Austin Recommends Removing Sexual Assault Cases from the Chain of Command as Chiefs Express Unease

June 22, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III is recommending that the military remove the prosecution of sexual assault and related crimes from the chain of command amid a Congressional push to reform military justice and an independent commission’s review of Defense Department policies.

Austin, in a June 22 statement, said he reviewed the recommendations of the Independent Review Commission on Sexual Assault and Sexual Harassment. He said that “in coming days,” he will recommend to President Joe Biden to amend the Uniform Code of Military Justice to remove the decision to prosecute sexual assaults and related crimes, to include domestic violence, from a commander’s purview.

The decision comes as Congress is considering a measure that would reform military justice to do the same, along with more crimes to include murder, manslaughter, child endangerment, child pornography, and negligent homicide. Austin’s statement only mentioned sexual assault and related crimes.

Before Austin had released his statement, Senate Armed Services Committee Ranking Member Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) released letters from the chiefs and the Chairman, as a bipartisan group of more than 30 senators are pushing ahead with a bill to overhaul military justice by handing the decision to prosecute certain crimes to independent prosecutors.

The Military Justice Improvement and Increasing Prevention Act aims to “create a more professional and transparent military justice system for serious crimes.” Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.) said, when unveiling the proposal, that a 2018 study determined one in 16 military women reported being groped, raped, or sexually assaulted in other ways during their military service. Almost 21,000 instances of sexual assault were reported that year, up from 14,900 two years before.

Inhofe acknowledged the seriousness of the problem but questioned the proposed solution. “Any instance of sexual assault is too many, and eliminating sexual assault and harassment from our military and holding perpetrators accountable demands action,” he said. Congress has passed 250 provisions to address sexual assault and harassment in the military over the past 15 years, he said, and some measures have only recently begun to take effect. His statement did not elaborate. While fixing the problem is urgent, a rushed solution risks unforeseen consequences, he said.

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley wrote that the proposed changes “may have an adverse effect on readiness, mission accomplishment, good order and discipline, justice, unit cohesion, trust, and loyalty between commanders and those they lead.” He urged caution in potentially undermining commander authority, ensuring that any changes be “rigorously analyzed, evidence-based, and narrow in scope, limited only to sexual assault and related offenses.”

Milley acknowledged that the military has failed to make “sufficient progress in recent years to eliminate sexual assault, and we have consequently lost the trust and confidence of Soldiers, Sailors, Airmen, Marines, and Guardians in the chain of command’s ability to adjudicate these serious crimes.”

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. also questioned the proposed solution to a difficult problem. “I am open to improving our processes that deliver justice,” he wrote. “I do not know if removing commanders’ authority to act on certain offenses will affect the occurrence of sexual assault to the degree we all desire and need … Removing elements of authority will likely create some risk, particularly if poorly scoped, communicated, or implemented.”

But he added that there may yet be reason to “try new measures if we believe they will increase accountability and reduce sexual assaults.” He also argued that “Implementation should reinforce [commanders’] responsibilities in the process, not relieve them from it.”

Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond said that, since the military has not made substantial progress in reducing the rates of sexual assault, it is time to consider changes. But he said he worries that removing commanders’ ability to enforce discipline in sexual assault and harassment cases poses “a risk that commanders may not display the same focus on prevention efforts.”

Milley, Brown, and Raymond all urged that any changes to the Uniform Code of Military Justice should be limited to sexual assault and harassment.

Inhofe said the issue is too critical to get wrong. “Given how important it is to get this right, … I wanted to understand what [top military leaders] believed would result from this legislation becoming law—would it truly reduce sexual assault or other crime in the military?” Inhofe said. “Their answers were, across the board, not reassuring. … As I would expect … each chief committed to striving to fulfill any law Congress enacts, given enough time and money. But I will note: This bill provides neither time nor money—it only allows for six months to make wholesale changes to the military justice system, provides zero resources for its implementation, and actually prohibits an increase in new personnel to implement these massive changes. Further, it leaves reforms to the Space Force and the Reserve Components—particularly the National Guard—out in the cold.”

In addition to the 30 cosponsors, the bill has been endorsed by the Veterans of Foreign Wars, the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, Vietnam Veterans of America, Protect Our Defenders, the National Alliance to End Sexual Violence, SWAN, the National Coalition Against Domestic Violence, Common Defense, and the Veterans Recovery Project.

Austin, in his statement, said he is also directing his staff to review additional recommendations from the commission and called on Congress to provide additional authorities needed to make related changes.

Afghanistan Withdrawal Continues as Taliban Makes Gains

June 22, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan continues on pace, and though Taliban violence has increased—with the group taking more districts from the Kabul-based government—there are no plans to slow the drawdown yet.

U.S. Central Command said June 22 that more than 50 percent of the withdrawal had been completed as of that day. The command has said it won’t be more specific about the pace because of security concerns. It said in a release that 763 C-17 loads of material had been removed from the country and that 14,790 pieces of equipment had been handed over to the Defense Logistics Agency for “disposition.” Six facilities had been handed over to the Afghan Ministry of Defense.

Meanwhile, this week, the Taliban took control of a key district along a supply route in the northern province of Kunduz, encircling the provincial capital, The Associated Press reported. Dozens of districts in Afghanistan have fallen to the Taliban since early May.

Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said June 21 that the Taliban continues to conduct attacks with a rate of violence that is “too high.” However, this has not yet changed U.S. plans.

“What’s really critical here is that nothing has changed about two things: One, we will complete the withdrawal of all U.S. forces out of Afghanistan, with the exception of those that will be left to protect the diplomatic presence,” he said. “And two, that it will be done before early September, as per the Commander in Chief’s orders. Those two things are constant and won’t change.”

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III and other military commanders look at the situation every day “with a fresh set of eyes” to see if the pace is appropriate for a “safe and orderly retrograde,” Kirby said.

“Every day there’s a fresh set of data to look at that helps inform his discussions with military commanders and eventually whatever changes might come of that.”

Which Wings Would Lose A-10s Under USAF Plan

June 22, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force’s plan to cut 42 A-10 Warthogs in fiscal 2022 targets Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and the Indiana Air National Guard. Those wings would lose Warthogs, but they would pick up new missions.

USAF wants to cut the Warthog fleet by 22 percent, from 281 aircraft to 218, in order to gain money and manpower for other needs. Even after the cut, however, A-10s would still outnumber F-22s, ensuring the close-air support jet will still be there if needed into the 2030s. Beyond that, USAF officials believe the Warthog will no longer be viable.

Retiring 63 A-10s over the next two years “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.”

The first retirements will come at the 122nd Fighter Wing at Fort Wayne, Indiana, and the 355th Wing at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. Under the plan, the 122nd FW’s 163rd Fighter Squadron will convert back to F-16s, which the Indiana Guard unit flew before transferring to the A-10 in 2010. Since then, the “Blacksnakes,” with their signature snake nose art, have been active, deploying several times to the Middle East.

The Air Force said Davis-Monthan would lose one operational A-10 squadron, with plans for the follow-on mission there still in the works.

The Air Force aims to come down from nine operational squadrons to seven and keep one “full-up” operational squadron at Osan Air Base, South Korea, Nahom said. Back home, there will be three Air National Guard squadrons, two Active duty, and one Reserve. Those squadrons would be “in a rotation,” he said, enabling the Air Force to always have at least one A-10 squadron available to combatant commanders.

Space War, Like the Cold War, Is All Risk, No Reward

June 22, 2021 | By Amanda Miller

War in space will take on aspects of the Cold War in the future, as space powers vie for supremacy but seek to avoid the kind of kinetic warfare that could wipe out satellite constellations and undermine global activity on Earth.

Two officials with the Air Force Research Laboratory shared their vision during the Defense One Tech Summit on June 22: Col. Eric J. Felt, director of AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate, and Kelly D. Hammett, director of its Directed Energy Directorate. The two described a future where deterrence and “unattributable” attacks are the norm, much like the cat-and-mouse days of the Cold War when the United States and Soviet Union competed but simultaneously sought to avoid all-out nuclear war.

Sharing their views on America’s “Next Steps in Space,” they also described the evolving need to be able to monitor activity in the region between today’s satellites and the moon, also called cisluanar space.

“Space war is going to look a lot like the Cold War in a couple of different ways: First of all, we hope nobody’s actually exchanging destructive weapons with each other and that we don’t just hope, but we take active actions to deter that from happening,” Felt said. “The nature of conflict in space is that there is an offensive advantage, or a first-mover advantage, in that it is a lot easier to attack somebody else than to defend your own stuff. And we’ve seen that before—that’s the same as with … nuclear weapons.”

Just as nuclear arms were critical to avoiding nuclear war, with deterrence the primary objective, the key to avoiding destructive consequences in space will be “making sure that you can win in that kind of battle space,” Felt suggested. That’s why he continues to study the Cold War “and how we avoided destructive—very destructive—conflict with our adversaries” during those 50 years.

Deterrence requires a certain amount of openness. “It’s important for your adversary to know a lot about what your capabilities are,” Felt said, because doing so ensures the opponent knows the risk of launching an attack. “Whereas if you keep everything secret, they might think that they can take a gamble and win with a first strike,” he said.

How space warfare might be fought could also draw from the Cold War playbook, where spycraft and unattributable actions were more common than direct kinetic attacks. Past anti-satellite tests by China and India made clear the risks posed to other spacecraft when exploded space junk joins satellites in orbit.

Instead of kinetic attacks, electronic warfare and cyber are likely means of attack, Hammett said. “Those are the types of things the adversaries are likely to use because you can’t point to [it; it’s not] a missile that everybody watched traverse and hit something.”

Cislunar Space

Competition in space will also extend beyond conventional orbital ranges of low-Earth orbit and geosynchronous orbits, the AFRL directors said. “There’s a large volume of space between the GEO belt and the moon—a thousand times the area that’s in the GEO belt and below,” Felt said. The Space Force needs to understand that region to maintain space domain awareness, or “what’s going on out there,” he said.

AFRL had already recognized cislunar space as a target for monitoring because of “Chinese activity in Chang’e 5 going to the moon, as one example, [and] lots of commercial activity planned for above GEO,” Felt said. When the Space Force asked for help, Felt said the challenges began to multiply. “There’s a lot of technical challenges, such as, you know, the orbits are not simple circles when you have the gravity of the moon there—the gravity of the moon being important.”

Hammett said the Pentagon isn’t “resourced, yet, to really get after all those things. … We’re formulating the technical challenges,” he said. “We’re saying we need to do cislunar SDA. We’re saying we need access to mobility and logistics—you know, gas stations in space, tugs in space, cargo transports in space. We might have to put police stations in space.

“If you look at the National Space Strategy that was signed by the Trump administration in December … it actually commits us—commits the Space Force and the Department of Defense—to … monitoring what’s going on out there,” Hammett said. “And if somebody is a bad actor in the international realm: to monitor, detect, and respond.”

The Space Force’s fiscal 2022 budget request did not include “a lot in this area,” Hammett said. But the matter is on the Space Force’s unfunded priorities list. “So I think we’re getting that message across,” Hammett said. “We’ve got to get some resources and technologies and tech base getting after that sooner rather than later.”

USAF Would ‘Greatly Value’ Congressional Boost for Sustainment, Flying Hours

June 22, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The cost to operate the Air Force’s aircraft grew by more than $1 billion last year, largely the reason for cuts in flying hours, senior Air Force officials told lawmakers June 22. They added that the service would appreciate Congress adding money to their fiscal 2022 budget request for that purpose.

During a Senate Armed Services airland subcommittee hearing, Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska), expressed concern that the Air Force in its fiscal 2022 budget request cut 87,000 flying hours from the prior year’s request. Lt. Gen. Joseph T. Guastella, the deputy chief of staff for operations, said the hours were cut because weapon system sustainment costs had risen.

The sustainment and flying hours accounts go “hand in hand,” Guastella said. “If we can fund the weapon system sustainment that generates aircraft availability, [then] we can turn around and lay in the flying hours.” If Congress were to add funding for weapon system sustainment with the aim of increasing flying hours, he said that would be “greatly valued” by the service.

“Aircrews today out there are flying the absolute minimum number of hours they need every month to stay ready,” he said. “We’re offsetting that with simulation events, but we’re as low as we can be. We want to turn that corner.”

Other Air Force officials have testified in recent weeks that flying hours fell because the Air Force wasn’t able to execute the number of hours it was funded to fly.

Guastella added that “for what it’s worth right now … despite COVID, we’re at 96 percent of executing what was laid in in the flying hour budget this year. We’re working it really hard, but those aging aircraft just make it harder and harder.”

Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, deputy chief of staff for plans and programs, said sustainment “is going up well in excess of inflation … in fact, it’s actually approaching $1 billion a year, just in increased costs. And this year, in ’22, we were not able to fund that increase.”

This is of concern, he said, because “we’re funded at about 87 percent of our weapon system sustainment [requirement], and that’s going to go down to 80 percent.”

In addition to the challenges of maintaining an increasingly aged fleet, “a lot of new platforms are coming on with …contractor logistics support. And many of these contracts are expensive and driving the increase,” Nahom said.

The Air Force included about $1.2 billion worth of WSS items on its unfunded priorities list across a number of platforms. This includes about $360 million for the F-35 and $825 million for other items, such as U-2 operations and EC-37 spare engines.

In its fiscal 2022 budget presentation May 28, the Air Force said flying hour funding was being reduced from $7.8 billion to $7.6 billion. Maj. Gen. James D. Peccia, deputy assistant secretary for budget, said the reduction was due to “the change in global posture overseas,” meaning reduced operating tempo in Afghanistan, which he said accounted for 66,000 of the hours that were cut.

During the hearing, Nahom said “the one way we’re getting after this in our budget is, we’re recapitalizing our fleets—to more modern aircraft that we can fly at a higher rate, so we can generate those flying hours for our pilots.”

The pilots “badly need that flying experience,” he said. “Synthetic is good [as well as] the virtual environment, and we have to do that as well, but getting them in the air” is also critical.

Senate Committee Advances Air Force Undersecretary Nominee

June 22, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Senate Armed Services Committee advanced the nomination of Gina Ortiz Jones to become undersecretary of the Air Force on June 22, setting her up for a confirmation vote on the Senate floor in the coming weeks.

Jones’ approval comes three weeks after Frank Kendall III was advanced by the same committee for the position of Secretary of the Air Force. No floor vote has been announced for either Kendall or Jones.

In keeping with the Biden administration’s effort to appoint leaders who “look like America,” Jones would be the first openly gay person of color to hold the undersecretary position. She is of Filipino descent. She would also be the sixth woman confirmed to the job.

During her confirmation hearing, Jones cited the example of her uncle, who joined the Navy as a steward, one of the only positions available to Filipinos at the time, and eventually rose to become a gas turbine electrician.

“My own service started with a four-year Air Force ROTC scholarship that took me from San Antonio, Texas, to Boston University. I was honored to wear our Nation’s cloth. However, similar to my uncle’s limited career opportunities because of his ethnicity, my experience in the Air Force was hindered by the ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ policy,” Jones said in her opening statement. “Yet I, too, remained undeterred because of my desire to serve our country. That experience cemented my resolve to ensure anyone ready and able to serve can do so to their full potential, and accordingly, our country’s fullest potential.”

Jones served in the Air Force three years as an intelligence officer, deploying to Iraq and reaching the rank of captain. She also received a master’s from the Army Command and General Staff College.

She later worked as a civilian for U.S. Africa Command and the Defense Intelligence Agency, where she specialized in Latin American affairs.

In late 2016, Jones joined the office of the U.S. Trade Representative and stayed on into the Trump administration. She left in 2017 to run for Congress, challenging Republican William Hurd in Texas’s 23rd district. She narrowly lost and ran again in 2019, but did not win the Democratic primary.

Jones was one of five civilian nominations that were advanced by SASC on June 22, the other four being: Caroline D. Krass to be general counsel of the Department of Defense, Ely S. Ratner to be assistant secretary of defense for Indo-Pacific security affairs, Shawn G. Skelly to be assistant secretary of defense for readiness, and Meredith A. Berger to be assistant secretary of the Navy for energy, installations, and environment.

The acting undersecretary for the Air Force is Anthony P. Reardon, who has served in the role since February. Reardon previously worked as administrative assistant to the Secretary.

Reports: DOD Planning to Draw Down Forces in Middle East

June 21, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Pentagon is planning to draw down the number of fighter squadrons and missile defense systems deployed in the Middle East as the U.S. seeks to reduce its footprint in the region, The Wall Street Journal reported.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III informed Saudi Arabia that the U.S. intends to withdraw Terminal High Altitude Area Defense and Patriot missile defense systems along with some fighter aircraft deployed there. The U.S. will also bring home fighters and missile defense systems from Iraq, Kuwait, and Jordan, the Journal reported.

Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby would not confirm details, saying instead that the department regularly reviews capabilities and “the ability to sustain those capabilities and systems in whatever region they are deployed.”

It is “not uncommon” to move different systems around in the theater or bring them home for maintenance, Kirby said.

“We have a very robust presence in the Middle East region, with a lot of capabilities there,” Kirby said. “There’s tens of thousands of personnel as well as systems and capabilities across the region.”

The decision to withdraw missile defense systems and aircraft comes as the Pentagon seeks to shift its focus to the Indo-Pacific and China, and comes as the military is working on a complete withdrawal from Afghanistan by September.

The Pentagon deployed the fighters, a THAAD system, and Patriot batteries to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, in October 2019 after attacks by Iranian-backed forces on the country. Then-Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper said the deployments were to “assure and enhance the defense of Saudi Arabia.”

USAF contingency response and RED HORSE Airmen deployed to the Saudi base to build up the infrastructure there to host aircraft, and the desert base has hosted rotating deployments ever since.

After 5 Million Shots, Military’s Federal Vaccination Sites Are Done

June 21, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The last federally supported COVID-19 vaccine center staffed by U.S. military personnel closed June 20, wrapping up more than four months of vaccinations at dozens of sites nationwide. But National Guard personnel are still supporting state and local vaccination sites, Pentagon spokesman John F. Kirby said June 21.

Since opening earlier this year, service members at 48 sites nationwide administered about 5 million vaccine doses, Kirby said. National Guard sites have administered another 12 million, Kirby said.

The last federally supported site was in New Jersey, Kirby said. The federal effort began in early February, when a 222-person team from Fort Carson, Colo., deployed to Los Angeles to set up a mass vaccination site.

The move comes as the Pentagon is revising its health protection status. As of June 23, that status will improve from “bravo plus” to “bravo,” meaning its office spaces facilities can increase to 50 percent occupancy, up from 40 percen. Maximum telework remaining. Public tours are still closed.

Within the Defense Department, there have been 4,212,820 total COVID-19 vaccines distributed. Within the Air Force, 256,416 total personnel are fully vaccinated.

Barksdale B-52s Complete Task Force Deployment

June 21, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

B-52s from Barksdale Air Force, La., closed out a monthlong deployment to Spain with a pair of long-distance training missions, one over the Arctic and the other over Africa.

Bombers from the 2nd Bomb Wing took off June 17 for a “cross-combatant command” training mission, working with Norwegian joint terminal attack controllers while flying through the Arctic Circle and into the northern Pacific, then heading home to Barksdale, according to a U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa release. The number of aircraft in the operation was not given.

“Our unparalleled global strike capability is the backbone of our combat-credible force,” said USAFE boss Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian. “That force is the foundation of our extended deterrence strategy that safeguards both U.S. security and that of our allies and partners.”

The flight covered 12,000 miles and took 27 hours to complete. Tankers from RAF Mildenhall, England; Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash.; Andersen Air Force Base, Guam; Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii; and Travis Air Force Base, Calif., provided fuel.

The following day, more B-52s took off from Moron Air Base, Spain, flying to Morocco before crossing the Atlantic Ocean to return to Barksdale. It was the third time the B-52s flew to Africa during the task force deployment, USAFE said in a release.

“The final two days of flights over Morocco and through the Arctic are great examples of our team’s range and flexibility,” Harrigian said. “My hope is that our air operations over the last month have demonstrated our unwavering commitment to our European and African partners and sent the message that we are invested in creating opportunities to grow together.”

The task force flew more than a dozen missions during the monthlong deployment, including a flight that took them over all European NATO nations May 31.