Secretary Kendall’s Plan: Lessons From the Cold War, More Engineers

Aug. 9, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

When Frank Kendall got a call from the White House asking if he could return to the Pentagon to lead the Department of the Air Force, he didn’t need long to think it over.

Kendall, who left public service in 2016 after leading Defense Department acquisition for four years, knew becoming the department’s top civilian was a chance to help address a growing national security problem about which he’d been sounding the alarm for more than a decade.

“The short answer is, I thought I could make a contribution to our national security,” Kendall told Air Force Magazine in an exclusive interview, his first since starting as Air Force Secretary. “I’ve been obsessed, or, if you will, very concerned maybe would be a better way to say it, with Chinese military modernization since 2010. And I think we have made some progress in addressing that problem. But, there’s a lot more that can be done.”

‘Capability had atrophied’

Kendall has spent almost 50 years working in military acquisition. A West Point graduate and former soldier, Kendall oversaw weapons buying in the Pentagon in the Obama administration. He said he came of age in the Cold War, a time when the U.S. was toe-to-toe with a great power, and that history, in some ways, is repeating itself now—and the military needs to adjust.

“I spent the first 20 years of my career in the Cold War working on some of the types of issues that we’re actually confronted with now: a peer competitor who is acting very aggressively to try to defeat us, and responding to that,” Kendall said. “One of the things that we did then, routinely and in great depth, was operational analysis—modeling and analysis to support requirements decisions. And I noticed when I came back in 2010 … that we weren’t doing that. That capability had atrophied. So, one of the things I hope to do is recreate some of that or expand on the capabilities that we have now.”

‘Better decisions’

Kendall takes over an Air Force in flux, with a budget proposal that aims to reshape the service’s fleet lacking momentum on Capitol Hill and in a Pentagon beginning to draft its next National Security Strategy.

When Kendall left DOD acquisition, programs such as the B-21 and the Air Force’s Next Generation Air Dominance system were nascent and the F-35 faced an uncertain future. With new initiatives taking root, such as the service’s Advanced Battle Management System and the DOD’s overarching joint all-domain command and control concept, Kendall said he wants the Air Force to focus on emerging tech to compete.

“The obvious one that people talk a lot about is artificial intelligence and autonomous capabilities,” he said. “But there are others. There’s some sensing advantages that are coming along—there are opportunities there. Things like cognitive radar and cognitive [electronic warfare]. There are things that allow us to take some commercial technologies and communicate much more effectively and process data much more effectively, that allow us to make better decisions—various parts of an engagement scenario, if you will. And I think that we can mature that technology very quickly and get it applied to military problems.”

‘Not outrageous amounts of risk’

On specific platforms, Kendall is coy. On the day of the interview, he rushed from briefing to briefing with meetings overlapping each other in the Pentagon’s E ring of offices belonging to senior officials, taking a brief respite to talk to a journalist. The meeting prior was on the state of the B-21 Raider program.

“I actually walked in here from a brief on it, but that really doesn’t mean I can tell you anything about it,” he joked, before adding the Air Force’s position that it is performing “reasonably well. What I’ve seen suggests that that’s the case, so I’m encouraged by that. But again, we still have a long way to go.”

Throughout his career, including as the DOD’s lead on acquisition, Kendall said he looked at “literally hundreds if not more, a thousand maybe, programs.” His view is to structure programs “to get to that objective of meaningful military capability as quickly as possible and as efficiently as possible,” though the department’s track record in recent years is spotty at best—the F-35 and KC-46 stand out as examples.

“Cost and schedule overruns disrupt everybody … they cause lots of problems, and I try to avoid those, but do so in an approach that takes some risk, but not outrageous amounts of risk,” Kendall said.

“And what I’ve seen in part, I think in the last few years, is situations where people are going very, very quickly, but not necessarily in the right direction and not necessarily very efficiently. If you’re running fast in the wrong direction, you’re not making progress. And if you’re running as if you’re in a sprint when you’re actually in a marathon, you’re not going to do very well either. So, getting what we do right is first, and then doing it in the most efficient way is second, and in this position, I’m going to be focused on both.”

‘Largely a leadership problem’

Kendall is quick to say, however, that his job isn’t just acquisition. He’s the Secretary, and he’s working on initiatives in other areas, such as personnel and retention. Following in-depth disparity reviews focusing on the problems minority Airmen face, Kendall said wants to ensure that “every Airman and Guardian is treated with dignity and respect and [that] we have a culture in which that is the norm and anything else is not accepted.” Barriers to service that some Airmen face are “largely a leadership problem to me, and we need to address it at every level, and we need to address it constantly.”

The Department of the Air Force needs to be able to “tap into all the human capital potential that’s out there, wherever it may come from.” An engineer by trade, Kendall said his view is that expertise needs a bigger role in service. “One thing that I think we need to do is make sure we have more engineers. We need to have people who are technically astute. We’re in a technological competition, in part, and developing technologies and then applying them more effectively than our potential adversaries is key to success. And what I described is engineering.”

‘Back in that game’

While the fiscal 2022 budget process is playing out on Capitol Hill, the Air Force is in the middle of preparing its fiscal 2023 budget. While much of that work took place before Kendall came in, he said he took the role “when I could be most influential—I think it’s fair to say that I may have just made it” and is making changes.

“It’s been a pretty hectic first 10 days,” he said. “Now, I’ve had great support from the staff. That’s been very encouraging, and we’re working our way through that. So, it’s possible that I’ll make some different recommendations than the Air Force did or would have made before I came.”

On the date of the interview, Aug. 6, Kendall was wrapping up his 10th day in office. He said he was surprised how fast he could adjust back to the “Pentagon pace of doing business—to 12- and 14-hour days and not getting much sleep. And going from one subject to the other, and the intensity of what we’re trying to do here, coupled with its importance.”

“I actually like working in the Pentagon. There aren’t many people that would say that out loud,” he said. “But, as in the show ‘Hamilton,’ this is the room where it happens. In fact, this is the building where it happens. This is where we decide. … This is where we’re going to do the things and make the decisions that are going to keep us safe and free—or not. And it’s an honor, it’s an awesome amount of responsibility I have, and it’s very humbling to be back in that game after a four-year hiatus. But it’s also incredibly stimulating and rewarding and fulfilling. I feel like when I walked in the building, … there I was back in the game, just like that.”

Cyberattacks on Commercial Space Are Inevitable, Deputy SPACECOM Boss Warns

Aug. 9, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

It is “only a matter of time” before cybercriminals and bad actors start launching attacks on commercial space assets, the deputy commander of U.S. Space Command warned Aug. 9.

Space Force Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw, speaking at the virtual Small Satellite Conference, predicted that as commercial space becomes an increasingly active and crowded sector, there will be increased “interoperability” between assets in orbit so that satellites from different government agencies, private companies, and academic institutions can better connect and communicate.

But because the cyber and space realms are so intertwined—Shaw referred to them as “BFFs,” an initialism for best friends forever—the threats facing cyber will come for space as well.

“I hate to be a negative-looking predictor, but I think it’s only a matter of time before we see some of the same cyber challenges … that we’ve seen threaten really have some sort of manifestation in the space domain, whether it’s a ransomware attack on a commercial space system or some sort of infiltration of a control system of a commercial constellation,” Shaw said.

In response to those potential threats, SPACECOM boss Gen. James H. Dickinson has prioritized cybersecurity and resilience “for our basic capabilities, because they are so reliant on cyber technologies, and therefore may be vulnerable to those kinds of things,” Shaw said.

“Anyone who has been working with U.S. Space Command or U.S. Space Force or another part of the Department of Defense on space capabilities, you know we are continually asking, ‘How is this going to be cyber resilient? How are you building it in at the beginning, at the very beginning? How are you baking in cyber defense mechanisms into your capability that you’re building?’” Shaw said. “We can’t do future space capabilities without acknowledging the cutting edge of cyber, both the threats but also the defenses and the capabilities there that need to be woven in.”

Another key aspect for ensuring safety in space, Shaw predicted, will be the development of “rules of the road for behavior.” It’s been a common refrain among top defense officials—Dickinson called for international norms to be established in space Aug. 3 during the Navy League of the United States’ annual Sea-Air-Space Exposition, and last month, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III signed a memo pledging to have the Pentagon follow a framework of rules for behavior in space.

In particular, though, Shaw focused on the issue of space traffic management. At the moment, the Defense Department is responsible for tracking thousands of satellites and pieces of debris in orbit. It has long planned to transfer that duty to the Department of Commerce, but the switch has been slow, and while Shaw said he believes it is “on the brink of happening,” it is far from complete.

“I think we will get there—it’s just a matter of how and when and getting the resources lined up in organizations,” Shaw said. “We’ve actually been working with the Department of Commerce for a number of years now on potentially doing just that. I think we just have to hit that inflection point.”

The development of norms and rules in the commercial sector, Shaw said, will be welcomed by institutions.

“Ninety-eight percent or more of people operating in space are going to want to buy into that because it lowers the risk of the challenges for their venture,” Shaw said.

Aerospace Corp. Sees Need for Tools to Test Black Box Software in Spacecraft

Aug. 9, 2021 | By Shaun Waterman

“In space,” read a T-shirt worn by one attendee at the DEF CON hacker conference in Las Vegas last week, “no one can hear you get hacked.” And, increasingly, no one can independently test your software to root out vulnerabilities, according to a presentation there by The Aerospace Corp.’s top cybersecurity expert Brandon Bailey.

With the growing commercialization of space, Bailey pointed out, more and more space systems are running commercial, proprietary, closed-source computer programs, which he characterized as “black box software” because no one outside the company that produces it can get access to the source code.

“Go and ask SpaceX if you can analyze the source code for the Falcon 9—they’re probably not going to let you,” Bailey told Air Force Magazine in an interview.

He contrasted this with more traditional space systems, often using government- or contractor-designed custom software to which engineers and researchers had much greater access.

“In the past, we were operating with more of a white box mentality. And we had full source code access at times,” he told the audience in his presentation. “So we’re trying to figure out, how do we tackle this problem moving forward as we are getting more and more black box software to perform mission-critical activities” in space.

The issue will grow more urgent as more commercial, off-the-shelf technology is deployed in both government and private-sector space systems, he said.

Black box software is a cybersecurity issue, experts say, because one of the main ways to root out vulnerabilities in software—the flaws in a program that let hackers break into and take over computer systems—is to analyze the source code. This is known as static analysis.

When the source code is installed, it is compiled into what’s called a binary—a file of machine language, the 1s and 0s that actually run the computer. Because they’re compiled into machine language, binaries are not amenable to traditional static analysis.

With proprietary software for conventional computers, such as the Windows or Mac operating systems, Bailey explained, cybersecurity researchers can get around this problem quite simply. They just load the software onto a PC with any associated peripherals, such as printers, and switch it on. They can then analyze the binary as it is running—a process known as dynamic analysis.

But in space systems, the software programs generally don’t run on conventional computers such as PCs. Instead, they tend to be embedded in exotic hardware such as the nozzles that control fuel flow or the motors that move an antenna. “When that black box mentality extends itself to spacecraft, and embedded systems, that can be a problem because … with embedded systems, you need the targeted hardware to run it on,” explained Bailey.

He described to the audience at DEF CON a number of different workarounds for this problem—tools that could perform static analysis on binaries, for example.

Bailey said he had been researching the topic, on and off, for “the last few years” but had found only a handful of tools. “For embedded processors and spacecraft, it’s such a niche market. There’s not a whole lot of capabilities out there that can really unpack all these niche architectures that we would see on a spacecraft,” he said.

The issue was that there wasn’t a mass market. “From a commercial perspective, you have got to have a lot of users to make it beneficial from a cost benefit point of view to produce some sort of products or tools to do things.”

Bailey said the automotive industry provided a possible model. “More and more software is being executed on your car, … and the car manufacturers are accepting risk from all [this software] that they don’t know about.” Driven by concerns about their liability for software flaws, automotive manufacturers were seeking to develop tools for, among other things, static analysis of binaries, Bailey said.

“So I see that very interesting parallel with space as we move into this commercialization and start pulling products off the shelf,” he said.

News about Chinese Silos Highlights Need for USAF to Accelerate Change, Brown Says

Aug. 6, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. highlighted the “catastrophic” implications if the Air Force does not change fast enough to keep up with China but added that recent public information about the buildup of Chinese intercontinental ballistic missile silos will help generate the public support he needs.

“It’s kind of good that it’s out there so folks see the pace of change from our adversary,” Brown said in a gaggle after he spoke at the National Press Club on Aug. 6. “It actually helps to validate what we’ve been talking about, why we need this capability.”

In recent weeks, research groups studying satellite imagery of a desert in western China have spotted more than 100 new silos for intercontinental ballistic missiles, The Economist reported.

Brown said China could overcome U.S. air superiority by 2035, noting how change has largely stalled in the Air Force. When he commissioned in 1984, the United States was developing a new fighter jet every two-and-a-half years. Only four fighter jets have been developed since, he said.

That reality stares at him every day that he walks into the Pentagon.

“There’s a very stark print that I get to look at every day when I come into the Pentagon,” Brown said of the graphic “Wings Through Time” by Robert Emerson Bell that depicts every aircraft ever used in the Air Force as if seen from above. Dozens of planes fly in a chronological transition and color scheme from deep brown to Air Force blue.

Brown specifically described two aircraft on that spectrum: the B-52 and the KC-135. “You look at them on that print—they are closer to the Wright flyer than they are to today. That tells you something about our United States Air Force and how we can change,” he said.

But it’s not about the wow factor of modern weapons or the size of the force—USAF must have the “right mix” of capabilities to defeat China, he said.

There is an urgency to finding that balance, he argued, and the politics of keeping legacy systems or a sizable fleet of older aircraft must be abandoned. That is something China has already done, Brown added.

“They cut the less relevant parts of their force to invest in the part of the force they need to gain an advantage,” he said.

The result is a strategic growth now challenging the U.S. in the Pacific.

“The People’s Liberation Army has the largest aviation forces in the Pacific, the largest conventional missile capability in the Pacific. They are building hypersonic missiles, and they’ve established bases and military strategic points,” he said.

Brown said China has done it all “underneath our nose,” including the “slow and insidious” construction of landing strips and capabilities on South China Sea islands that will allow them to project forward a defense of the mainland.

The U.S. Air Force, meanwhile, must rely on partners and allies in the region who are increasingly bullied by Chinese economic might. U.S. aviators must also learn to operate in a more “austere” environment with simple landing strips and prepositioned capabilities.

The Air Force is the oldest and smallest it’s ever been, yet Brown acknowledged the service might have to get even smaller in order to bring the new technologies that will enable it to compete against peer adversaries such as China.

“I’d rather have a smaller capable force than a larger, hollow force,” he said. “The United States Air Force has some tough decisions as we go forward to make sure we have the capabilities that will be competitive against the threat.”

Part of developing that capability will be to retire single-mission platforms such as the A-10 to invest in multi-mission aircraft capable of operating in a denied environment.

Brown also called for continued investment in the service’s Advanced Battle Management System, which connects sensors and shooters, and to modernize the nuclear triad, though some liberal lawmakers are pushing to scale back the latter due to its high price tag.

In May, Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.), the chairman of the House Armed Services readiness subcommittee and a member of the strategic forces subcommittee, argued USAF should “pause” any major recapitalization of its ICBM fleet, insisting the Minuteman III could be life-extended and still be viable through the 2030s. However, senior military leaders argue time is up: The U.S. must modernize its nuclear forces now or risk losing credibility.

One rationale for cutting or delaying the Air Force’s Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent (GBSD), the replacement for the 50-year-old Minuteman III ICBM system, is that China possesses a small number of ICBMs. The new satellite imagery reveals an ambition to vastly expand that capability.

“My concern is that China continues to increase their capabilities at a [fast] rate of change, as far as numbers of particularly aircraft and missiles and ranges of missiles,” Brown said. “We need to get moving at the same pace, if not faster.”

USAF-Related Foreign Military Sales to Surpass Last Year Despite Pandemic

Aug. 6, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Foreign Military Sales of Air Force-developed equipment in fiscal 2021 will likely surpass 2020 levels, despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Brig. Gen. Brian R. Bruckbauer, director of the Air Force’s Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate, told reporters Aug. 5.

Air Force FMS sales were $17 billion in 2019 and increased to $24.8 billion in 2020. Bruckbauer said FMS sales as of June 30 were $7.9 billion, and the directorate is expecting to eclipse last year’s figure, he said during the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Life Cycle Industry Days virtual seminar.

“Even with a global pandemic, Foreign Military Sales continues to be somewhat brisk,” he said. Slowdowns are related mostly to countries where “national budgets are driven by tourism,” so they are more affected by the travel downturn. But with “a lot of the larger partners we deal with, [there was] not much of a change, even during COVID,” he added. The directorate has a backlog of “$226 billion in active FMS casework,” and some $41 billion of FMS cases are “on offer,” meaning they are ready to execute but the customer has yet to “sign on the dotted line.”

The directorate has seen about an 11 percent annual growth in work, and its workforce has been able to “flex” with that changing demand, Bruckbauer said.

Most of the contracts have to do with F-35s, A-29s, F-16s, F-15s, and MQ-9s, as well as assorted munitions, he said. The directorate also works with the Defense Logistics Agency on spare parts, logistics, and sustainment of systems sold through FMS, he added.

It also manages the “Worldwide Warehouse Redistribution Service,” or WWRS, which Bruckbauer described as a kind of “eBay” for spare parts and equipment. When a nation is looking to divest spare parts for aircraft or systems it no longer operates or if it has downsized, that country can offer the items for sale through the WWRS, and the directorate can “facilitate that,” he said.

The program “has been a success,” and the Defense Security Cooperation Agency, which funds the U.S. Air Force’s FMS activities, “is looking to do even more with that,” added Bruckbauer.

The Air Force wants to help the customers any way it can. “The last thing we want to see is for these very significant capabilities [to] become static displays,” he added.

Bruckbauer said there is $1.53 billion on offer in munitions, but his team said that did not mark a substantive uptick from previous years. Heidi Grant, when she took over as head of the Defense Security Cooperation Agency in 2018, said she would urge FMS customers to take advantage of high production rates and low unit costs to restock their munitions inventories. This year, the Air Force sharply reduced its budget request for direct-attack munitions, saying it reached its own restocking objectives.

He also said the Air Force has recently transferred some ex-USAF C-130s to partners under what’s called the “ramp for ramp” program.

“We are going to take a stronger look at how we’re advertising to partners what the third-party transfer menu looks like,” he said, referring to U.S.-type aircraft that may be in the boneyard or with countries seeking to divest.

“So, in the coming months, I think we’ll be working on a better way to share that with our partners so they know what’s available.”

The recent purchases of F-16s for the Adversary Air role don’t go through Bruckbauer’s organization, he said, but are “direct commercial sales” by the countries selling the jets.

On the recent sale of the F-35 to the United Arab Emirates, a letter of acceptance has been signed by the UAE, but it has not provided the deposit money, Bruckbauer’s staff said. The Biden administration is reviewing the sale.

Lack of JADC2 Coordination Across Services is ‘Recipe for Disaster,’ Analyst Warns

Aug. 6, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Defense Department is setting up a “recipe for disaster” if it does not establish a joint program executive office to coordinate joint all-domain command and control efforts across services, a top defense analyst is warning.

In a brief published by the Center for Strategic and International Studies on Aug. 5, Todd Harrison, director of the center’s Aerospace Security Project, argued that DOD’s current approach risks individual services, combatant commands, and agencies all developing “multiple stove-piped networks that do not allow the kind of interoperability and resilience that would be possible with a more coordinated approach.”

A prime example of that risk, Harrison told Air Force Magazine in an interview, is the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System. While Air Force leaders envision ABMS as a whole new approach to command and control that will be central to larger JADC2 efforts, Army leaders have expressed skepticism that it will be able to scale widely enough to meet their needs.

“In ABMS, the Air Force is developing a system that may work well for connecting a few thousand aircraft, but the same system may not work well for connecting hundreds of thousands of soldiers (and their equipment) on the ground,” Harrison wrote in his brief. “And if the Army and Navy develop their own independent battle networks, connecting them to ABMS may end up being an afterthought or, worse, an unfunded requirement.”

The Army’s doubts about ABMS come even after the Air Force and Army reached a two-year agreement in October 2020 to work more closely together on their respective JADC2 efforts—the Army has dubbed its venture “Project Convergence.”

Those concerns, Harrison said, speak less to potential flaws in ABMS and more to the broader problem of coordination.

“I think the fact that the Army is publicly voicing its concerns that ABMS is not going to meet their needs just reflects the fact that the Air Force doesn’t really have a mandate to build a system that will meet the needs of the Army and the Navy and the other services,” Harrison said.

“The Air Force’s mandate is to build its own system, and so I think that that is a role and a mission that is an organizational problem that needs to be addressed right away.”

Establishing a joint program office, Harrison added, would ensure efforts are properly funded and synchronized. And as part of that office, one service would have to take the lead.

“I think the Air Force [or the] Space Force could lead this, because a lot of this is going to happen in or through space,” Harrison said. “But they’ve got to pick someone and put them in charge of that, [and] have representatives from all the other services so that they can advocate for their work environment, but if you don’t have a single belly button in charge … then it’s a recipe for disaster.”

In his brief, Harrison noted five “layers” to JADC2—sensors, communications, processing, decision, and effects. As part of that process, he wrote, many sensors will be air- or space-based, and much of the communication will likely involve space as services turn to free-space laser communication, also called lasercom.

“One of the key challenges we face is adversaries using electromagnetic warfare to disrupt our communication systems, and lasercom is much more resilient to interference, just because of the nature of it, … so I think that makes it very important,” Harrison said.The Air Force explored the possibility of lasercom communication with its Transformational Satellite Communications System started in 2003, but the program was eventually cut in 2009. Harrison noted, however, that the technology has been utilized in several recent projects from various private and public agencies.

AMC Frees Up KC-46 for More Refueling Operations

Aug. 6, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Air Mobility Command on Aug. 6 announced it is freeing up the KC-46 for more operations, allowing the tanker to refuel C-17s, B-52s, and other KC-46s in some circumstances.

It is the second “interim capability release” for the troubled tanker. AMC last month cleared it to refuel aircraft with its centerline drogue. In February, AMC said allowing KC-46s to pick up some of the tanker load in non-combat tasks can free up legacy KC-135s and KC-10s to fill more of those responsibilities.

AMC boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, in announcing the plan in February, said, “under this new approach, if AMC is tasked to provide [aerial refueling] support for an operational coronet mission to move F-18s overseas or an operational B-52 mission, the KC-46 is on the table, which frees up KC-135s and KC-10s to execute other combatant command deployments that the KC-46A is presently unable to support with its existing deficiencies.”

As of July, KC-46s have flown more than 5,000 sorties, with 2,700 of those this year. The command reviewed the tanker’s operational criteria in recent months and determined it was ready for more taskings from U.S. Transportation Command, said Brig. Gen. Ryan R. Samuelson, AMC’s deputy director of strategy, plans, requirements, and programs and the KC-46 cross-functional team lead, in a release.

“Though a fully-mission capable aircraft is a few years away, releasing capability our KC-46 bases have demonstrated they can safely and effectively support and employ is a large part of how AMC is accelerating the KC-46 on the path to becoming fully operational and combat-ready,” Samuelson said.

There’s no timeline for the next announcement, according to AMC. The capability releases come as the command and other leaders determine the tanker can conduct more operations, based on the abilities of the crews and data from recent operations.

Since October 2020, KC-46s have conducted more than 4,700 refueling contacts with C-17s, B-52s, and other KC-46s, according to AMC.

The command, in announcing the ICR plan, said it aimed to pick up the refueling load in taskings for training, exercises, and some “coronet” deployments—carrying fighters or other aircraft on their deployments outside of the U.S. The KC-46s will not deploy for combat operations until fully operational.

There are still several Category 1 deficiencies on the tanker, defined as those that may affect pact the safety of flight. The most notable ones are with the tanker’s troubled Remote Vision System, which is being overhauled with a 2.0 version expected to become operational in 2023, and with the tanker’s “stiff” refueling boom, which is blocking it from refueling A-10s.

The Air Force in June announced two more Category 1 deficiencies, which are being fixed at Boeing’s expense. These center on instability with the aircraft’s Flight Management System software and its receptacle drain tubes. Boeing has a design fix in place and is “working through the process to get that finalized and then get it through the system,” said Paul Waugh, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s executive officer for mobility and training aircraft, during an Aug. 3 virtual event. “I think those two latest fixes … are well on track to be in resolve.”

RQ-4 Global Hawk Drone Crashes in North Dakota

Aug. 6, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

An RQ-4 Global Hawk crashed several miles away from Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., on Aug. 6, the Air Force announced.

The unmanned aircraft went down in a rural field near Gilby, N.D., and no injuries were reported. According to the Grand Forks Herald, a fire was extinguished at the scene.

The cause of the crash or the current status of the drone have not yet been released, but the 319th Reconnaissance Wing is on site for recovery operations and an investigation, which could take several weeks, Vice Commander Col. Jeremy Fields said in a statement.

The Global Hawk that crashed was a Block 40 variant, one of just 10 in the Air Force fleet, all of which are stationed at Grand Forks. The Block 40 variant achieved initial operational capability in August 2016 and can fly up to 60,000 feet. It is used for high-altitude intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance.

RQ-4s have been at the center of some of the Air Force’s recent budget disputes with Congress—on several occasions, the legislature has blocked or placed limits on the service’s attempts to retire some of the ISR drones. In its most recent budget request, the service asked to retire 20 Global Hawks. Air Force leaders have said the drone cannot survive in contested environments and projected that its successor will be available by the end of the 2020s.

The Aug. 6 crash marks the third time in the past 18 months that an Air Force drone has gone down. Pilots deliberately crashed an MQ-9A Reaper in June 2020 after the aircraft suffered a major fuel leak while flying over Africa, and another MQ-9 crashed that same month in Syracuse, N.Y., when its pilot mixed up the controls.

As Air Force Ramps Up JASSM, Work Begins on its Replacement

Aug. 5, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

“Preliminary” discussions and “early development work” about how to pursue the next long-range conventional stealth missile are underway, even as the Air Force ramps up production of the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, or JASSM, said Brig. Gen. Heath A. Collins, head of the service’s armament directorate.

“We’re in initial conversations on what happens after JASSM,” Collins told reporters Aug. 4, calling the discussions “very preliminary” and giving no timetable as to when the Air Force would want a JASSM successor. It will be looked at “in the years to come,” he said. Lockheed Martin, which makes JASSM, recently built a new production facility in Troy, Ala., to increase capacity. It could open for work as soon as October. Collins said the new facility will “increase our production rate.”

In the meantime, the Air Force is “still in the midst of getting as many JASSMs as we can into our inventory, to meet our objective,” Collins said during a media roundtable during the online Air Force Life Cycle Industry Days.

The Air Force got 400 of the missiles in its enacted fiscal 2021 budget after buying 390 in 2020. The service requested 525 in its 2022 budget proposal.

The Air Force only has a “small ramp-up” planned for the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile (LRASM) variant of JASSM, Collins said. He declined to say why the service is only buying a small handful of LRASMs, saying only that requirements are determined by the Air Staff. Not as many Long-Range Anti-Ship Missiles will be needed as Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles because “of the target set we’re going after.”

The JASSM-ER (extended range) is the preferred version, and the Air Force is “transitioning” to the B2 version of the missile while doing “initial … tech insertion” to create a “D” version of the missile, Collins reported, saying the directorate will “continue to evolve” the weapon. The D model provides “more flexibility.”

A Lockheed Martin spokesperson said the Air Force executed a modification to its 2018 JASSM contract Aug. 3, “giving the program the go-ahead for several missile enhancements and capability upgrades that will be cut-in in upcoming production lots.” These will be “formally recognized” with the designation AGM-158B-2, she said. Future variants are being planned, but LMCO left it to the Air Force to discuss their designations. Neither the Air Force nor Lockheed Martin could immediately comment on what new capabilities the updates provide.

Collins said the JASSM also is the preferred munition for Air Force Research Laboratory’s “palletized munition” program, in which an airlift aircraft could launch salvos of missiles, but he could not elaborate on it. “We are supporting [it] from a weapons expertise perspective,” he said.

“We have not started any conversations” with Air Force Global Strike Command about pursuing a conventional version of the in-development Raytheon Technologies AGM-181 Long-Range Stand Off missile, the nuclear successor to the AGM-86B with a range reportedly in excess of 1,800 miles, he said. AFGSC boss Gen. Timothy M. Ray said earlier this year that a conventional version of LRSO would be worth pursuing, just as a conventional version of the air-launched cruise missile was developed and used in conflicts since Operation Desert Storm in 1991. But he said he had not issued a requirement for such a weapon.

Collins could not give any new details about the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile (JATM), revealed at the same conference two years ago, when then-program executive officer Maj. Gen. Anthony W. Genatempo, said it would be ready for tests from the F-22 in 2022. Collins said the Air Force is “pushing forward and executing” the program, but he is restricted from further comment due to its sensitivity. The missile is set to replace the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile sometime this decade and is purported to have a range to compete with China’s new long-range air-to-air missiles such as the PL-15.

Genatempo forecast production lots of JATMs in the hundreds of units and said AMRAAM production will start tailing off as the JATM ramps up. The Air Force’s 2022 budget request included a reduction in AMRAAM production from previous years.

The Air Force is finalizing its acquisition strategy on the Stand-in Attack Weapon (SiAW) and will “move out on that later this year,” Collins said. Although the program started out as a variant of the Northrop Grumman AGM-88G Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile, Collins said the plan will be to open the program up to “a competitive contract.” The AGM-88G is the Navy’s successor to the High-speed Anti-Radiation Missile (HARM).

Although SiAW will be a stand-in weapon, Collins explained that the “extended range” means it can go farther than the initial Advanced Anti-Radiation Guided Missile, but that he could not discuss ranges. “ER on AARGM means something different than ER on JASSM,” he offered.

Collins said the Air Force is aware of various papers published in recent years suggesting the Air Force could get more punch out of its direct-attack munitions by putting range-extending motors on them, noting the service is moving in that direction.

“We have a program [called]… GPAW, the Global Precision Attack Weapon, which is in its early phases, looking at concepts of what the future direct attack weapon looks like,” he said. “And in that study space, there are certainly a number of options [that include] … putting a motor on existing weapons.” The armaments directorate is also looking at the Army/Navy/Marine Corps Joint Air-to-Ground Missile-Fighter, which is a project to replace the Hellfire and Maverick missiles.

Collins said he’s heard the term “fifth-generation weapons for fifth-generation aircraft” but could not bound the term, saying he thinks of hypersonic missiles as the next generation of weapons. Practically all other munitions in USAF’s inventory are being fitted to, or designed to fit in, the F-35, he said, so they all could, technically, be considered “fifth-generation weapons.”