Clearing the Air On the Nellis Boonie Hat Controversy

Aug. 27, 2024 | By David Roza

A social media storm kicked off earlier this month after the commander of the 99th Air Base Wing at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., was denied permission to authorize his Airmen to wear camouflaged floppy campaign hats, known popularly as boonie hats, to better weather the intense heat of the Las Vegas summer.

The denial sparked an outcry among Airmen and others on the unofficial Air Force subreddit and the Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page, where users criticized as unfair the decision by Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, the head of Air Combat Command, to deny Col. Joshua D. DeMotts’ request. They cited the extreme summertime heat in not only Nevada, but across the continental U.S. Many said the decision exposed maintainers and other flightline Airmen to heightened skin cancer risks.

Wilsbach’s decision appears to conflict with other Air Force regulations authorizing commanders to ensure a safety and healthy working environment, but that authority varies based on the type and location of the Air Force unit involved.

As it turns out, Airmen on the Nellis flightline are allowed to wear boonie hats—and have been for at least 18 years, according to a spokesperson at Nellis Air Force Base. Department of the Air Force Instruction (DAFI) 21-101, which governs aircraft and equipment maintenance management, authorizes the commander of the 57th Maintenance Group, which oversees flightline maintenance at Nellis, to designate personal protective equipment (PPE) for maintenance Airmen on the flightline based on guidelines from the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA), the spokesperson said.

The trouble for DeMotts is that most of his Airmen work on the main base, not the flightline. The non-flying 99th Air Base Wing oversees base operations and support functions, while the 57th Wing, of which the 57th Maintenance Group is a component, oversees much of the flightline activities.

DeMotts sought relief for his Airmen in July. “Due to extreme heat at Nellis AFB that tops 120-degrees during the summer, it is imperative to adjust aspects of the uniform to ensure appropriate protection is afforded to our Airmen performing their duties,” the colonel wrote in his memo to Wilsbach. “The boonie hat will allow the relief of excess body heat and protection for the neck and face from the intense summer sun.”

Wilsbach denied the request. When asked why the request was denied, his staff said in a response to Air & Space Forces Magazine: “Local commanders may request exceptions to policy outside of current Department of the Air Force instruction, and it is within the ACC commander’s authority to approve or disapprove.”

The situation seems to be different for flightlines: Air Force guidance states “each base will develop a local flightline clothing policy that addresses wearing of hats, badges, and passes aimed at [foreign object debris] prevention while considering climate and safety.”

The Nellis spokesperson said that authorizes the 57th Maintenance Group commander to consider not only wide-brimmed hats, but also shorts, lightweight work pants, ballistic sunglasses, and other forms of PPE clothing. That authority also lines up with OSHA’s direction that “employers are to use effective forms of protection such as wide-brim hats and long sleeve clothing,” the Nellis spokesperson pointed out.

However, other Airmen who work outside, such as Security Forces, civil engineers, and communications specialists, are not covered by flightline policies. The Nellis spokesperson said recent revisions to Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2903, which governs dress and personal appearance, raised the waiver authority required to permit boonie hats for those Airmen all the way to the top of the major command, which for the 99th Air Base Wing is ACC.

“This applies to portions of the main base,” said the Nellis spokesperson. “Main base is defined as being outside of the flight line, weapons storage area, and other similar areas.” That’s why DeMotts, as the commander of a non-flying air base wing, had to ask ACC headquarters for permission to authorize boonie hats.

The complicated lines of authority seem to conflict with a separate Air Force instruction directing unit commanders to “provide workers a safe and healthy work environment … including thermal illness prevention.”

Senior Airman Tyler Horschel and Airman Taylor Howard, 386th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron crew chiefs, inspect the horizontal stabilizer of a C-130J Super Hercules at Ali Al Salem Air Base, Kuwait, March 22, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Nicholas Larsen)

Making matters even more complicated is an ongoing concern over standards and military discipline, fueled in part by the Air Force’s sweeping preparations for possible future conflict with China. In June, Wilsbach ordered inspections for the nearly 80,000 Airmen under his command to ensure they were meeting dress and appearance standards.

“[W]hile the majority of Airmen maintain professional standards, there is a discernible decline in the commitment to, and enforcement of, military standards in the Air Force,” he said at the time, arguing that attention to standards is essential to prepare for near-peer conflict.

“What I learned many years ago is if you pay attention to the details, when it gets hard and you need to do something difficult, because you’ve been disciplined to pay attention to the details, you can be good and you can succeed,” he said earlier this summer.

In July, a supplement dated May 20 circulated through social media that would limit the use of cold weather clothes such as beanies and fleeces to only certain colors, places, and times of year for Airmen assigned to ACC. While the supplement was in draft form and had no expected date of being implemented, Airmen assigned to bases that are cold most of the year, or who work in heavily air-conditioned data centers, worried what the changes would mean for them.

But while the Air Force values standards, some standards are enforced more than others. Retired Master Sgt. Chris McGhee, a former F-16 fighter jet maintainer, said regs for “Black Flag” extreme heat days require 20 minutes of moderate physical work be followed by 40 minutes rest, or 70 minutes of work followed by several hours’ rest.

“Certainly, on the flightline we sought shade and rest where we could, but it was a running joke that we were even close to this work/rest cycle,” said McGhee, who is now a VA disability attorney.

The Air Force wants to train how it fights, but some dress and appearance standards change depending on one’s proximity to the fight. For example, Air Force regulations allow Airmen to wear boonie hats while deployed but not at home station unless authorized by their major command, despite many home stations being just as hot as bases across the Middle East.

McGhee recalled weeks at Luke Air Force Base, Ariz., located about 240 miles southeast of Nellis, where the reported temperatures pushed north of 115 degrees, while the actual temperature on a hot concrete ramp surrounded by F-16s may have been north of 130 or 140 degrees.

“At the time I had a two-gallon water jug that I used at work, and I was drinking two of those per day,” he said. “My T-shirt was caked with salt from my sweat and at the end of the day was stiff as if I had used an excessive amount of starch.”

Maintainers from Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota, service and inspect the B-1B Lancer at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, July 30, 2018. (Air Force photo by Tech Sgt. Arthur Wright)

Air Force patrol hats or baseball caps are authorized more widely than boonie hats, but boonie hats provide better protection from the sun and greater relief from the heat, according to the Australian government’s Radiation Protection and Nuclear Safety Agency, though the agency cautioned that any hat needs to be combined with other protections such as sunscreen, sunglasses, and proper clothing to be effective.

Though not bald, McGhee wound up getting a biopsy about halfway through his career for some concerning moles on his scalp.

“They were determined to be potentially cancerous and they were removed, which ended up giving me visible scars on my head,” he said. Air Combat Command declined to respond to concerns on social media that greater exposure to the sun contributes to skin cancer.

There are plenty of vectors for carcinogens in the Air Force, such as firefighting chemicals, dilapidated dormitories, and radiation-emitting radars and jamming equipment. But social media users pointed to boonie hats as a low-lift way to reduce the risk and improve quality of life. Fort Bliss, Texas, authorized boonie caps for Soldiers back in October to offer some relief from the El Paso sunshine.

McGhee argued that waivers to Air Force regulations are supposed to serve as a pathway for common sense solutions to specific problems.

“When people or organizations submit waivers that are common sense solutions, and those waivers are denied, it undermines the trust of those below the waiver authority that the authority either has the intelligence, empathy, or both that would make them a capable leader,” he said.

Air Force Delivers Its First EA-37 Electronic Attack Aircraft to Home Base

Aug. 27, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force’s first mission-ready EA-37 Compass Call aircraft flew into Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., last week, the start of a major upgrade to the service’s electronic warfare fleet.

Air Combat Command boss Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach, 16th Air Force commander Lt. Gen. Thomas Hensley, and 55th Wing commander Col. Mark Howard all flew on the new aircraft to deliver it to its new home Aug. 23 and hailed its arrival as a key moment for the Air Force.

“The EA-37B is the right choice right now because as we continue to pivot toward great power competition, we have adversaries that are developing long-range kill chain ecosystems and anti-access area denial capabilities,” Hensley said in a statement. “The Compass Call will allow us to do things in the non-kinetic spectrum as well as the electromagnetic spectrum to give us the advantage and not them.”

The EA-37 is replacing the EC-130H Compass Call, which is aging and struggling—at the end of fiscal 2023, there were just six remaining aircraft in the fleet, with an average age of 49 years and a mission capable rate of just 33 percent. Since then, another aircraft has been retired, leaving just five.

“The EC-130 has served its purpose for years, but this new airframe and its delivery mean that we have a combat-credible threat,” Howard said.

Based on a Gulfstream G550 business jet modified by L3Harris, the EA-37’s mission hardware is built by BAE. Back in September 2023, the first jet was delivered to the Air Force for testing.

The new jet will be able to conduct jamming of radars, electronic systems and communications. The aircraft will also play a role in the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses (SEAD) mission by disrupting an enemy’s ability to coordinate sensors and command-and-control weapon batteries that target friendly aircraft.

It will also have better speed and altitude than the EC-130—the EA-37B can fly at 40,000 feet and 600 knots versus the EC-130’s ceiling of 25,000 feet and 300 knots.

At Davis-Monthan, the first aircraft will be used for pilot training to start, with another jet scheduled to arrive before the end of the year and five more in 2025. All told, the service plans to buy 10 of the new aircraft.

It’s all part of series of changes to both the broader Air Force’s EW capabilities and Davis-Monthan’s assets.

Since the retirement of the EF-111 in the late 1990s, the service’s electronic attack capabilities have narrowed. The establishment of the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing a few years ago has reignited focus on EW, and the new jet will add a fresh airborne element at a time when leaders said EW is only getting more and more important.

Meanwhile, Davis-Monthan is shifting from legacy platforms like the EC-130, HH-60G, and A-10 to new flying missions like the EA-37, the HH-60W, and a “Power Projection Wing” for Air Force Special Operations Command. The service also stood up one of its first Air Task Forces at the base last month.

ACE Calls for More Air Bases. Can Air Force and Army Find a Way to Defend Them All?

Aug. 27, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. Air Force’s plan to operate from an expanded network of bases around the Pacific is facing a familiar but fundamental challenge: how to protect those locations from a Chinese missile attack.

Service leaders have wholeheartedly embraced the concept of Agile Combat Employment that calls for more operating locations, even those that are austere or remote. The idea is to make it more difficult for China to target American airpower in a potential fight, as the Air Force moves its planes from base to base.

But since China boasts a growing arsenal of ballistic and cruise missiles that could put many airfields within its reach, shifting aircraft from base to base is only part of the solution. The service also needs a way to protect its fleet and its Airmen on the ground.

“I would feel more confident if we had a more robust, active base defense, quite frankly,” Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin told reporters recently. “That’s one of those where we’ve been working with the Army, and that’s something that the Department has taken on as a joint requirement that we need to improve our base defenses.”

Officially, defending bases against missile attacks is an Army mission. Army Patriot batteries protect Air Force installations in the Middle East, such as Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, and Al Asad Air Base, Iraq. However, those systems are costly, and the Army has only a limited number of them. The Army is also experimenting with directed energy short-range laser air defenses in the Middle East, but that has yet to produce a sure-fire defense.

In the Middle East, where Iranian-supplied missiles are a primary threat, American air bases have not yet come under a barrage that has crippled manned aircraft. The approximately 180 attacks that Iran-backed militias have carried out with a variety of missiles, one-way attack drones, and rockets in Iraq, Syria, and Jordan have been directed against U.S. troops.

But the threat is real; a few years ago, under the leadership of former U.S. Center Command boss Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, the U.S. built an alternate Combined Air Operations Center at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., so the Air Force would not be wholly reliant on its CAOC command and control hub at Al Udeid should it become the target of a large salvo of Iranian missiles.

A Patriot PAC-2 missile battery prepares to move into the firing position during an exercise at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, March 4, 2015. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. James Hodgman

“The capacity and accuracy of adversary long-range strikes have altered combat paradigms and threaten to drive U.S. combat aircraft to rear-area bases that are at less risk of attack but too distant from the operational battlespace to enable combat-relevant operations,” J. Michael Dahm of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies wrote in a recent report. “The current capabilities and capacities of both active and passive air defenses are inadequate to sufficiently protect U.S. air bases and other critical facilities on adversary target lists, especially in the Indo-Pacific.”

The Air Force and Army say they are working to solve the problem jointly—an effort that is led by the No. 2 officer and civilian on the Air Force side, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife and Undersecretary of the Air Force Melissa Dalton.

Those Air Force officials “are working on this real-time with the Department of the Army,” Dalton told Air & Space Forces Magazine at an event at the Brookings Institution in late July. “That is an Army mission.”

While the need for the capability is clear, ensuring that the Air Force and Army efforts are properly resourced and synchronized is key.

“What the Department is endeavoring to do together is to ensure that we are able to project power forward in these types of contested environments,” Dalton said. “And so it is going to require us rowing forward together and defining the specific requirements and timing and sequencing of how we’re going to pull those pieces together.”

But there are fresh challenges on the horizon, too. New threats such as drone swarms have appeared, along with the low-cost rocket and drone attacks Iran and Iranian-aligned groups have used.

In Europe, the array of Russian drones, ground-launched missiles, and stand-off air-launched missiles has been a focus of Gen. James B. Hecker, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, who has a team working on the problem.

“We will never have enough base defense assets that I can protect every single base 24/7 here,” Hecker told Air & Space Forces Magazine recently. “It only works to move the assets inside of their targeting cycle. We’ve got to make sure that we move them quite often. And then, you know, with everything coming in, something’s going to get through eventually. So you have to make sure you have an adequate rapid runway repair model so that you can repair airfields when you do have a leaker that gets through. And then you have to do some passive things, as well: decoys and those kinds of things used to keep them off balance.”

Allvin also underscored the importance of improving base defense.

“If we can’t have them [everywhere], we want to have them be able to decide where to place them, which means they need to be mobile enough to be able to not just be fixed,” Allvin said of advanced missile defense systems. “That’s some of the cleverness that has to happen with this, as well as the ability to rapidly move.”

The ultimate goal is to make it harder for the enemy to attack a target, real or simulated.

“Old-school things of camouflage, concealment, and deception are still alive and well; we just need to upgrade them to a 21st-century context,” Allvin said. “So the idea [is] still being able to make it a targeting calculus problem for the adversary, where they don’t know if that’s a real thing or if it’s a fake thing. ‘Should I spend a missile on it? Should I spend five missiles on it?'”

“There’s been dialogue and an understanding between the Army and the Air Force and [the Office of the Secretary of Defense] that we will work together,” Allvin said. “The Army is sorting out how to do it for air bases. They also have their own for their maneuver elements as well. But they are pursuing some things specifically, some areas specifically, with us to support Agile Combat Employment.”

As F-15C Presence on Kadena Winds Down, F-15EX Program Ramps Up

Aug. 26, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

A four-ship of F-15Cs departed Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, Japan, Aug. 24, leaving only a small number of Eagles still on the island after 40 years of being the Air Force’s tip of the spear in the Indo-Pacific. Service officials said the remaining Eagles will depart “soon.”

Meanwhile, the initial cadre of F-15EXs, which will eventually replace the F-15C/Ds at Kadena, has been declared operational in Oregon, and contracts for further lots of Eagle IIs are close to being made final.

“The four-ship’s departure marks just one milestone on the road to replacing the F-15C Eagles and ushering in a new era of air superiority with the F-15EX Eagle IIs,” the 18th Wing at Kadena said in a press release.

Without offering details, the 18th Wing said some of the aircraft that departed Aug. 26 will go to the “Boneyard” at Davis Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., while others “will be used at other Air Force units.”

On Aug. 15, the wing put out a release noting that one of its F-15Cs had conducted its last flight ever before being dismantled at Kadena and shipped back to the U.S. Presumably, its structural condition is so fragile that it could not be flown across the Pacific. The jets date back to the 1980s and ’90s, and have become increasingly structurally- and speed-limited as they have flown beyond their planned service lives.

“The final flight of the remaining F-15C Eagles out of Kadena is yet to be determined,” the 18th Wing said.

The Air Force raised eyebrows when it announced in October 2022 that it would phase out its F-15s from Kadena over the next two years without an immediate replacement in hand. A rotation of fighters including F-15Es, F-16s, F-35s, and F-22s has supplemented the force on Okinawa as the F-15C/D cohort has drawn down.

“As we divest the F-15 C/Ds, we remain committed to a phase-in/phase-out approach with backfill aircraft to maintain presence and operational readiness,” a Pacific Air Forces spokesperson said.

In July, the Pentagon announced the permanent replacement for the 48 F-15C/Ds of the 44th and 67th Fighter Squadrons on Okinawa would be 36 F-15EXs. Though 12 fewer, the new aircraft boast additional weapon stations, new electronic warfare suites, fly-by-wire flight controls, a far more powerful set of processors, and new cockpit displays. The notional date for fully equipping Kadena with the F-15EX is 2026.

The Air Force’s very first operational F-15EX arrived at Portland Air National Guard Base, Ore., in June. When the second fighter arrived shortly thereafter, Air Combat Command boss Gen. Kenneth Wilsbach, declared Initial Operational Capability for the type. It’s the first time the Air National Guard has gotten a new-type fighter before the Active-Duty force.

Declaring IOC was one element of “a significant year of accomplishments” for the F-15EX, Brig. Gen. Jason D. Voorheis, program executive officer for fighters and advanced aircraft, said at USAF’s Life Cycle Industry Days conference on July 29.

“Boeing successfully delivered the first eight F-15EX Lot 1 production aircraft,” he said. Six went to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., for combined initial and developmental operational test and evaluation, while the other two went to the Portland Air Guard.

“Additional aircraft will deliver … starting in January 2025, from Lot 2,” and those deliveries will begin once Boeing completes production of the F-15QA for Qatar, on which the F-15EX is based.

The Air Force has divested 105 F-15C/Ds so far and if Congress permits, will divest another 77 next year, Voorhis noted.

He said Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter approved full-rate production of the F-15EX in June, and “we’re very close to finishing negotiations with Boeing on both Lot 5 and Lot 6 production.”

The AN/ALQ-250 Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS), the electronic warfare suite that will protect the F-15EX—which is not a stealthy aircraft—has completed test and evaluation “with very positive results from the operational test community,” Voorheis reported. The first F-15 equipped with EPAWSS went through Boeing’s modification line in San Antonio, Texas, in June, and has since gone to Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., he said.

The Air Force initially planned a fleet of 144 F-15EXs, but in the fiscal 2025 budget proposed limiting the fleet to just 98 aircraft. Congress may direct otherwise: the House Armed Services Committee, in its version of the 2025 budget, directed the purchase of an additional 24 aircraft, for a total fleet of 122 Eagle IIs. The budget has yet to be resolved and passed by Congress.

Can the Pentagon Get to the ‘Next Level’ of Space Domain Awareness?

Aug. 26, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Retired Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw is often credited as the Pentagon’s trailblazer in advocating for dynamic space operations—maneuvering satellites in and between orbits and refueling them to better operate in a contested domain.

Now, he wants the military to get more dynamic in how it monitors and tracks objects and threats in orbit, as part of a broader shift and upgrade in space domain awareness, he said Aug. 26

“We’re still doing that old way of propagating orbits and debris and such and trying to catalog everything,” Shaw, the former deputy commander of U.S. Space Command, said during a SpaceNews webinar. “And we haven’t really gone to the next level of doing dynamic tracking of hard-to-detect and -track targets in nonstandard orbits. We really just haven’t gotten there, and we need to get there.”

Space Force, Space Command, and other Pentagon leaders have been talking about getting better at space domain awareness for years now, Shaw noted—from expanding how far they can monitor to being able to assign intent behind movements.

“And yet, the capability that’s being delivered to Space Command today isn’t significantly different from what existed five, six, seven years ago,” Shaw said.

It’s a capability Shaw compared to “looking for our keys under the lamppost.”

The former Space Force general isn’t alone in calling for enhanced SDA, as space domain awareness is known. Earlier this year, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said the service needs to invest in “actionable space domain awareness” that gives decision-makers more context and understanding of what’s happening in the domain.

And in June, Col. Bryon McClain, the program executive officer for SDA and combat power, said his office wants to open itself up to new ideas and technology from industry for the mission. A request for information the office issued included nods to the idea of satellites that can be refueled and move around to get closer to other objects on orbit—similar to the dynamic operations Shaw envisioned.

The essential question, Brian Weeden of the Aerospace Corporation said during the SpaceNews event, is “How do we get beyond just tracking things in space?”

Specifically, Weeden said, the Pentagon needs to get to a “holistic understanding of the space environment, the capabilities, the threats,” not just cataloging and tracking objects in orbit.

Yet that effort is hampered in part by the fact that just trying to catalog and track everything is no small feat—and getting even harder as more and more satellites are launched every year.

“We still haven’t solved the basic catalog maintenance orbital tracking problem. There are still hard challenges there,” Weeden said.

Space Delta 2 is the Space Force organization responsible for that problem and must keep tabs on more than 45,000 objects in orbit. The plan is to eventually transfer much of that responsibility for “traffic management” to the Department of Commerce, allowing the Space Force to focus on the kinds of domain awareness Shaw, Saltzman, and others want. That process has been hit with delays, but Commerce officials told SpaceNews last month that they are on the cusp of beta testing the new system.

Space Force Taps Northrop to Build Radar in UK for Monitoring Deep Space

Aug. 26, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Space Force has awarded Northrop Grumman a $200 million contract to build a cutting-edge space radar in the United Kingdom, part of a joint venture between the U.S., U.K., and Australia to monitor 22,000 miles above the Earth around the clock.

The Deep-Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC), as it is know, will include radar sites in each of the three countries and maximize coverage by sharing data to connect the three sites.

Northrop previously received a $341 million contract in 2022 to build the first DARC site in Western Australia, which is expected to be operational by 2026. The second radar site in the U.K. is slated to be finished by February 2030. The third radar will be based in the U.S., with all three sites to be completed by the end of the decade.

Once operational, DARC is expected to provide all-weather capabilities to detect, track, identify, and characterize objects moving through geosynchronous orbit (GEO).

“As the world becomes more contested and the danger of space warfare increases, the U.K. and our allies must ensure we have the advanced capabilities we need to keep our nations safe,” then-U.K. Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, said in December 2023.

The project aims to modernize space domain awareness (SDA) for the U.S. and its allies by replacing outdated Cold War-era missile tracking radars and decade-old optical sensors that aren’t suited for today’s space environment. Unlike traditional optical systems that only work at night, DARC offers 24/7 monitoring regardless of daylight, making it much harder for adversaries to attempt an operational surprise.

The growing number of satellites in orbit and increasing space debris highlight the importance of monitoring geosynchronous orbit to ensure that these assets are tracked and managed effectively. In recent months, the U.S. military leaders have also warned against the growing collaboration among Russia, China, North Korea, and Iran in space, noting their joint engagements as something that they are “keenly observing.”

“Shared domain awareness is going to become increasingly important, not just for us to track objects and avoid collisions, but also to monitor activities, identify threats, and then make informed decisions about how best to respond,” said Charles Galbreath, a senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. “That’s going to be important for the United States and our allies in a potential future conflict.”

DARC will also offer extremely broad coverage given the three nations’ locations.

“You have to have sites scattered around the world,” said Brian Weeden, a former Air Force space operations officer at the Secure World Foundation. “By geographically spacing around all these radars and telescopes, linking them all together, sharing data between them, you get a much better network than what any one country can do by itself.”

How USAF Helped Ukraine Upgrade the Electronic Warfare Systems on Its New F-16s

Aug. 26, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

The F-16 fighters Ukraine is receiving from its Western partners got a boost in their electronic warfare capabilities from the U.S. Air Force, the service revealed Aug. 26.

The Air Force worked with Denmark and Norway to reprogram the EW systems on the F-16s those countries and the Netherlands are providing to Ukraine. The U.S. military had not previously acknowledged contributing its electronic warfare expertise to Ukraine’s F-16s.

“To effectively integrate the F-16 into the Ukrainian Air Force, its EW subsystems required reprogramming to be effective against evolving Russian threats in the spectrum,” the 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, the Air Force’s leading electronic warfare unit, said in a news release.

Russia and Ukraine jam GPS guidance systems and engage in other forms of electronic warfare in a cat-and-mouse battle to degrade the effectiveness of everything from cheap drones to cruise missiles.

“Both Ukraine and Russia’s militaries heavily rely on unfettered access to the electromagnetic spectrum to achieve commander objectives and both sides have continuously engaged in EW through techniques such as jamming and spoofing throughout the war to achieve spectrum superiority,” the 350th SWW said in its release.

Ukraine’s first F-16s were unveiled by Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Aug. 4, ending a lengthy wait for the Western fighters Kyiv says it needs to defend its airspace from Russia.

Led by the 68th Electronic Warfare Squadron, the work required a great deal of adaptability since the USAF specialists had to learn an unfamiliar EW system and then optimize it, relying on data from Denmark and Norway.

“Most reprogramming centers would have said ‘no way’ when approaching this challenge; it’s uncharted policy,” the 68th Electronic Warfare Squadron chief engineer, who was not named, said in the release.

The Air Force said it developed new processes and approaches to understand the EW system that is installed on the F-16s and reprogram it to counter against Russian threats. The improved system was then tested in a “partner-nation lab” along with “coalition teammates” according to the release. The aim was to “test and verify the unique elements required by the Ukrainians” of its F-16s.

“This is not our standard operating procedure,” said the 68th EWS director, who was also not named. “The fact that the team was able to figure out the system in two weeks, go in country with a partner to develop a best-ever mission data file is unheard of and is thanks to the talent here in the squadron and the wing.”

The Biden administration signed off on the Europeans’ decision to provide Ukraine with F-16s in August 2023 amid pressure from allies. The U.S. is not proving its own F-16s but must agree to the transfer of U.S.-made weapons. There are a host of other unanswered questions, including how the planes will be maintained, the full range of munitions that will be used to arm them, and what missions they will perform.

All told, allies have promised to give Ukraine more than 60 F-16s, though the process will be gradual. The U.S. has said it will train a dozen Ukrainian pilots with the Arizona Air National Guard by the end of the fiscal year. Some of those pilots have graduated from that training, but the military has declined to provide specific numbers, citing operational security.

The jets on display Aug. 4 were mounted with what appeared to be AIM-120 AMRAAM radar-guided medium-range, air-to-air missiles, and AIM-9 Sidewinder infrared short-range air-to-air missiles, or their inert training variants.

The F-16s Ukraine put on public display were also mounted with what appeared to be an electronic countermeasures pod.

Ukraine is now being added as a foreign military sales case for the 68th EWS, meaning the unit will “provide reprogramming capabilities based on feedback from the Ukrainians,” the wing said in its release.

Instead of feedback from the Ukrainians in training, future reprogramming will rely on “combat-tested data,” it added.

“One F-16 with a reprogrammed pod won’t achieve air dominance alone, but it may give you a pocket of air superiority for a moment’s time to achieve an objective that has strategic importance and impact,” the 68th Electronic Warfare Squadron’s director said in the release.

Allvin Takes Aim at New Area for Re-Optimization: Family Readiness

Aug. 25, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force’s sweeping effort to re-optimize for Great Power Competition needs to extend to families, Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin wrote in a memo last week, urging Airmen, their loved ones, and community leaders to prepare for a potential conflict or contingency.

When Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall first announced the review in September 2023 that would culminate in two dozen decisions announced earlier this year, readiness for competition with the likes of China and Russia was a frequent theme.

That push, Allvin wrote in an Aug. 16 letter addressed to Airmen, families, and community partners, would be “incomplete without a parallel focus on family readiness.”

The costs of not being prepared, he added, are clear.

“As a squadron commander during the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, I was struck by how collectively unprepared we were for the changing environment from a family readiness perspective,” Allvin wrote in the Aug. 16 memo. “We cannot afford to be in that situation again.”

From that experience, Allvin added, he formulated three “insights”:

The need for family members to understand the mission of their service member and the broader Air Force.

Strong connections within the community and support programs before a crisis.

Preparing families to take action as needed when their service member is executing their duties.

Allvin touted several moves the Air Force has already made to build family readiness.

One major change was to the Key Spouse Program announced this spring. Now called the Commander’s Key Support Program, the effort identifies volunteers who welcome new families, connect families to support programs, provide deployment assistance, and more. Previously, the program was only open to military spouses, but the Air Force has now opened up positions to anyone. The program is also implementing new training, tools, templates, and objectives.

“Our goal is to create a culture where support programs are ready to surge when needed,” Gina Allvin, wife of the Chief of Staff, said at the time. “When service members and their families understand the resources available to them, it makes navigating challenging times easier for the entire base community.”

Krista Cox, a Family Child Care provider, gives a tour of her home to U.S. Air Force Col. Ryan A. F. Crowley, commander of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling and the 11th Wing, following the opening of the newest Family Child Care home at JBAB, Washington, D.C., July 10, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Hayden Hallman

The service “reshaped” its Relocation Assistance Program to prepare service members and their families for permanent changes of station, Allvin said. It also implemented a “Connect to Care” approach for victims of interpersonal violence, a move former Undersecretary of the Air Force Gina Ortiz Jones often referred to as a “no wrong door” policy—different support agencies are supposed to connect victims with the proper program with a “warm handoff” rather than simply redirecting them.

Still more changes are coming, Allvin added. The Air Force currently has two programs, True North and Operational Support Teams, that are meant to embed teams of spiritual, emotional, behavioral, and physical health professionals within units. Those programs will be combined, “centralizing unit resources and enabling allocation and re-allocation based on unit risk data and evolving mission priorities,” Allvin wrote.

Beyond those efforts, Allvin also called for service members, their families, and communities to work on family readiness together.

Air & Space Forces Association president and CEO retired Lt. Gen. Burt Field said he supported Allvin’s efforts and focus on family readiness.

“Without ready families, you won’t have ready Airmen and Guardians,” said Field. “We know that family readiness and mission readiness are directly linked. That’s why we are so committed to helping the Department of the Air Force ensure Airmen, Guardians, and their families have the quality of life they deserve and are well-supported at home, whether in peace or wartime.”

In a First, USAF RQ-4 Global Hawk to Operate from UK

Aug. 23, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

An Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk flew into RAF Fairford on Aug. 22 for a deployment of an undisclosed duration, U.S. Air Forces in Europe announced. The deployment—the first for a Global Hawk to the United Kingdom—will practice aspects of the Agile Combat Employment model, the command said.

The intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance drone “will conduct operations through international and Allied airspace in accordance with international norms and standards,” USAFE said in a release. The Air Force also operates a detachment of U-2 Dragon Lady crewed ISR aircraft from Fairford.

In the U.S., the FAA requires that autonomous aircraft must fly within approved corridors. An Air Force official said the U.K.’s counterpart entity, the Civilian Aviation Authority, established such a corridor for an uncrewed aircraft like the Global Hawk earlier this year. Global Hawk flights from Fairford will likely be timed for nighttime hours to minimize the impact on civilian air traffic in the vicinity, as the aircraft climbs to or descends from its 50,000-foot operating altitude, the official said.

The RQ-4 deployed from Sigonella Naval Air Station on the Italian island of Sicily and followed a circuitous route to Fairford, which took it over Finland, Norway, and Sweden. NATO operates five RQ-4D “Phoenix” aircraft from Sigonella.

The NATO aircraft are equipped with the Multi-Platform Radar Technology Insertion Program (MP-RTIP) and synthetic aperture radar ground surveillance radars. The Air Force’s RQ-4 Block 40, the last variant still in service, also employs the MP-RTIP for ground surveillance. It can also track cruise missiles. The Air Force RQ-4 fleet of nine aircraft—out of an original inventory of 45—is funded to remain in service through fiscal 2027, when the type is slated to retire.

The deployment is also part of USAFE’s efforts “to diversify operating locations and enhance integration with NATO allies,” the command said in a press release.

Agile Combat Employment will come into play as the aircraft is “dispersed from typical operating locations to alternate airfields to enhance survivability,” USAFE said, though it could not immediately be reached to explain how ACE will be practiced with the Global Hawk or how much of a support contingent is needed for the aircraft.

The 501st Combat Support Wing at Fairford has supported other recent deployments, such as a B-52 Bomber Task Force which operated from the base earlier this year.