Air Force’s First Helicopter-Only Training Class Since 1993 Graduates

June 28, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

For the first time in more than a quarter century, Air Force pilots have earned their wings from a helicopter-only training course.

Seven Airmen graduated June 22 at Fort Rucker, Ala., as part of the first class in the Helicopter Training Next program, one part in the larger Pilot Training Transformation initiative to accelerate training times and help address the service’s pilot shortage.

The last time the Air Force used a helicopter-only syllabus was in 1993, coinciding with the establishment of Air Education and Training Command. Typically, the helicopter pilot training pipeline lasts 17 months, including six months training on the fixed-wing T-6. The HTN program started in August 2020, with the first class graduating in less than 11 months.

“Today, you’ve established a new helicopter-only training,” Lt. Gen. Marshall B. “Brad” Webb, commander of AETC, told the new pilots at their graduation ceremony. “But, the focus for pilot training will always be, regardless of where you are in training, quality and competence. In many ways, the Helicopter Training Next program is the vanguard for all our other Air Force pilot training programs. That’s how successful you all have been.”

As part of the program, a small group tryout yielded eight pilots who went directly to Fort Rucker for training on the TH-1H helicopter trainer. A second small group started a month later and gained 50 flight hours through private and contracted instruction before joining the first group at Fort Rucker.

The two different training paths were planned from the outset, 19th Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Craig D. Wills told Air Force Magazine last August.

By taking helicopter pilots out of fixed-wing aircraft training, not only did the Air Force cut down on training time, it may also free up spots in fixed-wing training in the future, as many as 60 to 80 every year, Willis said.

AETC still plans on producing up to 90 helicopter pilots per year by fiscal 2024, Col. Michael Curry, commander of the 58th Special Operations Wing, said in a release.

Helicopter Training Next is one of several programs the Air Force has implemented to overhaul its pilot training. The service has used programs such as Undergraduate Pilot Training 2.5 and Accelerated Path to Wings, relying on new technologies, such as simulators, and new teaching techniques. It has also implemented programs like Civil Path to Wings, offering faster training courses for students with civilian pilot experience.

While these new paths have cut down on training time for the relatively small group of graduates, they also face some resistance from senior aviators wary of changes to the usual training process. In 2020, Willis said the quality of the pilots that emerge from these new programs will be key to selling those who are skeptical about them. Speaking at the June 22 HTN graduation, Webb held the new pilots up as an example of that.

“The program that you’ve undergone is fundamental in developing the Airmen that we need going forward. It’s aimed at transforming the way we learn so that we are better postured for great power competition,” Webb said. “You’ve leveraged the modern day simulation and virtual reality and by any measure, you’ve been successful. Today, you join a world-class helicopter pilot force that enhances our Air Force’s lethality and readiness.”

New Mexico RED HORSE Commander Dies at Al Udeid

June 28, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The commander of a New Mexico-based RED HORSE squadron died June 26 in a non-combat related incident at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, the Pentagon announced.

Lt. Col. James C. Willis, 55, of Albuquerque, N.M., died during a deployment to support Operation Inherent Resolve. He is the commander of the 210th RED HORSE Squadron of the New Mexico Air National Guard, at Kirtland Air Force Base.

The incident is under investigation.

“The entire New Mexico National Guard is deeply saddened by the loss of Lt. Col. James Willis,” New Mexico Adjutant General Maj. Gen. Kenneth A. Nava said in a Facebook post. “Our heartfelt condolences go out to his family, friends, and the unit. Please keep all of them in your thought and prayers during this difficult time. May he Rest In Peace.”

The squadron deployed April 16 for missions across Southwest Asia, according to a Kirtland press release.

The Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers (RED HORSE) provides mobile civil engineering support for contingency and special operations.

Air Force’s New Plan for ABMS: Smaller Budget, Clearer Schedule

June 25, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force is adjusting its plans for the Advanced Battle Management System after a skeptical Congress cut by almost half last year’s budget request to develop the new concept in command and control. For fiscal 2022, officials are asking for less money for ABMS and seeking to buy their first real capability: datalink pods that will enable the KC-46 tanker to help F-35s and F-22s share data.

“It is important that we view the development of this command and control support system as something different than we view traditional acquisition and procurement programs,” said Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin. ABMS, he said, is “different, which is why we’re going to need to be very transparent with what we’re doing [and] how we’re approaching it.”

The first ABMS deliverable is Capability Release 1, a new pod for KC-46s that will allow F-35s and F-22s to share data for the first time. The Air Force wants between four and 10 pods in fiscal 2022 to enable data processing and sharing at the “tactical edge,” said Brig. Gen. Jeffrey D. Valenzia, the ABMS Cross-Functional Team Lead.

The second new product planned, Capability Release 2, aims to speed up decision-making for homeland defense missions led by U.S. Northern Command and NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command. That capability will use cloud computing, fiber-optic networks, artificial intelligence, and other new technologies to accelerate how those defending the homeland take in new intelligence and make command decisions.

“The combatant commands are still challenged with potential threats over the horizon that they need to characterize and make better decisions on more rapidly,” Allvin said.

Requirements for both programs were defined in prior ABMS experiments, and next month NORTHCOM will lead its own Global Information Dominance Experiment, incorporating inputs from the other combatant commands to further define what is needed next.

Because ABMS seeks to go beyond merely replacing the E-8C Joint STARS platform and instead take a whole new approach to command and control, the Air Force has struggled to clearly articulate what exactly it expects to acquire and how to justify the millions of dollars in funding it has sought. In fiscal 2021, Congress cut the Air Force’s ABMS funding request by 50 percent, forcing leaders to cancel planned experiments and delay initial acquisition plans. Now the Air Force is trying to be more transparent about the timeline for its “minimum viable product” KC-46 pod and its acquisition strategy going forward.

“There is not a fighter aircraft that comes out on the end of this,” Allvin said. “But, as we learn things through … the design experiments that we’re doing, and that we will continue to do with the capability releases, we’re understanding how we need to adapt our current infrastructure.”

The Air Force Rapid Capability Office, the program executive for ABMS, is expected to have a full cost estimate for CR-1 by the end of the month and another for CR-2 as requirements are firmed up.

In all, the Air Force is asking for $204 million for ABMS in fiscal 2022, after last year’s $302 million request was cut to $158 million.

“We understood that when Congress looked at it, it wasn’t clear enough, “Allvin said. “That perhaps we hadn’t laid out a clear enough path to justify the funds that we were requesting. So we had to look ourselves in the mirror and say, ‘We need to better align ourselves to be able to articulate more clearly what we want to do.'”

Allvin said this year’s funding request is more closely aligned to specific capabilities as a result.

Of this $204 million, just over half is for the Capability Release 1 pods; most of the rest is for CR-2 to get at “how we can accelerate that command and control process” with technology, Valencia said. A small amount funds “baseline investments in data management,” he added.

As more ABMS requirements are defined, Allvin said, budget requests will likely grow. “But we want to ensure that what we’re asking for, we can articulate as well as possible,” Allvin said. He wants Congress “to have confidence in providing those resources to us.”

Air Force Academy Cadet Dies in Single-Engine Private Plane Crash

June 25, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Air Force Academy Cadet Second Class Nick Duran, 20, died June 24 in a single-engine aircraft crash in Cleburne, Texas, the Academy announced. A second person on board was killed along with Duran, who was home on leave at the time, the Academy said.

The aircraft was an American Aviation AA-1A single-engine aircraft. It crashed near Cleburne airport south of the Dallas-Fort Worth area June 24, CBS-DFW reported. The aircraft took off from the small airport in the afternoon but did not return, prompting family members to call local authorities.

Brig. Gen. Paul D. Moga, Commandant of Cadets, said in a release that the Academy and Cadet Wing mourned the loss of “a great friend, teammate and future warfighter.” He offered condolences to the family and said Duran was “Forever to be missed but never to be forgotten.”

The release described Duran’s love of flying and dream of becoming an Air Force fighter pilot. Majoring in management with a minor in Spanish, he mentored basic cadets and had worked to create an aviation club. Duran,
Class of 2023, spent two years in Cadet Squadron 29 and was a member of the 2020 USAFA baseball team.

Duran’s remains and those of his companion were found with the wreckage of the small aircraft at about 10:30 p.m. approximately 3.5 miles from the airport. It was believed to have crashed at about 5:20 p.m. local time. It was not clear which of the two on board was piloting the plane.

The National Transportation Safety Board will investigate the crash.

Space Force Adds University of Colorado to Upcoming Partnership Program

June 25, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

BOULDER, Colo.—The Space Force’s No. 2 officer inspected the aerospace research facilities of its newest university partner June 24 under a program designed to help it recruit personnel with more technical expertise.

Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson and Mark Kennedy, president of the University of Colorado system, agreed in principle that the university system will become part of the Space Force’s University Partnership Program. The system includes, in part, its flagship campus in the aerospace research and industry hub of Boulder, plus a campus in the national security space hub of Colorado Springs.

Kennedy said he’s “thrilled” that the University Partnership Program will involve both workforce development and research development as CU Boulder is one of the highest-funded public aerospace research institutions in the U.S.

When the full list is announced, each of the program’s cadre of aerospace research institutions will also be noteworthy in terms of already having “an incredibly strong officer development platform” in its Reserve Officer Training Corps detachment, Thompson said.

Thompson told reporters that about 10 universities have agreed to come onboard and he expects the program to kick off with formal agreements in place this fall.

“It is really a change in the way we do business,” Thompson said.

Starting over as a new service means the Space Force gets to ask itself, “What do we need to do differently that suits our needs, our challenges, in the 21st century workforce?” he said.

Faculty provided tours of their labs in the university’s Department of Aerospace Engineering Sciences, including its space domain awareness laboratory where students were actively tracking objects in orbit and its design-build-fly cubesat laboratory that lets students do all three by the time they graduate. Overviews of research included human-machine teaming for space surveillance.

Thompson said the Space Force has spent “a better part of the last year reaching out to universities, making sure they understand our goals and visions [and] … agreeing that we want to pursue it.”

He said the service realized that it needed to adapt its approach to education and training to meet its particular needs, which are “very, very focused and very, very high-tech … to be able to operate successfully in an incredibly complex physical and technical domain.”

“In many cases in the past, we haven’t required it,” Thompson said, referring to a focus on high-tech skills in the workforce. “We have counted on what universities have provided. We’ve hired engineering and consulting firms and what we call federally funded research and development corporations to provide that deep technical expertise.”

Workforce development for civilian personnel, in particular, has lagged behind.

“Probably the largest and heaviest lift for us is we’re going to be about 50 percent civilian workforce—government civilians” for whom job expectations and requirements “have not kept pace with what we do for military members,” Thompson said.

His former aide-de-camp helped to shape the idea for partnering with universities.

“My previous aide-de-camp was an African American, and—demonstrating the bold leaders we expect in the Space Force,” Thompson emphasized, seemingly for the benefit of the cadets present, “he came into my office one day, and he said, ‘Gen. Thompson, first of all, do you know the No. 1 producer of African-American engineers in the nation?’ And I said, ‘No.’

“He said, ‘Let me tell you about that school.’”

That advice led to North Carolina Agricultural and Technical State University becoming the first to agree to a partnership.

Thompson said “perhaps one day” the Space Force will have a dedicated ROTC detachment but that for now, Space Force will focus on the Air Force ROTC detachments at partner universities “to coalesce and bring, I’ll call it, mass, to that.”

Guard C-130 Activated To Fight Western Wildfires

June 25, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

With more than 1.3 million acres already damaged in wildfires this year and 56 large fires currently raging, the Air National Guard activated a specially-equipped C-130 and crew to aid firefighting efforts across the western U.S.

The National Interagency Fire Center requested the Guard’s help a month earlier than last year, when the 152nd Airlift Wing activated July 29 and remained on duty until Oct. 3, the longest firefighting activation in unit history.

The 2021 wildfire season is expected to be particularly intense due to drought across the West and a recent heatwave.

The C-130 is equipped with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS), a roll-on, roll-off system with a massive 3,000-gallon tank that can shoot water or fire retardant out the plane’s rear parachute door in six seconds. The plane uses a cutting-edge NP2000 Propeller System that produces more thrust during takeoff and gives pilots better speed control mid-flight.

“This is especially important for the extremely challenging MAFFS mission, while flying in extreme hazards, including flying low, slow, and heavy while dropping water or retardant,” said Col. Jeremy Ford, 152nd Airlift Wing commander, in a statement.

Flying effectively with MAFFS requires “extremely experienced” pilots, able to fly as slow as 120 knots and as low as 150 feet off the ground, in order to be effective. Flying so low and slow increases turbulence, while plunging into the smoke clouds over fires compromises visibility. The C-130 and its crew will deploy to CAL FIRE’s McClellan Reload Base in Sacramento, Calif. The initial activation lasts through July 26 but could be extended.

As of June 25, NIFC reports 29,773 fires impacting 1,327,950 acres since the start of 2021. It’s the most individual fires recorded at this point in the year since 2011 and the most acres since 2018. Some 616,914 acres are currently affected by fires.

Biden Pledges to Evacuate Afghan Interpreters

June 24, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Biden administration will evacuate thousands of Afghan interpreters as the U.S. military withdraws from the country, with planning speeding up this week as Afghan leaders visit the White House and the Pentagon.

“We’ve already begun the process,” said President Joe Biden, speaking with reporters outside the White House on June 24. “Those who helped us are not going to be left behind.”

U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said earlier this week that about 18,000 people have expressed interest in using the Special Immigrant Visas for Afghans to come to the United States as Afghanistan has grown more violent with Taliban gains.

“The idea here is to be able to facilitate their departure from Afghanistan to another location so that they can complete the SIV process,” Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said June 24, adding that it is not known how many could come to the United States.

Kirby said the Defense Department is planning with the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security on what the process could look like and what a possible timeline could be.

While this could involve USAF aircraft, it could also include chartered or leased airplanes. “There’s lots of opportunities here,” Kirby said.

Since the process involves visas, the State Department has the lead. The military, including the National Guard, could be involved in housing and feeding the Afghan immigrants, but that has not been decided, and there has not been a request to identify possible locations, Kirby said.

“The planning will obviously include housing and medical care and obviously sustenance, of course—all those things are going to be factored into the planning here,” Kirby said.

Afghan President Ashraf Ghani arrived in Washington, D.C., this week and met with lawmakers on Capitol Hill on June 24. On June 25, he will head to the Pentagon for a meeting with Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and to the White House for a meting with Biden.

The meetings will focus on the progress of the withdrawal and what potential future support to the Afghan government could look like.

Kirby said the military is still planning what its presence inside Afghanistan will look like after the withdrawal is finished by the September deadline. The U.S. military footprint will be focused on protecting the embassy in Kabul. “Without getting into specific details, I think it’s safe to assume … in this environment it would be beyond just what you would see at a normal embassy,” he said.

Cotton Nominated to Lead Air Force Global Strike Command

June 24, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

President Joe Biden will nominate Lt. Gen. Anthony J. Cotton to head Air Force Global Strike Command, replacing retiring Gen. Timothy M. Ray, who has led the command since 2018.

A missileer by training, Cotton is currently Ray’s deputy and has previously commanded the 20th Air Force, the 45th Space Wing, and the 341st Missile Wing. He also was commander and president of Air University from February 2018 to October 2019 prior to becoming AFGSC’s deputy commander.

If confirmed, Cotton will take over as the command advances generational modernization efforts including acquisition of a next-generation stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider; development of the Ground Based Strategic Deterrent to replace the Air Force’s aging fleet of 400 Minuteman III nuclear-armed missiles; and the next-generation nuclear-tipped cruise missile, the Long-Range Stand-Off Weapon. The service is also beginning to phase out its B-1B Lancer bombers.

Cotton would be only the second missileer to lead AFGSC since its inception in 2009 and the first Black officer ever to lead either this command or its predecessor, Strategic Air Command.

In an interview with Air Force Magazine last summer, he spoke about coming up as a Black officer in the Air Force and the progress he has seen recently in the way the service embraces people of color.

“I am cautiously optimistic that we’ll get after this,” he said, and “not necessarily only from a Department of the Air Force perspective,” he said. “It’s time for our nation to really dive into this and get after it—once and for all. And hopefully, you know, I don’t have to have those conversations with my kids.”

Gunship Crew Nets 5 Distinguished Flying Crosses for High-Risk Afghanistan Mission

June 24, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force awarded five Distinguished Flying Crosses and four Air Medals to the crew of an AC-130J gunship for a daring mission to help helicopter crews safely evacuate wounded American and Afghan forces during a September 2019 firefight in Afghanistan.

Flying under the callsign Shadow 71, the Ghostrider provided continuous close air support over the course of a two-hour operation, firing on multiple enemy positions as helicopter assault forces flew in to evacuate wounded ground troops, according to a June 22 release.

“I always say gunships are a team sport,” said Shadow 71 aircraft commander Lt. Col. Christopher McCall during an award ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Fla. “You really can’t do something like this without a great team. Shadow 71 has talent from front to back.”

During the ceremony, Distinguished Flying Crosses were awarded to McCall, weapon systems officer Capt. Jasen K. Hrisca, combat systems officer Capt. Tyler D. Larson, lead special missions aviator Tech. Sgt. Jake M. Heathcott, and sensor operator Staff Sgt. Kyle W. Burden.

Four more crew members were awarded the single event Air Medal: co-pilot Maj. Brian D. Courchesne, special missions aviator Staff Sgt. Alex Almarlaes, special missions aviator Senior Airman Brianna S. Striplin, and special missions aviator Senior Airman Thomas I. Fay.

Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. James C. Slife praised the crew in the release. “Thank you for who you are,” he said. “Thank you for being our examples; thank you for your service to the nation; thank you for your dedication to our mission.”