD [anti-access/area denial], and they want to take away our eyes, they want to take away our ears, and they want to take away your ability to speak,” Brooks said. “The Army Space enterprise at the tactical, operational level, that will help those ground force commanders fight through that environment.”

Brooks said space is analogous to helicopters in close air support.

“We aim to achieve close space support the same way we do close air support for those ground maneuver formations,” he said.

Removing space assets or capabilities from the Army and giving them to the Space Force, Brooks argued, would harm the Army’s ability to defend itself and attack efficiently.

“I can have that [capability] in a direct downlink, forward postured, forward deployed in an austere environment or non-permissive environment, sitting right in the hip pocket of a ground force commander that is trying to work timing and tempo to maintain the initiative against an adversary in a close fight,” he said. “That’s where close space support is incredibly critical to that fight.”

Brooks made the case that only Army officers and noncommissioned officers in their original branch will understand warfighting at the Army tactical and operational level well enough to bring space to the warfighting functions. He said having those personnel on scene prevents the vulnerabilities inherent in long-distance communications.

“That tyranny of distance presents a huge vulnerability,” he said. Any delay could “prevent a ground force commander from employing fires or effects at the time and place of his or her choosing, and essentially, losing the momentum in a fight.”

Translating ‘Geek to Grunt’

The Army’s FA-40 space operations officer became a functional specialty in 1999 to help provide space capabilities to the Army at the operational and tactical level. Before he became an FA-40, Brooks was an artillery officer and infantry company commander. Other FA-40s have experience in military intelligence, air defense artillery, infantry, and chemicals.

“That’s really what the Army Space officers bring to this enterprise, that foundational knowledge at the tactical and operational level,” he said.

Another FA-40 in the 1st Space Brigade, Sgt. Maj. Kelly Hart, said Soldiers “get the operational, tactical level time away from the space community” first: “It’s the operational, tactical experience that they bring to space that really defines and helps the mission set—that’s what makes this brigade so great.”

Brooks recalled his time at U.S. Special Operations Command, when a career SOF infantry Soldier offered him a compliment that stuck with him throughout his career in Army Space.

“He said, ‘You were the best person I’ve ever seen to be able to translate geek to grunt, and grunt back to geek,’” recalled Brooks, who has a master’s degree in astrodynamics. “We might not refer to ourselves as space geeks or nerds, but we’re really good at translating.”

The Pull of Space Force

Army officers’ interest in becoming FA-40s has not wavered since the standup of the Space Force, Brooks said, nor has he significantly lost talent.

“There’s always concern that you lose talent, whether that’s to another service or to the civilian world,” Brooks said. “I have not seen something that makes me not sleep at night, as far as losing our Soldiers.”

Of his 1,500 Soldiers, including 90 FA-40s among his 195 officers, about 60 applied for transfer to the Space Force recently, but only five were selected to become Space Force Guardians.

Brooks said retaining FA-40s means showing Army Space warfighters how they can make an impact on operations at various warfighting commands. The rising space threats from China and Russia have even prompted more Soldiers to transfer to FA-40.

“The more and more we know about our adversary, it’s really the rallying cry for people to come to space,” Brooks said.

The Army will transfer some space-based units to the Space Force once the fiscal 2022 defense bills become law. Among the transferring units will be the 1st Space Brigade’s 53rd Signal Battalion as well as combined and regional satellite communications support centers across the continental United States, Hawaii, Japan, and Germany.

“I don’t think the Space Force has taken anything from us that we would need in that fight,” he said. “It’s very complementary.”

Space Operations Command chief Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting said the Space Force has a host of sensors on orbit for missile warning, battlefield awareness, and technical intelligence.

“The Army has space forces to enable their land maneuver mission,” he said in response to a question from Air Force Magazine. “It’s important for the Army to retain some space capabilities.“

The Space Force also maintains space electronic warfare capability, working in sync with the Army to provide support to the commander of U.S. Space Command, Gen. James H. Dickinson.

“We don’t see duplication with what the Army is keeping,” Whiting said. “We think that’s an adjunct to their land maneuver mission set.”

Army 1st Space Brigade intelligence and security officer Capt. Derek Siddoway is convinced that unique Army experiences inform Army space specialists.

“Army Space isn’t going away,” he said.

Brooks couldn’t be more pleased. “Most people don’t truly understand that the Army does have space equities,” he said. “We want to focus on keeping space within the Army because it is super critical to what we do at that tactical and operational level. And when we lose that, I think that’s where it’s going to really hurt our formations, and it’s really going to hurt our ability to fight and win in future conflict.”

New Air Force Trainer Jet Program Supports ‘Reforge’ Concept

Oct. 13, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force’s just-announced program to buy a new jet trainer is meant to support the “Reforge” overhaul of the fighter training enterprise put forward by Air Combat Command last year, but the program is in its earliest stage, and no timing for acquiring the airplane has been set, according to ACC.

“The platform desired is one that will meet the Initial Tactical Training platform requirements within the Reforge [concept of operations],” an ACC spokesperson said. Additionally, USAF is considering the option for it to be “an Adversary Air platform and [have] potential for growth/adaptation as a tactical surrogate.”

Air Force officials said a “tactical surrogate” could teach switchology and procedures to F-16 or F-35 pilots, for example, in a new aircraft in which the displays, possibly the controls, and the performance could be modified to simulate those fighters. The ACC spokesperson said the timing of setting a program to acquire the new aircraft will depend in part on the responses received to the request for information published Oct. 12, and no potential in-service date is yet available.

Service officials have suggested the Boeing/Saab T-7A Red Hawk could, like the T-38, fulfill both the advanced undergraduate pilot training as well as lead-in fighter training and aggressor sparring-partner roles, but the Air Force is exploring competition before settling on a particular type.

The service is “not limiting the aperture to any one platform” and is open to “any and all vendors that can meet the desired design,” the ACC spokesperson said.

The team of Lockheed Martin and Korea Aerospace Industries would likely be considered a contender for the program, as they competed strongly for the Air Force’s advanced trainer competition with their jointly developed T-50A. Air Combat Command is also looking at leasing T-50s, or a similar jet, to develop the Reforge concept while the T-7A completes development and ramps up production in a project known as the RFX. A Lockheed Martin spokesperson could not immediately comment on the company’s plans to respond to USAF’s new request for information.

ACC put forward Reforge—short for “Rebuilding the Forge”—last year as the command’s planned overhaul of the fighter pilot training enterprise. It would consolidate some phases of pilot training and shift some instruction, previously done at receiving fighter training units, back to the undergraduate pilot phase. The goal is to accelerate the time needed to “grow” a flight lead—a fighter pilot who is qualified to lead a two-ship formation—by up to 18 months and free up some frontline fighters now held for training back to combat status.

The Reforge concept was suggested in part by the T-7A’s advanced capabilities. The jet will be able to simulate, onboard, many of the visuals and procedures a pilot would experience in a frontline fighter. Air Education and Training Command has said it does not plan to operate the T-7A as it did the T-38, given that it can do more with the T-7A. The Air Force is not yet sure if the 351 T-7As on order will be enough to make Reforge work; it has options for at least 100 more. Neither ACC nor AETC have discussed whether they will develop a similar program for bomber pilots.

The capabilities the Air Force said it’s looking for in the new Advanced Tactical Trainer echo those of the T-7A, although the Boeing airplane does not yet have external hardpoints, which USAF said it wants to be able to carry training rounds, data pods, electronic warfare gear, and extra fuel. The jet does have the simulation and playback capabilities ACC wants, and a ground simulator for the T-7A already exists; it could be modified to support new missions.

The Reforge concept reduces the time needed to mature newly minted pilots in part by eliminating some of the change-of-station transitions they would otherwise have to make, each incurring lengthy out-of-cockpit delays and loss of momentum in training. Drafts of the concept suggested that transitioning from instruction in the T-7A to a fighter-like variant of it would further smooth out those delays and accelerate training, because of the similarity of the aircraft.

The RFI said the Air Force wants at least 100 new jets in the Advanced Tactical Trainer role and may buy further lots of 50 aircraft, up to 200.

Lockheed Martin Delivers Laser Weapon for AC-130J Gunship

Oct. 13, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Lockheed Martin has completed factory acceptance testing and delivered a new laser weapon to the Air Force, the defense contractor announced Oct. 6, with the goal of mounting it on the AC-130J gunship.

“Completion of this milestone is a tremendous accomplishment for our customer,” said Rick Cordaro, vice president for Lockheed Martin Advanced Product Solutions, in a press release. “These mission success milestones are a testament of our partnership with the U.S. Air Force in rapidly achieving important advances in laser weapon system development. Our technology is ready for fielding today.”

The Airborne High Energy Laser (AHEL) has been in development at Lockheed Martin since at least 2019, when the company received a contract for integration, testing, and demonstration of such a weapon on the AC-130J aircraft.

Air Force leaders, however, have been talking about the possibility of a laser weapon onboard the AC-130J Ghostrider for much longer than that.

Back in 2015, then-Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold issued a challenge—to get a high-powered laser onboard the AC-130J by the end of the decade. That timeline was later pushed back to 2022 by Heithold’s successor, Lt. Gen. Marshall B. “Brad” Webb.

What capabilities the AHEL will bring to the AC-130J remain to be seen. Lockheed Martin claims that its spectrally combined fiber laser weapon systems—of which AHEL is one—are “ready to defend against small rockets, artillery shells and mortars, small unmanned aerial vehicles, small attack boats and lightweight ground vehicles that are approximately a mile away,” according to the company’s website, which also features an image of a hole smoldering in the hood of a pickup.

In response to queries from Air Force Magazine, though, a Lockheed Martin spokesperson said “the specific capabilities of the AHEL laser cannot be discussed at this time” and deferred questions to the Naval Surface Warfare Center’s Dahlgren Division, which gave Lockheed Martin a $12 million, five-year contract award in July 2021 for technical services, integration, testing, and demonstration of the AHEL. The Dahlgren Division subsequently deferred comment to Air Force Special Operations Command.

In 2015, Heithold described the laser weapon as primarily for protection from surface-to-air attacks, as modern threats reduced the windows in which the aircraft could operate.

Webb, however, envisioned it as an offensive capability, too, being used to disable enemies’ communications, transportation, and power supply, according to National Defense Magazine.

In its press release, Lockheed Martin said it has delivered the AHEL for integration with other systems before ground testing and “ultimately flight testing aboard the AC-130J aircraft.” The contractor added that it is on a “rapid schedule” to demonstrate the weapon on the AC-130J.

The AC-130J is used for close air support, air interdiction, and armed reconnaissance, and already features 30 mm and 105 mm cannons, precision-guided missiles, and small-diameter bombs.