Pilots Could Be Eligible for Up to $420K to Stay in Service

March 15, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force is offering bonuses of up to $420,000 to pilots who commit to staying in uniform for up to 12 years.

The service wants to keep pilots in its cockpits longer as it continues to grapple with an ongoing pilot shortage and the COVID-19 pandemic.

Here’s a breakdown of what’s being offered and who is eligible:

Bomber, fighter, mobility, special operations, and combat search and rescue fixed wing pilots: Annual payments of $25,000 for contract lengths of 5 to 7 years, or $35,000 for contracts of 8 to 12 years. These pilots could also opt for up-front payments of $100,000 for 5-7 year contracts, and $200,000 for 8-12 years.
Combat search and rescue rotary wing pilots: Annual payments of $15,000 for 5-7 year contracts, or $25,000 for 8-12 year contracts.
Remotely piloted aircraft pilots: Annual payments of $25,000 for 5-7 year contracts, or $35,000 for 8-12 year contracts. RPA pilots could also choose an up-front payment of $100,000 for 8-12 year contracts.
Combat systems officers: Annual payments of $15,000 for 5-7 year contracts, or $25,000 for 8-12 years.
Air battle managers: Annual payments of $15,000 for 5-7 year contracts, or $25,000 for 8-12 year contracts.

Bomber, fighter, CSAR, mobility, RPA, and special operations pilots whose contracts have expired or who previously signed an aviation bonus contract that expired before this fiscal year are eligible for annual payments of $15,000 for 5-7 year contracts, or $25,000 for 8-12 year contracts, according to a USAF statement provided to Air Force Magazine.

For those whose who are non-contracted or whose contract expired, there is a five-year minimum and 24 years of aviation service maximum, according to the Air Force. Previous bonus offers had allowed for three-year minimums.

‘Fly Like a Girl’: The Story Behind a Morale Patch That Honors Female Aviators

March 14, 2021 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Air Force Capt. Melaine Valentin, a T-38C instructor pilot from Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas, leveraged her lifelong passion for visual art when asked to design a morale patch for Air Education and Training Command’s 2019 Women’s Fly-In. Since the event, the patch’s popularity has grown so much that the company she worked with to get it manufactured now sells it on its website.

The patch, which depicts a female aviator in a helmet and mask along with the slogan “Fly Like a Girl,” was a great complement to the event’s focus on uniting USAF aviators from a variety of Air Force Specialty Codes to network with one another, assist the service with fitting gear to female proportions, and serving as aviation ambassadors to the next generation of would-be women aviators.

“Everyone’s always heard … the phrase, you ‘throw like a girl’ or like that kind of off-the-cuff response, and I thought it would be cool to kind of take that back,” she recalled of the patch’s origin story during a March 11 interview with Air Force Magazine. “And yeah, I fly like a girl—I’m awesome. …. so kind of just a fun patch that kind of conveyed … ‘I am a female aviator, and I love it,’ and kind of being proud of that whole idea.”

The Huntington Beach, Calif., native first reached out to the company Bomber Patches in order to get the patches made for the event, but the company subsequently started selling the patch on its website. As of press time, the patch was sold out.

According to Valentin, representation is the biggest hurdle women aviators face, so “having this tangible representation” of their ability to get behind the controls of an aircraft can also give women who never thought about a flying career as a possibility permission to envision such a future.

“This is an example,” she said. “This is a dream that you can have.”

Valentin said Airmen who feel inspired to design a morale patch or challenge coin should be proactive about it and have “the initiative to have a vision and kind of go out and just make the change you want to see in the world.”

“But then on top of that, the avenues that I’ve used, there’s a couple patches of companies out there that you can contact and kind of help you on that journey, and all of ‘em are great,” she added. “They’ll be really helpful to take your vision and transition it to an actual tangible, physical piece of patch or coin or something so that you can kind of start on that journey.”

And the first steps need not be sophisticated, she said.

Her initial designs were drawings on paper, but she’s since begun drafting designs on “an iPad, so it’s a little bit easier of a digital medium to pass” the renderings onto would-be manufacturers.

Capt. Melaine Valentin is shown wearing the patch she designed. **Photo: Laughlin Air Force Base on Facebook**

And while the 2016 U.S. Air Force Academy graduate majored in history, she said art has been a mainstay for her since childhood.

“I wanted to be an artist ever since I could hold a pencil, my mom said,” she told the magazine. “I have constantly been drawing and sketching, and when … in class, I was doodling, so that kind of has been a constant pillar in my life. It’s my love, my art, or my hobby—I do it all the time.”

As she got older, she just set out to find ways to balance that passion with her education and career, she said.

Valentin encouraged fellow artists who might have military aspirations, but also doubts about how those passions might fit together, to go for it.

“The Air Force needs people who think, like every different way possible, right?” she said. “… A more diverse force makes us a much more lethal force, so we need people who are more artistic than others, and we need people who are more analytical, and we need people who see the world in different ways. And so the Air Force needs every single one of those people.”

You can follow Valentin’s artistic endeavors on her artist website or on Instagram at @planeoldart.

Yokota Airmen, Japanese Soldiers Conduct Large-Scale Airborne Operation

March 12, 2021 | By Amy Hudson

A dozen C-130Js from the 374th Airlift Wing at Yokota Air Base, Japan, supported more than 500 Japan Ground Self-Defense Force members in the “largest static-line personnel jump and cargo drop” between the two countries, according to a USAF release.

“This was not an overnight effort. To generate more than 80 percent of Yokota’s C-130J fleet required months of extensively planned logistics for the aircraft to be available, as well as planning and orchestration of the aircraft parking plan, and proper resourcing of aircraft configurations in order to make the mission happen,” said Maj. David Perkins, 374th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron operations officer, in a March 12 release.

During exercise Airborne 21, the JGSDF soldiers from the 1st Airborne Brigade jumped from the Super Hercs over the Combined Arms Training Center Camp Fuji, Japan, drop zone. USAF Airmen then dropped 134 container delivery system bundles for the Japanese troops to use on the ground.

Although the main goal of the operation was to demonstrate the JGSDF’s airborne insertion capability, the exercise also provided an opportunity to better the U.S. and Japan’s military-to-military relationship.

“This was an airlift that I’ve never seen in real life before,” said Capt. Christopher Espinosa, 36^th Airlift Squadron pilot and Airborne 21 mission commander. “I’ve definitely studied it, planned and trained for it, but to actually execute at that magnitude was an incredible opportunity…”

Yokota transitioned from the C-130H to the J-models in 2018. The new fleet has increased range, payload, and speed compared to the legacy aircraft, bolstering USAF’s flexibility in the Indo-Pacific theater.

B-1 Touches Down in Poland for the First Time

March 12, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

B-1s operating in Eastern Europe as part of a bomber task force continued their tour of the region, deploying to Poland for the first time March 12.

The B-1B from the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, touched down at Powidz, Poland—the first time a Lancer has landed in the country. While on the ground, the bomber conducted a “hot pit” refueling—filling up on fuel with engines running to return to flight rapidly, according to a U.S. Air Forces in Europe release.

“Proving the rapid refueling concept today in Poland alongside some of our closest allies speaks for itself,” said Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander, in the release. “Our bombers can get after the mission anytime, anywhere.”

During the mission, the B-1 also received fuel from a USAF KC-135 from the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom, and flew alongside Polish F-16s, Swedish JAS-39 Gripens, and Danish F-16s, according to the release.

The B-1s deployed to Norway last month for the first time in a bomber task force deployment aimed at integrating the bombers in new locations and training in the Arctic. USAFE Deputy Commander Lt. Gen. Steven L. Basham said March 5 that while bombers have gotten used to flying out of certain locations in Europe, the task force gives B-1s a chance to operate in new places.

“If we don’t expand our horizon and look for other opportunities to work with other allies, other partners, then we miss true training opportunities to continue to develop ourselves and, even more so I would say, to learn from others,” Basham said.

About four days before the Poland mission, a B-1 flew to another base in northern Norway for a “warm pit” refueling and trained with Norwegian and Swedish ground forces.

Mildenhall Tankers Continue Supporting French Operations in Africa

March 12, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The USAF air refueling mission to support French counter-terrorism operations in Mali is entering its eighth year, with KC-135s offloading more than six million pounds refueling French aircraft.

The 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom, is now the sole unit deploying to support the mission, called Operation Juniper Micron. KC-135s and Airmen deploy to Morón Air Base, Spain, to fly the missions to refuel French aircraft.

From February 2020 to February 2021, the KC-135s from the 351st Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron flew 204 sorties, totaling 1,800 hours, according to a Mildenhall release.

“French combat aircraft are dependent on in-flight refueling to accomplish their mission,” said Master Sgt. R. Chris King, 351st Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron superintendent, in a release. “French air assets originate a considerable distance from their working area and burn a large amount of their fuel just to reach the area. Providing the ‘gas station in the sky’ greatly enhances on-station capability and operational productivity of those assets.”

KC-135s regularly fly under 10 hour missions to Mali and other areas in North Africa, according to the release. The 351st EARS consists of two KC-135s and more than 50 Airmen.

The French mission, called Operation Serval, began in late 2012 after the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution and the Mali government requested help to rid the country of Islamic militants. The French government has recently pressed the U.S. to continue providing assistance, while the Pentagon reviews its global force structure.

In January 2020, during a visit to the Pentagon, French Minister of Armed Forces Florence Parly said, “The U.S. support is critical to our operation. Any reduction would limit our effectiveness against terrorists.”

Army Chief Stakes Claim to Deep Strike, Defense Suppression Missions

March 11, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Army’s push to develop hypersonic weapons is an effort to present adversaries with multiple dilemmas and take on the Suppression of Enemy Air Defenses role as well as deep strike, service Chief of Staff Gen. James C. McConville said March 11.

The Army’s efforts at “long range precision effects and long-range precision fires” are meant to “provide commanders in the global campaign with multiple options,” he told reporters during a virtual Defense Writers Group. While the Navy and Air Force have “incredible capabilities” in deep strike, “we’re all together in the Joint Force.”

An organization to employ long-range fires is already taking shape, and McConville said two such task forces will be deployed in the Indo-Pacific and one in Europe.

He said hypersonic missiles could destroy enemy air defenses and pave the way for Air Force and Navy aircraft to penetrate enemy air defenses.

“If someone says, ‘Hey, this is something new for the Army,’” it is not, he said, claiming that AH-64 Apache helicopters in the Gulf War 30 years ago “took out those two air defense systems that opened up a gap and allowed the Air Force to go on and … do the incredible things they could” in Iraq. He did not mention Air Force cruise missiles and stealthy F-117s penetrating Iraqi air defenses in the opening hours of that conflict, or conducting SEAD strikes throughout the six weeks of the air campaign.

“We wouldn’t do [that] today, but we might do it differently,” McConville said. But the Army taking on the SEAD mission “is one of those concepts we’re going to need for the future, … and we’re going to do it from maybe a strategic range, [to] put more challenges on potential competitors.”

The Army is also looking to use long-range fires to “set up our own anti–access, area denial capability … [to] put pressure on those developing a sea-based capability.”

Asked why land-based deep strike could be better than air-based, he said, “The value of land-based is it’s 24/7. So, it’s always there. It’s tough to sink some of the islands [in the Pacific Ocean], if you have the ability” to operate from such a location, given mobility capability.

Army deep strike is “an option that may, in the future, enable both air and maritime maneuver, which is something different than we’ve done in the past, although you could argue we did that in Desert Storm.”

McConville said the Army is building a “multi-domain task force,” the first of which is being experimented with in the Indo-Pacific theater now.

“We’re not ready to say where it’s actually going to be stationed,” he said, but he noted that Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III is “in the Pacific now” and “a lot of diplomacy is going on.”

The task force will provide “long-range precision effects and long-range precision fires, and we are building it while we’re flying it, so to speak.” In addition to hypersonic, mid-range, and “precision strike” missiles, it will also possibly include air defense systems, McConville said. The task force has intelligence, information operations, cyber, electronic warfare, and space capabilities, he noted.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. called for a roles and missions review during his confirmation process, saying there’s no better time to review exactly what jobs the service should manage than in the initial years of a National Defense Strategy, the infancy of the Space Force, and in the midst of a global pandemic.

“Now is the time to reconsider our approaches to air power, and if confirmed, I am ready to participate in a meaningful discourse to rethink prior assumptions and take steps towards consolidating and reducing redundancies,” Brown told lawmakers in May 2020.

First F-15EX Arrives at Eglin; ACC Commander Kelly to Deliver 2nd Jet

March 11, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The first F-15EX flew to Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., March 11, a day after the Air Force accepted the airplane at Boeing’s St. Louis, Mo., facilities. The second airplane will be delivered the week of April 6, and will be flown to Eglin by Gen. Mark D. Kelly, head of Air Combat Command.

The Air Force signed the DD250 form accepting the airplane on March 10, and it was flown to Eglin by the commanders of the 40th Flight Test Squadron and 85th Test and Evaluation Squadron, which will put the jet through its paces.

During the flight, an F-15C, the first F-15E, and the new EX flew in formation, service officials said, for a family portrait of the Eagle.

Air Force Materiel Command will own aircraft No. 1 and use it for developmental testing, while Air Combat Command will own No. 2 and use it for operational testing. An ACC spokeswoman confirmed that Kelly will be delivering the ACC jet to Eglin, where there will be an arrival ceremony to mark the advanced Eagle’s entry into service.

Both initial aircraft will be used to support the Integrated Test and Evaluation team, which an AFMC spokesman said is “a combined [developmental testing/operational testing] approach used effectively by the F-15 test team at Eglin … for modernizing the legacy F-15C/D and F-15E fleets.”

To expedite testing of the EX and declare it ready for operational service, the test team will “leverage previous test data from advanced foreign military sales variants,” an AFMC spokesman said. An expansive flight test program was conducted by the U.S. Air Force on the Saudi Arabian F-15SA, which has the EX’s fly-by-wire flight controls. “However, the F-15EX has USAF avionics and Operational Flight Program software,” the spokesman said. Tests to be done at Eglin will serve to ensure the EX meets specifications and expected performance, and is “operationally effective and suitable for F-15 mission sets prior to fielding,” he said.

The EX model differs from the C/D in having a very powerful mission computer, fly-by-wire systems, conformal fuel tanks, and an additional weapon station under each wing. It also has the Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System, an electronic warfare and electronic deception suite also headed for the legacy F-15 fleet. Though it is a two-seat jet, the Air Force plans to operate it with a single pilot. The EX made its first flight Feb. 2 at Boeing’s St. Louis, Mo., facilities.

“With its large weapons capacity, digital backbone, and open architecture, the F-15EX will be a key element of our tactical fighter fleet and complement fifth-generation assets,” Air Force program manager Col. Sean Dorey said in a press release. “In addition, it’s capable of carrying hypersonic weapons, giving it a niche role in future near-peer conflicts.”

The Air Force plans to buy 144 F-15EX aircraft over the next 10-12 years, to replace the F-15C/D model, which “is fast approaching the end of its useful life,” Air Force Life Cycle Management Center said in a press release. The EX “provides a cost-effective and expedient solution to refresh the F-15C/D fleet and augment the F-15E fleet” to meet National Defense Strategy “capability and capacity requirements well into the 2040s,” while avoiding availability disruptions that would result from a service life extension/modification program, AFMC said.

Six more aircraft are included in Lot 1 and will be delivered to Eglin in fiscal 2023. They will also be used for operational testing. Aircraft in Lots 2 and 3 will be delivered to Kingsley Field, Ore.—the F-15 schoolhouse—and Portland Air National Guard Base, also in Oregon, in fiscal 2024 and 2025, respectively. The 142nd Wing at Portland ANGB will be the first operational unit for the EX.

The process of acquiring the EX began in February of 2019, when then-Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David L. Goldfein signed the F-15EX Rapid Fielding Requirement Document to address the problem of the F-15’s age, now averaging 37 years across the fleet. AFLCMC’s Fighters and Advanced Aircraft Directorate then “developed the acquisition strategy, awarded the contract, conducted design and verification reviews, and worked with Boeing to manufacture and test the aircraft in record time,” according to AFLCMC.

Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Arnold W. Bunch, Jr. offered compliments to the “entire team” for “bringing this platform online in record time and in the middle of a global pandemic.” With its “open mission systems architecture and weapons capacity, the F-15EX will provide an outstanding capability for our nation for years to come.”

The Air Force has said the EX will have the structural capability to serve into the 2050s.

JAIC Chief: Culture and Process Biggest Barriers to Pentagon Adoption of AI

March 11, 2021 | By Shaun Waterman

If the Department of Defense is going to get AI-ready by 2025, meeting the target set by a blue-ribbon commission this month, it will have to get out of its own way, Lt. Gen. Michael S. Groen, director of the Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center said March 11.

“It’s not just technology right? The technology is just a small piece of it,” he told a GovernmentCIO Media & Research event. More important for the DOD when it came to implementing AI was the need for digital modernization and to overcome bureaucratic inertia and other cultural or process barriers.

“You have personnel who have to take Navy data, put it on a hard drive, fly it to an Air Force network to transmit to another Air Force place, so they can push it out to different elements in the Joint Force,” said Groen. “That’s unacceptable, right? We’re moving data on hard drives … because we won’t allow each other’s personnel access to each other’s networks.”

These kinds of stovepipes were more apparent to JAIC personnel, Groen explained, because they weren’t in the business of developing new technology, but rather of working to implement existing technologies into new capabilities.

“We’re not a research and development organization, we’re an implementation organization. A ‘do’ tank rather than a think tank, right? Our job is to make AI applications happen across the department,” he said.

But that meant much more than merely perfecting the technology, he said. “What really kind of stares you in the face is: Yeah, that’s cute. How are you actually going to fight with that? … How are you actually going to … turn [that] technology into capability?”

To answer that question, and to get across the bureaucratic barriers to AI adoption, JAIC needed leaders across DOD to commit to exploring the benefits of AI, including for back office functions. “We’re not talking about terminators here,” Groen said, “We’re talking about making the department as efficient and effective as any American corporation is today.”

Turning technology into capability, Groen said, had always meant putting it into the hands of “the process experts, the mission owners, the functional experts, … committed leaders who understand their processes and say, ‘Wow! You know what, we could do these processes a lot better than this [using AI.]’ ”

The daunting part of that task was “The scale of the Department of Defense and how many of those leaders need to put their hands up and go, ‘Holy cow! I’m missing the train here. I need to get working [on AI] in my space.’ That’s intimidating,” he concluded.

Groen spoke alongside Yll Bajraktari, executive director of the congressionally chartered National Security Commission on AI, which presented its final report to Congress on March 1.

The report, presented by commission chair and former Google CEO Eric Schmidt and his vice chair, former Deputy Secretary of Defense Robert O. Work, warned in grim tones that “America is not prepared to defend or compete in the AI era.”

“Within the next decade, China could surpass the United States as the world’s AI superpower,” the report concludes.

To avoid being overtaken, the U.S. “must double down on our existing advantages,” Bajraktari said.

AI is so central to national security because it amplifies so many military capabilities and can detect and expose strategic vulnerabilities of an adversary. It enables battlefield systems, like autonomous vehicles or drones, to be deployed at speed and scale. “In the future, warfare will pit algorithm against algorithm,” the commission’s report states, “Humans cannot be everywhere at once, but software can.”

Military Housing Companies on Track to Meet Tenant Bill of Rights Requirements

March 11, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Three of the largest companies providing on-base military housing say they are on track to implement all requirements under the Defense Department’s new Tenant Bill of Rights, though one company skipped out on appearing before lawmakers in a joint hearing on housing issues.

Representatives of three companies—Balfour Beatty Communities, Lendlease Americas, and Corvias Group LLC—testified before the House Armed Services readiness and military personnel subcommittees on March 10 that they have taken steps, including spending more money to improve housing and improving communication with service members, in the aftermath of multiple high-profile reports of substandard housing.

One company, Clark Realty Capital, declined to participate in the hearing. Readiness subcommittee chairman Rep. John Garamendi (D-Calif.) said the panels had heard “disturbing testimony” about the company’s housing and the no-show raised concerns about “their ability to be transparent” both to Congress and its residents. The company oversees housing at several installations, including Fort Belvoir, Va., and Joint Base Andrews, Md., and Garamendi said representatives would visit those installations to see first-hand the issues.

Following a series of Reuters investigations in 2019 into base housing, which highlighted extensive issues with maintenance and even falsified records, Congress passed multiple provisions aimed at holding the companies accountable and improving the quality of life for service members.

This included the Tenant Bill of Rights, signed by top military leaders in February 2020, which included 15 rights, such as clearly defined leases, timely maintenance, accurate records, and other provisions. The companies said they expect to meet the requirements by June or July, when summer permanent change of station moves pick up.

One of the highest profile problems for the Air Force focused on Balfour Beatty properties at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., where housing had extensive issues with asbestos and other problems. The Air Force required the company to submit a plan by the end of 2019 to improve its management. The company fired many of its own employees as part of a fraud investigation, and there is a Department of Justice investigation ongoing.

Rick Taylor, president of facility operations, renovations, and construction with Balfour Beatty, told lawmakers the company undertook “a significant reorganization” and improved its training.

At Tinker, the company worked to remediate issues with broken water lines that caused systemic problems, and, “I can tell you that we are slowly building back the trust of Tinker residents,” he said.