Space Force Increasing International Outreach as the Service Grows

March 19, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

As the military’s newest service continues to grow its own ranks, it is expanding collaboration with allies as well through more exchanges, data sharing agreements, and increased participation in major wargames.

Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, the U.S. Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, said during a March 19 Brookings Institution event that growing these efforts is a major initiative because space-based capabilities are important assets for both the U.S. and international allies.

“We recognize that we are far more powerful, from protecting and defending and actually accomplishing space operations and space capabilities, if we do it as an allied, partnered force,” he said. “There’s just more to be brought to bear if you include your allies and partners.” Saltzman highlighted the annual Schriever Wargame. The event, which began in 2001 under Air Force Space Command, is the main space training event focused on military operations in that domain and is “really central” in how the military frames its force design for space.

For several years, the event included representatives from Five Eyes allies—Australia, Canada, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom. The most recent iteration, which wrapped in November 2020, expanded to include France, Germany, and Japan. Future iterations could include even more participating nations, Saltzman said.

Additionally, the Space Force is “actively working to build relationships” for officer exchange partnerships. There are existing agreements with Canada and the United Kingdom, along with NATO and others. Saltzman said he recently met with United Kingdom leaders and said any UK officers who come to join the space staff will have “tremendous challenges and opportunities.”

“We have a plan to engage over a dozen countries in terms of space and space capabilities,” he said. “That includes everything from data sharing agreements to literally personnel exchange.”

The creation of the Space Force and the addition of Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond to the Joint Chiefs of Staff has made the domain a key focus in the development of military policy and operational discussions. Previously, the Joint Staff didn’t have a member solely focused on the domain, so space capabilities could fall through the cracks.

“The ability to focus resources, advocacy, prioritize where you want to put your limited manpower, what you want to focus on and not have it filtered is an important service-level responsibility and it gives it an attention at the joint level that we may have not had beforehand,” Saltzman said.

AFRL Breaks Ground on $3.5 Million Space Environment Laboratory

March 19, 2021 | By Amy Hudson

The Air Force Research Laboratory on March 16 broke ground on a 3,500-square-foot facility located on 72 acres at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., that will allow the Space Vehicles Directorate to test sensor systems before sending them to the field.

The Skywave Technology Laboratory is slated to cost $3.5 million, and “will provide the work space our teams needs for space environment research, which involves developing and testing new instrumentation, preparing for field experiments around the globe, as well as collecting and processing data to support ionospheric and radio frequency research,” said Todd Parris, head of the Geospace Environment Impacts and Applications Branch, in a release. “We have been working out of temporary shipping containers and from our lab across base. It’s exciting to have this new facility to explore innovative capabilities to bring to the warfighter.”

AFRL’s field development team conducts research, develops prototypes, and tests technologies used to monitor and predict the space environment, as well as the potential effects on air and space systems, according to the release.

“Understanding the space environment is super important to our Air and Space Forces,” Col. Eric J. Felt, the director of the Space Vehicles Directorate, said in the release. “The space environment affects many military systems and services, everything from the actual spacecraft operating in the environment to any radio frequency service that has to operate in or through space. This lab will give us the knowledge we need to take our research to the next level. We want to be able to measure, predict, and command the space environment to give us that tactical advantage in space and terrestrial domains.”

The Air Force Research Laboratory realigned to support both the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force after the new service was established in December 2019.

Air Force Gaming Connects Airmen, Guardians Regardless of Age, Rank

March 18, 2021 | By Amy Hudson

When Capt. Oliver Parsons was a missileer assigned to Minot Air Force Base, N.D., from 2014 to 2018, the long, grueling winters started to take a toll on his mental health. He and his wife turned to video games as an escape from feelings of depression and anxiety. But they also realized they needed to connect with other people.

Moving on to Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., the Parsons discovered gaming events like TwitchCon and began to connect with other Airmen gamers. They were struck that, while the Army and Navy had organized gamer communities, the Air Force didn’t have any such thing. So in 2019, Parsons and a group of friends decided to start their own.

Air Force Gaming grew into a 24/7 grassroots organization focused on building resiliency and retention, and now it is officially part of the Air Force Services Center. Some 14,000 Airmen and Guardians play on the dedicated Air Force Gaming platform, an esports hub built for the Department of the Air Force; 20,000 play on the original Discord platform. Since their official launch last November, Air Force Gaming participants have logged 115,000 voice minutes and more than 100,000 text chats among Airmen and Guardians.

Now the U.S. military’s first official esports league is going global. Airmen and Guardians at bases around the world can form teams and play in a seasonal intramural league that will culminate in a March Madness-style championship tournament. Participants can play Call of Duty, Rocket League, or League of Legends. Airman and Guardians who don’t want to commit to league play can instead sign up for weekend tournaments, said Parsons, who now serves as the deputy chief of sports fitness and readiness under AFSC.

“We knew there was an appetite for gaming from our Airmen and Guardians, but this program has already exceeded our expectations,” Col. Marc Adair, director of operations at the Air Force Services Center, said in a release. “Air Force Gaming has created a community where our Airmen and Guardians do so much more than just play video games. I’ve heard stories of friendships and camaraderie, and that’s what this program is really all about.”

Senior leaders are starting to take notice.

Capt. Zach Baumann, one of the co-founders of Air Force Gaming, recently played (and beat) Lt. Gen. Christopher P. Weggeman, Air Combat Command’s deputy commander, in a game of chess in his regular The Airman’s Gambit series. As they played, they talked about a variety of things, from the integration of the 24th and 26th Air Forces into the 16th Air Force to Weggeman’s personal journey from fighter pilot to digital strategist for the Department of the Air Force.

Baumann asked the three-star what it means to be a digital Airman, saying there is a perception that the service expects everyone to be “100-percent very techy coders.”

Weggeman used the chess game to highlight the “spectrum” of digital Airmen in the service, calling the 29-year-old a “digital native” and himself a “digital immigrant.”

“Based on when you were born, you grew up amongst all this digital, internet of things. You’ve had smartphones your whole life,” he told Baumann. “I’m a digital immigrant. In my formative years, we didn’t have any of that technology. I literally remember playing Atari, having my first game cartridges plug into a console, and putting quarters in Pacman and Centipede. … So, you are all digital natives, and we’re digital immigrants and we’re cohabitating together.”

Weggeman said a digital Airman needs to be aware of the digital ecosystem, and understand how “we all leave exhaust everywhere we go that can be harnessed for good and bad.” Digital Airmen must also understand there are some things computers can simply do better than people, and some things that humans are really good at. They shouldn’t be “threatened by that idea,” Weggeman added.

Baumann took the opportunity to share with Weggeman that 75 percent of the Air Force Gaming community is between the ages of 18-34, saying “I really see this community that’s been building and kind of exploding, snowballing because people are engaging online. These are tomorrow’s leaders.”

Parsons said the Air Force chaplain corps also is looking to get more involved, noting the next Airman’s Gambit will feature Maj. Gen. Steven A. Schaick, chief of chaplains, on March 23. Airmen and Guardians who want to tune in for that event can watch it live on Air Force Gaming’s Facebook page.

Air Force Gaming also is starting to work with the Air Force Research Laboratory’s war gaming department. “We’re going to start integrating their projects that they’re doing with our community,” he said. “And, you know, building out that digital Airman, that digital Guardian, lethality. You know, there are common interests there, whether it’s testing games that they’re doing, looking for ideas, or finding that security forces senior airman that actually is like an amazing coder.”

The organization also is working with the Air Force’s Digital University.

Parsons said such partnerships could foster “good conversations” and allow more senior USAF officials to hear from and understand perspectives from a different generation.

“We like to say Air Force Gaming’s a movement, you know, and we’re seeing these pieces start to connect, and I can’t really imagine what it’s going to be like … a year, two years, five years from now,” Parsons said.

GAO: F-35 Block 4 Will Keep Slipping Without Realistic Work Estimates

March 18, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Declaring the F-35 ready for full-rate production and delivery of its Block 4 upgrade will continue to slip because of delays in upgrading the simulator, and because of too-optimistic forecasts of how long software upgrades will take, the Government Accountability Office reported.

The Defense Department is still developing the F-35 simulator, slowing testing and further delaying the start of full-rate production, according to the report.

Without an updated simulator, completion of F-35 testing isn’t possible, the GAO said, because the program can’t “replicate complex test scenarios that could not be accomplished in [the] real-world.” Until that’s “fixed,” the GAO said, the conclusion of the engineering and manufacturing development phase and start of full-rate production “remains undetermined.”

The Pentagon has blamed the year-plus delay in declaring full-rate on difficulties integrating the F-35 with the Joint Simulation Environment, which puts the fighter into war scenarios to see how many are needed.

While development of the Block 4 is now in its third year, and “DOD added another year to the schedule,” GAO found that finishing the upgrade in the planned time “is not achievable.” It said the Defense Department “routinely underestimated the amount of work” necessary to develop Block 4, failing to take into account previously too-rosy estimates of software efforts. Until it sets a more realistic schedule, “stakeholders will lack reliable information on when capabilities will be delivered.”

While mostly compliant with GAO’s own “Agile Assessment Guide” for monitoring software progress, the Joint Program Office isn’t using automated data collection tools to monitor software development performance, the audit agency said. It relies on contractor reports, which GAO said are “often based on older data,” and that, too, has “hindered officials’ timely decision-making.” The program also hasn’t set software quality performance targets, and without them, is “less able to assess” if the contractor is performing at an acceptable level.

The GAO recommends the Pentagon update its Block 4 schedule to “reflect historical performance,” saying the program has routinely overshot its upgrade milestones. It suggested “more achievable timeframes for Block 4 modernization capability development and delivery,” and that the Pentagon “provide an accurate baseline for comparing future cost estimates.”

To speed things along, the GAO urged the incoming undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment to “identify and implement automated tools to enable access to real-time data for software development metrics.” This will ensure that program decisions are based on reliable information.

Finally, the GAO recommends that the USD/A&S direct the program office to set “software performance target values” for critical software.

US, South Korea Prepare for Transfer of Wartime Operational Control

March 18, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The U.S. and South Korean militaries are on schedule for the transfer of wartime operational control authority in 2022 and are taking steps to improve readiness, though the two leaders would not say if large-scale military exercises would return to the peninsula.

South Korean Defense Minister Suh Wook said the alliance has created the “necessary conditions” for the transfer of operational control of combined forces. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, speaking alongside Suh during a joint press conference March 18 in Seoul, added that the combined force is “ready to fight tonight and we continue to make progress toward the eventual transition of wartime operational control to a ROK-commanded future combined forces command.”

The U.S. and South Korean militaries have not held large-scale joint training operations since former President Donald J. Trump’s meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in 2018, instead focusing on “command post” training exercises and smaller local operations. This extended hiatus means large-scale flying exercises like the former Vigilant Ace have not taken place in about four years, and U.S. and South Korean aircraft must leave the peninsula and go to events like Red Flag for high-level training.

Suh said that despite the ongoing pandemic, the two militaries conducted one of the command post exercises earlier this year.

Austin emphasized that readiness remains a “top priority,” but despite the change of administrations, he would not yet commit to a resumption of exercises.

“We’re always looking for ways to make training better, and I think not only here but around the globe, we’ve learned to be flexible, we’ve learned to be adaptive, and we have always, always been effective,” he said. “In terms of … what the training regimen will be going forward, that will be a joint decision between us and the ROK, and we’ll continue to work with the leadership here in the ROK to address those issues.”

Austin and Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken met with their South Korean counterparts on this and other issues, and he said the U.S. is “focused on ensuring that we have the required capability to defend the alliance and defend the ROK if and when called upon to do that.”

“So we have tremendous capability at hand,” he said. “We’re going to increase that capability by ensuring that we can continue to operate as a combined team.”

Here’s How the Air Force Resourced Leaders for Extremism Stand Downs

March 18, 2021 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The Department of the Air Force has given USAF and Space Force commanders and senior enlisted leaders a toolkit to help equip them to carry out Defense Department-directed stand downs to address extremism within their ranks, department spokesperson Lt. Col. Malinda Singleton confirmed to Air Force Magazine on March 18.

Singleton also confirmed that a Feb. 17 slide deck entitled “Identifying & Addressing Impermissible Behavior,” which surfaced on the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page on March 17, was an authentic part of this departmental resource.

“The toolkit contains resources including guided discussion modules that are designed to be presented in small group settings and are deliberately structured to provide Command Teams maximum flexibility,” she wrote. “These modules do include the three core areas identified by the Secretary of Defense, ‘Why We Serve: Our Oath of Office,’ and ‘Impermissible Behaviors & Reporting Procedures’ that meet the requirements established for this Stand-Down.”

The slide deck:

Provides sample scenarios of inappropriate behaviors that troops and civilians have undertaken and their command-action consequences
Gives examples of what kinds of activities would be inappropriate for service members and civilians (both GS employees and contractors) to undertake, respectively, as well as what kinds of command actions leaders could take and tools they could utilize in response
Guides leaders through figuring out whether an organization that an individual might be affiliated with or a piece of material is allowable
Defines relevant terms (i.e. what constitutes a “supremacist” vs. an “extremist”)
Shows how mere interest in a controversial organization can evolve into advocacy for it
Outlines personnel, administrative, disciplinary, investigative, and judicial tools and organizational resources at leaders’ disposal to address extremist activity
Outlines which Uniform Code of Military Justice offenses such activity may broach
Addresses special considerations for civilian employees and contractors
Lists relevant Air Force and Defense Department Instructions

The Department of the Air Force also included a “play sheet” to help Air Force and Space Force leaders lead discussions based on the aforementioned module, which included sets of talking points aimed at “defining extremism,” understanding how beliefs can evolve into extremist ideologies, and how extremism can lead to violence.

According to the document, these conversations should “engage Airmen and Guardians in a manner that fosters connection, encourages help seeking, and generates feedback related to how the Air Force and Space Force can better support Airmen/Guardians and their families.” It also stressed the document was “a tool, not a script.”

During last month’s Air Force Association virtual Aerospace Warfare Symposium, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. told members of the press the department had sent a series of videos and stand down instructions to local leaders, Air Force Magazine previously reported.

AMC Looks to Virtual Reality to Help Curb Suicides

March 18, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Two bases in Air Mobility Command are using virtual reality to teach Airmen how to talk to someone who might be suicidal.

The Air Force in recent years has been grappling with high levels of suicide in its ranks. In 2019, the department ordered a one-day “resilience tactical pause” to address the issue, only to see the numbers remain high in 2020 as the COVID-19 pandemic spread. AMC and the Air Force Installation Contracting Center recently saw a way to move beyond the typical computer-based training and use virtual reality headsets to take training to another level.

AFICC expedited its Small Business Innovation Research program, and within 60 days of the contract being built it awarded Moth+Flame a contract for headsets to be evaluated at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., and Travis Air Force Base, Calif., according to an AMC release.

“The need for this work was so obvious,” said Victor Jones, AMC suicide prevention program manager and VR suicide prevention contract owner. “We wanted to provide a training experience unlike anything ever encountered, … a realistic conversational interaction in a simulated environment that would have unparalleled realism in having these difficult, uncomfortable but necessary conversations.”

Using the VR headsets, an Airman talks with another Airman in distress in a simulated scenario, asking questions such as, “Do you have a gun in the house?” and “Are you thinking about harming yourself?”

“Actually going through the process of talking to someone with thoughts of suicide is much different than sitting through a PowerPoint presentation,” said Kaitlyn Woodruff, the AFICC contracting officer assigned to the training program, in the release. “It impacts you emotionally and takes the fear out of talking to someone thinking about suicide.”

The contract covers 50 headsets and four training scenarios at the two bases, though only one scenario is currently under evaluation. AMC is collecting data to determine the effectiveness of the training before deciding if it could be scaled across the command, and eventually the entire Department of the Air Force.

Initial feedback showed 98 percent of leaders at the bases would recommend the training and 93 percent said it would be more effective than traditional training, Task & Purpose reported.

“VR training resonates with them, they’re going to get more when they have this interactive training,” AMC boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost said in a recent roundtable with reporters. “And so we’re going to move away from computer-based training and get to the more interactive stuff. Looking at interactive training, you actually have to verbalize … those kinds of things you may not want to say.”

The goal of the training is to enable the Airmen to be able to recognize another in distress, have those difficult conversations, and “guide that Airman to safety,” Jones said.

“Every Airman matters, right? And the investment we make in every Airman matters, and that is what we want to get across to our force,” Van Ovost said.

US Pays Most of Shared Defense Costs with Japan, South Korea

March 17, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The U.S. pays more than half of the cost of keeping forces in Japan and South Korea, but it’s a good deal for the U.S. and enhances regional security, the Government Accountability Office found.

In a March report, “Burden Sharing: Benefits and Costs Associated with the U.S. Military Presence in Japan and South Korea,” the GAO determined that the U.S. pays about 62 percent of the cost to keep U.S. forces in Japan, while it pays about 70 percent of the cost to keep forces in South Korea. Those numbers don’t count some indirect contributions those countries make, such as waived taxes and duties, utilities, and foregoing rent on facilities the U.S. uses. The release of the study comes as Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III travels through the Far East, including stops in Japan and South Korea.

The cost to keep U.S. forces in Japan was $33.5 billion from 2016-2019, of which the U.S. paid $20.9 billion and Japan paid $12.6 billion, the GAO found. The cost of maintaining U.S. forces in the Republic of Korea was $19.2 billion over the same period, of which the U.S. paid $13.4 billion and the ROK paid $5.8 billion. The GAO based its numbers mainly on the U.S. defense budget, with other inputs from the Department of State and the host countries.

The U.S. gets six main benefits from maintaining forces in the two countries, the GAO said. According to the agency, the investment:

Promotes regional stability, deters adversaries, and ensures “a favorable balance of power” in the Indo-Pacific
Enhances the defense capabilities of Japan and South Korea, especially by promoting interoperability of their defense systems with those of the U.S.
Enables prompt response to contingencies in the region, both military and non-military (i.e., natural disasters)
Promotes non-proliferation of nuclear weapons because both countries are under the U.S. nuclear umbrella; a status that also rationalizes the denuclearization of North Korea
Strengthens bilateral relationships with both countries
Promotes a “free and open Indo-Pacific” by encouraging “good governance and economic prosperity.”

The bulk of the U.S. budget money comes from, in order of size: military personnel, operations and maintenance, family housing operation and maintenance, family housing construction, and military construction, the GAO said. Operation of forces is not counted because they are considered an expense wherever they are.

The U.S. has about 55,000 troops in Japan—the largest forward-deployed force—and 28,500 troops in South Korea, the GAO said. The U.S. uses “dozens of sites” in both countries, “ranging from tens of thousands of acres for training … to single-antenna outposts.”

GAO was required to do the report under the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020.

To assess the subjective “value” of the U.S. presence in the two countries, GAO included structured interviews with 20 “governmental … and non-governmental experts from think tanks and universities,” and gauged their opinion of whether the U.S. gets value from its basing agreements with Japan and Korea. The experts typically said they “agree” or “strongly agree” with the six benefits the GAO mentioned. They cautioned, though, that local opposition to U.S. forces in some locations—Okinawa, for example—may make those operating locations untenable in the long term. The U.S. has relocated some forces already to reduce friction with host nations.

The Air Force spent an average of about $1.8 billion annually maintaining forces in Japan and about $1 billion annually maintaining forces in South Korea over the period GAO examined.

Biden: Meeting Deadline for Afghanistan Withdrawal Will be ‘Tough’

March 17, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

President Joe Biden cautioned it will be “tough” to the meet the May 1 deadline to withdraw all forces from Afghanistan, telling ABC News he’s “in the process of making that decision now.”

“The fact is, that was not a very solidly negotiated deal that … the former President worked out,” Biden said. “So we’re in consultation with our allies, as well as the government, and that decision, it’s in process now.”

Under the deal announced in February 2020, the U.S. would draw down to 2,500 forces by January 2021 and completely withdraw by May 1. The Pentagon has said it is at the 2,500 level, though The New York Times reported there are about 1,000 more forces in the country that are being kept “off the books,” by assigning them to other agencies, such as the Central Intelligence Agency.

Biden told the television show that a full withdrawal could still happen, and it would not “take a lot longer,” though the May 1 deadline would be “tough.” He said the lack of an orderly transition from former President Donald J. Trump “has cost me time.”

The Pentagon has repeatedly said the level of violence is too high in the country, and the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction has reported that enemy-initiated attacks continue to rise.

Within the past two days, U.S. forces in Afghanistan conducted multiple airstrikes targeting Taliban fighters that were “actively attacking [and] maneuvering” on Afghan forces in Kandahar, said U.S. Forces-Afghanistan spokesman Col. Sonny Leggett, who noted that Taliban claims that they were not actively attacking are false. The U.S. continues to defend Afghan forces in accordance with the agreement, he added.