30 Years After Desert Storm: Feb. 19-21

Feb. 18, 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. 19:

President George H.W. Bush declares the Soviet peace proposal inadequate.
A mixed force of F-4Gs and F-16s from a composite wing in Turkey launch a daylight attack on Baghdad from the north.
The coalition flies a record 3,000 attack sorties; the total for 34 days of air war rises to 83,000.

Feb. 20:

The U.S. Army engages with a Iraqi reconnaissance unit, destroying five tanks and 20 artillery pieces.

Feb. 21:

Iraq fires three Scud missiles toward King Khalid Military City in Saudi Arabia.
U.S. casualties reach 20 killed in action, 27 wounded in action, 29 missing in action (plus two noncombat missing in action), and nine prisoners of war. The coalition holds 2,500 Iraqi POWs.
After meetings in Moscow with Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz, the Soviets announce that Iraq accepts the Soviet peace proposal.

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.

Beale T-38 Makes Gear-Up Landing at Mather Airport

Feb. 18, 2021 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

A T-38 Talon aircraft assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force Base, Calif., landed at Mather Airport in Mather, Calif., with at least one of its gears up, causing a fire, the wing announced in a release.

No one was injured in the Feb. 18 incident, which remains under investigation, the release stated. It’s not clear how much damage was done to the aircraft. Fox 40 reported that two Airmen were aboard the trainer at the time.

The airport, which Beale uses for training missions, formerly housed Mather Air Force Base, which halted operations in the early 1990s before being repurposed “for civilian aviation purposes,” according to a Sacramento County web page about the airport’s history.

Under New Rules, Officer Promotion Boards Will See More Negative Information

Feb. 18, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

Air Force officer promotion boards will see more negative information—including serious reprimands—that previously could be hidden from them, under new rules that go into effect March 1.

The new rules, which were published internally in January and announced on Feb. 10, follow a new law included in the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization Act that affects mainly majors and above who are up for promotion. Previously, wing commanders and other higher-ups had discretion to remove some damaging information from a company grade officer’s promotion folder, but the new rules standardize what is now included in a promotion package.

This includes:

Court martial convictions
Non-judicial punishment, such as an Article 15
Letters of reprimand
Being relieved of command
Adverse findings of an official investigation, including sexual assault investigations.

Inclusion of some of these incidents was already mandatory.

The changes affect all officers in the Air Force and Space Force, and is retroactive back to January 2012, meaning negative information withheld from boards that far back, and covered under the new guidelines, will be put in future promotion folders.

Though most of the changes affect majors and above, if Airmen or Guardians up for promotion to captain were involved in an incident receiving attention from national news media, or where the information is “of interest to the Senate Armed Services Committee,” that now will be included in promotion packets, the Air Force said in a press release. Previously, such information was only mandated in general officer boards.

Asked why all negative information was not already included as a matter of course in promotion proceedings, an Air Force spokeswoman said on Feb. 17 that some information “was kept in varying places in an officer’s record, and disposition and visibility varied among commanders.” Previously, all actions below a letter of reprimand were optional for inclusion in a promotion folder, “though substantiated investigations and other adverse actions may have been retained by the Inspector General,” she said.

Letters of reprimand and Article 15s “required a mandatory unfavorable information file, maintained at the unit level,” she explained. This information also went into a service member’s “master personnel record,” as well as records kept by the IG, but were “not necessarily provided” to promotion or selection boards, and could be removed by a higher officer in the chain of command.

For example, systemic problems found in USAF and Navy nuclear communities back in 2014 could have been kept from promotion boards in the past. But “substantiated sexual assault offenses, were required to be documented in an officer’s performance report, which was then filed in the officer’s selection record,” the spokeswoman said. “Court-martial convictions were permanently filed in the officer’s selection record.”

The new policy standardizes processes “across the force and ensures promotion boards can fairly and accurately assess the entirety of an officer’s career,” the spokeswoman said.

Lt. Gen. Brian T. Kelly, Air Force deputy chief of staff for manpower, personnel, and services, said in a release that the purpose of the policy is clear: “We must ensure we are promoting leaders of character and competence.”

The new policy was implemented about one month after the Air Force Inspector General’s Independent Racial Disparity Review identified widespread racial disparities in the department. The 150-page report found that one out of every three Black service members believed the military discipline system is biased against them; one out of every three Black officers do not believe the Air Force and Space Force provide them the same opportunities to advance as their white peers; and two out of every five Black civilians have seen racial bias in the services’ promotion systems.

“This additional mechanism in the promotion process will promote transparency and accountability for everyone, especially those we entrust with leading our Airmen and Guardians,” Kelly said, though he acknowledged there will be some “concern” about how the changes might impact promotion opportunities.

“We often hear about it being a ‘one-mistake Air Force,’ which really has not been true,” Kelly said. “The reality is, our selection boards and the Senate have consistently shown the ability to objectively review adverse information and, when appropriate, recommend and confirm officers for promotion, provided the incident is indicative of a mistake and not a character flaw, and the totality of the record shows high performance levels. We expect this to continue.”

Asked how boards are being instructed to distinguish between “character flaws” and “mistakes,” the spokeswoman said boards are being told “how to review and consider adverse information in balance with the totality of the incident and the entire record. The board takes into account the whole-person concept,” in accordance with Air Force regulations.

“This change increases our accountability and demands we hold ourselves to a higher standard,” Kelly said. “The resulting transparency and associated accountability will improve our development and make us a stronger force.”

USAF to Continue Large Exercise, Increase Training With Five Arctic Nations

Feb. 18, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Acting Air Force Secretary John P. Roth and the defense leaders of five other Arctic nations signed a letter of intent supporting one of the continent’s largest air exercises and outlining additional steps to expand collaboration.

The letter—signed by Roth and the defense ministers of Denmark, Finland, Norway, and Sweden—continues the Arctic Challenge Exercise, which was last held in 2019 and included more than 140 aircraft and 4,000 troops from nine countries. The letter also expands on the Air Force’s first-ever Arctic Strategy, released last summer. The strategy called for increased interoperability with key allies in the region, according to a Feb. 18 release.

“We have a common vision and shared set of values in upholding security and stability in the Arctic region,” Roth said in the release. “Strong, enduring relationships with our allies and partners are essential to safeguarding peace in the region.”

The next iteration of the biennial exercise will be in June.

“The Arctic Challenge Exercise demonstrates the integral role combined exercises play in deepening ties with our allies and partners,” said Kelli L. Seybolt, deputy under secretary of the Air Force for international affairs, in the release. “These activities simultaneously strengthen cooperation, enhance interoperability, and support collective defense and deterrence.”

The letter comes as the Air Force deploys B-1B bombers to Norway for the first time. The bombers, from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, will operate out of Orland Air Base, U.S. European Command announced earlier this month. Airmen deployed to the country in early February and were quarantining for 10 days, before preparing for the aircraft’s arrival later this month. While in Norway, the bombers will conduct training in the “high north.”

“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 a release. “We value the enduring partnership we have with Norway and look forward to future opportunities to bolster our collective defense.”

NATO to Increase Presence in Iraq, Afghanistan Future Unclear

Feb. 18, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

NATO will increase its presence in Iraq following the U.S. drawdown in the country, but its future force size in Afghanistan is still up in the air as violence remains high.

The alliance’s presence in Iraq will grow from 500 to about 4,000, not including the 2,500 American troops now deployed to the country, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Feb. 18, following two days of meetings with member nations’ defense leaders. Training activities also will expand to Iraqi security institutions beyond Baghdad, he added.

“Our presence is conditions-based and increases in troop numbers will be incremental,” Stoltenberg said in a press conference.

The announcement comes days after an international contractor was killed and eight others, including a U.S. service member, were wounded in a rocket attack on a military base at the Erbil airport in Iraqi Kurdistan.

Stoltenberg said the Islamic State group remains a threat in Iraq, and Iraqi forces need international support to grow in strength.

“ISIS still operates in Iraq and we need to make sure they’re not able to return,” he said. “We have also seen some increase in attacks by ISIS, and that just highlights the importance of strengthening the Iraqi forces.”

U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III participated in the meetings, and “reaffirmed the U.S. commitment to the enduring defeat of ISIS, respecting Iraq’s sovereignty, and ensuring long-term regional stability,” according to a Pentagon readout of the meetings.

The U.S. welcomes NATO’s expanded role, and Austin “expressed confidence that all of the work done to date with the Iraqi government and security forces will lead to a self-sustainable mission,” according to the Pentagon.

The future in Afghanistan is less clear. The U.S. reduced its presence in the country to about 2,500 last month, with plans to withdraw all forces by May. But American and NATO officials say Taliban violence is still too high, leaving open the possibility that U.S. troops will remain in the country longer.

Stoltenberg said NATO will remain in close communication with allies “in the coming weeks,” as it decides what its force structure will look like in Afghanistan.

“The problem is that we are in a situation where we have a date—1st of May—approaching. And so far we have seen that the peace talks are fragile,” Stoltenberg said. “They are not making so much progress as we want to see. And, therefore, we also, of course, are extremely concerned by the increased level of violence. And, therefore, our message to the Taliban is to reduce violence, negotiate in good faith, and make sure that they stop all cooperation with international terrorist groups.”

The U.S. is conducting a “thorough review of the conditions of the U.S.-Taliban Agreement to determine whether all parties have adhered to those conditions,” according to the Pentagon statement. Austin reiterated the American commitment to a diplomatic effort to end the war, and “he reassured Allies that the U.S. would not undertake a hasty or disorderly withdrawal from Afghanistan,” according to the statement.

First of 17 B-1Bs Heads to the Boneyard

Feb. 17, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The first of 17 B-1B bombers to be retired this fiscal year under a Congressionally-approved divestiture plan flew to the “boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on Feb. 17, Air Force Global Strike Command said.

The aircraft was based at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., but the Air Force did not provide specifics on which aircraft retired.

“This action will not affect the service’s lethality or any associated maintenance manpower,” AFGSC said in a press release. It will allow a focus of maintenance and “depot-level manpower on the remaining aircraft, increasing readiness and paving the way for the bomber fleet modernization.”

Not all 17 Lancers will go to the 309th Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Group, also known as the boneyard, once they retire. One will go to Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for testing, although AFGSC did not say if the jet will conduct air or static ground tests. Another will go to the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. Air Force Global Strike Command may send a third to Wichita State University, Kansas, for research, and a fourth may become a “gate guard” or a static display at an unidentified location.

Four of the 17 bombers will be kept in “recallable storage,” AFGSC said, which means the aircraft will get a Spraylat treatment to keep out moisture and animals, and the engines will be cocooned to preserve the “functional and material integrity” of the airplanes. AFGSC could not say how long they are required to keep the aircraft in this status. The remaining B-1s going to the boneyard will be eligible for parts cannibalization.

After the drawdown, 45 airplanes will be left in the operational B-1 fleet, about evenly divided between Ellsworth and Dyess Air Force Base, Texas. All congressional delegations and committees affected by the drawdown have been notified, a AFGSC spokesman said.

The B-1B retirements will make way for the new B-21 stealth bomber, and are “something we have been working toward for some time,” AFGSC Commander Gen. Timothy M. Ray said in a press release. USAF “accelerated” the retirements because excessive wear and tear on the aircraft during the last two decades “would cost tens of millions of dollars per aircraft” to fix, “and that’s just the problems we know about,” Ray said.

An AFGSC spokesman said the actual estimate is, “$10 million to $30 million per aircraft to get back to a status quo fleet in the short term until the B-21 comes online.”

The Air Force is conducting a long-term structural fatigue test on a B-1 carcass and wing at Boeing’s facilities near Seattle, Wash. The tests will help engineers anticipate structural problems on the remaining fleet that will need to be addressed.

Retiring the B-1s with “the least amount of usable life allows us to prioritize the health of the fleet and crew training,” Ray asserted. “Our ability to balance these priorities will make us more capable and lethal overall.”

30 Years After Desert Storm: Feb. 18

Feb. 17, 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. 18:

Two US Navy vessels, the amphibious assault ship Tripoli and the guided missile cruiser Princeton, strike mines in Gulf and suffer significant damage.
Iraqi Foreign Minister Tariq Aziz returns to Baghdad with a peace proposal from Soviet President Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev. The Soviet Union offers a four-point peace plan:
1. An unconditional Iraqi withdrawal from Kuwait
2. Protection for Iraqi territorial integrity
3. No punishment of Saddam Hussein or other Iraqi leaders
4. Talks about other Middle Eastern problems, particularly the Palestine problem

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.

Brown Launching Major TacAir Study with CAPE, Considering ‘5th-Gen Minus’

Feb. 17, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is launching a months-long study of tactical aviation requirements, seeking a force mix that addresses both near- and long-term requirements, which will be available in time to inform the fiscal 2023 budget request, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said Feb. 17.

He wants the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation shop involved so the study will have credibility and buy-in from the Office of the Secretary of Defense.

USAF needs a fifth-gen capability, comparable to the F-22 and F-35, and a “sixth-gen” capability such as the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter, but it also needs “a mix for the lower-end fight,” Brown told reporters on Feb. 17.

Although he acknowledged that former Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper opened the possibility of buying more F-16s for this purpose, Brown waved away that idea. The F-16, he said, lacks open mission systems capability, and gets operational flight program updates—new software—too infrequently. The aircraft was designed in the 1970s, and he is more interested in a “clean sheet design,” which he referred to as a “fourth-and-a half/fifth-gen minus” aircraft. The TacAir study will decide just what is needed, and in what numbers.

The study will parallel Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III’s Global Posture Review, and the two assessments will “inform” each other.

“Right now, I wouldn’t say they’re aligned,” Brown said, noting this is another reason why he wants the CAPE involved. The TacAir study will require a lot of modeling and simulation, he said. The Global Posture Study will also lay out the “priorities of the department” and inform the direction of the TacAir assessment. To do it in “a vacuum … would be naïve,” he said.

Asked specifically about buying new F-16s, Brown said, “Actually, I want to build something new and different that’s not the F-16; that has some of those capabilities, but gets there faster, using our digital approach.”

He assumes that, “Not everybody will agree” with the study’s findings, but said, “We … want a point of departure, a point of dialog.” There will be risk associated with whatever optimum force mix emerges. “My job then is to articulate what that risk might be,” he added.

The Air Force’s fighter fleet averages 28 years old, and “that’s not going to compete well with adversaries,” Brown noted. “That’s why this force mix study is so important: to bring down the average age, to have something relevant not just today, but well into the future.”

Brown acknowledged that the Air Force is unlikely to be able to afford 386 combat wings, but said it might be possible to obtain the combat capability of that capability without as many actual aircraft.

“I want to … get as close as I can to a 386 capability with the force size I have and [the] dollars available,” he said, but there has to be solid analysis for the resulting force mix. He’s told the Air Staff and major commands, “I have a degree in engineering; it’s all about numbers and facts … That’s what I expect from the Air Staff, don’t give me emotion, bring me the facts.”

Brown said he has no doubt the major commands “understand I’m the Chief,” and said he is making “enterprise-level decisions” about the force structure. Those decisions are “not going to be popular,” he said. But, “If I don’t do that, we don’t accelerate change. I’m not sorry about that. There will be some folks who don’t like me, or don’t like what I decide, but I want to move forward with what I think is best for the Air Force.”

Combatant commanders have a different perspective, he noted, and are focused on a horizon of two or three years. Brown said he’s worried about that, too, but he also has to think about the “next 15-20 years. This is why I say we have to balance risk over time. I should not own all the risk … [it] has to be shared [with] the combatant commands and the services.” He said he’s thinking about the COCOMs that are the fifth successors to those now in the job, and he wants to “set them up for success.”

Not every mission will have everything it needs, Brown said. “That means tough choices.” The Air Force has to “look across portfolios.”

Brown acknowledged the F-35 is having engine wear issues, and said this will play in the TacAir review. The Air Force has the largest and “most mature” F-35 fleet, and is seeing F135 engines “failing a little faster in certain areas,” due to their “high use rate” and heavy deployment pace, given their relative newness in the fleet, he said.

Options are being looked at in maintenance and depot to mitigate the problem, Brown said, noting he has three- and four-star generals studying the issue.

But one big solution could simply be to use the F-35 less, Brown reported.

“I want to moderate how much we’re using those aircraft,” he said. “You don’t drive your Ferrari to work every day, you only drive it on Sundays. This is our ‘high end’ [fighter], we want to make sure we don’t use it all for the low-end fight … We don’t want to burn up capability now and wish we had it later.”

There’s “going to be some tension associated” with that approach, and “I fully expect that,” he said.

Sikorsky Wrapping Developmental Tests on New Search-and-Rescue Chopper

Feb. 17, 2021 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Sikorsky will finish its to-do list of developmental flight testing requirements for the Air Force’s new fleet of combat search-and-rescue helicopters in the next month or so, and is gearing up to deliver one chopper per month starting this summer, company officials told reporters Feb. 17.

The Combat Rescue Helicopter program is moving forward as Sikorsky has delivered eight of the nine HH-60W Jolly Green II aircraft built so far. Those eight helos are housed at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., and Moody Air Force Base, Ga., while Sikorsky is using the ninth airframe for flight tests, according to Dana Fiatarone, the Lockheed Martin subsidiary’s vice president for Air Force and Army systems.

The HH-60W has proven it can perform in extremely hot, cold, and wet weather, and passed a midair refueling test with a HC-130J last summer. The Jolly Green II is now headed to Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake in California for radar warning receiver testing.

Steven Hill, Sikorsky’s CRH program director, said it’s too early to tell whether the helicopters are performing as expected.

The company now has 22 helicopters on contract, according to Sikorsky. The manufacturer could see an award for another 19 helos in mid-2021. The Air Force plans to buy more than 100 HH-60Ws for $7.5 billion over the course of the program.

Officials on the call referred questions about how CRH will spread across Air Force bases to replace the HH-60G Pave Hawk, which entered service in the early 1980s, to USAF. The new fleet is an updated Black Hawk variant that can fly farther than its predecessor and has more tools to protect against incoming threats, among other improvements.

Sikorsky is already looking at changes to bring its helicopters into the farther future, such as improved survivability, while also ditching earlier requirements that will be outdated once the aircraft is in use.

The Air Force on Feb. 11 published a partially redacted document indicating the service will offer as much as $980.7 million for helicopter upgrades to “combat real-world threats” to search-and-rescue missions. Those modifications will begin this year, USAF said.

“The subsequent delay by not initiating development and fielding for the [capability upgrade] requirements will continue to become more severe as the HH-60G fleet continues to age and until the HH-60W replacement helicopter becomes operationally capable,” the Air Force said.

Failures in older helos led to an undisclosed number of “losses and fatalities during Operation Enduring Freedom and Operation Iraqi Freedom, as one example,” USAF noted.