Watchdog: Afghan Air Force Already Losing Readiness Before US Withdrawal is Complete

Watchdog: Afghan Air Force Already Losing Readiness Before US Withdrawal is Complete

July 29, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The effectiveness of the Afghan Air Force is already dropping even before the U.S. and coalition forces complete their withdrawal from the country, with the majority of the Afghan Air Force’s airframes losing readiness last month.

The office of the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction on July 28 released its latest quarterly report to Congress, detailing several issues facing the health and effectiveness of Afghan forces. The AAF, long touted as one of the few success stories in the U.S.-led training mission, has been key to Afghan military capabilities. But that is waning as U.S. contractors leave and advisers are already gone from the country.

“Five of the seven airframes experienced decreases in readiness in the last month of the quarter [June],” wrote SIGAR’s John Sopko. “This coincided with the Taliban offensive and the withdrawal of U.S. and Coalition forces, including aircraft-maintenance contractors. The combined effect of the two appeared to reduce aircraft readiness rates.”

Specifically, the AAF’s AC-208 fleet had a 93 percent readiness rate in April and May, but that dropped to 63 percent in June. The UH-60 Black Hawk fleet went from 77 percent to 39 percent. The A-29 light attack aircraft and MD-530 attack helicopter, both key to striking Taliban fighters in the country, failed to meet readiness benchmarks.

It is not clear how the AAF can regain some of this readiness as contractors have left. Sopko said during a July 29 roundtable with reporters that AAF crews are a success story, showing they are “not only brave, but as competent as they could be,” but there are small numbers of them. More cannot be trained overnight—both pilots and mechanics need months to be trained.

U.S. officials have said they will continue supporting the AAF through funding and remote advising from over the horizon. Sopko said, however, that how that will occur it isn’t clear yet and that there will be limitations in effectiveness.

“You’ve got to be there sometimes, to help somebody with maintenance, or training, or whatever,” he said. “And it’s extremely difficult. … It’s a lot better, I personally feel, when you’re face to face and when the Afghans are face to face.”

Additionally, how in-depth maintenance will occur isn’t clear. Needed maintenance is possible, though difficult and expensive, to do out of the country. For example, if a helicopter engine needs to be fixed, it could be flown out of Afghanistan, fixed elsewhere, and then flown back in.

Afghan special forces—the other success story in the Afghan military—also are stretched extremely thin. Commandos are tasked with basic jobs that regular forces should do, such as route clearance and checkpoints, because regular Afghan army soldiers refuse to conduct operations if the special forces are not there, Sopko said.

Lessons Learned

Congress created SIGAR in 2008 to conduct oversight of reconstruction projects in Afghanistan, and Sopko has held the position since 2012. He has overseen dozens of reports outlining lessons learned, effective and ineffective projects, and other topics for Congress, and as the war winds down, he cites a lot of lessons learned for the military and the country at large.

Throughout the war, for example, the U.S. military was too focused on short-term goals for leaders who rotate in and out of the country as opposed to long-term efforts. The military went into Afghanistan thinking it could create a strong central government, but that was a “mistake.” The Pentagon poured money into the country, which created waste and corruption, and alienated the Afghan people without effectively supporting the military.

“If you expect the Afghan military to win the hearts and the minds of the Afghan people, you have to win the hearts and minds of the Afghan military,” he said. “So if you don’t pay them, you don’t feed them, you don’t support them, you don’t give benefits to widows and orphans, … you don’t have medevac capabilities, then the average Afghan soldier is saying, ‘What the heck am I dying for?’”

U.S. leaders in Afghanistan didn’t focus enough on logistics, and every time a problem arose in the development of the Afghan military, “we changed the goalposts on how we were rating them,” he said.

Sopko said he has two words that can describe the mission in Afghanistan: “One is this ‘hubris’ that we can somehow take a country that was desolate in 2001 and turn it into a little Norway in [a short] timeframe. And the other thing is ‘mendacity.’ You know we exaggerated, we over-exaggerated, our generals did, our ambassadors did, all of our officials did, to Congress and the American people about, ‘We’re just turning the corner, we’re about ready to turn the corner.’ … Many of our generals talked about ‘just about ready to win.’ Well, we turned the corner so much, we did 360 degrees—we’re like a top.”

With the withdrawal almost complete, Americans need to understand what went wrong in Afghanistan, Sopko argued. Over the past 20 years, the U.S. undertook a redevelopment program in the country that was bigger than the Marshall Plan after World War II, and he expects something similar will happen again in the future.

“What we have identified in Afghanistan is relevant in other places of the world,” he said. “Don’t believe what you’re told by the generals or the ambassadors or people in the administration saying we’re never going to do this again. That’s exactly what we said after Vietnam, ‘We’re never going to do this again.’ And lo and behold, we did Iraq. And we did Afghanistan. We will do this again. And we really need to think and learn from the 20 years in Afghanistan.”

Guard to be Reimbursed for Capitol Mission in $2.1B Bill Cleared for Biden’s Signature

Guard to be Reimbursed for Capitol Mission in $2.1B Bill Cleared for Biden’s Signature

July 29, 2021 | By Amy Hudson

The House and Senate both passed a $2.1 billion emergency security supplemental bill July 29 that fully reimburses the National Guard for its role in protecting the U.S. Capitol after the Jan. 6 insurrection. It also provides relief for Afghan interpreters who helped the U.S. during the war and significantly increases the number of authorized Special Immigrant Visas.

The bill now heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for his signature with just two days left before the Guard’s funding runs out.

National Guard Bureau Chief Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson told Pentagon reporters last month that readiness would be “significantly impacted” if Congress did not reimburse the Guard the $521 million spent during the unexpected five-month mission to protect the Capitol. “It’s critical for us to get it this year because the funding will be required for us to complete not only our drills but all operations and training we have scheduled,” he said at the time.

Partisan priorities had kept competing bills from advancing for weeks, with Republicans calling for a clean bill that only reimbursed the National Guard and Capitol Police expenses and Democrats calling for billions in security upgrades and other priorities like funding to support Afghan coalition translators.

But the Senate unanimously approved the legislation on Thursday, and the House voted 416 to 11 in its favor.

“By passing this bill, we have honored the service of the Capitol Police and the National Guard with the funding they need. And we have sent a clear message that we respect the hard work they do,” said House Appropriations Committee Chair Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D-Conn.).

The legislation also increases the number of Afghan Special Immigrant Visas by 8,000 and provides $1.125 billion for emergency transportation, housing, and other essential services for Afghans coming to the U.S. under the program.

“We have the responsibility to take care of the Capitol Police in the wake of their incredible service on January 6th and to reimburse our National Guard for costs incurred protecting the Capitol. We have the responsibility to pay for costs we have already incurred as a result of the pandemic. And we have the moral responsibility to stand with our Afghan partners who stood with us through two decades of war,” said Senate Appropriations Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.). “This bipartisan agreement addresses these critical needs, and it addresses them now because they cannot wait.”

Senior Editor Abraham Mahshie contributed to this story.

Here’s How Many Air Force, Space Force Bases are Affected by DOD’s New Mask Guidance

Here’s How Many Air Force, Space Force Bases are Affected by DOD’s New Mask Guidance

July 29, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

The Defense Department’s new guidance mandating the return of mask wearing in certain areas for all personnel, regardless of COVID-19 vaccination status, will impact the vast majority of Air Force and Space Force installations in the United States, an Air Force Magazine analysis shows.

More than 85 percent of CONUS Active-duty Air Force and Space Force bases and stations across the country fall in areas defined by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention as having “high” or “substantial” COVID-19 transmission, according to July 29 data from the CDC.

The DOD, following updated CDC guidance, on July 28 directed troops, civilians, contractors, and others to wear masks indoors at DOD installations if they are in areas with high or substantial transmission.

As of July 29, the CDC counts more than 69 percent of counties in the U.S. as having high or substantial transmission, including nearly 50 percent at high, the top tier. The CDC defines a high transmission rate as counties with at least 100 new cases per 100,000 residents over a seven-day period, while substantial is 50-99 new cases per 100,000 residents during the same time period.

But certain areas of the country are significantly more affected at the moment, and the Department of the Air Force’s installations fall in many. The entire state of Florida, home to four Air Force installations and two Space Force ones, is considered to have high or substantial transmission. 

All of the department’s six installations in California fall in affected areas, as do all five in Colorado and all five in Texas. In particular, many of the largest bases by Air Force population, including Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.; Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.; Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio; and Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.; as well as Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, are in areas with high or substantial transmission.

Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., was originally not included in the affected areas, but the CDC’s updated data on the evening of July 29 pushed Sarpy County, where the base is located, into substantial transmission territory.

As of the evening of July 29, just 10 Air Force Bases and Space Force Stations located within the U.S. and its territories are in areas with “low” or “moderate” transmission, meaning the new mask mandate does not apply. Of those 10, half are located either in the mid-Atlantic or New England.

The following Active-duty installations are in areas with either low or moderate COVID-19 transmission, where personnel are not required to wear masks indoors if vaccinated:

  • Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D. 
  • Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.
  • Dover Air Force Base, Del.
  • Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.
  • Andersen Air Force Base, Guam
  • Joint Base Andrews, Md.
  • New Boston Space Force Station, N.H.
  • Cavalier Space Force Station, N.D. 
  • Clear Space Force Station, Alaska
  • Headquarters Air Force, Va.

That leaves 62 other bases and stations in the U.S. in areas with substantial or high transmission. At the same time, President Joe Biden announced July 29 that he was directing the department to look into how and when it will make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory for military members, a move that has been debated and discussed for weeks now.

COVID-19 transmission as of July 29. Centers for Disease Control screenshot.
Boeing Back to Profitability, Takes No Charge on KC-46 in Second Quarter

Boeing Back to Profitability, Takes No Charge on KC-46 in Second Quarter

July 28, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

After six straight quarterly losses, Boeing reported profits of $755 million in the second quarter of 2021, a year after posting a $3.32 billion loss.

Boeing’s stock rose about five percent July 28 following the news. Boeing’s revenue rose $17 billion in the second quarter, up about 44 percent from the previous year, with much of the recovery stemming from its defense programs. The company did not report any new charges on programs that have recently faced losses, including the KC-46 tanker.

Interim Chief Financial Officer David A. Dohnalek said the KC-46 is being used more now that it is certified to refuel aircraft using the “joint force centerline hose-and-drogue system, which provides more daily operational capabilities.” The KC-46 is “of critical importance to our customer,” he said.

The company has reported $5 billion in cost overruns on the fixed-price KC-46 program so far, and the Air Force has said it is now beginning to look at a “bridge tanker” competition to replace remaining KC-135s once all KC-46s are delivered. Boeing is to supply 179 KC-46s to the Air Force.

Dohnalek also highlighted the first refueling of an F/A-18 by the company’s MQ-25 Stingray unmanned refueling jet as more progress in its military programs. He said the first mating of an Air Force T-7 front and back halves “in under 30 minutes” verified Boeing’s “model-based and 3D” and digital approach to designing and building the advanced trainer. The company also made money on its P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol plane and CH-47 Chinook helicopters.

Boeing CEO David Calhoun, on a quarterly results call with reporters, said the company’s defense portfolio is diverse and performing well. Dohnalek said the global defense market “remains strong … and stable” despite pressure on defense budgets from COVID-19 spending, and he said the defense sector provides “critical stability” for the company as it tries to recover from the world downturn in airline sales and operations. He also touted progress with the Space Launch System for NASA.

“We will continue to work with the administration and work with Congress to ensure the necessary support for these key programs [is] in place,” Dohnalek said.

Calhoun said the commercial market is still reeling from the COVID-19 pandemic but that domestic airline travel is recovering strongly. However, international travel, particularly in the cross-Pacific and Asian regions, is still struggling, and he predicted it will be two or three years before that segment recovers to pre-pandemic levels. He touted success in getting re-certification of the troubled 737 MAX program as more airlines accept deferred deliveries of the jet and new orders come in. The market for freighter aircraft has increased eight percent in the last year, he reported, noting that 72 percent of air freight is now carried by dedicated freighters, versus 40 percent pre-pandemic.

Partners, Allies Eager to Invest in Capabilities that Strengthen Space Force

Partners, Allies Eager to Invest in Capabilities that Strengthen Space Force

July 28, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

America’s partners and allies will increasingly help foot the bill and strengthen U.S. Space Force capabilities, Vice Chief of Space Operations Space Force Gen. David D. Thompson said July 28.

“That has changed dramatically in the last several years in large part due to the activities of potential adversaries,” said Thompson, during a virtual Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event, noting that countries once hesitant to cooperate militarily in space are now asking where they can make investments.

“These countries have been asking for several years, and we’ve been effective to some extent, ineffective in total,” he added. “They’ve been much more excited about, ‘Where can we help?’ and ‘What should we be doing?’”

Thompson said immediate areas where cooperation can happen are in communications, data relay, and space domain awareness, plus “a whole host of other things we can share and partner with that they’re ready to move out with immediately,” he said.

Thompson said those partner nations that are warming to military space cooperation are coming to realize the implications of an inability to operate in space. The allies and partners, in turn, have asked the United States to help them understand where they should invest.

In 2020, a partnership with Norway to put two communications satellites in orbit years earlier than planned will save the Space Force $900 million.

A deal with Japan will allow the U.S. to launch two payloads on Japan’s Quasi-Zenith Satellite System in 2023 and 2024 with optical sensors to improve space domain awareness.

A former senior Pentagon official who worked on national security space told Air Force Magazine that the agreements give partners access to and a stake in vital space intelligence used to defend and protect American and partner assets. Geographically dispersing terrestrial assets is also necessary.

“To do [space domain awareness] well and effectively you’d have a mixture of sensors spread across the globe,” the former official explained. “So, radars, telescopes, etc.”

One of America’s top space allies, the United Kingdom, still has a global footprint with areas close to the equator, prime for viewing the geostationary belt, the former official said. Another space partner, Australia, has a large radar in an important part of the world. U.S. companies are now launching from New Zealand, too.

“There’s continued interest in other countries developing more spaceports,” the former official said. “From a resiliency perspective, the more places around the world that we can launch from, the better.”

Many partners and allies have also increased their participation in the Schriever Wargame space training event, Thompson said.

The event includes traditional space partners such as Canada, Australia, and the U.K. and new space partners such as France and Germany, which recently stood up its own space command.

“In the last decade, [we have] certainly focused much, much more on [wargames] with our partners,” Thompson said, noting cooperation on the operational and policy level that has helped partners and allies to understand threats, challenges and needs in the space domain.

“In the past, we owned it all. We did it all. We had this culture that basically says, ‘We’re our own independent, self-contained enclave, and whatever we need, we build, we field, and we operate, and we use,” he said. “We can’t afford to do that anymore.”

VanHerck: SPACECOM ‘Critical’ to Latest High-Tech Exercise, but Hurdles Remain

VanHerck: SPACECOM ‘Critical’ to Latest High-Tech Exercise, but Hurdles Remain

July 28, 2021 | By Abraham Mahshie

U.S. Northern Command boss Air Force Gen. Glen D. VanHerck said U.S. Space Command played a critical role in a recently completed exercise that used artificial intelligence across all 11 combatant commands to provide deterrence options in a logistics-restricted environment.

The third iteration of the Global Information Dominance Experiment, which took place July 8-15, focused on conflict with a peer competitor to gauge whether artificial intelligence and machine learning capabilities available now could quickly process vast amounts of raw data to help combatant commanders make decisions faster.

“We rely on Space Command sensors and capabilities for our threat warning, our attack assessment, and the domain awareness that we need to conduct our mission,” VanHerck said in response to a question posed by Air Force Magazine on July 28 in the Pentagon briefing room.

VanHerck said SPACECOM also provided adversary deterrence and de-escalation options in the experiment.

“SPACECOM offers unique capabilities for deterrence in the space environment,” he added. “SPACECOM can come up with options to potentially hold at risk a competitor’s, not only their terrain on Earth, their space capabilities, but also potentially taking a look at domain awareness of space capabilities where a competitor may be attempting to hold our capabilities at risk.”

SPACECOM tripled its participants in the third iteration. A SPACECOM spokesperson told Air Force Magazine that the focus in the GIDE 3 experiment was on machine-to-machine learning, artificial intelligence, and cross-domain data integration “in order to develop courses of action, provide best military advice and assessments, improve capabilities and resource allocation and procurement recommendations.”

Technology can be employed ‘tomorrow’

The experiment, the third in a series, used software technology available now to take in vast amounts of raw data and intelligence, analyze it, and provide solutions for decision-makers within seconds instead of days.

“I don’t want to be shooting down cruise missiles over the National Capital Region or in our country,” VanHerck said in offering a scenario that emphasized the importance of partners and allies and the role of combatant commands in what Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III calls “integrated deterrence.”

“We’re shifting our focus away from pure defeat mechanisms for homeland defense towards earlier deter-and-deny actions,” the commander said.

In the experiment, software is given certain patterns and parameters before it processes military and commercially available data. When a dangerous pattern, such as a buildup of forces, is detected, an alert is triggered that gives the option for other sensors, such as satellite capabilities, to take a closer look in a specific location.

VanHerck said the technology is not new and can be employed “tomorrow.”

“Amazon’s been doing it this way, Google, a lot of people have been figuring out how to pool and share data and information,” he said. “What we’ve do done is take it and not approach it from a military or a capability problem, but we approached this from a data and software problem, and we stitched everything together to make this happen.”

VanHerck said assistance was also provided by the Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the undersecretary of defense for intelligence and security’s Project Maven, and the Department of the Air Force’s Chief Architect Office, which conducted ADE 5, its enterprise-wide Architecture Demonstration and Evaluation.

Confidence in AI lacking among public, Congress

The commander said policy and confidence hurdles are to be overcome before machine learning and AI can be widely employed to defend the homeland.

VanHerck, who is commander of NORTHCOM and North American Aerospace Defense Command, told Air Force Magazine that includes better informing the public that a human is always behind AI decisions. He also said intelligence must be shared more readily.

“It’s policy with regards to the use of artificial intelligence, machine learning to ensure that the data sharing is available,” he said. “We may have to make that intelligence available sooner in the future by sharing the raw data, the real-time data and allowing machines to look at that data, things that today analysts may do.”

VanHerck said another challenge is that IT infrastructure has to be “secure and reliable to execute future data and information capabilities.”

The NORTHCOM commander will brief Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen H. Hicks on July 29 on the experiment’s findings.

When asked by Air Force Magazine what the role of INDOPACOM was in the exercise, the commander tipped off who the competitor in the experiment might be: “We did focus to the west this time. I will tell you that, and INDOPACOM was critical to being part of the overall solution.”

VanHerck also said that conceptually, the experiment contributes to the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System and the Pentagon’s priority joint all domain command and control efforts to improve information sharing, especially in denied environments.

“This is JADC2,” he said. “This information exists from today’s satellites, today’s radar, today’s undersea capabilities, today’s cyber, today’s intel capabilities. The data exists. What we’re doing is making that data available, making that data available and shared into a cloud where machine learning and artificial intelligence look at it. And they process it really quickly and provide it to decision makers.”

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

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

July 28, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

July 28, 2021 | By Greg Hadley

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Kendall Sworn in as Air Force Secretary

Kendall Sworn in as Air Force Secretary

July 28, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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