DOD Orders Return to Mask Wearing in Areas of Increased COVID-19 Transmission

DOD Orders Return to Mask Wearing in Areas of Increased COVID-19 Transmission

July 28, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Defense Department is directing the return of masks for all DOD personnel in areas with increasing COVID-19 cases following updated Centers for Disease Control and Prevention guidance.

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks on July 28 issued a memo to all Defense Department personnel directing everyone, regardless of vaccination status, to wear masks while in indoor settings at DOD installations and other facilities “in areas of substantial or high community transmission” as outlined by the CDC.

“Today’s announcement applies to all service members, federal personnel, contractors, and visitors when indoors at all properties owned by the department in those areas, in accordance with updated CDC guidelines,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “All defense personnel should continue to comply with CDC guidance regarding areas where masks should be worn.”

A map of areas with increased COVID-19 transmission is available here.

The CDC on July 27 changed its mask guidance, recommending that even vaccinated individuals wear them in areas of high transmission, as the Delta variant of COVID-19 continues to spread. 

The Pentagon, in May, followed the then-CDC guidance, lifting the mask requirement at DOD facilities.

Some Air Force facilities issued mask mandates in advance of DOD guidance. Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., on July 26 made masks mandatory at the installation as cases rose.

“Every adjustment to our public health measures is carefully considered and not taken lightly,” said Col. Daniel C. Diehl, 509th Bomb Wing commander, in a release. “We take this step with the best interest of our personnel and our mission readiness in mind. All members of our teams are vital to our success and task of providing the nation with persistent strategic deterrence and lethal global strike capability. Everyone’s continued commitment to fighting the spread of COVID-19 is critical.”

House Panels Limit C-130 Retirements, Tackle Ejection Seat Safety in Markups

House Panels Limit C-130 Retirements, Tackle Ejection Seat Safety in Markups

July 28, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

A pair of House Armed Services subcommittees, in markups of the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act, pushed back on some Air Force efforts to divest of legacy platforms while also pressing the service to examine the issue of ejection seat safety.

On July 27, the seapower and projection forces subcommittee released its markup, which includes a provision requiring the Air Force to retain a minimum of 287 C-130 aircraft. In its 2022 budget request, USAF had said it planned to gradually reduce the fleet from just over 300 to 255 airframes while it looked to the future of tactical airlift.

It’s not the first time this budget cycle that the Air Force’s plans to reduce the size of legacy fleets has encountered resistance. The Senate Armed Services Committee included a provision in its markup blocking the service from retiring any A-10s, despite its request to mothball 42 of the older close air support planes.

On July 28, the HASC tactical air and land forces subcommittee released its markup, which would require leaders of geographic combatant commands to each submit a report on “the operational risk to that command posed by the restructuring and inventory divestments projected in the Modernization Plan for Airborne Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance for the Department of the Air Force.”

Similar to its plan to retire legacy aircraft, the Air Force’s plans for ISR in the 2022 budget have previously encountered resistance in Congress. USAF and Defense Department leaders have pushed to cut a number of combat lines for MQ-9 drones while not actually decreasing the number of tails in the fleet. Doing so, they have argued, will free up funds to modernize some drones and invest in future platforms and sensors.

However, lawmakers have pointed to high demand for MQ-9s from combatant commands as proof that divesting now would be a bad idea. The July 28 subcommittee markup would require six combatant commanders to submit their reports on the risks of divesting by March 30, 2022.

One modernization effort the tactical air and land panel did endorse was the Air Force’s push for digital engineering of weapons systems. In particular, the subcommittee’s markup includes language praising the use of digital engineering on the T-7A trainer, which allowed the service to “nearly [eliminate] manufacturing rework and touch-labor hours to assemble the first aircraft.”

As a result, the subcommittee included a provision directing the Secretary of the Air Force to provide a briefing to the committee by Feb. 15, 2022, on how the Air Force can expand its digital engineering efforts to other systems.

The subcommittee also inserted a number of provisions requiring reports or briefings. In particular, the markup would require the Air Force and Navy secretaries “to provide a report to the congressional defense committees on a semiannual basis that would describe the total quantity of ejection seats currently in operational use that are operating with an approved waiver due to deferred maintenance actions or because required parts or components are not available to replace expired parts or components.”

The panel cited two recent incidents involving ejection seat malfunctions due to deferred maintenance or lack of parts, one of which resulted in the pilot’s death—1st Lt. David Schmitz, an F-16 pilot, died at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., in June 2020 when he attempted to land with damaged landing gear and his ejection seat failed to work. 

According to a report from Military.com, the seat had a part that was considered “expired” in February 2019, but the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center approved three extensions allowing it to remain in operation. It was scheduled to finally receive maintenance between July 8 and Aug. 21, 2020.

Elsewhere in the July 28 markup, the tactical air and land subcommittee directed the Secretary of Defense to compile a report on the number of “spinal-fracture and lumbar compression injuries that have occurred during ejections from Department of Defense aircraft between 1985 and present day.”

Currently, data on the number of such injuries is complicated by departments’ different data-sharing policies and reporting methods, the markup states.

Elsewhere in its markup, the subcommittee included a provision requiring the Defense Secretary to “investigate, assess, and implement” any needed changes to the F-35 breathing system after NASA released a report in May detailing the breathing issues faced by pilots.

The subcommittee also directed the comptroller general to submit a report on the current capabilities and requirements and projected shortfalls for the Air Force’s, Navy’s, and Marine Corps’s tactical aircraft fleets. In particular, the report would focus on how each service’s acquisition and modernization efforts, including the Next-Generation Air Dominance project, would address those shortfalls.

The seapower and projection forces subcommittee adopted its markup July 28 by unanimous consent, while the tactical air and land subcommittee is scheduled to meet and approve its markup July 29. The full committee is scheduled to meet for its markup Sept. 1.

Kendall Sworn in as Air Force Secretary

Kendall Sworn in as Air Force Secretary

July 28, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Department of the Air Force’s new boss is now on the job.

Frank Kendall arrived at the Pentagon and was administratively sworn in as the 26th Air Force Secretary on July 28, giving the department its first permanent civilian leader since January.

The Senate confirmed Kendall two days earlier, following a drawn-out confirmation process that included holds from multiple senators.

On July 27, John P. Roth, who had held the role of acting Air Force Secretary since Jan. 20, stepped down from the position. In a message to Airmen and Guardians, Roth wrote that serving for the past six months has been “the honor of a lifetime.”

“I am in constant awe of your incredible work and professionalism—you have made our team stronger and more capable than ever,” Roth wrote. “The Department of the Air Force proved a global pandemic could not shake our resolve to innovate, defend, and protect. America is grateful for your service, and I am honored to have served by your side.”

Roth will now retire from federal service, according to a Defense Department official. His prior position, Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for financial management and comptroller, remains vacant.

Also on July 27, Gina Ortiz Jones swore in as the new undersecretary of the Air Force, giving the Air Force its first permanent No. 2 civilian leader since May 2020.

During his first day, Kendall met with Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen H. Hicks, Ortiz Jones, Roth, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., and Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond.

“With Undersecretary Jones, and alongside Gen. Brown and Gen. Raymond, I will be totally focused on ensuring that our Air and Space Forces can fulfill their missions to defend the nation against our most challenging threats, today and into the future,” Kendall said in a release. “I will do everything I can to strengthen and support the great teams of American Airmen and Guardians who have dedicated themselves to protecting our country.”

Dickinson: Space Command and Cyber Command ‘Inseparable’

Dickinson: Space Command and Cyber Command ‘Inseparable’

July 27, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

U.S. Space Command boss Army Gen. James H. Dickinson said his work is inseparable from that of U.S. Cyber Command but that policy must change to keep up with evolving threats in the cyber domain.

“Given our unique operating environment, there is a special synergy between U.S. Space Command and U.S. CYBERCOM,” Dickinson said July 27 in a virtual discussion hosted by the McCrary Institute and George Washington University’s Space Policy Institute.

“Securing one means securing the other. Operating in one requires operating in the other,” he explained. “That’s why our two combatant commands are so closely aligned—that’s why together they strengthen the backbone of U.S. and allied combat power.”

Dickinson said his Navy service component command has the same leader as that service’s component command for CYBERCOM, Gen. Paul M. Nakasone.

“That fact there lends one to believe that there is great synchronization between the two domains,” he said.

Dickinson said there is no effective U.S. military power without space and cyber.

“There’s no operating in space without cyber. There is no strategic-level cyber capability without space,” he emphasized.

The former chief of Army Space and Missile Defense Command compared the SPACECOM-CYBERCOM nexus with the role of the nuclear triad, deterring war while preparing to fight. In the space domain, he said the two commands would unite to fight a war that starts or extends into space.

“That fight will be a joint, combined, and partnered fight with U.S. Space Command and U.S. CYBERCOM in revolving, supporting, and supported roles,” he said.

Dickinson said that means sometimes SPACECOM provides capabilities to another combatant commander, and sometimes the command takes the lead.

“From a strategic perspective, it doesn’t matter where or even when those distinctions are made as much as it might at a tactical level at a given time,” he said.

Dickinson said to maintain space superiority, the U.S. needs to maintain digital superiority, but he worried that policy bureaucracy could slow the adoption of new technology.

A former senior Pentagon official in national security space told Air Force Magazine that the space and cyber domains are the most likely areas for a conflict with a great power adversary like China.

“Space and cyber are the two areas that I think are most likely to be maybe not flash points, but likely sort of areas where competition could first turn into conflict,” the former official said.

Space Force’s only acknowledged offensive weapon to counter satellites is an electronic warfare one. The Counter Communications System Block 10.2, or CCS, is owned and operated by SPACECOM.

The former official referred to the Defense Intelligence Agency’s 2019 “Challenges to Security in Space” report to discuss the continuum of threats posed by Russia and China from reversible to irreversible.

“Those are the same categories, the same way we would want to be thinking through it on the U.S. side,” the former official said. “Let’s have a range of capabilities from destructive to reversible.”

Dickinson said protecting the American way of life, which relies on space for everything from bank transactions to GPS, requires that America maintain “digital superiority.”

“We’ve got to be able to protect what’s important to us,” he said. “The global economy, all those things that tie into GPS, down to your everyday life, we have to look at how we protect that, how we protect that in a domain that is evolving and changing and adapting.”

The combatant commander said keeping up will require policy to change.

“Policy lags the pace of technology,” Dickinson said. “The problem, though, is that [the] gulf between the theory and the practice is often wide, especially in the space and cyber domains.”

Space and Missile Systems Center Commander Retires Ahead of Changeover to Space Force

Space and Missile Systems Center Commander Retires Ahead of Changeover to Space Force

July 27, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

Air Force Lt. Gen. John F. Thompson announced his retirement July 27 as the longest-serving commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center ahead of its redesignation as the Space Force’s Space Systems Command later this summer.

Thompson paved the way for the standup of the Space Force field command, but he will not hand over the reins but instead retire as commander of the acquisition center at Los Angeles Air Force Base effective Aug. 1 after 36 years in the Air Force.

Over four years at SMC, Thompson oversaw development, delivery, and acquisition of space warfighting capabilities to the tune of $9 billion annually, some 85 percent of the nation’s space budget. Thompson also served as commander of the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, in Air Force Systems Command, in Air Force Materiel Command, and in the Office of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Acquisition.

The SSC standup will not be affected by Thompson’s retirement. Current Vice Commander Brig. Gen. D. Jason Cothern will take over for Thompson until a new three-star general officer is confirmed.

President Biden nominated Maj. Gen. Michael A. Guetlein in July to serve as the first commander of Space Systems Command. Guetlein is currently deputy director at the National Reconnaissance Office. Once SSC is formally stood up, launch operations at Patrick Space Force Base, Fla., and Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., will be realigned under his command.

Space Force did not immediately reply to an inquiry from Air Force Magazine.

USAF to Increase Arctic Investment as Strategy, Wargames Outline Needs in the Region

USAF to Increase Arctic Investment as Strategy, Wargames Outline Needs in the Region

July 27, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force spends around $6 billion a year on systems and priorities focused on the Arctic, a number that is expected to grow as the region’s importance rises and the Department of the Air Force’s first-ever Arctic Strategy hits its one-year anniversary.

While the exact number is difficult to determine, because USAF is a “global Air Force, … our latest estimates are that we’re spending a pretty decent amount, certainly, out of the Department of the Air Force’s budget on things that are clearly related to Arctic security, Arctic operations,” said Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote during a July 27 Wilson Center event on the importance of the region.

That number will grow as the Air Force does things such as modernizing the North Warning System of radar sites, which has been “put off for too long. So we know that we’re going to have to work with our partners in Canada to be able to do that,” he said.

The Air Force, through recent wargames, has found that “We’re not nearly as secure and safe as we may be thinking we are, especially in the avenues of approaches over the Arctic,” Hinote said. The region is the shortest route for competitors, and “our views of the Arctic as a strategic buffer is eroding” because of military actions by Russia and China as well as the impacts of climate change.

Air Force wargames have shown that conflict starts in the region “when one side is doing something that somebody else is not aware of,” demonstrating the importance of awareness across the region, he said. These events have changed the Air Force’s perception. Previous wargames have focused on great power competition in Europe and the Pacific, “and one of the things that we felt like we did not understand as well [was] how that competition would spill over into the Arctic, how our competitors would use the Arctic in a way of doing something strategically bad for the United States and for our allies and partners,” Hinote said.

Arctic nations are collectively seeing the importance of the region militarily and working together on ways to increase these indications and warnings. The U.S. and Norway, for example, are collaborating on launching new polar-orbit satellites to improve space surveillance of the region.

“We also see ways of getting synergy between the investments that our allies and partners are making in things they’re doing as well,” Hinote said. “But I think it’s important that the American people know, it’s not like we’re not spending a decent amount of money up in the Arctic, because there’s a pretty good amount that’s going up there right now.”

The Department of the Air Force is responsible for about 80 percent of the overall Defense Department’s resources to the region, “so we’re up there with some amount of real capability, and that’s an important part to homeland defense.”

The U.S.-and-Norway collaboration is just one example of the cost-sharing opportunities that can increase capability without the Department of the Air Force having to shoulder the entire financial burden, said Lt. Gen. William J. Liquori Jr., the Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs, requirements, and analysis.

“We’re trying to do what we can to maximize the resources that we’re able to deliver to this region, and others, through partnerships as well as our own individual budget in some cases,” he said. “We spend some in our budget, and then a partner spends in their budget as well … ultimately delivering more capability than either of us could do on our own.”

The Department of the Air Force in July 2020 unveiled its first-ever Arctic Strategy, which outlined the importance of the region as Russia builds up its military presence and China looks to normalize its own presence there. As the strategy passes its one-year anniversary, the department is working to implement it. This effort will be a “lifetime effort for us—we got a lot more to go,” Hinote said.

Wilson Center
Pace of US Airstrikes in Afghanistan Increases as Taliban Violence Continues

Pace of US Airstrikes in Afghanistan Increases as Taliban Violence Continues

July 27, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

U.S. aircraft are increasing the pace of airstrikes targeting the Taliban in Afghanistan after nearly all American troops have left the country, as the level of violence in the country continues to rise.

More than 95 percent of the U.S. withdrawal process is complete—a number that has stayed steady over the past several weeks, according to U.S. Central Command’s latest update. CENTCOM boss Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr., during a July 25 visit to Kabul, said the U.S. military’s assistance to Afghan forces also will remain steady as the Aug. 31 deadline for the full withdrawal approaches.

“The United States has increased airstrikes in the support of Afghan forces over the last several days, and we’re prepared to continue this heightened level of support in the coming weeks if the Taliban continue their attacks,” McKenzie said in a CENTCOM release. “I reassured the government that we are continuing to provide airstrikes in defense of ANDSF forces under attack by the Taliban, contract logistics support both here in Kabul and over-the-horizon in the region, funding for them, intelligence sharing, and advising and assisting through security consultations at the strategic level.”

A July 27 release from the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing provides a glimpse of how USAF aircraft are supplying this over-the-horizon strike support.

In recent weeks, about half of the F-15Es from the 494th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron forward deployed to Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, to “support the Resolute Support mission set and improve the defensive posture in the Arabian Peninsula,” said Capt. Trey Pollard, F-15E fighter weapons systems officer with the 494th EFS, in the release.

F-15E missions included “covering routine vulnerability periods, providing alert capability, and other flexible mission sets as necessary,” he said.

For these missions, KC-10 Extenders from the 908th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron worked closely with the 494th. This included a KC-10 flying with F-15Es to Afghanistan and staying with them as a dedicated tanker, the release states. KC-10s also flew to the region to refuel fighters from other bases.

Once the 494th EFS was set to redeploy, a KC-10 brought most of the Airmen and related equipment home and refueled the seven F-15Es on the way back.

“Without the KC-10 to help, they were hard pressed to make the trip all in one go,” 908th EARS Operations Officer Maj. Austin Bentley said in the release. “They would have had to load the cargo and passengers on another grey tail to get the equipment and maintainers and ground personnel back, and would need a KC-135, or even two, to get enough gas to the fighters to make the trip.”

During the press conference in Kabul, McKenzie provided additional insight into how U.S. support for the Afghan Air Force will continue.

“We continue to provide contract maintenance and logistics support here in Kabul to maintain Afghan defense capabilities, including their aviation capability,” he said. “We continue to provide maintenance, advising them from over the horizon, and we’re prepared to execute over-the-horizon aircraft maintenance and refurbishment with aircraft that will be flown to a third country, repaired, and returned to service in Afghanistan with the Afghan Air Force.”

AMC Blocks Tail Flashes for Its KC-46s, Pushing Heritage Aside to Better Manage the Fleet

AMC Blocks Tail Flashes for Its KC-46s, Pushing Heritage Aside to Better Manage the Fleet

July 27, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

For decades, the Air Force gray-tailed aircraft have displayed their home base and heritage with a small graphic on the plane’s tail, but that tradition will come to an end for much of the service’s next-generation tanker fleet.

Air Mobility Command has ended the policy of allowing tail flashes on the Active-duty KC-46s, a step that will make it easier for the command to manage its fleet of tankers from base to base. This means the KC-46s based at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., will not have the white-and-black “MCCONNELL” graphic that the KC-135s had for decades at the base.

“Identifying markers such as tail-flashes need to be repainted when aircraft are reassigned to other bases,” AMC said in a statement. “For example, when KC-135s are transferred to and from Kadena AB, [Japan], to Fairchild [Air Force Base, Wash.,] or McConnell AFB as part of their corrosion management program, their tail flashes need to be repainted.”

The change only applies to the KC-46 because it is the command’s only new fleet of aircraft. All other AMC aircraft already have the tail flashes. AMC, in a statement, said it is also reviewing its policy for placing dedicated crew chief or flying crew chief names on aircraft. KC-135s, for example, often have a black outline with the names of crew chiefs on the fuselage next to command seals.

AMC’s governing document for the policy states that “only mandatory markings are approved and all markings will stay as manufacturer produced. Waivers, changes, or optional marking requests will not be approved.” The only approved markings are the U.S. flag, the National Star, Radio Call Numbers, and “U.S. Air Force” on the fuselage.

While some tanker units, such as the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom, are known for nose art on their aircraft, AMC policy states that only “Internal Nose Art,” such as on the interiors of landing gear doors or weapons bays, would be authorized.

Air Force Magazine, in recent visits to current and future KC-46 bases, spoke to several pilots and maintainers about the policy. Lt. Col. Nicholas Arthur, commander of the 2nd Air Refueling Squadron at Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., said it is “kind of a bummer,” but there are several reasons the command is moving away from tail flashes that make sense for the health of the fleet. Maintainers are interested in finding ways to still apply dedicated crew chief names to the aircraft, using stickers or magnets inside.

“There’s something valuable about being able to put someone’s name on the jet and take ownership and have pride. … It’s small, but if it gets someone excited, [then] it gives them some pride in what they’re doing,” he said.

At Mildenhall, the nose art helped add some “camaraderie and morale and some bind to the unit. That, ‘Hey, this is our unit. That’s my jet,’” said Master Sgt. Sydney Melton, the 605th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron KC-46 lead production superintendent at McGuire. McGuire’s KC-10s didn’t have the crew chief names on the aircraft, but there is discussion of implementing it when KC-46s are up and running, provided the policy allows it.

The policy only applies to AMC aircraft. Air National Guard, Air Force Reserve Command, and Air Education and Training Command KC-46s are not subject to the limitations. Some units, such as the 157th Air Refueling Wing at Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H., have already applied tail flashes to some of their KC-46s. AETC’s Altus Air Force Base, Okla., has red-and-yellow tail flashes and the “Triangle Y,” a call-back to the wing’s World War II heritage, on the tails of its KC-46s along with the crew chief name.

Frank Kendall Confirmed as 26th Secretary of the Air Force

Frank Kendall Confirmed as 26th Secretary of the Air Force

July 26, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Senate on July 26 confirmed Frank Kendall to be the 26th Secretary of the Air Force, ending a nomination process stalled by holds from three senators.

Kendall was confirmed by voice vote almost three months after President Joe Biden tapped him for the role. The same day as the vote, Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) lifted his hold on Kendall after the Air Force committed to retain and modernize A-10s at Selfridge Air National Guard base in his state, The Detroit News reported.

Kendall, the former No. 3 official in the Pentagon in the Obama administration, will take over a service pressing Congress for permission to retire aging airframes and overhaul its fleet to prepare for future conflict with near-peer countries, such as China.

Earlier this month, Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.) lifted her hold on the nomination after Kendall pledged to extend an ethics agreement. Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee also placed a hold on the nomination for undisclosed reasons.

The holds were a surprise delay on a nomination that initially appeared set to breeze through the Senate following a favorable May 25 confirmation hearing.

Kendall will take the reins of the Department of the Air Force from acting Secretary John P. Roth, who has held the role in a temporary capacity for 187 days. Previous Air Force Secretary Barbara M. Barrett stepped down at the end of the Trump administration.

As the undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics from 2012 to 2016, Kendall oversaw the Defense Department’s weapons purchases, development, sustainment, and logistics. When he left the job, Congress split the role into two separate jobs for acquisition and sustainment. He also was the deputy undersecretary and acting undersecretary.

He served as an advisor to Biden during his presidential campaign on national security and defense issues. Kendall also was vice president of engineering for the then-Raytheon Co. and was a managing partner at Renaissance Strategic Advisors.

Last week, the Senate also confirmed Gina Ortiz Jones to be the next undersecretary of the Air Force, where she will be Kendall’s No. 2.