Why Frank Kendall’s Nomination to be Air Force Secretary Remains on Hold

July 1, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Michigan Democratic Sen. Gary Peters is holding up Frank Kendall’s nomination for Air Force Secretary over the Pentagon’s decision to award the F-35 international training center to Arkansas’s Ebbing Air National Guard Base, Air Force Magazine has learned.

Michigan’s Selfridge Air National Guard Base in Harrison Township possessed “superior qualifications” in the bid, a Peters spokesperson told Air Force Magazine on July 1 in response to inquiries as to why Peters, along with Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren and Utah Republican Mike Lee, have put holds on the nomination vote.

Warren has yet to respond to a request for comment, and Lee’s office declined to confirm or deny that a hold was in place.

“Senator Peters wants—and Michigan deserves—additional information and data from the Air Force and the Department of Defense regarding its process surrounding the recent F-35 international training center decision,” the Peters spokesperson said.

At Kendall’s May 25 Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Peters sought a commitment from the nominee for a fair and transparent selection process, should he be confirmed before the Air Force decision was made.

“Its location clearly exceeds all of the mission requirements,” Peters told Kendall, highlighting the existing infrastructure, runway length, and number of aircraft shelters.

“Michigan hosts the largest contiguous joint overland service range airspace complex east of the Mississippi River,” Peters added. “In addition, the folks on the ground in Macomb County have been enthusiastic hosts of this base for over 100 years.”

The Air Force announced June 3 that Ebbing Air National Guard base in Fort Smith, Ark., would be the preferred location for the F-35 Lightning II training center.

The training center initiative stems from a request by allies for a U.S.-based F-16 and F-35 training center.

In testimony, Peters said Singapore would train its F-16 and F-35 pilots there, while F-35 pilots from Finland, Poland, and Switzerland would also use the base. Meanwhile, the Swiss government announced June 30 a $5.5 billion award to Lockheed Martin to make the F-35A its preferred fighter aircraft.

Selfridge was chosen as an alternate location for the training center should Ebbing fail an environmental assessment study.

The Republic of Singapore’s F-16 Fighting Falcon training unit is currently based at Luke Air Force Base in Arizona, but ramp and airspace capacity constraints do not allow an expansion.

The new training center will have a capacity for up to 36 fighter aircraft.

“The reasoning provided so far does not add up,” the Peters spokesperson said. “Senator Peters is fighting for Michigan and to get to the bottom of how and why the Air Force made this decision.”

The spokesperson did not immediately respond to a question as to when the senator might lift his hold and whether he intends to allow a vote before the August recess, which is slated for Aug. 9-Sept. 15.

In the meantime, John P. Roth, who has served more than 160 days as acting Air Force Secretary, will remain in that role. He is already the service’s fourth-longest-serving acting secretary and is three weeks away from becoming the longest-serving acting secretary since 1999.

Investigation: Pilot’s Reliance on ‘Seat of the Pants Feel’ Caused February T-38 Crash

July 1, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

An Air Force pilot’s mistake in raising landing gear too quickly during a touch-and-go landing was the main cause of a February crash of a T-38 trainer jet, according to an accident investigation report published June 29.

The crash, which occurred Feb. 18 at Sacramento Mather Airport, Calif., involved a pilot from the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, 9th Reconnaissance Wing, at Beale Air Force Base, Calif. The pilot and the instructor pilot escaped without injuries, but the incident caused roughly $3 million in damage to the T-38A.

On the morning of the accident, the pilot and the instructor were engaged in a training mission involving touch-and-go landings, during which the aircraft briefly lands, then immediately takes off again without fully stopping.

The instructor conducted one successful touch-and-go landing, and the aircraft then circled back and the pilot took control for another attempt.

After initially touching down successfully, the pilot advanced the throttles for takeoff. While doing so, he felt the aircraft “unstick” from the ground, he told investigators. Believing the upward motion to be an appropriate climb away from the runway, the pilot then retracted the plane’s landing gear.

However, the aircraft had not established a positive climb rate and was not “definitely airborne.” As a result, the plane touched back down on the runway with its landing gear not fully deployed. It skidded about 3,850 feet, with a fire breaking out in one of the landing gear bays and the doors to the landing gear bays being ripped off.

The accident investigation board found no evidence of any maintenance or weather issues contributing to the crash, nor any problems with “unit culture, risk management, mission preparation, planning, or briefing.” Both pilots were qualified to fly the mission, and conditions were favorable.

Instead, investigators faulted the pilot for relying on a “seat of the pants feel” to decide the aircraft was airborne with a positive rate of climb instead of verifying it through available instruments in the cockpit and visual cues.

While no one was injured in the crash, the T-38 has been involved in a pair of deadly mishaps in recent years. On Feb. 19, 2021, one day after the Sacramento crash, 1st Lt. Scot Ames Jr. was killed when his T-38 crashed near Montgomery, Ala. In November 2019, an instructor and student pilot died while attempting a T-38 formation landing at Vance Air Force Base, Okla.

Donald Rumsfeld, Two-Time Defense Secretary, Dies at 88

June 30, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Donald Rumsfeld, who made history as the first man to serve as Secretary of Defense for two Presidents and oversaw the beginning of U.S. wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, died June 30 in Taos, N.M., his family announced on social media. He was 88.

In a career in government spanning decades, Rumsfeld served as a congressman from Illinois’ 13th District, director of the Office of Economic Opportunity, U.S. Ambassador to NATO, and White House Chief of Staff, in addition to his two stints as Defense Secretary. He was a Cabinet-level aide of President Richard Nixon before becoming the youngest Defense Secretary ever under Gerald Ford in 1975. He then returned to the Pentagon as the second-oldest person ever to lead it, in 2001 under George W. Bush.

“I was saddened to hear today of the passing of former Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld,” current Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said in a written statement issued by the Pentagon. “Mr. Rumsfeld had the singular distinction of holding that post for two nonconsecutive tenures, serving as both the 13th secretary of defense and the 21st. He also served in the U.S. Navy in 1954-57 as a pilot and a flight instructor, and he continued his service as a reservist until 1975, when he became secretary of defense for the first time.

“Over the decades of his remarkable career, from Congress to the White House to the Pentagon, Secretary Rumsfeld was propelled by his boundless energy, probing intellect, and abiding commitment to serve his country. On behalf of the Department of Defense, I extend my deep condolences to his family and loved ones.”

Rumsfeld’s second tenure in the Pentagon coincided with one of the most consequential periods in modern American history. After the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Rumsfeld oversaw the planning and execution of wars in the Middle East that wound up lasting years. More than 6,000 American troops have died in the region since, and estimates have pegged the financial cost in the trillions of dollars.

Rumsfeld claimed Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction in explaining the Bush administration’s justification for an invasion of the country. No such weapons were ever found, and he would admit years later to making “misstatements” on the topic.

Rumsfeld also became embroiled in the controversy surrounding torture and prisoner abuse in Abu Ghraib, Iraq, and subsequent revelations about “enhanced interrogation techniques” used by the U.S. government at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

In the Middle East, Rumsfeld deployed a strategy of smaller, more mobile ground forces with a reliance on more airstrikes, moves that were dubbed by some as the “Rumsfeld Doctrine.” But as the wars dragged on, he came under increasing criticism, culminating in a number of retired generals and admirals publicly calling on him to resign in 2006. While President Bush initially defended him, Rumsfeld resigned after the ’06 midterm elections.

“Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was an exceptional leader who dedicated decades of his life in public service to this nation,” said Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), Ranking Member of the House Armed Services Committee, in a statement. “On Sept. 11, 2001, Donald was there to help lead our nation out of one of our darkest days, including running into the Pentagon to assist the wounded and survivors. I also appreciate his help to lay some of the early groundwork for the Space Force. He was an extraordinary man and his loss will be deeply felt. I extend my deepest condolences to the Rumsfeld family and his wife Joyce as they mourn his passing.”

Davis-Monthan to Get Close Air Support, Rescue ‘Centers of Excellence’ if A-10 Cuts Approved

June 30, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force wants to move A-10 Warthogs and HH-60 Pave Hawks to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and create close air support and rescue “Centers of Excellence” at the base if it gets the green light from Congress to retire 42 Warthogs.

The aircraft and related units would come from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., beginning in 2022. The change would add personnel to the Arizona base—a proposal that would aim to win over the state’s Congressional delegation that has moved to block proposed A-10 cuts for years.

“Under this plan, Davis-Monthan will play a critical role in reshaping U.S. airpower as home to the Air Force’s close air support and rescue Centers of Excellence,” Acting Air Force Secretary John P. Roth said in a release. “This realignment will consolidate all A-10 and HH-60 test, training, and weapon school activity at one location, allowing Airmen in these mission areas to train together for future threats.”

The service, in its fiscal 2022 budget request released in late May, proposed cutting the A-10 fleet from 281 to 218, beginning with 42 aircraft in the first year. Davis-Monthan would lose 35 A-10s in 2022, with others coming from the Indiana Air National Guard.

The new plan would move 14 A-10s and 21 HH-60s from Nellis to Davis-Monthan. Affected units would be the 422nd and 88th Test and Evaluation Squadrons, the 66th Rescue Squadron, the 58th Rescue Squadron, the 34th Weapons Squadron, and the 855th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. The A-10 Weapons Instructor Course would also move.

The Active duty 354th Fighter Squadron at Davis-Monthan would close if the aircraft retirements are approved.

USAF officials said June 22 that the 122nd Fighter Wing at Fort Wayne, Indiana, would convert back to F-16s if the A-10 cuts are approved.

The move “frees up nearly a thousand Airmen, maintainers, and operators that we can then transition into future platforms, specifically the F-35,” said Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, the deputy chief of staff of the Air Force for plans and programs, during a June 22 Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee hearing. “As we look at the F-35, we are having resource issues, mostly with manpower … We have to start replacing some platforms.”

USAF would reduce its A-10 operational squadrons from nine to seven, keeping one “full-up” at Osan Air Base, South Korea. Within the continental United States, there will be three Air National Guard squadrons, two Active duty, and one Reserve.

Kendall Nomination Held Without Explanation by Three Senators

June 30, 2021 | By

The nomination of Frank Kendall to serve as President Joe Biden’s Air Force Secretary is being held by three senators who have declined to publicly state the reason for their hold, Air Force Magazine has learned, with the Senate in recess until July 12.

Kendall’s nomination sailed out of the Armed Services Committee June 10 after a favorable May 25 hearing, but the failure to reach a nomination vote has left John Roth acting Secretary of the Air Force for 160 days.

“Everyone wants to see this move forward,” a Senate Armed Services Committee aide told Air Force Magazine at the Capitol June 30. “We’ve done our part.”

A legislative aide confirmed that the three senators holding up the nomination are Massachusetts Democrat Elizabeth Warren, Michigan Democrat Gary Peters, and Utah Republican Mike Lee.

The offices of Warren and Peters did not respond to requests for comment from Air Force Magazine, and Lee’s office declined to confirm or deny a hold was in place.

The reason for senatorial holds are varied, ranging from concerns with the nominee to the simple exertion of leverage.

“A hold is not necessarily saying we don’t want to vote on the nominee,” a Senate aide told Air Force Magazine. “Holds are one of the few ways that senators who aren’t on the committee can let DOD or the Secretary of the Air Force know that we are here.”

The aide explained that a hold could be a signal to the Pentagon that a letter hasn’t been answered.

“Sometimes it’s a mid-level bureaucrat that needs to answer an email,” the aide said. “These things can be resolved.”

In the case of the Air Force, with budget season in full swing, the lack of an approved nominee could slow down negotiations with Congress. Kendall, a defense industry insider with extensive DOD acquisition experience, is sought after as the Air Force retires legacy systems and plans investments in more fifth generation aircraft.

That may have to wait.

The Senate is due to return from their Independence Day recess on July 12, and the August recess is scheduled for Aug. 9 to Sept. 15, but Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is threatening to take away the August 9-13 week if no progress is made on Biden’s infrastructure package.

“The hold doesn’t necessarily mean that we are opposed to having a vote,” the Senate aide said. “But the senator … may want to exact leverage on Biden, on Schumer, DOD, the Department of the Air Force, or the mid-level bureaucrat.”

Kendall is not the only high-level nominee being held up by the senators. Susanna Blume, nominee for director of cost assessment, is being held by Mississippi Republican Sen. Roger Wicker, who is unhappy with Biden’s Navy budget, reported Politico.

Space Force Selects First 50 Officers to Transfer from Other Services

June 30, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Out of a pool of more than 3,700 applicants, the first 50 Active-duty Army, Navy, and Marine Corps volunteers were announced for transfer to the Space Force beginning in July. A second tranche of 350 transfers will be announced in July to match Space Force specialties including space operations, intelligence, cyber, engineering, and acquisition.

The highly competitive process continues the organic growth of the military’s newest service, joining 5,200 Air Force transfers.

“We are overwhelmed by the number of applicants, and the outpouring of support our sister services have provided as we’ve partnered together to design the Space Force,” said Gen. David D. Thompson, vice chief of space operations, in a June 30 press statement.

The total manpower of the Space Force is roughly 12,000 Guardians, with some 6,000 civilians and 5,500 military as of June 15. An undisclosed number of Air Force Airmen also continue to support the Space Force in an administrative assignment capacity.

A Space Force spokesperson told Air Force Magazine June 30 that the force is onboarding the first 50 transfers from other services in fiscal 2021, which ends Sept. 30. The July announcement of 350 more transfers will be onboarded in the 2022 fiscal year.

New Guardians will join the force on a staggered approach according to their own individual schedules rather than a single transfer ceremony.

“When we will get to 16,000 depends on a lot of future transfers,” the spokesperson said of the number of Guardians Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond has said will encompass a “lean” new fighting force.

The Space Force is also expected to voluntarily absorb units and mission sets from other services, including the Navy and Army. The timeline for which units will be incorporated into the Space Force and how many service members will be asked to voluntarily transfer is still to be determined.

“It’s being worked and more information will be released in the coming months,” the spokesperson said.

DOD Concerned About Spread of COVID-19 ‘Delta’ Variant

June 30, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Defense Department is beginning to see the highly infectious Delta variant of COVID-19 among service members, and officials are urging more troops to receive vaccinations, saying health protection conditions could increase if cases rise.

The new variant, which emerged from India and is expected to become the predominant type of COVID-19 in the United States, “poses a threat to the return to normal,” particularly in areas of the country that have lower vaccination rates, said Dr. Terry Adirim, the acting assistant secretary of defense for health affairs, on June 30.

“We anticipate health protection conditions could change at some of our installations in the future,” Adirim said.

The majority of current COVID-19 infections in the military are not the new Delta variant, but the number is rising, said Lt. Gen. Ronald J. Place, the director of the Defense Health Agency.

So far, about 68 percent of the total Active-duty force has received at least one dose of a COVID-19 vaccine. About 61 percent of the Department of the Air Force’s Active-duty component has received one dose, lower than the Army’s 70 percent and the Navy’s 77 percent but higher than the Marine Corps’ 58 percent.

As of June 30, there were 21 COVID-19-positive individuals hospitalized at DOD installations, down from the peak of 240 on Jan. 8, Place said. Zero of those currently in hospitals have received a vaccine.

“The benefits of vaccination are remarkably clear,” Place said.

So far, the Defense Department has administered more than 4.2 million vaccine doses and the military has administered 1.26 million tests this year alone. Outside of the ranks, three-quarters of Defense Department Education Activity teachers and school staff have received the vaccines, allowing the schools to be fully opened, said Max Rose, the senior adviser to the Secretary of Defense.

The Pentagon is still pushing for more vaccines and precautions despite the continued momentum, Rose said.

“Our work as a department will continue until we see this global pandemic come to an end,” he said.

White House Lays Out its Case for Syria Strikes as Congress Considers AUMFs

June 29, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

President Joe Biden on June 29 laid out his case to Congress for the airstrikes two days earlier that targeted Iranian-backed militias in Syria, as Congress is pressing to assert its control over war-making decisions and to repeal older authorizations for military force.

“I directed the June 27 strikes in order to protect and defend the safety of our personnel, to degrade and disrupt the ongoing series of attacks against the United States and our partners, and to deter the Islamic Republic of Iran and Iran-backed militia groups from conducting or supporting further attacks on United States personnel and facilities,” Biden wrote in a letter to Speaker of the House Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate President Pro Tempore Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). “In support of these aims, the targeted strikes were directed at facilities used by groups involved in these ongoing attacks for weapons storage, command, logistics, and UAV operations.”

The airstrikes, from USAF F-15 and F-16 aircraft, targeted three facilities in rural areas near the Syrian-Iraq border. The buildings “have been involved in a series of unmanned aerial vehicle and rocket attacks against United States personnel and facilities in Iraq. These militia attacks have escalated in recent months,” Biden wrote.

Biden said his letter is consistent with the War Powers Resolution to keep Congress informed, though some lawmakers following the attacks called for more advanced notice of such attacks.

“Both the Constitution and the War Powers Act require the President to come to Congress for a war declaration under these circumstances,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.), the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee on Near East, South Asia, and Counterterrorism, in a statement.

Sens. Bob Menendez (D-N.J.) and Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said the attacks showed the need for a look at the current Authorizations on the Use of Military Force and a possible replacement.

The House of Representatives has taken multiple votes to that end. On June 29, the House voted 366-46 to repeal an AUMF enacted in 1991 in advance of the Gulf War and another authorization passed in 1957 during the Cold War. The House earlier this month voted to repeal the 2002 AUMF enacted for the war in Iraq. The body has not scheduled a vote to repeal the often-cited 2001 AUMF that was passed following the 9/11 attacks. Similar measures are in the works in the Senate.

The White House and the Pentagon have said the June 27 airstrikes are legally justified by Article II of the Constitution, outlining the President’s responsibility to protect Americans. “The President was operating clearly and unequivocally inside his Article II authorities for self defense,” Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said June 29.

That said, the Pentagon does support a new look at the authorizations. “The department is in full support of taking a look at the AUMF and more narrowly defining” the authorizations, Kirby said.

The day after the June 27 airstrikes, militias fired rockets at U.S. positions inside Syria, and American troops in turn responded with artillery fire. Kirby said the rockets hit two buildings at a U.S. base, though no casualties were reported.

“I’m not in a position to get into specifics about the number of rockets, and we’re still assessing the attribution on this,” Kirby said, adding that the Pentagon is “working under the assumption that they were fired by Iran-backed militias or militia.”

Russia and China Could Team Up to Challenge US Space Superiority, Experts Say

June 29, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Sanctions are crushing Russia’s efforts to counter American space superiority, but analysts have a rising concern that Russian President Vladimir Putin may link up with China’s wealth to develop the weapons that could stop American war fighters in their tracks.

Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond has warned that America’s adversaries are already operating as if space was a war fighting domain, exhibiting ground and space-based weapons capabilities that can target vulnerable American satellites. House Armed Services Committee chairman Adam Smith admitted to Air Force Magazine on June 29 that satellite survivability and redundancy were his priorities for fending off adversaries, but a closer look at the budget was necessary.

“I don’t think ‘catch-up,’ is the right word,” Smith said when asked about American space weapons compared to adversaries in a Defense Writers Group discussion. “We’re not behind in this area.”

The Washington state Democrat said his priorities were cost-effective launch and the survivability of satellites and command-and-control systems.

The dropping cost of launch in America’s domestic capability has had the dual effect of robbing Russia of needed dollars to support its military space program, retired Col. Douglas Loverro said at a June 28 Center for Strategic and International Studies forum on Russia’s evolving military capabilities in space.

Loverro, who served as deputy assistant secretary of defense for space policy from 2013 to 2017, also described Russia’s July 2020 test of a co-orbital satellite that aligned with an American spy satellite and fired a projectile in space.

“They view this as a decisive factor,” Loverro said. “Certainly, they are building the means, as best we can tell, to go ahead and make sure that they can eliminate U.S. space capabilities if war does occur.”

The Russian capability is despite a drop in oil prices that has cut into Moscow’s revenue coupled with crushing American sanctions related to the invasion of Crimea in 2014. Russia’s commercial space and launch programs have also taken a hit in recent years, depleting resources to invest further.

Loverro said Russia’s 10-year space development budget, released in 2016, called for $53 billion, but Moscow could only afford to commit $10 billion.

“Diplomatically, Russia is trying to reign in U.S. efforts by going ahead and aligning with China and other BRIC nations [Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa],” he added, describing UN efforts to limit the presence of weapons in space. “Those are clearly designed to try to slow down U.S. progress in this area.”

Teaming Up with China

Russia and China jointly submitted a UN resolution in 2008 to limit space weapons, but of late, their cooperation has gone further. Recently, the two cooperated on the Chinese space station and signed a memorandum of understanding on a potential lunar base.

Commercial cooperation between two of America’s chief space adversaries can easily extend to military applications, the expert panel argued, even though historical differences may arise.

“Russia has experience on deception in space,” Loverro said. “Russia has experience that is incredibly valuable to a technologically advanced, but operationally inexperienced China.”

The former head of NASA’s human spaceflight program also qualified Russia’s malicious expertise as more in the cyber realm while he viewed China as more advanced in the space domain.

“The combination of those two could be very dangerous,” he said.

Former commander of U.S. Strategic Command and Air Force Space Command, retired Gen. C. Robert Kehler spoke to his Cold War-era knowledge between the two communist countries.

“I think it remains to be seen what that partnership really does,” he said.

“During the Cold War, from my perspective, when Russia and China said that they were working together, they were going to cooperate on things, they have never seemed to me to be natural partners,” Kehler explained. “I don’t know it’s going to result in anything that’s meaningful here.”

Loverro offered the last word about the increased proximity of civil space cooperation between Russia and China.

“That represents a very dangerous position for us because Russia has the operational space knowledge, China has the technology and the funding,” he said. “Together, they can be a significant competitor for the U.S., and certainly their ambition remains to be a great space power.”

Smith hedged when asked if the $17.4 billion Space Force budget request was correctly apportioned to meet the threat posed by America’s space adversaries.

“More or less, I think that the Space Force budget is correct,” he said. “I got to do a deeper dive on that to really understand it, but I think it’s moving more or less in the right direction.”

Smith was less certain that a combined Russia-China team was percolating to challenge American space superiority, but he said the U.S. should prepare regardless.

“I don’t think anyone has any idea whether or not Russia and China are going to team up,” he said. “But whether they team up or not, we need to be ready for it. We need to be able to protect our systems and we need to be able to deter our adversaries from attacking them in the first place.”