Barksdale B-52 Flies Direct to the Middle East

Jan. 27, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

A B-52 flew a long-range direct sortie from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., to the Middle East on Jan. 27, the third such flight this year and the first under the new Biden administration.

The bomber from the 2nd Bomb Wing flew the “presence patrol” over the Persian Gulf and Saudi Arabia, linking up with Air Forces Central Command F-15Es, F-16s, KC-10s, and KC-135s, according to a U.S. Central Command release. The bomber also flew alongside Royal Saudi Air Force F-15s.

“This long-range, short-duration, defensive mission was intended to demonstrate the U.S. military’s ability to deploy airpower anywhere in the world to deter potential aggression and showcase the U.S. commitment to regional security,” CENTCOM said in the statement.

The flight is the sixth in about three months, and the third in 2021. The Air Force has been sending Stratofortresses to the region as a show of strength and deterrence as tensions with Iran remain high.

Within the past year, the service moved away from long-duration deployments of the bombers and instead flies the long-range bomber task force flights roundtrip from home bases in the U.S.

30 Years After Desert Storm: Jan. 27

Jan. 26, 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.

Jan. 27:

F-111s, using GBU-15 guided bombs, destroy oil-pumping manifold at a Kuwaiti terminal, drastically reducing the flow of oil into Gulf.
Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf Jr. announces the coalition has attained air supremacy.
F-16 “Killer Scout” operations begin.

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.

Space Planning Teams Grow Across Defense Department

Jan. 26, 2021 | By Rachel S. Cohen

U.S. Space Command now has a planning team embedded in “about seven” other combatant commands, spurring broader use of space assets in everyday operations, Gen. James H. Dickinson said Jan. 26.

That leaves only a few combatant commands without an integrated planning element for space, though the USSPACECOM boss did not say which ones have yet to stand up their own group.

The Defense Department has 10 combatant commands other than USSPACECOM, which directs the people and resources provided by the new Space Force and similar units around the world. The groups help ensure that each organization accounts for space assets like satellites and radars in their daily missions—what they can do, how they should be protected, and if they are available—as well as offering a line back to SPACECOM about how best to support those regional operations.

“We’re in the process of making sure each of the 10 combatant commands have that respective element,” Dickinson said at an event hosted by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Gen. James H. Dickinson, commander of U.S. Space Command, speaks with retired Lt. Gen. David A. Deptula, dean of AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, during a virtual Aerospace Nation Space Power Forum on Jan. 26, 2021.

Former SPACECOM commander Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, now head of the Space Force, told Congress in 2019 that U.S. Strategic Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and U.S. European Command had teams in place to “better synchronize space planning” for their own missions. A recent SPACECOM release noted that U.S. Southern Command has a planning element chief as well.

When Dickinson appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee for his confirmation hearing last July, he said the existing teams had two or three people and would continue to grow. Each planning element is led by an officer at the O-6 level, he added: colonels in the Army, Air Force, Space Force, and Marine Corps, or a Navy captain.

It’s one way of further intertwining space into combat ops rather than seeing it as secondary to air, land, and sea power.

In addition to hosting a space planning team, U.S. Cyber Command is similarly offering its own cyber planners to SPACECOM as well.

“This will help us in our efforts to make sure that as we stand up U.S. Space Command, that we are implementing the cyber protection, cyber capabilities that we need to, right from the very beginning,” Dickinson said last year. “You have two domains where you don’t necessarily … see physically what’s going on in each of those domains, so our ability to work together is critical.”

F-35s, F-16s to Operate from Austere Airfield on Guam During Cope North

Jan. 26, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, will soon prove the ability of small groups of Airmen to turn fourth- and fifth-generation aircraft on a flight line the base’s commander called a “no-kidding remote environment.” The February exercise is one of many that fall under the Agile Combat Employment concept, aimed at increasing USAF’s ability to use austere locations for combat operations.

For this year’s iteration of Cope North, Andersen’s Northwest Field will host F-35s from Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, and F-16s from Misawa Air Base, Japan, on the rough airfield that until now has only hosted C-130s and helicopter operations. Small groups of contingency response Airmen will quickly clear the airfield to allow fighters to come in and conduct combat turns, practicing PACAF’s vision of Agile Combat Employment, said Brig. Gen. Jeremy T. Sloane, commander of the 36th Wing at Andersen, during an Air Force Association “Air and Space Warfighters in Action” virtual event.

Brig. Gen. Jeremy T. Sloane, commander of the 36th Wing at Andersen Air Force, Guam, talks to AFA President, retired Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright during a virtual Air and Space Warfighters in Action event, Jan. 26th, 2021.

Being able to operate from small, rough airfields is a requirement, as the Defense Department shifts its focus to great power competition where major airfields could be at risk in a fight, he said.

“China and Russia can increasingly hold overseas U.S. bases at risk. To adapt, the Air Force must evolve from its dependence on well-established airfields or risk building an operational edge,” Sloane said. “… While the service can overcome some disadvantage with long-range bombers, a war in which missiles knock out American air bases and prevent the ability to launch and recover short-range fighter jets is unlikely to end well.”

Andersen’s Northwest Field sits in “deep jungle” and is less than 8,000 feet long, with limited taxiway and hangar space, and no permanent airfield controls. The pavement is rough, and only helicopters and C-130s have used it recently, Sloane said. A temporary mobile aircraft arresting system is being built for the event.

For the exercise, the contingency response Airmen will quickly clear the airstrip and ensure it is safe for F-16s and F-35s to come in, refuel, and turn the aircraft for combat operations.

Cope North is Andersen’s yearly trilateral exercise, alongside the Japan Air Self Defense Force and Royal Australian Air Force, featuring about 100 aircraft and 2,500 personnel. Last year, F-22s conducted a hot-pit refueling from a C-130J for the first time in Palau, another remote location.

Andersen is the U.S. military’s farthest west sovereign operating base, which is key to operations, but it also makes it a target, Sloane said. China released a propaganda film last year showing its long-range bombers targeting the base. At the time, PACAF called it “an attempt to coerce and intimidate the region,” but it also highlights the importance of ACE, as well as the need for diplomacy and planning with nearby allies to ensure access to more potential operating bases, Sloane said. Relationship with small Pacific island nations could be key in operational planning.

“We’ve got to be very forward and proactive about going out and engaging … [We need to] have real, meaningful relationships with otherwise small communities that [could] allow access at some point of our choosing,” he said. “That could be something as easy as supporting COVID vaccinations, providing humanitarian and disaster relief in an area that doesn’t get a lot of news.”

Article 32 Hearing for Former AFRL Boss Delayed

Jan. 26, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Article 32 preliminary hearing for Maj. Gen. William T. Cooley, the former head of the Air Force Research Laboratory who faces a sexual assault charge, has been pushed back to Feb. 8.

The Department announced in November that an investigation found evidence of “misconduct” by Cooley, with the referral of one charge. He is accused of “making unwanted sexual advances by kissing and touching a female victim” on Aug. 12, 2018, in Albuquerque, N.M., the Air Force said at the time.

During the hearing, a military judge will review the charge under the Uniformed Code of Military Justice, which includes three specifications of sexual assault under Article 120. The hearing had been scheduled for Jan. 27, and no reason was provided for the rescheduling.

Air Force Materiel Command boss Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr. relieved Cooley of command in January 2020 amid the Air Force Office of Special Investigations inquiry. Cooley was then reassigned as Bunch’s special assistant.

Brig. Gen. Heather L. Pringle took over command of AFRL in June.

Lawmakers Urge Biden to Rethink USSPACECOM’s Move to Alabama

Jan. 26, 2021 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Colorado’s congressional delegation is pushing President Joe Biden to review the Trump administration’s recent decision to move U.S. Space Command headquarters to Huntsville, Ala., in a Jan. 26 letter signed by all nine senators and representatives.

After searching for two years on behalf of the Defense Department, the Air Force said earlier this month that Huntsville is its top choice to host the HQ, based on factors like infrastructure, community, and costs. Huntsville, home to the Army’s Redstone Arsenal, has only to pass an environmental review to finalize the decision.

The Jan. 13 announcement that SPACECOM is likely leaving Colorado Springs, Colo., for “Rocket City” in the South sparked protest among local and federal officials who thought remaining in Colorado was a done deal. The Colorado Springs Gazette reported the same day that the announcement followed a White House visit by then-Air Force Secretary Barbara M. Barrett to tell former President Donald J. Trump that DOD would go with Colorado.

“Sources at the White House and the Air Force have confirmed the Air Force’s site selection team recommended the permanent headquarters be located at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado Springs,” said Lisa Landes, a spokeswoman for the Colorado Springs Chamber of Commerce. “President Trump ignored their recommendation and selected Redstone Arsenal.”

Now, lawmakers want Biden to pause any work underway to relocate the projected 1,500-person SPACECOM headquarters until the review is done.

They argue the command, which oversees daily combat operations of satellites, radars, and other space assets, will be most successful in the longtime military space hub of Colorado Springs, Colo. The area already hosts satellite communications operations and parts of Space Force leadership at Peterson Air Force Base, the National Space Defense Center at Schriever Air Force Base, and missile-warning systems at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, among other assets.

“Our national security should be the most important consideration for this critical basing decision,” lawmakers wrote. “This decision will uproot the service members and civilians currently conducting the mission in Colorado and remove them from the nexus of military and intelligence space operations. It will undermine our national security mission and our superiority in space.”

They worry many employees will decline to relocate to Alabama, and accused the Air Force of a faulty decision-making process with incomplete state data.

“This move undermines our ability to respond to the threats in space and is disruptive to the current mission,” the letter said. “Significant evidence exists that the process was neither fair nor impartial and that President Trump’s political considerations influenced the final decision.”

SPACECOM boss Gen. James H. Dickinson said Jan. 26 that changing cities wouldn’t harm the command’s capabilities.

“No matter where we’re located, … we will do what we need to do to make sure that the mission is never [in] jeopardy,” he said during an AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event.

If the Defense Department sticks with Huntsville as SPACECOM’s new home, the command will remain at Peterson as its interim headquarters for the next five years.

“There will be some time that we’ll need in order to construct the facilities and, quite frankly, modify them to fit our mission set, which … tends to be classified,” Dickinson said. “It’ll be several years before we see that.”

2 Russian Tu-142s Enter Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone

Jan. 26, 2021 | By Brian W. Everstine

North American Aerospace Defense Command on Jan. 25 tracked two Russian maritime patrol aircraft entering the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone.

NORAD tracked the two Tu-142s in international airspace, and they didn’t enter the sovereign airspace of either the United States or Canada. An Alaskan NORAD Region release did not say U.S. or Canadian aircraft scrambled to intercept.

“NORAD employs a layered defense network of satellites, ground-based radars, airborne radar, and fighter aircraft to track and identify aircraft and determine the appropriate response,” Alaskan NORAD Region said in the release. “This deliberate identification and monitoring of aircraft entering a U.S. or Canadian ADIZ demonstrates how NORAD executes its continuous airspace warning and aerospace control missions for the United States and Canada.”

It is the first disclosed account of Russian aircraft entering the Alaskan ADIZ in 2021. NORAD conducted more intercepts in 2020 than in recent years, senior officials said, as the Arctic region has grown in military importance for both NORAD and Russia.

In addition to Tu-142 maritime patrol aircraft, Russia has sent multiple other types to the Alaskan ADIZ in recent months, including IL-38 maritime patrol and anti-submarine planes, Tu-95 Bear bombers, A-50 airborne early warning and control aircraft, and Su-35 fighters, according to NORAD releases.

“This is all about an increase in interest in the Arctic,” Maj. Gen. David J. Meyer, NORAD’s deputy director of operations, said in an interview with Air Force Magazine. “It’s obviously becoming a greater and greater interest, and therefore the majority of the activity we encounter at NORAD and NORTHCOM is up in the Arctic region. … It’s been years since anything has come to our coast, at least in the air domain. … It’s all about the increased interest in the Arctic. We’re interested in it, they’re interested in it, the Chinese are interested in it, all of the Arctic nations are interested in it.”

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:34 a.m. EST Jan. 28 to clarify information from NORAD about aircraft responding to the incident.

30 Years After Desert Storm: Jan. 26

Jan. 25, 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.

Jan. 26:

Air emphasis shifts to strikes against an Iraqi field army in Kuwait.
Iraq sends aircraft to Iran for sanctuary (by war’s end, 122 had fled).
Marines fire 155 mm Howitzers at Iraqi troops six miles inside Kuwait.
In Washington, marchers protest war in Persian Gulf.
Anti-war protesters march in Bonn and Berlin, Germany, as well as in Switzerland and France.
Demonstrations are held in support of war in several U.S. cities, among them Boston and Chicago.

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.

All Three USAF Bomber Types to Fly Over Super Bowl

Jan. 25, 2021 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force will mount a first-of-its-kind flyover of the Super Bowl with all three types of strategic bombers, the service announced Jan. 25. The event will take place over Raymond James Stadium in Tampa, Fla., on Feb. 7.

The flyover, timed to coincide with the National Anthem, will include a B-1B Lancer from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.; a B-2A Spirit from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., and a B-52H Stratofortress from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., the service said in a press release. Though the three have flown joint flyovers in airshows previously, this will be the first such formation over a Super Bowl.

“The aircraft will take off … from their respective bases, join up for the flyover, and return to base following the event, demonstrating the flexibility” of Air Force Global Strike Command’s bombers “and their ability to deploy anywhere in the world from the continental U.S.,” the Air Force said.

The service noted that it performs nearly 1,000 flyovers every year, and the missions serve “as a way to showcase the capabilities of its aircraft while also inspiring patriotism and future generations of aviation enthusiasts.” The flyovers don’t incur a cost to taxpayers, as they are counted as “time over target” training for aircrews and ground controllers, the service asserted.

Gen. Timothy M. Ray, AFGSC commander, said supporting the event is an honor “for our command and the U.S. Air Force,” and is an opportunity to demonstrate “the reliability, flexibility, and precision of our bomber fleet.”