Afghanistan and Iraq War Veterans Exposed to Toxins Could Be Helped by New Bill

July 26, 2021 | By

Air Force Maj. Brian Liebenow arrived to a secret staging point at a former Soviet base in Uzbekistan on Oct. 6, 2001, for an intense mission that would last just over two months. There, as a member of the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron, he briefed the special operators flying MH-53 and Chinook missions into Afghanistan to assist in the overthrow of the Taliban.

“The Taliban were really on their heels,” Liebenow, now 46, told Air Force Magazine, his voice raspy from multiple throat surgeries and frequent intubation.

Many of those special operators are now dying of cancers and suffering from respiratory, skin, gastrointestinal, reproductive, and other disorders believed to be related to the toxic exposures they faced at the Karshi-Khanabad Air Base, known as K2, but their treatment is not covered by the Department of Veterans Affairs. The same is true for hundreds of thousands exposed to burn pits in Afghanistan and Iraq.

When non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma cancer struck Liebenow in 2003, he was still serving in the Air Force, and his medical expenses were fully covered.

“I felt really lucky that I was diagnosed while I was Active duty and I got all of my treatment paid for,” Liebenow recalled after seeing a Facebook page of veterans fighting to overcome VA coverage denials.

Millions of other Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans exposed to burn pits, airborne hazards, particulate matter, and other toxins are unable to receive pre-screening tests and must pay their own medical expenses if they left the service and cannot prove their ailment is service-related. A new bill before Congress could change that.

‘An Urgent Crisis’

The Honoring our Promise to Address Comprehensive Toxics Act of 2021, an omnibus bill of 15 pieces of legislation that passed out of the House Veterans Affairs Committee in June, would require medical tests and presumption of service-related diseases so that veterans don’t have to prove their ailment was related to their service.

“We are in an urgent crisis with people, who are dying of cancer, not getting covered by the VA,” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said during a recent media call hosted by the Defense Writers Group.

“As a consequence, they have to use their own money and are going into bankruptcy and losing their homes and going into other financial ruin just to protect their health and well being,” she said. Another Congress is too long to wait, she said. “It has to be done this Congress, and it needs to be done as soon as possible.”

The Senate Armed Services Committee member threw her weight behind the bill, which includes parts of her own Senate bill that had been vocally endorsed by activist comedian Jon Stewart. Stewart was instrumental in getting similar legislation passed for 9/11 first responders.

“I’m excited to see if they can keep our whole legislation in this larger toxic exposure package,” Gillibrand said. “I’m optimistic with the strong bipartisan support that we have. We will get a vote on our bill, and it will pass. And I think it’ll pass in this Congress.”

The so-called PACT Act sponsored by House Veterans Affairs committee chairman Rep. Mark Takano (D-Calif.) passed out of committee in June and now has 35 co-sponsors.

“Chairman Takano has made this a priority,” an HVAC staffer told Air Force Magazine, citing the chairman’s commitment and success in passing the Blue Water Navy Vietnam Veterans Act of 2019.

“There’s a presumptive condition determination process that’s being revamped that will incorporate a science review board,” another staffer explained, noting the entire VA process will be accelerated. “We would force their hand if the legislation passes the House and Senate and is signed by the President.”

But a looming problem remains, which has sunk all previous bills and staffers declined to discuss: cost.

‘A Family Tradition’

Liebenow came from a military family. His sister was an officer in the Army. His dad served six years and two tours in Vietnam as a Marine. And his grandfather, William ‘Bud’ Liebenow, was a naval officer during World War II.

“He was skipper of the PT boat that rescued JFK after their boat was cut in two by a Japanese destroyer in the South Pacific,” Liebenow recalled. “Serving in the military is sort of a family tradition.”

Since the Air Force wasn’t represented yet in his family, Liebenow went to the Air Force Academy and graduated in 1998. He didn’t have any grand aspirations.

“I was hoping to put in 20 years, but unfortunately cancer had other plans,” he said.

When he first arrived to K2, Liebenow slept on a cot alongside other Soldiers and Airmen in an old Soviet aircraft hangar. About a month later, he moved into a muddy tent city. Chemicals oozed up from the ground. Berms built around the encampment were known to emit radiation.

Declassified Defense Department documents from July 2020 reveal the Pentagon knew that the site of the forward operating base was heavily contaminated. It was a bombed-out chemical weapons factory where jet fuel had been dumped indiscriminately and radiation levels were unsafe. Still, it was the closest place Americans could begin the invasion to uproot Taliban rule.

Liebenow’s last few weeks at K2 were miserable. He threw up at night. Diarrhea repeatedly forced him into the snowy outhouse. Finally, he was put in an Army medical tent. He was so badly dehydrated that he required five IV bags. He recovered before returning to the U.S., where he married.

The rashes and itching didn’t start until he was deployed to Kandahar in 2002.

He did another brief rotation in Afghanistan, returning stateside in June 2002. He tried to have children for a year before he was told he had a low sperm count and could not conceive. By September 2003, not even two years after his deployment to K2, he was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma and began chemotherapy and radiation. Liebenow was 28.

Air Force Maj. Brian Liebenow recovers after a chemotherapy treatment in December 2003. Courtesy of Brian Liebenow.

“About a year after radiation is when I slowly started being paralyzed on my left side and losing feeling on the right,” he said. He was medically retired from the Air Force in 2006.

The reaction to radiation grew to include severe headaches, bone damage that led to the amputation of his left arm, and skin cancer.

Still, Liebenow’s wife and their adopted daughter remained at his side. His countless surgeries were paid for by the Department of Veterans Affairs. But many of his comrades at K2 and others who served and were exposed to burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan are still denied coverage.

Gillibrand estimates there are now 238,000 veterans on Afghanistan and Iraq burn pit registries. “And almost all of them are denied basic health care and coverage,” she said. Meanwhile, the K2 veterans group Stronghold Freedom Foundation estimates that there are about 2,500 Afghanistan war veterans who served at K2 but never set foot in Afghanistan and therefore do not qualify for service-related coverage.

“It seems like a no-brainer to me,” he said. “It doesn’t seem like a tremendous amount of money to support these people, even if they cannot definitively prove that their medical issues were caused by K2, to give them coverage because they answered the call right after 9/11.”

‘The Political Will is in Our Favor’

The cohort of service members who deployed to K2 would be covered under the PACT Act as would 3.5 million Iraq and Afghanistan war veterans. Companion legislation known as the COST of War Act is also moving through the Senate.

“The bills do enough for us to get our foot in the door. At least the near-universal denials will probably stop,” said former Army Staff Sgt. Mark T. Jackson, a K2 veteran working on behalf of the Stronghold Freedom Foundation.

Jackson praised VA Secretary Denis McDonough for adding several specific diseases to the VA rules for veterans of Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, but he said more must be done.

He worries cost will again kill the bill.

“I have been told privately that the cost of this bill is prohibitive, making it unpalatable for some in the House and Senate,” he said.

The Department of Veterans Affairs did not respond to numerous inquiries from Air Force Magazine. The HVAC staffers also declined to provide information related to cost, but still expressed optimism.

“It seems like there is the political will right now to get this done,” an HVAC staffer told Air Force Magazine. “The chairman wants to get this done once and for all.”

The bill includes more than 23 presumptive conditions, including respiratory ailments, cancers, and reproductive issues.

Gillibrand likens it to the 9/11 legislation, a good starting point at which veterans can be helped right away, in some cases two decades after their exposure.

“I’m optimistic that we can keep our bill intact if it is reduced in size in terms of the number of diseases that are covered,” she said, noting how the 9/11 legislation took five years to conduct epidemiological studies.

“We will do the same thing with burn pits if necessary, and we will make sure all diseases are covered,” she said. “The sooner, the better.”

Lockheed Martin Takes $225 Million Loss on Secret Aeronautics Program

July 26, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Lockheed Martin took a $225 million loss on a classified developmental aeronautics program, company officers disclosed in a July 26 second-quarter results call with reporters, but the program is moving forward, and the company expects it to enter production.

Company officers also said the unit cost of the F-35A will likely go up in the next lot contract and that the program will be “rebaselined” over the next couple years with a more stretched-out delivery schedule, and signaled a phase-out to the U-2 spyplane. They also said they expect to close out any Federal Trade Commission concerns and conclude their planned acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne, announced last December, by the end of this year.

The charge on the classified program came after a May “deep dive” with government and company auditors, Lockheed Martin Chief Financial Officer Kenneth R. Possenriede said during the earnings call. About 40 percent of the cost of the secret project has already been spent, he noted, with the remainder “embedded in the new estimate to complete” the program.

Neither Possenriede nor CEO James D. Taiclet could provide many details about the project due to classification. Taiclet did refer to “all the customers”—plural—“that are going to utilize this,” suggesting multiple services will be buyers. The project is being done at Lockheed’s aeronautics division, versus its Space or Missiles and Fire Control units.

“It will be a good program for the Lockheed Martin Corporation,” Taiclet said.

The program “we think … will be successful from a schedule and performance standpoint, and it will ultimately turn into a production program. And we also think there are additional opportunities out there;” thus, “I think … there is still a very strong business case given these associate opportunities,” Taiclet said. “We feel comfortable” with the status of the program.

Neither Taiclet nor Possenriede connected the classified project to the Next-Generation Air Dominance program, which Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr told lawmakers last month will be a multirole fighter. In response to a question, Possenriede said the company is unable to talk about its work on NGAD, except to point out that the Air Force has said the F-35 will not be cut to pay for NGAD.

The charge caused Lockheed Martin’s earnings for the quarter to come in below expectations, and its per-share price fell three percent in the hours after the announcement.

Possenreide said a number of Lockheed Martin classified aeronautics and space programs are expected to grow and enter production.

“We see the classified portion of Lockheed Martin growing faster than the nonclassified portion,” he said. The company’s “Skunk Works” advanced development unit is going to be “a larger part of the aeronautics” business.

Taiclet said Lockheed Martin seeks to lead the industry in creating all-domain networks, starting with its own products—“the ones we control”—and making them “the leading-edge, and therefore, most attractive ways to allocate the budget in all the domains that we serve.” Lockheed Martin’s platforms will become “way more competitive, way more attractive, using the network effect to get more value for the money … irrespective of how much the top line grows.”

The goal of the U.S. military will be to build “a network effect as broadly as you can across, frankly, all the platforms out there, eventually. But we’re building a roadmap internally to Lockheed Martin because these are the platforms we can control. [We will] install, trial, demonstrate, and then produce these products. At the same time, … we’re open to collaborating with our industry partners.”

New systems “can and must have an open architecture,” he said. “This is a matter of leadership, and speed, and performance, and that’s where Lockheed Martin can take a great position going forward.”

Possenriede said the F-35 is “right now in the midst of a … production re-baselining” due to the pandemic and progress in getting the Tech Refresh 3 on Lot 15 and the Block 4 configuration in production with Lot 16. This year’s deliveries will be between 133 and 139 aircraft, he said, with specifics coming in October, after an agreement is reached with the Joint Program Office.

The plan was to build 169 F-35s in 2022, but it is “highly likely” that Lockheed Martin will build fewer, Possenriede said. “This re-baselining may take two to three years.”

The “production plateau”—the steady-state maximum rate, which Possenriede said is probably around 170 aircraft—will be “slightly pushed out to the right, and elongated, in the next couple of years.” This will present an “opportunity” for sustainment, he said. He also said Lockheed Martin expects to respond to a government request for proposals for performance-based logistics soon.

Taiclet said Lockheed Martin has invested $500 million to date to improve F-35 sustainability costs and has “personally met with each of the service Chiefs and the Chairman” of the Joint Chiefs of Staff to build support for a “cooperative” approach to getting the costs under control.

Lockheed Martin has reduced by 40 percent the sustainment costs “that we can control,” and “we’re going to shoot for another 40 percent over the next five years,” Taiclet said. Some 60 percent is “propulsion and military/government cost,” he added.

“If we don’t have an all-in strategy, together, to address this, we’re not going to hit the goals” of getting the operating cost to $25,000 per year by 2025, Taiclet asserted.

Possenriede said he’s hopeful that Lockheed Martin will be under some kind of performance-based logistics contract for the F-35 early in 2022. But “this is not likely to be a top-line enhancement play for us. That’s probably all embedded,” or baked-in cost. He said the F-35 sustainment business will expand sharply in a few years, when more than 1,000 of the fighters will be in service worldwide.

Switzerland’s order for 36 F-35s was a “big, big win for us,” Possenriede said, and the jet is well positioned in competitions in Finland and Canada, he said.

Lockheed Martin is in negotiations on the next lots of F-35s, and Possenriede said the B and C model sticker will likely stay the same or “continue to come down the learning curve.” But the A model used by the Air Force will probably rise, he said.

“The ‘A’ variant, … due to where we are in learning, with inflation and the added capabilities that they want on the aircraft, it is likely you’ll see a … modest increase in price versus where we are today.” Lockheed Martin aeronautics Executive Vice President Gregory M. Ulmer hinted at a price increase due to inflation and capabilities growth earlier this year.

Among other Air Force programs, the F-16 international sales backlog is 128 aircraft and will “continue to grow,” Possenreide said. Taiclet said the U-2 spyplane’s “sunset” is in the “not-too-distant future,” although the Air Force has gone back and forth about whether it plans to retire or retain the U-2 beyond the middle of the 2020s. Taiclet also said that while the F-22 “sunset” is in sight, it will still get updates and modifications, though not to the degree previously thought. The Air Force recently said it plans to start phasing out the F-22 in about 2030.

Taiclet said the last issues with the Federal Trade Commission regarding the company’s acquisition of Aerojet Rocketdyne are being wrapped up and he expects it to be completed by the end of the year. Lockheed Martin has made assurances that Aerojet Rocketdyne will remain a “merchant supplier” of solid rocket motors to anyone in the industry who wants to work with the company. The government had expressed concern that Lockheed Martin would exclude competitors from using Aerojet Rocketdyne products, a problem since only one other solid rocket motors supplier exists—Northrop Grumman’s Innovation Systems, formerly Orbital ATK.

Biden: US Combat Mission in Iraq to End This Year

July 26, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The U.S. combat mission in Iraq will end by the end of the year, though U.S. forces will continue to help Iraqi forces in the fight against the Islamic State group, President Joe Biden announced July 26.

Biden, appearing alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Mustafa al-Kadhimi at the White House, said the American combat mission in Iraq will end, but U.S. forces will “continue to train, advise, and assist, and help deal with ISIS as it arrives.”

“We’re also committed to our security cooperation. Our shared fight against ISIS is critical for the stability of the region, and our counterterrorism operation will continue, even as we shift to this new phase,” Biden said.

The decision stems from the fourth “Strategic Dialogue” with high-level U.S. and Iraqi officials, which is ongoing in Washington, D.C.

A U.S. administration official said July 23 that Iraq had requested the end of the U.S. combat mission, “and we very much agree.”

The U.S. military has about 2,500 troops in Iraq, along with another 900 in Syria, as part of Operation Inherent Resolve. The Biden Administration did not announce how many troops would leave or when. The specific timeline is a main focus of the talks in Washington. Before the White House meeting, al-Kadhimi told the Associated Press that his country no longer needs American combat forces on the ground, though he wants U.S. training and intelligence gathering to remain.

“The war against ISIS and the readiness of our forces requires a special timetable, and this depends on the negotiations that we will conduct in Washington,” he said.

Biden said in the coming months there will be multiple changes of command and other “adjustments” to the U.S. military’s force structure within the country.

U.S. forces in Iraq have repeatedly come under attack by Iranian-backed militias, which are using small drones to target U.S. troops at major operating bases such as al-Asad Air Base and the international airport in Erbil. In late June, USAF F-15E and F-16 aircraft conducted airstrikes targeting these militias located on the Iraq-Syria border in a mission Iraqi officials said was a violation of their country’s sovereignty.

The announcement to end the combat mission in Iraq comes as U.S. forces have nearly finished the full withdrawal from Afghanistan, with about 95 percent of that retrograde complete as of July 20, according to U.S. Central Command.

USAF Pauses Plan for Davis-Monthan Centers of Excellence as Congress Looks to Block A-10 Cuts

July 26, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force is already suspending plans to send aircraft and personnel to Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., after Congress signaled its intent to block the service from retiring A-10s.

The service announced June 30 that it intended to move A-10s and HH-60s to Davis-Monthan from Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and create close air support and rescue “Centers of Excellence” at the Arizona base. The moves required approval from Congress to retire 42 A-10s, including 35 at Davis-Monthan, in fiscal 2022, but the Senate Armed Services Committee in its markup of the defense policy bill moved to block that reduction.

On July 23, just over four weeks after the initial announcement, the Air Force said it is placing the Centers of Excellence on hold as it awaits congressional action. The Air Force, in a press release, said it needs approval to retire the A-10 to “create the fiscal and manpower flexibility required to design and field the future force needed to meet combatant commander requirements.”

Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark D. Kelly in an opinion piece published in Defense News said the service’s fighter fleet has gotten both smaller and older, noting that while the U.S. has punted modernization further down the field, adversaries have not.

“In the past three decades potential adversaries have dramatically upgraded their fleets and air defenses while these single-mission aircraft have become increasingly vulnerable to threats and prohibitively costly to fly and repair,” wrote Kelly.

He acknowledged that the transition from single- to multi-mission aircraft will be a challenge and will not happen overnight, but said the transition is critical if the U.S. hopes to compete in a high-end conflict.

“The only thing tougher than getting smaller and older is to then add in the wrong mix of capabilities. So the Fighter Roadmap ensures that we field a ‘combat relevant fleet’ that can compete and fight anytime, anywhere.

“To do this, we must manage our platforms, including the F-15C and A-10. ‘Right-sizing’ a fleet is not panicked divestiture. Modernization will keep many of these warhorses relevant for years to come: upgraded wings for 218 A-10s, F-15C structural repairs, F-15E and F-16 radar upgrades along with F-22 modernization to complement continued F-15EX and F-35 procurement, plus the development of the Next Generation Air Dominance family of systems critical to those highly contested environments we’ll need to compete in 2030 and beyond,” wrote Kelly.

Even though SASC’s markup of the fiscal 2022 National Defense Authorization Act added $25 billion to the Defense Department’s budget request, it also blocked the bulk of the divestments the Air Force proposed. The markup specified a $272 million increase to the Air Force’s operation and maintenance budget to restore the A-10s. The bill also calls for a report on close air support mission effectiveness.

Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.) said he secured the prohibition on retiring the A-10s, saying in a press release that the measure also includes a provision requiring the Air Force to maintain a high mission capable rate in the fleet.

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

The plan would move 14 A-10s and 21 HH-60s from Nellis to Davis-Monthan and close the 354th Fighter Squadron. The service wants to cut its A-10 fleet from 281 aircraft to 218, reducing its operational squadrons from nine to seven. The remaining A-10s would be upgraded with new wings.

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

Wildfires Challenge Blaze-Fighting C-130 Crews

July 23, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

High temperatures and drought across the West are sparking an almost unprecedented operations tempo for Air Force firefighting C-130s and aircrews.

C-130s from three Air National Guard wings and an Air Force Reserve wing are flying missions with the Modular Airborne Firefighting System, supporting the U.S. Forest Service. Activated a month earlier this year than in 2020, they are flying at twice the pace as last year, fighting huge blazes including the Dixie Fire in Northern California.

“You can really see the impact,” said Col. Gary Monroe, commander of 1st Air Force (Air Forces Northern)’s 153rd Modular Airborne Firefighting System Air Expeditionary Group. “The heat, the drought, and all the conditions out there are just very bad for sparking wildfires. … That’s why we’re here, to help with that, and to mitigate any damage or suffering that’s out there for our neighbors, our friends, our families, our citizens all around us.”

First Air Force is the Defense Department’s operational lead for USAF’s efforts fighting the fires, operating under activation by the U.S. Forest Service. The group is headquartered next to the USFS National Interagency Fire Center in Boise, Idaho, with MAFFS aircraft flying out of McClellan Airport in Sacramento. The units train early in the year to be ready to go once needed, with this year’s spin-up beginning in April. The Air Force knew “that the fire season could be early,” Monroe said.

For the 152nd Airlift Wing of the Nevada Air National Guard, the activation order came in late June, but what was anticipated as a month of missions has not abated.

Lt. Col. Patrick McKelvey, a C-130 pilot, flew three rotations—including a personal record of nine fire-retardant airdrops in one day—when the activation was extended another month July 20. The wing also flew out another aircraft, with the Wyoming Air National Guard’s 153rd Airlift Wing and the Reserve 302nd Airlift Wing in Colorado also contributing to the fight. The California Air National Guard’s 146th Airlift Wing has been flying support since the early days of the fire season.

“We found ourselves in the situation of kind of scrambling to put together another month worth of a second crew that we didn’t know we were going to need,” McKelvey said. “So, I just told the scheduler, throw me in where you need me. Put me in, coach.”

As of July 22, MAFFS crews have flown 252 sorties, with 247 drops totaling 697,746 gallons on 12 fires.

The typical day of operations starts about 9 a.m. with a mission briefing, with groups such as CalFire and the Forest Service outlining where help will be needed. Once launch orders come out, detailing the latitude/longitude for the area and radio frequencies, the C-130s take off and link up with “air attack”—an aircraft flying higher, coordinating other planes and firefighters below like an E-3 AWACS would in a combat zone.

Once in the fire area, the C-130 then falls in with a “lead plane,” typically a small OV-10 Bronco or a King Air 200, that leads the Hercules through the fire zone. The lead plane uses smoke to signal to the Herk where to start the drop and where to stop, and how to egress the area.

After conducting drops of the red retardant, which crews call “mud,” the C-130 then lands at a nearby tanker base to start the process again.

“We’re just going in and out of tanker bases: landing, shutting down, filling up with retardant … fire back up, take off, and go back to the fire,” McKelvey said. “Most of our days have just consisted of just doing that all day long. Just in and out, back and forth, just hauling mud to the fire.”

For McKelvey, the mission is a big change from his background. A former Navy F/A-18 pilot, McKelvey transferred to the Air National Guard to stay in Nevada while remaining in military service. Though his time in a Hercules is shorter than that of the other MAFFS pilots, the background of difficult flying, such as operating off carriers, translates.

“It’s some of the most dangerous flying I’ve done in my career,” he said. “And it’s high risk, high reward.”

While the C-130 crews try to keep the procedures of dropping the retardant similar to those of regular airdrops—following the same callouts and checklists—the environment is massively different.

Typical airdrop landing zones have been surveyed, with crews knowing the way in and out and ensuring the environmental conditions are predictable. Above burning mountaintops in high temperatures, pilots do not have the luxury of that predictability.

“For us, every situation we go into is unique,” he said. “Nobody has seen it. You’ve never flown that line. You have absolutely no idea what you’re getting into. And we’re going down to 150 feet and doing it far slower than we would normally do an airdrop because of the way the retardant comes out of the airplane. So, it’s lower, you’re heavier at max gross weight, you’re using far more power. It’s hot, you’re at high altitude up in the mountains, canyons, obstacles, trees. Next to flying around the aircraft carrier at night, this is probably some of the most high-risk flying I’ve ever done.”

Crews are wringing out every bit of performance from their lumbering C-130s. Some aircraft have advantages, including upgraded 8-blade NP2000 propellers or the Rolls-Royce T56 3.5 engine enhancement.

“We’re taking off at 155,000 pounds, which is the max gross of the airplane,” he said. “If it was cold weather, it would be great, right? Better performance. But things don’t catch fire when it’s cold. They only catch fire when it’s insanely hot, which affects our performance. So we will be max performing the airplane a lot of the time. And there’s a lot of situations where you’re asking every ounce of performance from the engines.”

The individual units deploy maintainers along with the aircrews to help keep the aircraft flying. The Nevada unit is also in a good position, with its home base only a two-hour drive away, to bring it parts or more expertise. The unit’s home base in Reno is also a divert location for MAFFS aircraft up in California if they have a problem.

The 152nd AW C-130s have flown every day extensively and have not run into a maintenance issue.

“Our airplanes have just been absolute chariots,” McKelvey said.

Weather, however, does have a say. There have been multiple times when a C-130 flew into the fire traffic area behind the lead plane but encountered unsafe conditions—such as high turbulence or hot “dead air” that impacts the aircraft’s performance—and the aircraft commander called off the flight or changed their approach.

“The ultimate decision obviously rests on the aircraft commander on the C-130 to say, ‘This looks good’ or ‘This doesn’t look good,’” he said. “There have been many situations where the aircraft commander looked at a situation and just didn’t feel comfortable and bailed out of it or took a go-around before getting into it.”

Not everyone is up to this mission. “You don’t just have to [just] meet the qualifications—you have to be good as well,” McKelvey said. “Just because you’re qualified doesn’t mean you’re going to do it … the MAFFS instructors and the cadre that are in are kind of the ones that determine whether or not somebody gets selected.”

The MAFFS crew is a small community. “We pick the best pilots, aircrews, and everything else experience-wise to get out there and fly this mission so that they can be the best they can all the time,” Monroe said.

Crews rotate in and out of duty on a weekly basis to stay fresh and avoid hitting the 10-day limit on consecutive days flying. Each unit has about 10 trained crews, and there is no shortage of volunteers.

“We love this mission—this is an outstanding mission—but if we’re called out, that means somebody is losing some property, or in danger, or something like that,” Monroe said. “We never want that, but we are there to help. And that’s why we’re ready.”

The MAFFS mission is unique in its operational requirements while also contributing to protecting the public, said McKelvey, the former Super Hornet pilot.

“In the world I grew up in in the military, I got to do a lot of the things that we trained for, as far as combat, close air support, support the troops on the ground, but I would say 99 percent of the stuff we did was training for something that you hope never happens,” he said. “Whereas this, it’s an operational mission that we get to do in our own backyard for the benefit of our neighbors, community, etc. So when you’re driving a fire line down a residential neighborhood and putting retardant down trying to save homes, and you come back the next day and you see that retardant line and everything on the one side of the line is burned and everything on the other side of the retardant line is still standing, there’s a lot more job satisfaction knowing that you were able to help save someone’s home, someone’s business.”

Lakenheath F-15E Pilot Thanks Spotter Who Alerted Him to Engine Malfunction

July 23, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

An F-15 pilot with the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, United Kingdom, got to meet the civilian plane spotter who potentially saved his life.

In a Facebook post from RAF Lakenheath, 492nd Fighter Squadron pilot Maj. Grant Thompson was seen personally thanking Ian Simpson, a British aviation enthusiast.

Simpson happened to be watching planes take off at the base July 13 when he noted that one F-15E Strike Eagle was seemingly spewing fire and sparks out of its right rear engine, but the pilot seemed unaware.

According to the BBC, Simpson said he called the base’s switch board and was connected with the 48th Fighter Wing field operations group. From there, Thompson was alerted to the issue and was able to land safely without incident, according to the Facebook post.

“From our perspective, it was a normal takeoff,” Thompson told the BBC, adding that Simpson’s quick actions “100 percent” saved his life as his wingmen later noted that it appeared to be a nozzle malfunction on his F-15E.

Simpson told the BBC that he knew something was wrong when he continued to see sparks coming from the engine after takeoff, realizing then that they were not an afterburner.

Thompson and Simpson met July 20, with Thompson thanking Simpson and presenting him with several gifts in appreciation, including a trucker hat and his 48th Fighter Wing insignia patch.

Images from the original incident started making the rounds on social media soon afterward and picked up traction with local and national media outlets. Observers noted that it appeared that one of the F-15’s F100 engines had a damaged exhaust nozzle.

Little bit of an issue on takeoff for @48FighterWing F15@ThePhotoHour #AvGeek #aviation #aviationphotography @TheAviationist pic.twitter.com/i3hahHcy09
— Matt Smart (@MattSmartie999) July 13, 2021

The 48th Fighter Wing is the only F-15 fighter wing in the U.S. Air Forces in Europe command, and Thompson’s 492nd Fighter Squadron won the Raytheon Trophy in 2017.

Roth Extends Special Leave Accrual Rules for All Airmen, Guardians

July 23, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

Once more, Airmen and Guardians will be able to carry over up to 120 days of leave from fiscal year 2021, acting Secretary of the Air Force John P. Roth announced July 23.

The move, Roth wrote in a memo distributed to the major commands, is aimed at helping service members who have been unable to take leave due to restrictions related to the COVID-19 pandemic. While more and more of those restrictions have been lifted as of late, “many [Department of the Air Force] service members, through no fault of their own, have found it difficult to manage and reduce their individual leave balances to no more than 60 days,” Roth wrote.

The special leave accrual rules are essentially the same as the ones put into place for fiscal 2020, when the pandemic severely limited travel and movement. All Airmen and Guardians on Active duty and all Reserve and Guard Airmen on Title 10 or Title 32 orders can accumulate up to 120 days of leave, double the usual 60, and keep up to that amount for another three years, now until Sept. 30, 2024.

“Rest and recuperation are vital to morale, unit and personal performance, and overall motivation for Airmen and Guardians. The Department of the Air Force recognizes the importance to provide opportunities for its service members to use their earned leave in the year it was earned and provide respite from the work environment,” Roth wrote.

Airmen and Guardians who have already been approved for special leave accrual for other reasons will not lose leave, and no matter when their special leave exemption is set to expire, they will still be able to carry up to 120 days until 2024, Roth added.

Roth’s decision comes a month after Ramon Colon-Lopez, the senior enlisted adviser to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, said in a Facebook post that service secretaries would be allowed to grant special leave accrual at installations and mobile units “where conditions that severely restrict members’ opportunities to take/use leave still exist,” noting that many of the military’s bases have now lifted COVID-19 restrictions.

At the same time, Colon-Lopez also said that service secretaries would be granted “wide latitude” to determine special leave rules for all members.

SpOC Commander Sees Spacefaring Guardians in Future

July 23, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

As military operations in space move farther from the Earth, the head of Space Operations Command believes Guardians joining the Space Force now may eventually need to enter orbit or transit through space to make quick decisions to protect American interests in space.

“As we think about future threats, as we think about where commerce may go, human history tells us that where commerce goes, that we have had a need to have a military defense,” Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting told Air Force Magazine by phone from SpOC headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs.

“We’ll see how that plays out, but if we project out those kinds of trends, it would not surprise me if in the career of young Guardians joining today, we have manned missions on orbit,” he added.

Recent space forays by billionaire space entrepreneurs Jeff Bezos and Richard Branson demonstrate a capability that could benefit the Space Force.

“Just look at what we’ve seen in the last two weeks with Blue Origin and Virgin Galactic,” said Whiting.

“I tell young Guardians who are joining the service today, I think within their careers, if we think about a 20-year career arc, there’s a good chance there will be Guardians either on orbit or transiting through space for some military missions,” he said. “So, the capabilities that we’re seeing now being built in commercial industry, funded by commercial industry, will give us those kinds of opportunities.”

The first billionaire space entrepreneur to reach suborbital flight was Branson July 11 on Virgin Galactic’s SpaceShipTwo, reaching 85.9 kilometers before gliding back to Earth after a total flight time of about 13 minutes.

Nine days later, Bezos boarded Blue Origin’s New Shepherd and reached 107 kilometers over an approximately 11 minute flight.

The Space Force currently has two former NASA astronauts within its ranks, Col. Mike Hopkins and Col. Nick Hague. But their practical application as spacefaring Guardians is still unclear. An early Space Force recruiting video with a Guardian wearing an astronaut suit elicited many questions that still have not been answered.

“The reason we have people in space is to do stuff that machines can’t do,” a SpOC spokesperson told Air Force Magazine. “You have to weigh the risk against the benefit. It’s really hard to put people in space, and it’s dangerous.”

The spokesperson explained that the cost and risk of putting people into space still favors having machines operate for military space purposes, but that could change as military operations in space move farther from Earth.

Communicating with satellites and space vehicles operating on distant planets requires long lag times to travel hundreds of thousands or even millions of miles. When a problem arises for a system operating far from Earth, the system must first send a problem signal to Earth. Once received, a solution has to be developed and a command signal sent back.

“When you project that out further, the lag is greater,” the SpOC spokesperson explained.

“When you’ve got a human who’s on the scene making decisions, the OODA loop [observe–orient–decide–act] is shortened. He can react to a situation very quickly,” the spokesperson added. “There may come a day when we need people there making those fast decisions that a computer can’t make.”

Whiting, whose command controls the more than 70 Space Force satellites on orbit, emphasized the visionary nature of the projection.

“There’s a lot that will have to happen between now and then, but it’s exciting that commercial industry is delivering these capabilities at their own costs that we can then potentially leverage in the future for the mission that we foresee coming,” he said. “And those missions could, in fact, extend beyond Earth’s orbit, out to cislunar or beyond as commercial industry looks for those opportunities to expand commerce in those areas.”

Next Two KC-46 Beddowns Will be Guard Locations

July 22, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air National Guard will get the next two tranches of KC-46 Pegasus tankers, at locations to be decided within the next 12 months, Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom told the Senate Appropriations Committee on July 21.

“The next two beddown locations for the Air National Guard, we’re actually going to have that conversation in the next year,” Nahom said at a hearing to discuss divestitures of USAF aircraft to pay for modernization. “And of the Air National Guard units flying the KC-135 now, we’re going to transition two of those” to fly some of the planned 179 KC-46s, Nahom added.

In May, the Air Force said it’s looking at two Active-duty bases, one of which would host the next 24 KC-46s, and six Air Force Reserve locations, one of which will get 12 Pegasus tankers. The Air National Guard wasn’t mentioned in that announcement.

On July 22, the Senate Armed Services Committee, in its markup of the fiscal 2022 budget, allowed the Air Force to divest just 18 KC-135s from the Active-duty inventory and did not allow any Stratotankers to be divested from the Air National Guard fleet.

Nahom said the Air Force’s plan is to buy out the 179 KC-46As in its contract with Boeing then go to a “bridge tanker” before moving on to a future airplane that would replace the remainder of 300 KC-135s. The Air Force put out a request for information to the defense industry on a “bridge tanker” this week.

“We’re keeping our eyes open to advanced technology,” Nahom said of the KC-135 replacement. “There may be something else beyond the KC-46, beyond a 767-based platform, to take us into the future.” The Air Force has discussed autonomous tankers and stealthy refueling aircraft, including jets far smaller than the 767-based KC-46, as possible future tankers. The service has said it’s keeping an eye on the progress of the Navy’s MQ-25 Stingray tanker, which will operate off aircraft carriers and fly without a human crew aboard.

Nahom noted there are still “seven more years of procurement of the KC-46, so the good thing is, we have time to have these conversations and look at the technologies out there, and make sure that when we get to 179, and go to jet 180, and start replacing the next round of KC-135s, we have the right aircraft.”

Despite advancements in engine technology, especially for future combat aircraft, Nahom said the Air Force sees no reduction in need for tanker aircraft, and that in fact, U.S. Transportation Command has been “working with us” to manage reduction in the tanker fleet to have a minimum impact on USAF operations.

“If your eye is on China … and you look at the distances in the South China Sea, you have to have the gas,” Nahom said.

The Air Force has “over 490” tankers now but is divesting the KC-10, which Nahom said is a well liked platform but “very expensive” to operate, and that the plan is to neck down to 179 KC-46s and 300 KC-135s as soon as possible.

Nahom told Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) that USAF needs more tanking capacity in Alaska to support combat aircraft there. Alaska is the “center of fifth-gen capability” with numbers of both F-22s and F-35s increasing there, he said, and more refueling capability is needed.

“We’re committed” to adding four tankers to the Alaska theater, he said, the only limiting factor being construction of facilities to handle the additional jets and additional “Airmen we send up there.”

KC-135s will not be withdrawn from Alaska “until we can replace them with something,” he said.

When reviewing which two Air National Guard locations will get KC-46s “in the next year,” Nahom said, “we will assess all of the locations and make sure we find the most suitable [ones] through our normal strategic basing process.”

The Air Force fields Active-duty KC-46s at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan.; Reserve KC-46s at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.; and Air National Guard KC-46s at Pease Air National Guard Base, N.H. Future Active-duty bases are Joint Base McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., and Travis Air Force Base, Calif.