Austin, Jill Biden Tout New and Improved Benefits for Troops at Maxwell AFB

Sept. 13, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala.—Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III unveiled a series of new actions intended to improve living standards for U.S. troops and their families during a visit here on Sept. 13.

The initiatives include enabling military families to set aside income-tax-free funds for healthcare, get reimbursed for longer stays in temporary quarters during a permanent change of station move, and enhancing benefits for staffs at child development centers on military bases.

Austin and First Lady Jill Biden, who traveled separately to the Alabama base, highlighted the new universal pre-K at Department of Defense schools in the United States. That initiative will enable thousands of additional military children to attend DOD Education Activity (DODEA) schools over the next five years, the Pentagon said. Austin, his wife Charlene, and Biden visited with students at Maxwell’s elementary and middle school, with America’s senior defense official holding a paper dinosaur as toddlers conducted their lessons and later being serenaded with a song about counting frogs.

.@SecDef holds a dinosaur. pic.twitter.com/wUkwEzXdDM
— Chris Gordon (@ByChrisGordon) September 13, 2024

“We push pretty hard to ensure that we’re actually doing things to provide benefit to our troops and families,” Austin told reporters before boarding his C-32 back to Joint Base Andrews, Md. “I think we’ve added real value to our families and to our troops. And we’re not finished.”

The announcements add to Austin’s Taking Care of Our People initiative, which the retired Army general launched soon after returning to the Pentagon as its top civilian.

“Doing right by our all-volunteer joint force and their families is a core readiness issue,” Austin wrote in a memo to senior military leaders. “The department has made enormous progress, but we have more to do.”

The moves, which come amid a challenging period for military recruiting and retention, will be phased in over the next several months.

Beginning in March 2025, service members will be able to establish Health Care Flexible Spending Accounts, allowing them to set aside from their income up to $3,200 in pretax dollars to spend on healthcare costs such as copayments, eyeglasses, dental care, and other health-related expenses not covered by Tricare, such as over-the-counter medications. Many civilian employers offer flexible spending accounts, which require funds to be spent within a set period of time in a use-it-or-lose-it system. The system will work similarly to the way existing Dependent Care Flexible Spending Accounts do.

Changing the rules for Temporary Lodging Expense (TLE) to allow coverage up to 21 days—instead of 14—adds a week to help service members and their families’ complete moves between duty stations. The new rules will take effect “as soon as possible,” according to a DOD fact sheet.

Spouse employment also gets new attention, with expanded eligibility for financial assistance for spouses to pursue associate degrees, licenses, and certificates to enhance their ability to find and keep jobs. Beginning Oct. 1, financial assistance of up to $4,000 for spouses of junior enlisted members will be expanded to include all enlisted spouses.

“We are expanding eligibility for the My Career Advancement Account, which provides financial assistance to our military spouses—we’re expanding that now to the entire enlisted force and warrant officer corps,” a senior defense official said.

The Pentagon has also sought to make it easier for spouses to telework in government positions and has encouraged private-sector employers to do the same.

“This is so incredibly important as an economic driver for our families,” a senior defense official said of spouse employment. “Many of those families in the United States are dual income families.”

Access to childcare is often a hindrance to spouse employment, but the Pentagon said it is making strides in improving childcare availability.

“When it comes to childcare, the one thing I want to say is you cannot talk about economic security and career progression without talking about childcare,” a senior defense official said.

All military departments are now encouraged to follow the Department of the Air Force’s example to improve recruitment at military child development centers. The Air Force covers 100 percent of the cost of keeping a childcare worker’s first child in a CDC, and 25 percent of the second child; Austin wants all services to apply that formula.

“It’s still not a perfect world, so we’re going to continue to work on this because I know it’s important,” Austin told a couple of dozen Airmen gathered in a hanger shortly after arriving at the base.

Out-of-pocket costs are also under review. Austin ordered an examination of uniform items and allowances to ensure that the anticipated wear matches reality. And he’s asked for a study of the impact on service members from being stationed in remote and isolated locations, where healthcare, off-base housing, and quality schools can be hard to find.

Finally, a pilot program will test the feasibility of making free WiFi internet access more widely available to troops.

“The department has made enormous progress, but we have more to do,” Austin wrote of the new efforts. “I have met directly with junior service members and families, with our senior enlisted advisors, and with service leadership to explore further steps to enhance quality of life for our people.”

Airpower En Español: Unique Air Force School Trains Latin American Partners

Sept. 13, 2024 | By David Roza

Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland may be a U.S. Air Force base in south-central Texas, but at the corner of Selfridge Boulevard and Carswell Avenue is an international Spanish-speaking campus hosting students and instructors from across the Western Hemisphere.

The Inter-American Air Forces Academy offers more than 30 courses in aircraft maintenance, cyber and intelligence operations, security forces high-risk response, instrument flying, professional military education, and much more. The goal is to build security cooperation among U.S. partners in Central and South America, especially as the United States’ main rival, China, looks to influence the region.

“We’re a tool of security cooperation in the western hemisphere,” Lt. Col. Maxim Olivine, deputy commandant of IAAFA, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “The intent for IAAFA’s existence is really to bridge the gap between our Spanish-speaking South American partners and the United States.”

IAAFA aims to help students become more proficient at their craft or prepare them for new levels of leadership and responsibility. Some Central or South American partners don’t have that type of training back home, Olivine said, but most students come to Lackland because of the U.S. Air Force’s reputation as the best in the world. The pair of wings IAAFA students receive upon graduation has a cachet similar to that of an Air Force Weapons School patch or a Ranger Tab.

“It’s very prestigious for a lot of the folks who come to us,” he said. “When they go back home, they’re very proud of that.”

Capt. Leonardo Martinez, Colombian Air Force, points to his newly-earned wings from the Inter-American Air Forces Academy following a graduation ceremony Aug 8, 2022, at Joint Base San Antonio – Lackland. (U.S. Air Force photo by Vanessa R. Adame)

Expert Instruction

The students at IAAFA include troops and civilians from a wide range of backgrounds and experience levels. From brand-new national policemen to seasoned jungle commandos, they all can pick something up at IAAFA.

“They might think they can’t learn anything, but they always do,” said Master Sgt. Johann Gonzalez, flight chief for international force protection at IAAFA and a prior instructor at the U.S. Air Force’s Security Forces Weapons and Tactics Instructors Course.

Gonzalez remembered a Colombian sniper who shot perfectly on the range but was a novice when it came to shooting, moving, and communicating during practice field operations.

“He went from shooting 100 percent to maybe about 25 percent, because now we were inducing stress,” the sergeant said. “He’s just like ‘what did you guys do to me, I thought I was good.’”

But by the end of the course, the sniper was back to shooting 100 percent. Technology helps: the IAAFA security forces instructors have a virtual reality system where students practice hostage situations, gate assaults, and any other crisis they might encounter, all without having to buy a single bullet, hire a single role player, or clean up one spent brass.

“I’ve been doing this for 21 years and there’s nothing that compares to being in the field,” Gonzalez said. “However, you start using this technology the right way, you run students through 20, 30 scenarios, and you realize that you get better.”

Virtual reality is just the latest development in IAAFA’s 80 year-history. The academy started in 1943 with just 10 enlisted Peruvian troops and 1 officer taking aviation mechanics courses at a U.S. Army airfield in Panama. Over time, the school relocated and expanded its course catalog to the point where it now graduates about 800 students in a wide range of subjects every year.

Classes at IAAFA last between two and eight weeks, depending on the subject. About two dozen countries participate in the academy, including countries where Spanish is not the official language such as Brazil, Canada, Suriname, Jamaica, and Haiti. Students and instructors from those countries can participate as long as they are fluent in Spanish.

“The scope of the mission just kept growing because it was effective,” Olivine said. “It created that security cooperation, it built those foreign policy relations with other nations.”

A U.S. Airman teaches aircraft maintenance to students from partner nations at the Inter-American Air Forces Academy at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas in 2017. (Screenshot via IAAFA promotional video)

It also helps to have high-quality instructors. On the security forces side, Gonzalez is a Weapons and Tactics Instructor Course instructor and a U.S. Army sniper school graduate. Another instructor, Tech. Sgt. Edwin Nieves, has degrees in education, while a third, Staff Sgt. Edgar Bravo, is a Combat Arms instructor.

Then there are the instructors from partner nations who come to teach at IAAFA: Gonzalez recalled one instructor from the Commando Jungla, Colombia’s anti-narcotic jungle warfare unit.

“He had everything: sniper certified, rappel master, land navigation, troop-leading, everything you would want from a special warfare operator,” Gonzalez said. “He taught us a lot, and we taught him a lot, too. He was like ‘man, you guys taught me some good stuff, I’m sending my guys down there.’”

Instructors work at IAAFA for three or four years, the first six months of which are spent being trained for the job. That’s a significant time commitment in the military, which often promotes leadership experience over teaching experience, but it’s worth it for instructors who feel teaching is their calling.

“These guys, they get done with their four years, everybody asks to extend … because they love what they do,” said Gonzalez.

“We take guys that can’t shoot, and then they shoot,” he added. “We teach combatives: we take guys who’ve never fought in their life, and then by the end they’re throwing people around like it’s MMA.”

Leadership Roles

One of the most important skills taught at IAAFA is empowering troops at all levels to think for themselves so they can respond to situations dynamically.

“I truly believe that what makes us great is not so much our technology and fancy weapons systems: it’s our troops, especially our enlisted troops,” Olivine said.

On the security forces side, Gonzalez likes to swap out leadership roles by putting the low-ranking grunt in charge of a stack of troops breaching a house, for example.

“We put them in leadership roles they might not have been in in their home countries,” he said.

Partner nation students from the 837th Training Squadron at the Inter-American Air Forces Academy (IAAFA) participated in Operation Jaguar, Nov. 30, 2021, at Joint Base San Antonio-Camp Bullis, Texas. (U.S. Air Force photo by Brian G. Rhodes)

Growing that kind of mindset takes time in militaries that don’t have it already, but IAAFA has graduated thousands of students over its 80-year history, and some graduates go on to take top-ranking positions in their home countries. Olivine thinks that kind of steady percolation eventually leads to cultural change.

“Change is hard. It takes time, it takes effort, it takes consistency,” he said. “Over time, you change enough mindsets and you become very effective.”

Students also take a class about understanding human rights, according to the course catalog. IAAFA relies on the U.S. State Department’s Leahy vetting process, where the human rights records of foreign military units or individuals are screened before receiving U.S. funding or training.

“Every country has its dark past, but we rely on that process to prevent that from happening again,” Olivine said. “The risk is always there, but it seems pretty small to me because of the Leahy vetting process.”

Two-Way Street

Learning at IAAFA goes both ways, as IAAFA students share their skills and experience in areas such as jungle warfare, which many U.S. Airmen are unfamiliar with.

“There’s a lot of that back and forth both in the tactical mindset and for professional military education,” Olivine said. “A South American country views the world very differently than the way the U.S. views the world.”

Olivine has been at IAAFA for only about eight months, but he’s already noticed the culture is particularly tight there, thanks in part to group sports events, asadas (a kind of barbecue), field trips around Texas, and more. For example, Gonzalez has both a U.S. flag and a Mexican flag hanging in his office, which he said Mexican students love to see.

“You are who you’re supposed to be, and I’m supposed to be a master sergeant in the United States Air Force,” he said. “But here, IAAFA allows me to be Johann Gonzalez, Master Sergeant, United States Air Force security cooperation.”

Ultimately the purpose of all that bonding and instruction boils down to security cooperation, which pays off when students from different countries who met at IAAFA help each other respond to real-world crises.

“What we’re trying to do, at the end of the day, is to make us one big team,” Olivine said.

Whiteman Picked over Dyess as Second Operational Base for B-21

Sept. 12, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo.—currently the Air Force’s sole B-2 Spirit bomber base—has been designated the second planned Main Operating Base for the new B-21 Raider, Air Force Global Strike Command confirmed.

The news was first announced by Rep. Mark Alford (R-Mo.) and Sen. Eric Schmitt (R-Mo.) on social media.

Whiteman was designated the “preferred” next B-21 base in an environmental impact statement (EIS) published by the Air Force in May, but the official decision was not confirmed until this week.

Whiteman will join Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., as one of the first B-21 operating locations. Ellsworth, designated as the first B-21 base after clearing an environmental impact assessment in 2021, is also intended to be the Formal Training Unit for the new stealth bomber, which entered flight test last fall. Ellsworth, Whiteman, and Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, were announced as the “preferred” beddown locations for the B-21 in 2019. Ellsworth and Dyess currently host the B-1 Lancer bomber.

The announcement means Dyess will almost certainly be designated as the B-21’s third and final Main Operating Base. The Air Force has not given timelines for when the bases will convert from their current aircraft to the B-21.

Whiteman hosts the entire fleet of 19 B-2s. Two others have been lost in crashes, and about 14 are available for action at any given time. The B-1 and B-2 are notionally scheduled to start retiring in 2031 and 2032, as Global Strike Command, which also operates B-52 bombers, has said it will not have the personnel or funding to field all four bomber fleets simultaneously.

The B-52 is receiving a series of upgrades to its engines, radar, and avionics that are expected to extend its service life into the 2050s. The B-52 fleet of 76 airplanes is consolidated at Barksdale Air Force Base, La. and Minot Air Force Base, N.D.

Besides the one aircraft in flight test, the Air Force has acknowledged having five additional B-21s in various levels of production. Northrop Grumman conducts final assembly of the bomber at its Palmdale, Calif. facilities. Recent comments from senior leaders and the Air Force’s fiscal 2025 budget submission suggest the Air Force will buy 100 B-21s at a rate of about seven per year.

Although the Air Force has consistently said the B-21 acquisition objective is “at least 100” of the bombers, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin has suggested the bomber may be overtaken by more advanced technology and that 100 may be the limit.

He told the Senate Armed Services Committee in April that “we’re not going to reach that number [100] until probably the mid-2030s” or beyond, and “before we commit to that as being the platform” that will be the backbone of the future bomber force, “I think there are other technological advancements that we would see to be able to augment that and have a better mix.”

The environmental impact statement the Air Force released in May said that Whiteman would see some minor effects of switching from the B-2 to the B-21.

“There would be an increase of 1,021 individuals at Whiteman AFB from 19,408 to 20,429 after all B-21 mission individuals have arrived and all B-2 mission individuals have departed,” the statement reads. “The number of airfield operations flown per year would increase by 1,980, from 29,771 … to 31,751” by the time all the new aircraft arrived. There would be a need for increased base housing as a result.

“Airfield operations at Whiteman AFB would increase by 6.65 percent from baseline levels,” per the statement. “This minor level of increase would not likely impact airspace use, [Air Traffic Control], or scheduling, therefore no significant impacts are anticipated.”

Whiteman will need “construction of 16 new facilities or facility additions (600,000 square feet), renovation or repair of 26 facilities (1.7 million square feet), and demolition of three facilities (85,000 square feet) … to support the [Main Operating Base 2] mission at Whiteman,” the EIS said.

Thirty-seven percent of on- and nearby off-base residents would be exposed to a higher level of noise—mainly due to an increased number of aircraft—but the highest individual noises would be no greater than what is experienced now, according to the statement.

The EIS said there would be slightly more water runoff due to more concrete, and some wildlife would be displaced by the new construction, particularly of weapon storage facilities. Measures would be taken to mitigate those effects. Overall, the changes at Whiteman were deemed to pose “no significant impacts to wildlife … or critical habitat under the training space.”

As to flight safety, “because the B-21 would be a new aircraft, historical mishap rates are not available; however, current aircraft flight safety policies and procedures are designed to ensure the potential for aircraft mishaps is reduced to the lowest possible level. These safety policies and procedures would continue, and impacts would not be significant.”

The first B-2 arrived at Whiteman in December 1993, on the 100th anniversary of the Wright Brothers’ first powered flight. Only 21 were built; one was lost in a 2008 crash on Guam and another in 2022 at Whiteman.

The Air Force has not disclosed when it plans to declare initial operational capability with the B-21, but the original contract for the aircraft said the program would yield a “usable asset” around the mid-2020s.

B-52 Bombers Fly to and from Poland for Exercise with Six NATO Allies

Sept. 12, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Two B-52 bombers from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., flew to and from Europe in recent days, taking part in a training mission along the way with more than two dozen fighters, tankers, and other assets from six other NATO allies over Poland, aimed at sharpening command and control in a contested environment.

The strategic bombers were joined by aircraft from Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, and the U.K. for an exercise known as F2T2 on Sept. 11. The B-52s returned to Minot on Sept. 12 as part of what U.S. Air Forces in Europe described as a “double transatlantic” trip.

“Our ability to work side-by-side with Allies is a key advantage, sending a message of assurance to our friends while also deterring potential aggressive actions by strategic competitors,” Gen. James Hecker, commander of USAFE, said in a statement.

A U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress from the 5th Bomb Wing, Minot Air Force Base, North Dakota, receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, over the North Sea, Sept. 11, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Jesenia Landaverde

Four Spanish F-18M Hornets joined the exercise, flying in from Mihail Kogalniceanu Air Base in Romania. The base is currently hosting eight Hornets from the Spanish Air Force for NATO’s Air Policing mission, along with more than 150 military personnel as part of its PAZNIC Detachment, which began a four-month rotation last month.

“These kinds of exercises are an incredible opportunity to train and demonstrate Spanish F-18 Hornet capabilities and determination,” Lt. Col. Rafael Ichaso, detachment commander, said in a release. “Almost a six-hour flight with refueling, in coordination with other NATO assets, to deliver our high precision strike capabilities against any possible target is a big and important challenge for the PAZNIC detachment.”

Poland provided ISR assets for the mission, while Germany and the U.K. ensured refueling support along with USAF KC-135 Stratotankers from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, based at Royal Air Force Mildenhall. The Royal Netherlands Air Force’s fifth-generation F-35s, the Danish Air Force’s F-16s, and Germany’s Tornado fighters also participated.

A NATO release noted that the training also included units from air, land, sea, cyber, and space domains, all focused on integrating multidomain effects.

A U.S. Air Force B-52H Stratofortress, assigned to the 23rd Bomb Squadron, passes the air traffic control tower during takeoff for a Bomber Task Force mission at Minot Air Force Base, September 10, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo

“Executing these multidomain exercises ensures NATO assets are ready to respond to any potential threat to the Alliance,” added Hecker, calling the bomber mission “successful.”

This marks the second B-52 appearance in Europe in three months. In July, two B-52s from the 2nd Bomb Wing at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., touched down at Mihail Kogălniceanu for the first time, also marking the bomber’s inaugural flight through Finnish airspace. After crossing Norway and Finland, the bombers were intercepted by two Russian fighters over the Barents Sea. The intercept remained professional—unlike past encounters over the region.

This latest mission in Poland also coincided with a visit by U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to meet with Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Sept. 12. A day earlier, Blinken and U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy were in Ukraine, meeting President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and top officials to discuss continued support for Kyiv’s defense against Russia. Poland has voiced its support for Ukraine’s ongoing calls for the West to approve long-range missile strikes into Russia to counter Moscow’s aerial attacks.

“As the West, we shall continue supplying Ukraine with advanced air defense and antimissiles defense systems,” Sikorski said in a joint press conference. “We shall also lift the ban on using long-range weapons…. and we hope that more intense activities will be taken with regard to seizing frozen Russian assets.”

Blinken, however, declined to commit to doing so.

“What we learned from our Ukrainian partners will inform discussions that we’ll be having with other allies and other partners in the days and weeks ahead, as we work through and think through the coming months,” he said.

Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine ignited a full-scale war on Europe’s eastern edge, NATO members have been ramping up efforts to bolster their militaries and conduct exercises. While the U.S. began bomber task force missions in Europe in 2018, there has been a steady rotation in recent months.

Harnessing the Power of AI on an Enterprise Scale

Sept. 12, 2024

Angela Shefield, Director of AI Programs at SAIC, and retired Air Force Col. John “BigDogg” Rhone, SAIC’s C5ISR Programs Lead, explain how artificial intelligence and machine learning are evolving beyond bespoke applications and how SAIC is helping to enable next-generation AI capabilities for critical problem sets like accelerating kill chains and enhancing command and control.

Senators Urge National Guard Chief Nominee to Stop Cuts at Bases

Sept. 12, 2024 | By Rachel S. Cohen

A bipartisan trio of senators urged the likely next National Guard boss on Sept. 12 to hold off on proposed staff cuts to Air National Guard bases in their states, arguing their missions should shield them from top-down attempts to downsize.

The Air Guard’s proposal to rebalance the number of full-time workers and dual-status technicians at installations across the country would hurt the military’s ability to protect the homeland and meet combat requirements around the globe, Sens. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) argued at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Capitol Hill. The lawmakers criticized the plan as short-sighted and lacking input from other branches of the military as well as U.S. commanders on each continent.

Their complaints secured promises from Air Force Lt. Gen. Steven S. Nordhaus, the nominee to lead the National Guard Bureau, to slow-roll the changes as needed and to consider other options for managing the workforce.

“Communication, transparency, I think, is the hallmark to make sure that we get out to all the stakeholders and understand points of view from each side,” Nordhaus said. “Then we need to communicate that up and back, and make sure that we understand any of the implications.”

The Associated Press reported in April the changes are part of an overarching plan to balance top-earning positions among the National Guard’s 54 state and territorial units by Oct. 1. A spokesperson at National Guard headquarters did not immediately answer Sept. 12 how many jobs are jeopardized in total or why those cuts are under consideration.

In New Hampshire, Pease Air National Guard Base would lose 12 full-time positions, while another 22 jobs would be downgraded from full-time Active Guard Reserve roles to dual-status technician jobs, “resulting in the loss of experienced maintainers and aviators,” Shaheen said. Technician roles pay less and require different duties than AGR jobs, which essentially function as Active-Duty military positions.

“I believe this was a short-sighted decision, that it was done with consideration to neither the capacity of the 157th [Air Refueling Wing] in New Hampshire, nor the need of the KC-46 to meet its global refueling requirements,” Shaheen said.

She added that the National Guard expects its ability to support U.S. Transportation Command, which manages the daily flow of troops and equipment around the world, will fall by 23 percent as aerial refueling capacity sits among the command’s top concerns.

Shaheen said she discussed the proposed changes with Pease Airmen this weekend ahead of their deployment to southwest Asia. Their departure marks the Air Force’s first operational deployment of the new KC-46A Pegasus tanker jet in service of combat overseas since the initial aircraft was delivered in 2019.

“They are excited about this milestone, but they are unfortunately very worried about what the re-leveling would mean for their ability to do their jobs,” Shaheen said.

Nordhaus said states can request a one-year exemption from the cuts as the Guard considers its next steps. Pease has secured such an exemption, he added.

“I do promise to make sure we take a full, transparent look at this and to make sure that we’re meeting mission requirements with full-time requirements,” he said.

At Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Michigan, the Guard looks to trim up to 117 full-time civilian employees, including 15 contracting personnel, Peters said. Selfridge is home to A-10 Thunderbolt II attack planes, KC-135 Stratotanker refueling jets, and aircraft from multiple other military and federal civilian organizations.

“It is like an Active-Duty base,” Peters said. “It’s not an Air National Guard facility that shares a civilian airfield.”

He asked Nordhaus to seek an independently run manpower study that compares Selfridge’s needs to Active-Duty installations before going through with the staff cuts. The three-star acknowledged he would consider that option.

And in Alaska, the National Guard has delayed its plan to downgrade the jobs of about 80 employees to dual-status tech roles, a move local military leaders said would hurt the Alaska Guard’s ability to detect ballistic missile launches toward the U.S. homeland as well as its capacity to conduct search-and-rescue missions in Alaska’s most rugged and remote regions.

Sullivan said the plan has pushed some of Alaska’s long-serving troops to exit the military.

“My own view is that there [were] a lot of mistakes that happened,” Sullivan said. “The biggest mistake was the Guard, at the highest levels, didn’t check in with the joint force on, ‘Hmm, is this initiative we’re undertaking going to impact the readiness of the joint force?’”

In written responses submitted to the panel ahead of his confirmation hearing, Nordhaus said he does not anticipate major changes to the National Guard’s end strength of more than 325,000 troops.

“However, as the strategic and operational landscape evolves, the National Guard requirements must align to meet the needs of our states and nation,” he wrote. “As the primary combat reserve of the Army and Air Force, I would use the [authorities] available to ensure the National Guard remains commensurate with its Active components.”

Nordhaus’s confirmation hearing comes as the National Guard Bureau has struggled to secure a full slate of Senate-approved leaders in the wake of multiple retirements. The bureau’s top job has sat empty since Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson retired in August; other current vacancies include the National Guard vice chief and the Air National Guard’s top officer. Army National Guard boss Lt. Gen. Jonathan M. Stubbs is currently serving as the bureau’s acting chief.

Nordhaus currently runs the Air Force branch that oversees operations in North America, including missions to secure American airspace with NORAD. He is a decorated fighter pilot who also served as the Guard Bureau’s ops director and commanded multiple fighter wings.

If confirmed, the pending four-star would inherit a National Guard stretched thin by missions that range from supporting federal agents along the U.S.-Mexico border to driving school buses to cyber defense—plus frequently serving as first responders when military crises erupt around the world. Using Guardsmen to fill in the gaps left by local worker shortages is jeopardizing the Guard’s combat readiness, said Sen. Roger Wicker, the top Republican on the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Nordhaus told lawmakers he expects his most pressing challenges will include recruiting and retention, combat readiness, and modernizing the force.

Despite the often unrelenting pace of activations and deployments, Nordhaus said the Guard’s current data indicate that tempo is not significantly hurting recruiting and retention. Both the Army and Air Guards expect to miss their fiscal 2025 recruiting goals by “about 700 to 800” troops, he said.

“I will direct an operational training team standup to review these challenges and provide recommendations within the first 90 days of being confirmed,” he told the committee.

In written comments, Nordhaus also declined to answer whether he supports the Air Force’s proposal to move space-focused Air Guard units into the Space Force. The idea has sparked a bitter feud between military leaders in Washington, state Guard officials, and lawmakers who disagree over whether doing so would hurt military readiness and force Guardsmen into Active-Duty roles.

“Space superiority is critical to our Joint Force and our allies and partners,” Nordhaus told the committee in written answers. “For the last 27 years, the National Guard has performed critical space missions including missile warning, space domain awareness, and surveillance and reconnaissance. Until a decision is made, and if confirmed, I will continue to support the mission to ensure our forces are ready.”

Nordhaus added that he will continue to seek solutions to provide free health care to the tens of thousands of Guardsmen who the Bureau believes go uninsured while not on military orders. The cost of doing so has proved prohibitive: Hokanson said in 2022 that providing no-fee TRICARE to non-activated troops could cost more than $700 million each year.

Guard officials argue that protecting the health of all Guardsmen will lead to a stronger, more reliable force once they’re called to duty.

Air Force Elevates AFSOUTH as New ‘Service Component Command’

Sept. 12, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

As Maj. Gen. David A. Mineau accepted the guidon for Air Forces Southern on Sept. 11, it was Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin handing it over, not the commander of Air Combat Command. That’s because Air Forces Southern is no longer under ACC as part of the 12th Air Force, but has been elevated to a “service component command,” reporting directly to CSAF.

AFSOUTH now has “the same access, the same decision-making processes, and the same meetings” asU.S. Air Forces in Europe, Pacific Air Forces, and Air Mobility Command, Allvin said during the ceremony.

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, left, and the Commander of U.S. Southern Command, Gen. Laura Richardson, right, complete a Change of Command and activation ceremony for Air Forces Southern at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, Sep. 11, 2024. The ceremony marked a significant change in the command as it marked the activation of Air Forces Southern becoming a Service Component Command. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Rachel Maxwell)

The change is part of the Air Force’s “re-optimization” for great power competition, in which Allvin is seeking to redefine USAF’s traditional conception of major commands. His new constructs designates each MajCom as either an “institutional command,” responsible for organizing, training, and equipping fgorces, or “service component commands” responsible for presenting forces to unified combatant commands. In doing so, he has also rethought how Numbered Air Forces fit into this broader picture.

AFSOUTH was formally a component of the 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern) and reported to ACC. Soon to follow are:

Air Forces Central (9th Air Force)

Air Forces Cyber (16th Air Force)

Air Forces North and Air Forces Space (1st Air Force)

Air Forces Southern is responsible for USAF’s presence in the Caribbean and Central and South America—not typically an area where the Air Force has had to devote many resources.

But U.S. Souther Command boss Army Gen. Laura J. Richardson and others has warned that China and Russia are seeking to expand their influence in the region, growing the threat in the U.S.’s backyard.

“The mission we do here is not talked about a lot, it’s not in the news a lot but it is so critically important to our nation, to our hemisphere,” said Mineau. “The expertise you all have not just in the application of airpower and cyber, but your knowledge in Latin America and the Caribbean is world-class.”

Allvin said elevating AFSOUTH and other component commands recognizes exactly that. “It is an acknowledgment and a recognition that competition is global,” said Allvin. “The challenges are just as difficult across the board. They may be different in nature, but they’re the same in consequence.”

Maj. Gen. Evan Pettus, outgoing Air Forces Southern commander, right, shakes hands with Maj. Gen. David Mineau, center, newly-appointed AFSOUTH commander after completing a Change of Command ceremony at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, Sep. 11, 2024. At the direction of the Secretary of the Air Force, Air Forces Southern was elevated to a Service Component Command. The Air Force is organizing its major commands, or MAJCOMs, into Institutional Commands, responsible for organizing, training, and equipping Airmen, and Service Component Commands, responsible for preparing Airmen for warfighting in a combatant command’s area of responsibility. The changes are part of the Department of the Air Force’s Great Power Competition initiative. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Rachel Maxwell)

Institutional Commands

Air Combat Command

Air Force Materiel Command

Air Education and Training Command (to become Airman Development Command)

Integrated Capabilities Command*

Component Commands

Pacific Air Forces (presents to U.S. Indo-Pacific Command)

U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa (U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command)

Air Mobility Command (U.S. Transportation Command)

Air Force Global Strike Command (U.S. Strategic Command)

Air Force Special Operations Command (U.S. Special Operations Command)

Air Forces Southern (U.S. Southern Command)

Air Forces Central (U.S. Central Command)*

Air Forces Cyber (U.S. Cyber Command)*

Air Forces North and Air Forces Space (U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Space Command)*

*Future

Anduril Unveils New Low-Cost Cruise Missiles Meant for Large-Scale Production

Sept. 12, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Anduril Industries has revealed its “Barracuda” family of cruise missiles, intended to bulk up U.S. military stockpiles with a low-cost weapon that can be produced in large numbers by minimally trained labor with unspecialized tools.

The air-breathing weapons as yet have not been fitted with sensors, as customer needs are still undefined, but the weapons are in flight test, company officials told reporters Sept. 11. The Barracuda family is intended to be rapidly upgradable through software and an open-systems architecture.

The family of weapons comprises the Barracuda-100, -250, and -500.

The -500 is meant to be “cargo launched,” said Diem Salmon, Anduril vice president for air dominance and strike. This refers to the Air Force’s “Rapid Dragon” concept of launching pallets of cruise missiles from the back of a C-17 or C-130 transport, which has been tested using AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles (JASSMs).

It is also the kind of mission the Air Force and Defense Innovation Unit are exploring for their Enterprise Test Vehicle program, which got underway in June. Anduril is one of four competitors for the effort and is pitching the Barracuda-500, Salmon said. The other companies in the running are Integrated Solutions for Systems, Inc.; Leidos Dynetics; and Zone 5 Technologies. Salmon couldn’t comment on the ETV program progress.

The pallet-launched missiles “do not necessarily require aircraft integration,” she said. The -250, meanwhile, is designed to be carried internally on the F-35 and other platforms.

The Barracuda is “available in configurations offering 500+ nautical miles of range, 100+ pounds of payload capacity, 5 Gs of maneuverability, and more than 120 minutes of loitering time,” the company said in a press release.

“All Barracudas are compatible with a host of payloads and employment mechanisms, support a variety of different missions, and provide warfighters with an adaptable and upgradeable capability to counter evolving threats,” the company said.

Anduril is “targeting 30 percent less cost than systems that are comparable in performance,” Salmon said, but she did not offer comparisons with specific weapons. The company thinks that this level of savings can be achieved by reusing subsystems and easier manufacture with low-cost materials.

“So, rather than designing bespoke capabilities for each single weapon system, how do we make this simpler?” Salmon said. Open architectures is one solution, while designing the missile to be made by a factory worker with little specialized knowledge, using a small number of tools and parts, is another.

“A single Barracuda takes 50 percent less time to produce, requires 95 percent fewer tools, and 50 percent fewer parts than competing solutions on the market today,” the company said in press materials. “As a result, the Barracuda family of AAVs is 30 percent cheaper on average than other solutions, enabling affordable mass and cost-effective, large-scale employment.”

Anduril rolled out its “Arsenal” manufacturing plant idea in recent weeks, teasing announcements about weapons like Barracuda and its “Fury” Collaborative Combat Aircraft that would be made in the state-of-the art factory. It is proceeding from the assumption that the U.S. needs 10 times the number of precision weapons it now has in order to deter China and not “run out of stuff” to shoot in the first few weeks of a major conflict, Anduril chief strategy officer Chris Brose said.

“We’ve been at work on this for a few years,” Brose said. “This is a real system. It is already a part of real programs. It’s flying, and we’re really excited to finally be able to talk more about it publicly.

“The problem that we are seeking to solve here, I think, is a familiar one to many of you, which is America and our allies and partners do not have enough weapons. Period, full stop. And we are not capable of producing the volume of weapons that we’re going to need to establish deterrence against a peer competitor.”

Brose noted wargames that showed that the U.S. runs out of critical munitions in the first few weeks of a conflict.

“Then we struggle, or theoretically would struggle, for a period of years to replenish all the weapons that we expended,” he said. “And I think Ukraine has put that problem in high relief for the past few years on far simpler tactical weapon systems, to say nothing of the larger critical munitions that are going to be so essential for an INDOPACOM scenario.”

Salmon said it’s “unrealistic for us to believe that we will know exactly how many we need to produce 10 years from now,” and factories will have to be able to efficiently “ramp up, and sometimes, you have to ramp down.”

She added Anduril is aiming to reduce parts count, tooling, and complexity and “rely more on commercial components.” The entire work force as a whole won’t be “bespoke to just one single system,” she said.

Brose said every variant of Barracuda “leverages core subsystems which are reusable across the family of systems. These are systems that can be assembled with tools, literally that you probably have in your garage—screwdrivers, pliers, things of that sort, so it is not gated in terms of its producibility on highly specialized tooling, highly specialized manufacturing processes, highly specialized labor, none of which we’re ever going to have enough of. It’s been designed with the exact opposite approach, which is, I have to leverage commercial supply chains as much as possible. I have to make the weapon as simple to produce and as simple to assemble as possible.”

All three variants are flying now, Salmon said.

“These are things that we’re actively working on day-to-day,” she said.

Air National Guard MC-130J Briefly Becomes a Bee-130J

Sept. 11, 2024 | By David Roza

Over its 70 years of service, the C-130 and its variants have borne a range of weapons including cannons, cruise missiles, and radar jammers. But an MC-130J assigned to the Pennsylvania Air National Guard’s 193rd Special Operations Wing accidentally bore a uniquely fearsome weapon late last month: a swarm of honeybees.

“We’re considering a change in aircraft designation,” the wing joked in a video posted to Facebook on Sept. 4 of a man in a beekeeping mask scraping bees off the aircraft’s right side inflight air refueling pod. “How do we feel about Bee-130?”

The man was Jim Davis, a bee hobbyist with the central Pennsylvania-based Capital Area Beekeepers Association. The wing called him in to remove the bees rather than exterminate them.

“We identified, with the help of our civil engineers, they were honeybees,” said wing spokesperson Senior Master Sgt. Alexander Farver. “We knew how important honeybees are to the local ecosystem. So even though it was a slight inconvenience, we chose to protect and preserve them.”

mc-130j — A swarm of honeybees gathered on the inflight air refueling pod of a Pennsylvania Air National Guard MC-130J in late August, 2024. (Courtesy photo via 193rd Special Operations Wing)

It was Davis’ first time responding to a military base. Lethal as U.S. Airmen are, some threats demand an expert’s touch.

“Everyone was super friendly,” he said. “A few of them weren’t too sure they wanted to be that close to the bees.”

How did a swarm of bees wind up on the aircraft in the first place? There must have been another hive nearby, Davis said.

“What happens is the original hive makes a new queen, and then the old queen normally will gather up a large bundle of the nurse bees and the foraging bees and take off with them,” he explained. “They find a place where they can land until the scout bees can find a home for them. If we had left them on the plane, they would have probably found a new home within a day or so.”

Iowa State University describes swarming as “a natural process in the life of a honeybee colony” which often occurs in response to crowding within the colony.

Indeed, the Pennsylvania bees had originally stopped on a maintenance stand but moved when the stand was moved, though some bees stayed behind and were removed by the beekeeper, who brushed them into a cardboard box. As frightening as a swarm of bees might look, this group of wanderers was not in a fighting mood.

“When you get a swarm like that, they are not interested in stinging or fighting or anything like that,” Davis said. “They’re just taking care of their queen. I could have gone up there with bare hands and got them in the box.”

Honeybees feed prior to swarming, reducing their ability to sting, according to Iowa State University. They are also farther from their nest, which houses their offspring and food stores, so they “are less defensive and are unlikely to sting unless provoked.”

While honeybee swarms are often found on trees, houses, and even cars, they’re not a common sight at the 193rd SOW.

“In 32 years of aircraft maintenance I have never had to do this type of insect removal,” said Senior Master Sgt. Richard Fanning, flight chief for the 193rd Special Operations Aircraft Maintenance Squadron.

Still, honeybees have been spotted on other military aircraft including a T-6 in 2012, a C-17 and an F-22 in 2016, and a few Navy P-3s in 2008 and 2009. Navy ships also have to be cleared of stray swarms, with nine such removals in the San Diego, Calif., area between 2020 and 2023. The bees who landed on the F-22 did so for likely the same reasons as the ones who did on the MC-130J.

“Bee hives are constantly growing and they eventually become overcrowded,” Chief Master Sgt. Gregg Allen, 192nd Maintenance Group Quality Assurance chief and himself a beekeeper, said in a press release at the time. “Around springtime, the bees will make a new queen, scout for a new location and take half of the hive with them to that location.”

It was a good thing the bees wound up on the MC-130J, because Davis soon found them a new home.

“I normally rescue and keep three or four hives like this every year,” said Davis, who’s been caring for bees for about 10 years. “I took the bees from the aircraft and transferred them to their permanent home with me. They’re doing great, and I hope to give some of the honey they produce to the 193rd Airmen next year!”