16th Air Force Leading Shift from Conflict to Competition

Dec. 13, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak

The combat air force must shift its culture from a focus on short-term combat to one of long-term competition, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark D. Kelly said Dec. 11. He is tasking 16th Air Force—the organization in charge of information warfare—with leading that transition.

Speaking at an online symposium hosted by the Air Force Association’s Langley Chapter, Kelly said he’s directed 16AF to shift the service’s focus “from primarily kinetic to … non-kinetic, from analog to digital, from conflict-focused to competition-focused, and from physical to cognitive.”

The new numbered Air Force was created last year to combine cyber, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, and electronic warfare operations and related fields under one roof. Those areas are at the heart of future warfare that resides more in the “gray zone” than rising to outright combat.

Kelly indicated the Air Force should spend less effort on physical conflict, though it can’t walk away entirely. The service will “be in competition a lot more minutes, hours, days, months, years, than we are in conflict,” he said. “We can’t fail in the competition realm.”

That means the Air Force must get a better understanding of how an enemy thinks and acts, deter aggression that could further escalate, and repel constant cyberattacks.

“Take all of us, whether we go willingly, or kicking and screaming, into the non-kinetic competition,” Kelly said he’s told 16AF commander Lt. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh.

There have been suggestions—including from key lawmakers like House Armed Services Committee Chairman Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.)—that the U.S. military should subtly shift its focus from lethality to deterrence.

“The best way to deter somebody is to show you’re very lethal,” Kelly said, as well as “the intent to unambiguously draw lines about what’s acceptable and unacceptable on the global stage.”

He said the Air Force does a good job of organizing, training and equipping for “the most difficult combat.”

“We need to focus on day-to-day competition,” he said.

Those missions happen on a regular basis, such as MQ-9 Reaper crews that “fly around Syria every day, and they manage to work through the competitive jamming they get from our friends in Russia,” Kelly said. Bomber task force missions to the periphery of Russian airspace are “competition” missions as well, he said.

“I’m going out on a limb and expect there may be some more focus on competition with conflict, not at the expense of conflict,” he added.

Electromagnetic spectrum warfare already permeates everything the Air Force does, and it will increasingly represent the primary field of contention with peer adversaries, Kelly argued. Those assets not contributing to the fight in the spectrum—work like intercepting and jamming communications and frying enemy electronics— will actually be a drag on the force.

He noted that by the mid-2000s, most combat forces were on the Link 16 data-sharing system. “If you showed up without being on the link, you risked being in the way more than you were contributing” because of the risk of not being recognized by friend-or-foe systems and fratricide, he said.

A similar situation today would entail a fighter jet trying to participate without an active electronically scanned array radar for better stealth and target tracking capabilities, Kelly said.

The U.S. is less than a decade away from requiring AESA radars for fourth-generation fighters to “work through some robust electromagnetic spectrum challenges,” Kelly said. Without that, an Airman might “run the risk of being more a detriment to the fight than a contributor.”

The Air Force is being challenged from the very lowest frequencies of the spectrum to the ultra-high, Kelly said, and it will be a constant contest with other advanced militaries.

Actual combat in the EMS can’t be practiced on physical ranges with live-flying aircraft, Kelly noted. While the military does have the technology to do so, the Air Force wouldn’t be able to come up with enough money to so equip its ranges over the next 20 years, he said.

Moreover, the air traffic centers in Los Angeles, Calif., and Anchorage, Alaska—which abut USAF’s biggest training ranges—“are not going to let us jam that airspace to the degree that would be required to replicate the threat,” Kelly said.

Moving training into the synthetic environment will require multilevel security. The Air Force has finished an analysis of its options for “joint synthetic tactical air,” Kelly said, as the military pursues its ideal “Field of Dreams” for advanced training.

He added that he doesn’t want Airmen to see the most complex EMS threat “for the first time when they head into a peer fight. They have to see it before that, and the only place they can see it now is in the synthetic environment.”

The Air Force push toward EMS dominance will also likely mean that individual units and personnel will eventually be able to access the products of an Air Operations Center from anywhere, Kelly said. The Air Force collects far more ISR data than it can possibly use, and Airmen may begin doing much of the intel-crunching and sharing on their own.

“The AOC of the future will be less Walmart, a little more Amazon,” Kelly predicted. “You don’t have to go to a building to get your … all-domain awareness. I think we will start to make the infrastructure smaller and more mobile, and with the multilevel security to get at those different domains.”

That’s not to say people will get command-and-control apps on their phones, he added.

Artificial intelligence will also help Airmen make better use of ISR products. Kelly predicted battlefield AI will be “mainstream in 10 years.”

“I don’t think we have much of a choice,” he said. “We don’t have the manpower.”

Thirty years ago, using GPS for targeting was a strong idea, but it wasn’t clear whether that now-ubiquitous technology would become a must-have part of the kill chain. The use of AI will likely follow that path.

“Looking forward, I don’t think there’s very much turning around” from a future where AI is crucial to targeting and attacking, Kelly said.

Ray: US Needs to Balance Nuclear Upgrades, Arms Control

Dec. 12, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

China’s nascent identity as a nuclear power and Russia’s nuclear modernization plan underscore the continued need for America’s nuclear triad, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command said Dec. 10.

“There’s a myth out there that nukes are less relevant,” AFGSC boss Gen. Timothy M. Ray said in a pre-recorded keynote broadcast during the 20th Nuclear Triad Symposium, which was co-hosted by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, the Louisiana Tech Research Institute, and the Cyber Innovation Center on Dec. 10. “The Russians and the Chinese are taking a very different position on that particular front.”

As global powers consider the future of arms-control agreements, Ray urged a combination of both modernization and pacts to keep the world safe.

“There has to be a way to get this conversation to happen in the right way that gives us a responsible set of solutions for the planet,” Ray said.

While the U.S. isn’t pushing a bigger focus on nuclear capabilities, it’s adjusting to the reality that its global rivals are, Ray argued. He added parts of the triad need to be “visible and obvious” to deter regional nuclear proliferation and reassure partner and allied nations.

Global Strike is embracing an “infinite game” approach to great-power competition, coming to terms with how the global strategic standoff has changed and adjusting its plans accordingly.

Ray pushed back on the idea that “nuclear modernization is an arms race.”

He believes that replacing outdated nuclear weapons and aircraft with the Long-Range Standoff Weapon, B-21 bomber, and Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent avoids a lapse in global security instead of destabilizing relations.

The nuclear arsenal is aging past the point that it can credibly stop others from attacking past the 2020s, he said. For example, new intercontinental ballistic missiles are slated to arrive in the late 2020s—a few years after the Government Accountability Office has said the Air Force will lose confidence in the full viability of its 400 intercontinental ballistic missiles.

Introducing GBSD will shrink the number of times the Air Force needs to move missiles around, as well as the number of missiles needed “to penetrate a site,” Ray said. The new ICBMs can also be more easily upgraded and open opportunities to collaborate with the Navy, he said.

Further, he said, adversaries have strategized about how they can defeat these increasingly outdated systems using “missile defense and anti-access/area-denial” tactics.

“At the end of the day, this is not an increase in capability,” Ray said. “It’s ensuring that the cornerstone of the security structure of the free world remains viable and effective and affordable. … The arms race, really, if it’s going on, it’s going on somewhere else. This is not it.”

USAF Wants Navy-Like Model to Refresh the Force

Dec. 12, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak

Exhausted by almost 20 years of nonstop combat against violent extremism, the Air Force is seeking a new cycle of modernization and refurbishment, Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark D. Kelly said Dec. 11.

The new construct would routinely change out old gear and modernize equipment, rather than allow a backlog of needed replacements to grow indefinitely. The Air Force wants a model that is easy to understand, as the Navy has managed to do, he said.

During 19 years of nonstop combat, the Air Force has “expended and consumed the force faster than we’ve regenerated it,” Kelly said at an online symposium hosted by the Air Force Association’s Langley Chapter. “We’ve lost significant advantage in the high-end arena during that time.”

The Air Force has fallen behind in modernizing its bomber and fighter force, intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capabilities, command and control, sensors, space platforms, and “ultimately, our kill chains,” he said. Over that time, USAF has exhausted its Airmen, aircraft, and families as well.

“Our adversaries . . . were hoping that we’d continue to admire the problem,” Kelly said.

Referring to Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.’s mantra of “accelerate change or lose,” Kelly said: “We generate better solutions across the joint force, as a nation, if we acknowledge the real possibility of losing the peer fight.”

“We aren’t as powerful as what we own on a spreadsheet. We’re only as powerful as what we can project, generate, protect forward, sustain, and . . . operate,” he said. “I can’t win with capacity that’s unusable because it’s unsustainable. And I can’t win with capability that’s unusable because it’s unaffordable.”

He pointed to the Navy’s force-generation construct, which lets them replenish forces as fast as or faster than they are worn out.

It “ensures that they make their dry dock schedules on time, because they can’t afford to miss one,” he said. But when certain regions need more military power around because aircraft carriers are undergoing maintenance, the Air Force is typically tasked to fill that gap.

Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations Lt. Gen. Joseph T. Guastella is trying to build a similar cycle for the Air Force, Kelly said. That will help keep up with the demand of commanders around the world who need those assets.

Part of revitalizing the force is paving the way for new technology down the road. But the coronavirus pandemic has made it tough to make the case for sixth-generation aircraft and munitions to key lawmakers, because doing so means sitting down with them in small, secure spaces where the virus is more able to spread.

“Now is not the time to do it, but now is the exact time we need to do it,” Kelly noted.

The Next-Generation Air Dominance program is crucial, and Kelly said the joint force does not want to cede air superiority to an adversary for the first time in 70 years.

While Air Force leaders have suggested retiring old iron and using the savings to modernize, Kelly said he doesn’t think the Air Force will let go of certain aircraft without replacing them–—particularly in the Air National Guard. Congress opposes retiring several airframes, like the A-10 attack plane, that USAF wants to divest.

The only way to grow is to divest or seek the money somewhere else, he added.

Giving personnel enough down time is also crucial. The force is tired, Kelly said, but he doesn’t expect the current spike in retention to last. More pilots have remained in the Air Force than expected as commercial airlines have slowed hiring and operations.

“The pandemic has had a horrible impact on people’s personal economy,” and that of the nation, he said. “The biggest mistake we could make is to have a bump in retention and take our eyes off the decades-long problem. Next week we have our aircrew summit in Washington, D.C., and it will be a topic of discussion.”

First ABMS Tool Could Be This Tanker Pod

Dec. 11, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

F-35 and F-22 jets, fighting off sophisticated military forces in a dangerous area without communications, briefly divert to fill up on gas. A KC-46 tanker plane hovers just outside the high-threat zone with fuel, as well as a new pod under its wing that shares mission orders created by artificial intelligence algorithms crunching big data.

That pod is slated to be the first capability deployed under the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System concept, possible next year using technologies demonstrated in the series of combat experiments known as “on-ramps,” according to the Air Force’s top weapons buyer and the head of Air Mobility Command.

ABMS, which last month became a venture of the Air Force’s secretive Rapid Capabilities Office, needs to move beyond research and development into procurement and operations, said Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology, and logistics. This tanker solution will be the first step.

“As a formal program, with a baseline and schedule, you’ll be able to see a mini-internet instantiated in our mobility fleet, our tankers, that’s connected back to the cloud and analytics and AI that are pushing forward suggested courses of action,” Roper said.

He envisions the pod, which could also ride on KC-135s, will be able to provide combat options that AI has created specifically for each mission.

Those tankers can then relay information over local data gateways “that are doing the ‘Babel Fish’ translation to F-35s and F-22s that may be too far into the [anti-access, area-denial] bubble,” Roper said in an interview, referencing the language-translating fish in the novel “The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” “That will be a mini-snapshot of the bigger internet we hope to build across the joint force.”

ABMS, which ramped up from replacing the E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System planes, has ballooned into an “Internet of Military Things” that aims to connect sensors and shooters across the joint force via cloud-based networks and revolutionize how the Air Force operates. Critics, including some in Congress, argue the program is growing without a clear direction.

Roper said the tanker solution, part of a capability called Release No. 1, will be a tangible example to prove the Air Force has been doing “the digital grunt work of building that infrastructure, so that we could ultimately get to the cool stuff like machine-to-machine data exchanges and AI on the battlefield.”

The components of the new system have been demonstrated and proven through the ABMS demos, and the Air Force is reviewing the program. The RCO is looking at “different podded form factors and the right way to acquire them and sustain them, ensuring that they connect back to our multi-classification cloud,” Roper said.

“It’s just acquisition work. It’s time for ABMS to start having procurement and operations and sustainment funding associated with it,” he said.

He did not say which companies could be involved in producing the pod.

For Air Mobility Command, the new pod will be the result of years of work to grow tanker participation in combat. While fighters and bombers need gas to fight, KC-46s and KC-135s can also serve in an important command-and-control role.

“We have an opportunity with our tankers who will be airborne, where our mission is to support the tactical forces,” AMC boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost said in an interview. “Why not have the capability to relay … line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight links to ensure that our tactical forces have the intelligence and support that they need while they’re airborne?”

Capabilities like this don’t have to be “fancy things,” she said.

“I’m looking at things that can slap on and transmit,” she said. “It may be a podded solution that could do just about anything, so that I won’t have to modify every airplane. Every airplane accepts a pod. … Then we just place the pods in areas of the world where we might need them, and make it simple for the crews to operate.”

While fighter jets and other platforms have also tested promising new networking technologies, Roper told Air Force Magazine that tankers will cross the finish line first.

“We haven’t discussed any candidates other than mobility as the first place we target,” he said.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 9:43 a.m. Dec. 20 to reflect additional information about the release of the capability.

Wisconsin Guard Identifies Pilot Killed in F-16 Crash

Dec. 11, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

The 115th Fighter Wing identified Capt. Durwood “Hawk” Jones, 37, as the F-16 pilot killed when his jet crashed in Michigan on Dec. 8.

Jones, from Albuquerque, N.M., was flying a routine training mission when the F-16 crashed in the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula.

He joined the Air National Guard in 2011, graduating from F-16 basic qualification training in 2015, the wing said in a release. He deployed as part of a theater support package to Japan in 2015, to South Korea in 2017, and to Afghanistan in 2019, where he received two Air Medals with “C” devices for operating while exposed to hostile action or under significant risk of hostile action.

Before joining the military, he graduated from Northwestern University in 2005. He is survived by his wife and two children.

Capt. Durwood “Hawk” Jones is shown with his family. Photo: 115th Fighter Wing/courtesy

The crash remains under investigation, and wing leadership did not provide details on the circumstances surrounding the mishap. 115th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Bart Van Roo said during a Dec. 11 press conference that the wing’s flight operations are paused, without indicating when flying would resume.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time,” Van Roo said in a Dec. 10 release. “Today is a day for mourning. The 115th Fighter Wing and the entire Wisconsin National Guard stands with the pilot’s family as we grieve the loss of a great Airman and patriot.”

Defense Policy Bill Awaits Trump’s Approval After Senate Passage

Dec. 11, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The Senate passed the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill 84-13 on Dec. 11 after a bumpy few weeks for the key annual legislation.

“We must protect freedom, democracy and peace, and support our troops. This is the heart of the National Defense Authorization Act, and I look forward to it becoming law before the end of the year,” Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) said in a release.

The coronavirus pandemic and election-year politicking complicated the months-long process of hashing out thousands of pages of policy changes and requests for more information from the Defense Department.

Formal talks between the House and Senate to compromise on final language began after the Nov. 3 elections, running down the clock on the legislative year and worrying lawmakers that the bill would not be enacted by Jan. 1, 2021. That prompted debate about whether Capitol Hill would need to throw out the existing agreement and start over when new members arrive next month.

The bill is particularly pressing because it authorizes hazard pay and other types of specialty compensation that require annual congressional approval, but also shapes how the Pentagon moves forward with everything from troop deployments to uniforms.

“The strategic guidance provided by the NDAA and our highly skilled industrial base enable our armed forces to match and surpass evolving threats around the world. We look forward to the President’s signature as soon as possible,” Aerospace Industries Association President and Chief Executive Officer Eric Fanning said in a release.

It offers $740.5 billion to fund military and other national security programs, but lawmakers must still pass an appropriations package so federal agencies can access the money. The federal government is headed for a shutdown at the end of the day on Dec. 18 unless appropriations are enacted or another stopgap spending resolution keeps it open.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-Ky.) briefly held up the NDAA’s passage because he dislikes language that limits the federal government’s ability to pull U.S. troops out of Afghanistan.

While both chambers of Congress have now approved the legislation, President Donald J. Trump must still sign off for it to become law. He has urged Republican lawmakers to vote against the bill because it leaves out multiple presidential priorities, like a repeal of “Section 230” legal protections for social media companies that are unrelated to national security.

The Trump administration on Dec. 8 said it strongly opposes the bipartisan, bicameral legislation because of Section 230 concerns; restrictions on military construction funding; opposition to a plan to withdraw American troops from Afghanistan, Germany, and South Korea; and language to start the process of renaming military bases that honor Confederate icons from the Civil War.

“President Trump has been clear in his opposition to politically motivated attempts like this to rewrite history and to displace the enduring legacy of the American Revolution,” the White House said of redesignating installations like Fort Bragg, N.C., named for a Confederate Army general and slave owner.

“THE BIGGEST WINNER OF OUR NEW DEFENSE BILL IS CHINA!” Trump added on Twitter on Dec. 13. “I WILL VETO!”

The House passed the NDAA in a 335-78 vote, providing a veto-proof majority along with the Senate, on Dec. 8.

Congress Seeks Review of New Missions for Open Skies Planes

Dec. 11, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

As the United States closes out its participation in the 1992 Open Skies Treaty, some in government are starting to consider what might come next for the Air Force unit that has handled those foreign surveillance flights for decades.

The treaty allows nearly three dozen signatory countries to inspect others’ military installations from above, but U.S. officials have raised complaints about Russia’s conduct and argued that satellite imagery is a better option than using the Air Force’s pair of OC-135B planes at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb. America’s withdrawal from the pact took effect Nov. 22.

Lawmakers earlier this month released a bipartisan, bicameral agreement on the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act. If enacted, that legislation and its accompanying instructions would tell the Air Force Secretary to study what other missions the OC-135Bs could take on. It’s also possible that the newly installed digital cameras could move to other airframes that collect aerial photos.

That report is due to the congressional defense committees by March 1. Congress is also calling for a slew of other information on matters related to America’s participation in the treaty as part of the bill.

“There are other unclassified imagery collection missions, such as the Olive Harvest mission monitoring the Sinai ceasefire, that could potentially use the OC-135 or the digital camera,” a House Armed Services Committee aide said Dec. 9.

Another option is to retain the airframes as training jets. They offer a similar flight experience to other Boeing-built platforms like the WC-135 “nuclear sniffer” planes and the RC-135 family of intelligence-collection aircraft.

Pilots are using the planes right now to earn their flight qualifications, log training hours, and stay current on takeoff and landing skills, Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.), a retired Air Force brigadier general who sits on the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters Dec. 10.

The Omaha World-Herald reported Nov. 25 that the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron has been flying the planes “at a greatly reduced rate” for several months.

“The Air Force continues to assess options for realigning, repurposing, or retiring the two 1960s-era OC-135B aircraft, as well as other associated equipment in accordance with DOD guidance,” the service told the publication.

The Wall Street Journal reported last month the federal government has started the process of offering the jets up to other countries.

“Other countries can come purchase or just take the airframes,” a U.S. official told the WSJ. “They are really old and cost-prohibitive for us to maintain. We don’t have a use for them anymore.”

Bacon and others anticipate President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will return the United States to the treaty. If that happens, the congressman plans to push for the Air Force to resume the OC-135B replacement program that was scrapped this year.

“The NATO countries liked it, and there are many countries in NATO that don’t have space, they don’t have other access to intelligence like we do,” said Bacon, who commanded the 55th Wing at Offutt in 2011-2012. “Open Skies gave them access to the imagery of military installations that were Russian near their borders. They also like flying with us and having that interoperability and integration with America’s Air Force.”

The aging planes pose a security issue on top of airworthiness concerns, he indicated.

“We need aircraft that are dependable,” Bacon said. “It’s not a good thing when our aircraft break down in a Russian airfield, and you’ve got to stay there for three to five days waiting for a part. That’s unacceptable, and it’s what’s happening all too often.”

Wisconsin Guard F-16 Pilot Killed in Dec. 8 Crash

Dec. 10, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

The 115th Fighter Wing announced Dec. 10 that the F-16 pilot, missing since his jet crashed late Dec. 8, has died.

The pilot was flying a routine training mission when the F-16 crashed around 8 p.m. local time in the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula. USAF aircraft, U.S. Coast Guard ships, and local emergency crews searched by air, land, and water for the missing pilot.

“We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time,” 115th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Bart Van Roo said in a release. “Today is a day for mourning. The 115th Fighter Wing and the entire Wisconsin National Guard stands with the pilot’s family as we grieve the loss of a great Airman and patriot.”

The name of the pilot is being withheld, pending next of kin notification. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

The sortie was part of a series of night flying training missions scheduled to run from Dec. 7-10.

“We are an extremely close knit group at the fighter wing, the loss of one of our own brings immeasurable sadness to every member of our organization,” Van Roo said.

The crash is the latest of a series of F-16 crashes in 2020. In June, 1st Lt. David Schmitz was killed when his F-16CM crashed at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., during his first-ever nighttime training mission. Accident investigators found that pilot error and a series of ejection seat malfunctions caused that fatal crash. In July, an F-16 Viper assigned to the 49th Wing at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., crashed while landing, but the pilot in that incident successfully ejected.

The 54th Fighter Group temporarily paused flight operations after the July mishap, but found no signs of fleet-wide issues.

The 115th Fighter Wing, based at Truax Field near Madison, is set to to start flying F-35s in 2023.

USAF Space Adviser Eyes Spring Exit from Top Job

Dec. 10, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

A top space policy official in the Department of the Air Force said Dec. 10 he plans to serve in his role until next spring, unless the Trump or Biden administrations nominate someone to fill his post sooner.

Shawn Barnes is performing the duties of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, a job created in December 2019. The position entails laying out military space organization and procurement policy and coordinating with other parts of the Pentagon and the national security enterprise.

The assistant secretary job was created alongside the Space Force in the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, signed one year ago this month.

Barnes does not formally hold the assistant secretary title because he has not been nominated or confirmed to the job. At the same time, though, he also serves as deputy assistant secretary—a position that requires neither a Presidential endorsement nor the Senate’s approval.

“Given where we are at this point in the administration, it’s unlikely that we would see a nominee for … the assistant secretary position,” Barnes said at a Via Satellite conference on military satellite communications. “My expectation, my planning horizon, is to do this job into the May timeframe.”

“If the administration nominates and Senate confirms someone earlier, there will be no one happier than me, and I can move into the deputy position by being the deputy, and not being both the deputy and performing the duties of [assistant secretary],” he added.

It’s possible the White House could pick Barnes as the permanent assistant secretary, prompting a search for a new deputy.

Whoever lands the head job will face the tasks of being a top space adviser to the Air Force Secretary as well as crafting the future Space Force. Barnes is a leading voice in the effort to streamline the work of multiple space technology development and acquisition agencies and has been in charge of several reports due to Congress on Space Force organization. He has also been the liaison between main Space Force offices in the Pentagon and Colorado, and is a key figure in building out the Office of the Chief of Space Operations.

“Each of these integration activities has a different flavor,” Barnes said. “But there’s a shared theme: the need to integrate, not simply augment other capabilities into our national security space enterprise.”

Editor’s Note: The story was updated at 10:15 a.m. on Dec. 11 to clarify the headline.