Red Flag 21-1 Readying Airmen, Guardians for Great-Power Competition

Feb. 3, 2021 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The 2021 iteration of the annual Red Flag combat air exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is focused on great power competition, two of the minds behind the event told Air Force Magazine on Jan. 29.

“In the past, what we have done is we’ve had a kind of nebulous enemy out there that we’ve fought—somebody that’s challenging, somebody that … provides those problem sets and tries to punish our mistakes,” 57th Wing Commander Brig. Gen. Michael R. Drowley said in an interview. “But over the past few evolutions of Red Flag, we’ve really tried to take a National Defense Strategy approach, and tie the scenarios that we’re putting our participants through [to] real-world operations that they may see, either in Europe or the Pacific. So that way, if the flag ever goes up, they are that much more prepared for combat.”

With 27 unique scenarios (a mixture of offensive and defensive situations) inspired by the 2018 National Defense Strategy, this year’s exercise kicked off Jan. 25 and will run through Feb. 12. About 2,400 people are taking part, and USAF aircraft representation includes the A-10, F-15E, F-16, F-22, F-35, B-1B, and B-2, according to a Nellis release.

In addition, the Space Force is “applying both offensive and defense space capabilities in an integrated fashion with everyone else,” while the Navy is contributing EA-18G Growler electronic warfare aircraft, the Army is providing some manpower for “operational level command and control,” and the Marine Corps is providing “tactical command and control,” said Col. William A. Reese, commander of the 57th Wing’s 414th Combat Training Squadron, which heads up Red Flag and Red Flag-Rescue.

According to Reese, the multi-dimensional threat picture enabled by the integration of such a wide array of aerial assets enhances the U.S. military’s effectiveness against neer-peer adversaries.

New Year, New Challenges

Red Flag also incorporates aggressor forces across multiple domains, including MiG aircraft, as well as information and cyber aggressors, according to Drowley.

“They’re shifting their focus and their ability to replicate in all three domains—in air, space, and cyber, and …. to include surface threats—where we can now challenge our joint team, our coalition team, and if there’s a flaw in our plan, those aggressor forces are gonna find it, and they’re gonna exploit it, and they’re gonna punish us for those mistakes,” Reese said. “It is quite a battle.”

The exercise is also presenting participants with more challenging targeting scenarios, he added.

“We’ve made some efforts on our target side—specifically on the air-to-ground targets—where we’re doing things that make them harder to find, and we’re injecting exercise scenario-isms that will force our joint and coalition air component to think a little bit more agile while they’re flying,” Reese said.

This forces participants to use threat information, “package objectives,” guidance from the air component commander, and the level of risk that leader is comfortable taking to make “in-flight, real-time” choices. Following each scenario, he explained, these troops will debrief about the calls they made, “the cascading effects,” and how they can improve.

“It is amazing to watch our young Airmen and our young Guardians make real decisions that seem tactical in nature, but they indeed have strategic-level impacts, based on that senior leader commander’s guidance,” he said, adding that witnessing these troops succeed and make mistakes are both rewarding, especially since the latter “is exactly what this environment is for.”

Red Flag 21-1 also boasts twice as much airspace as last year’s exercise.

“The airspace for the Nevada Test and Training Range is amazing—it’s a national gem—and for us to have the ability to fight in an airspace that’s 120 miles by 100 miles, wide and long respectively, it’s unlike any other place that we have available to us,” Reese said.

Staying COVID-19-Safe

However, this year’s exercise looks a bit different due to the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition to participating forces from the U.K. and Australia opting to just send personnel vs. aircraft, Reese said that in order to mitigate exposure risks, masks are mandatory, hand washing is happening, there’s “disinfectant everywhere,” and briefings are broadcast to multiple rooms at a time to reduce the amount of people who need to be in close quarters with each other.

“The way that we have all of our meetings, all of our transportation, all of our briefings and debriefings, they’re all organized in a way that we put the risk areas into formations … ,” Reese said. This way, if someone tests positive for COVID-19 during the exercise, their formation can be benched while other, unexposed individuals, can continue to participate, keeping the training events on track.

Evolving with USSF

According to Reese, the Space Force’s standup hasn’t significantly changed the mechanics of Red Flag. This year’s exercise trains participants on the same kinds of offensive and defensive capabilities as pre-Space Force iterations of the event.

However, he noted, Red Flag, as an institution, is prepared to evolve in tandem with the young military service.

“As they continue to migrate and train, organize, and equip in their own different fashion, we’ll continue to adapt and evolve with ’em,” Reese said.

Drowley praised the exercise’s evolution into a truly integrated, multi-domain event.

“What today’s Red Flag accomplishes is … very tactical-level capabilities that have that operational feedback and strategic impact, where we see the layering of kinetic and non-kinetic, we can see how space enables fighter platforms, and how bomber platforms enable cyber effects, and how cyber facilitates both of those,” he said. “And so, what the team experiences now from the spectrum of just either putting a bomb on a target or the consequence management of what that means to the larger fight is just incredible compared to what Red Flag used to be. And that’s not to say it wasn’t great, but the critical thinking that we have applied now and the expertise to bring all those things together—it’s just superb.”

Despite Big Budgets and New Entrants, Industrial Base Gets a ‘C’ from NDIA

Feb. 2, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The health of the U.S. defense industrial base only received a “C” grade in the National Defense Industrial Association’s second annual assessment, and may get a lower grade still when more recent data, including the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic, are compiled, NDIA leaders said Feb. 2.

The “Vital Signs 2021” report shows the industry facing “multiple headwinds,” NDIA president Herbert J. “Hawk” Carlisle said in a video teleconference to announce the findings. The data, based on polling of more than 1,400 NDIA member companies, found that even though demand for U.S. defense goods is high and production lines are humming, it’s getting harder to find cleared or skilled workers, and member companies are facing a tougher time dealing with cyber intrusions and government-mandated cybersecurity measures.

The data were collected as “we were just going into” the COVID-19 pandemic, which imposed challenges on production lines, parts supply, and communal work environments, Carlisle noted. New data reflecting trends since the pandemic will be available in the summer, he said, but he expects the industry will have a more pessimistic view in the next round of polling.

Some results about COVID-19 are already in, with about 70 percent of respondents saying they’ve seen a moderate or large impact to their business because of the pandemic and 12 percent saying they don’t expect their businesses to return to 2019 levels.

The NDIA did not include any recommendations with its findings. “We wanted to get the data out there” to inform congressional and public debate, Carlisle noted. Recommendations about what to do to help the industrial base “will come later,” he said.

The “C” grade is a fraction higher than last year’s assessment, also a “C.” NDIA members saw big gains in demand versus last year and 2018, and productive capacity and “surge readiness” were up significantly from 2018, although down from 2019. There was also a tick up in perceived openness of competition.

The biggest negative trends were in the political and regulatory environment, followed by supply chain, innovation, and industrial security. Members are also pessimistic about the number of home-grown science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) experts. Carlisle noted that the majority of advanced degrees in STEM awarded by American universities are going to foreign students, including those from China, many of whom end up returning to their home countries. Similar results were seen in availability of skilled workers.

Only 20 percent of respondents said it was “not difficult” filling STEM jobs, and only 24 percent said it was “not difficult” finding skilled workers, such as machinists, electricians, and trades, etc., according to the NDIA data. Of those responding, 38 percent said it was “extremely difficult” finding workers with security clearances.

Carlisle said the low marks in political climate and regulation stemmed in part from chronic continuing resolutions in Congress, which he noted have been used in 11 of the last 12 years. When Congress keeps defense money going with a CR, pending a new official budget agreement, “you can’t do new starts, can’t do increasing quantities,” Carlisle noted.

“There will be challenges” in the coming years as well, with a “tightly split House and Senate,” he said.

While Congress and the Pentagon have labored to streamline regulations and introduce new contracting methods, “it takes a period of time to get a rules change to go with it,” Carlisle said. Legislative change “doesn’t automatically happen,” and there has to be education of the acquisition workforce and time to implement the revisions.

“It’s a difficult challenge, working with the government,” Carlisle said, because in the case of the Pentagon, it “holds all the cards, … they are the overseers, the dispute resolution,” and that breeds frustration.

“It’s getting better, but there’s a lot left to do,” he asserted.

Wes Haulman, NDIA senior vice president of policy, said the Pentagon is taking action to draw in new commercial entrants in defense contracting.

“They need to recruit and retain for the defense industrial base,” he said, and “they are pulling out all the stops by creating innovative contracting vehicles—pitch days and other things—to try to bring people in,” but the barriers to defense contracting remain.

“It’s a monopsony; many suppliers and one big customer … [the government is] judge, jury, and prosecutor when they don’t think a company has followed the rules. So getting those rules right is essential.” For example, the government has barred using certain companies, like Huawei, from supplying cyber equipment to defense contractors, but there’s still no approved list of vendors to meet new cyber requirements, Haulman said.

Polling also indicated frustration among companies that said even when the government strives to draw in new entrants and small businesses, it’s still a tough push to get a product from one of those companies beyond experimentation and prototyping to being designated as a major defense program, Carlisle said.

While “pure player” defense industry contractors like Lockheed Martin haven’t suffered too much as a result of the pandemic, Carlisle said he expects “huge” repercussions from the pandemic on companies that do both defense and commercial work, notably Boeing.

“It is going to be a factor for many years to come,” he said, affecting suppliers at every level, including engine makers, materials suppliers, and others.

“I think the government is going to have to find a way, using the [Defense Production Act] and other means, to keep the supply chain vital, vibrant, innovative, and moving forward,” Carlisle said. He expects the true scope of the effect of the slowdown in the commercial sector on the defense sector to be represented in next year’s report. However, on the flip side, he expects the commercial space enterprise to “help support” the defense space enterprise.

Boeing F-15EX Makes First Flight

Feb. 2, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Boeing flew the first F-15EX Eagle on a 90-minute hop around the St. Louis, Mo., area Feb. 2, signaling that the jet will soon be ready for flight testing at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla.

Boeing test pilot Matt Giese flew the jet, with Boeing test pilot Michael Quinitini in the back seat. The flight, which began with a max-performance vertical climb from St. Louis Lambert International Airport, abutting Boeing’s combat aircraft plant, was meant to test out basic handling qualities, “avionics, advanced systems, and software,” and all went as expected, a Boeing spokeswoman reported. “A test team monitoring the data collected during the flight in real time confirmed that the aircraft performed as planned,” Boeing said in a press release. The test card for the flight is not being made public.

Get an EX-cellent view of the #F15EX as it takes to the skies during its first flight. We'll be delivering the first two jets to the @USAirForce soon. #ReadyAF pic.twitter.com/80cDgVoYKL
— Boeing Defense (@BoeingDefense) February 2, 2021

The jet, tail number 20-0001, is the first of two that are to be delivered for testing at Eglin by the end of March. A formal “rollout” of the second aircraft or an arrival ceremony at Eglin is slated to occur in March or April, months ahead of schedule. The Air Force awarded the formal F-15EX contract for the first eight airplanes in July of 2020.

The aircraft is powered by two F110-GE-129 engines, the only ones so far certified to fly with fly-by-wire Eagles. The Air Force has told Pratt & Whitney it can offer engines for the F-15EX program if it certifies its F100 engines on the type at its own expense. GE is under contract for 19 powerplants for the eight planned F-15EX test aircraft.

The Eagle is expected to reach initial operational capability at Kingsley Field, Ore., in 2024. The F-15EX will have sufficient structural life to serve through 2050.

The fighter has two seats and is based on the 1970s-vintage F-15C/D Eagle, but upgraded with a modern suite of flight controls, computers, and defensive electronics. It is equipped with conformal fuel tanks and two extra weapon stations, versus the F-15C. The Air Force is buying it to supplement the fleet of legacy Eagles that are rapidly aging out and can’t be economically life-extended. The Air Force plans to buy between 144 and 200 F-15EXs, depending on whether the type will also replace F-15E Strike Eagles, which still have a decade of service life remaining. Despite the second seat, the Air Force intends to fly the F-15EX with only a single pilot.

The F-15EX is based on the F-15QA being built for Qatar, but embodies other improvements added by export customers over the years. Its fly-by-wire flight controls, for example, first appeared on Saudi Arabian F-15SA aircraft. Boeing estimates the Air Force is leveraging more than $5 billion of improvements in the F-15 funded by export customers.

Unlike export models, the F-15EX and older USAF F-15C/Ds will be protected by the Eagle Passive Active Warning Survivability System (EPAWSS), a suite of electronic warfare gear and countermeasures to extend the type’s combat longevity.

The jet is seen as meeting Air Force capacity shortfalls in air defense and as a standoff weapons-carrying platform that could operate outside contested airspace.

The F-15EX has an open mission systems architecture, allowing frequent, competitive upgrades. Boeing’s F-15 vice president and program manager Pratyush Kumar said the EX is “capable of incorporating the latest advanced battle management systems, sensors, and weapons due to the jet’s digital airframe design and open mission systems architecture.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Feb. 3 at 3:47 p.m. EST to correct the date of the F-15EX’s first flight, and at 4:50 p.m. EST to correct the date of the photo.

USAF Intelligence, Cyber Branch Preps Diversity Strategy

Feb. 2, 2021 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The Air Force’s intelligence and cyber operations branch will soon roll out a diversity and inclusion strategy to strengthen its workforce and the quality of their analyses.

“Diversity, equity, inclusion are critical to our success going forward. It’s a national security imperative; it’s in the [Director of National Intelligence’s] principles for professional ethics,” Lt. Gen. Mary F. O’Brien, deputy chief of staff for intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and cyber effects operations, said at a Feb. 2 event hosted by the Intelligence National Security Alliance.

O’Brien became the top officer in the information warfare portfolio—spanning surveillance drones, intelligence-analysis systems, cyber offense and defense, and more— in November 2019. She inherited a $72 billion enterprise that is trying to make the best use of its 73,000 employees for sifting through global information and separating the signal from the noise, while offloading some of that work to artificial intelligence algorithms.

O’Brien, who has served as a top general officer on the Air Force’s Women’s Initiative Team that pushes for gender equity in the service, said she’s channeling that experience into a new diversity and inclusion office focused on the ISR and cyber community. A colonel-select and a senior master sergeant manage that work and directly report to O’Brien.

At the top of that office’s to-do list is publishing a diversity and inclusion strategy this month to reshape efforts from recruitment to retention. The strategy aims to address the barriers that Airmen in certain demographic groups, from racial minorities to mothers, face as they scale the career ladder.

“Research shows that diverse teams are smarter,” O’Brien said. “They focus on the facts, they process the facts more carefully, they’re open to more innovative solutions, better return on investment, more efficient use of resources.”

In the intelligence field, diversity can help teams spot trends and threats they may not have thought to notice. Information can slip through the cracks if people lack the right insight to know what’s important and what’s not, proponents say.

The push comes as the Air Force has launched a broad effort to combat racism and discrimination in its ranks, and boosted diversity-minded recruitment initiatives like offering more scholarships to students in the Reserve Officer Training Corps at historically Black colleges and universities and Hispanic-serving institutions.

Diversity and inclusion training is becoming part of advanced coursework for intel Airmen at the Goodfellow Air Force Base, Texas, schoolhouse. O’Brien wants to see the same change for senior noncommissioned officers in the cyber field.

O’Brien is one of four uniformed women in top Air Force positions—a group that includes Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass, Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, and Surgeon General Lt. Gen. Dorothy A. Hogg. As a female member of the Air Staff, O’Brien is in a unique position to advocate for women in her own area of expertise as well as across the force.

As part of the Air Force’s report to top-level Pentagon officials on its measures to prevent sexual assault and harassment, O’Brien said she’s drawing on lessons from “Know My Name: A Memoir,” Chanel Miller’s 2019 account of sexual assault and its aftermath while she was a student at Stanford University.

“It is a very powerful description of what it’s like for a sexual assault victim to seek justice, even if the assailants were caught in the act,” O’Brien said. “I highly recommend “Know My Name” for anyone, which in my mind, would be everyone who is addressing sexual assault or sexual harassment in the workforce.”

She’s also using her own experience to shape how the ISR and cyber enterprise addresses unconscious bias.

“The one that I’ve faced … most in my career, since I had my children, was the maternal bias,” O’Brien said.

People may think women are less committed to their careers if they decide to have children, while also seeing them as less dedicated parents for wanting to succeed at work. She noted the baked-in assumptions that cause “traditional” or ethnic stereotyping of minority Airmen as well.

“We’re also looking at creating a minority leader program, because I don’t want to just start at recruiting,” she said. “What about the demographics of the people that we have serving today? Otherwise, we’re always going to be 20 years away.”

The three-star feels empowered to pursue a more inclusive force under the leadership of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III. They are, respectively, the first Black four-star to lead one of the U.S. armed forces, and the first Black civilian to run the Pentagon.

“I have the top cover and examples in the leaders like Gen. Brown and Secretary Austin,” O’Brien said. “They’ve made it very clear that diversity and inclusion is going to be a priority.”

“We’re perfectly postured to follow their lead and guidance in this area,” she said.

30 Years After Desert Storm: Feb. 3

Feb. 2, 2021

In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, Air Force Magazine is posting daily recollections from the six-week war, which expelled Iraq from occupied Kuwait.

Feb. 3: Iraq withdraws troops from the Khafji area.

Check out our complete chronology of the Gulf War, starting with Iraq’s July 1990 invasion of Kuwait and running through Iraq’s April 1991 acceptance of peace terms.

Hicks Says She Will Oversee Nuclear Modernization, Commits to Triad

Feb. 2, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Kathleen H. Hicks, who will oversee decisions related to nuclear modernization if confirmed to be the No. 2 official at the Pentagon, assured lawmakers during her confirmation hearing on Feb. 2 that she is committed to all three legs of the nuclear triad.

Since Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, who previously served on Raytheon Technologies’ board, has committed to recusing himself from all decisions relating to the company during his tenure, Hicks said that if she is confirmed as the deputy defense secretary, she will step in for programmatic discussions on the Air Force’s Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, the Long-Range Stand Off Weapon, and “other timely missile defense issues.”

Raytheon Technologies is the sole source contractor on LRSO, and the company’s subsidiary Collins Aerospace will build the launch platform for the GBSD.

Members of the Senate Armed Services Committee pressed Hicks on the need to modernize the full triad as the Biden administration is expected to look critically at the cost of nuclear modernization. The Defense Department will soon conduct a new Nuclear Policy Review, which could look at the need to maintain all three legs of the triad.

“The triad has been … the bedrock of our nuclear deterrent,” Hicks said, citing Austin’s similar statement during his own nomination hearing. “And I think it must be modernized in order to be safe, secure, and credible.”

Decisions on nuclear modernization need to be “driven, foremost, by strategy,” she said, adding “I don’t think we should be risking the modernization of our deterrent.”

Hicks said she is worried about the readiness of the military’s nuclear forces, and if confirmed she would immediately look at ways to best address it.

If confirmed, Hicks would be the first woman to serve in the role. She was an adviser to the Biden transition before Inauguration Day last month. In the Obama administration, Hicks served as deputy under secretary of defense for strategy, plans, and forces and as the principal deputy under secretary of defense for policy. She also worked on the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review and the 2012 Defense Strategic Guidance. She most recently was a senior vice president at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The Senate has not set a date for a confirmation vote, though Hicks is expected to easily be confirmed.

Air Force Unveils New Standards for Enlisted, Officer Evaluations

Feb. 2, 2021 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The Air Force is revamping evaluations for Airmen in grades E-7 through E-9 and O-1 through O-6 and establishing 10 Airman Leadership Qualities on which each will be graded, the service announced Feb. 2. These ALQs make up the backbone of a new, as-of-now optional, form the service has published as a companion document to the Airman Comprehensive Assessment.

“The qualities, found in the Airman Comprehensive Assessment Addendum – AF Form 724-A, focus on character and competence and are categorized under four major performance areas, which coincide with both the major graded areas of the Air Force Unit Effectiveness Inspection program and the language used to describe expected performance factors provided to promotion boards: executing the mission, leading people, managing resources, and improving the unit,” a service release explained.

With regards to mission execution, Airmen will be evaluated on “job proficiency,” “initiative,” and “adaptability,” the release states.

On the leadership front, they’ll be assessed on “inclusion and teamwork”—defined as their ability to work with others and foster an inclusive climate—as well as “emotional intelligence,” and “communication” of both the verbal and non-verbal varieties.

In terms of resource management, Airmen will be judged on “stewardship,” or their ability to responsibly handle resources assigned to them, potentially including “time, equipment, people, funds, and/or facilities,” the release said. They’ll also be evaluated on “accountability,” which encompasses their ability to own up to “actions and behaviors” of themselves and their teams, and whether they’re demonstrably reliable and transparent people.

Finally, when it comes to the unit, Airmen will be assessed on “decision making” and “innovation”—to include creative problem solving, putting improvements into action, and taking measured risks, the release stated.

Airmen will be graded on a five-point scale ranging from “does not meet expectations” to “outstanding,” and expectations for Airmen will be relative to their ranks and career fields, the release explained.

Air Force Talent Management Innovation Cell Director Col. Laura King said the ALQs and umbrella performance areas grew out of a deep dive into “industry and sister service best-practices, academic literature,” and things the service knows Airmen will need for today’s fight. They were polished through the use of “Total Force focus groups,” she added.

The unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page first leaked the “Airman Comprehensive Assessment Addendum” outlining the new ALQs, along with a letter from Bass to senior enlisted leaders across the Total Force on the morning of Feb. 2.

“We designed the addendum to be used in conjunction with the primary Airman Comprehensive Assessment form to serve as a guide for raters to help facilitate actionable discussions during feedback that incorporate the Airman leadership qualities,” King said in the release.

The addendum is optional for now. USAF will collect and use feedback from major commands across the service to further polish the ALQs and the form “before the new evaluation systems are finalized.” However, the service is encouraging leaders to use the document “to the fullest maximum practical.”

USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. called the move towards the new ALQs key to changing how the service measures, motivates, and rewards its troops.

“We must have evaluation systems that provide constructive feedback, evaluate against qualities we value, and highlight future potential,” he said in the release.

CMSAF JoAnne S. Bass told Air Force Magazine the ALQ announcement is only the start of a larger effort to revamp how Airmen are evaluated.

“This is just the beginning stages of constructing a system that clearly defines the qualities we value and need in our Airmen,” she said in a statement. “The synergy between the officer and enlisted evaluation systems is a huge win for how we develop our Airmen to build the Air Force our nation needs.”

In the leaked letter to USAF senior enlisted leaders, Bass also noted that USAF’s Enlisted Evaluation System overhaul is in progress and expected to conclude in Fall 2022.

“Oh yeah, and we hear you on TIG/TIS [time in grade/time in service] …we are working details on that too,” she added in a Feb. 2 Facebook post about the announcement.

B-1Bs to Deploy to Norway

Feb. 2, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

U.S. B-1B bombers will deploy to Norway for the first time, in both a message to Russia and a sign of the growing importance of the Arctic.

B-1Bs from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, will fly out of Orland Air Base on the coast of the Norwegian Sea. While bombers have repeatedly flown alongside Norwegian aircraft, this will be the first time Lancers will operate out of a base in the country, according to U.S. European Command.

Some Airmen already have deployed to the base as part of an advance team before the aircraft arrive. Eventually, more than 200 Airmen will arrive at the base as part of the Bomber Task Force. The Airmen were medically screened before deploying and will quarantine for 10 days once arriving.

EUCOM did not disclose how long the bombers will be at the base, but they will conduct training with allies, including operating in the “high north” and across Europe.

“Operational readiness and our ability to support Allies and partners and respond with speed is critical to combined success,” Gen. Jeffrey L Harrigian, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander, said in the release. “We value the enduring partnership we have with Norway and look forward to future opportunities to bolster our collective defense.”

Last year, B-1s and B-52s flew alongside Norwegian F-16s and F-35s multiple times as part of European deployments and in a long-distance direct flight from their home base.

SPACECOM Warns Adversaries in New Strategy Overview

Feb. 1, 2021 | By Rachel S. Cohen

U.S. Space Command in its new strategy paper warns of a future with “increasingly capable competitors” and a “long-term security threat” posed by Russia and China, claiming the right of self-defense as America and its allies expand their space economies and look to permanently return to the moon.

The U.S. military argues it needs to bolster its offense and defense in space to protect the satellites and radars that enable GPS guidance, ATMs, ballistic missile warning, and more. SPACECOM also uses those assets to direct weapons and troops, send information around the world, and collect intelligence—making them targets for those who want to disrupt American military operations.

“By developing, testing, and deploying counter-space capabilities and evolving their military doctrines to extend into space, our competitors seek to prevent our unfettered access to space and deny our freedom to operate in space,” reads the paper, dated Feb. 1.

This is the latest document to warn that the United States will hit back if its satellites, radars, and other space systems are endangered. It also broadly outlines goals for training, partnerships, and cybersecurity. SpaceNews first reported on the strategic vision Jan. 28.

“The United States, along with our allies and partners, will champion and promote the responsible, peaceful, and safe use of space,” according to the strategy. “However, should our nation call, United States Space Command will always remain ready to prevail against any foreign space-related aggression.”

The document echoes earlier blueprints from the Pentagon and the Space Force, the branch of the military that supplies most systems and personnel to SPACECOM for daily operations. But the 12-page paper, comprised largely of pictures, lacks the detail of previous strategies.

“It reads more like an ad brochure full of chest-thumping assertions than a serious strategic document,” Brian Weeden, director of program planning at the Secure World Foundation, said on Twitter.

He suggested the strategy may miss the mark because the military is not yet comfortable with discussing often-classified space operations in a public forum.

“There is something to be said about the lack of sophistication for space doctrine relative to the other domains because we haven’t had any actual combat in space to draw on,” he told Air Force Magazine.

SPACECOM was revived in August 2019 after being disbanded for 17 years, and is gradually integrating its work with the other combatant commands that rely on and defend space assets. Its new iteration must “sustain a warfighting culture and adapt to a dynamic and changing strategic environment,” SPACECOM boss Gen. James H. Dickinson said during a recent AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. That goes hand in hand with building a space enterprise that draws on the experience of the other armed forces.

Video: Mitchell Institute on YouTube

“We have folks that are relying upon years of experience in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria, on how we do land, sea, and air operations,” he said. “[They] are able to bring that expertise … into the command. That generates combat power almost immediately.”

“Job One is making sure that we maintain and continue to attract that type of talent, so that we can continue on our path, in terms of becoming a fully operational combatant command,” Dickinson added.