Pentagon Begins Transition to Biden Administration

Pentagon Begins Transition to Biden Administration

Nov. 24, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Defense Department officials have started meeting with representatives of President-elect Joe Biden after the Government Services Administration on Nov. 23 made government resources available to begin the transition.

Representatives from Biden’s and Vice President-elect Kamala Harris’s transition team recently reached out to the Pentagon to start coordinating the transition. Washington Headquarters Services Director Thomas M. Muir, in a Nov. 24 briefing, told reporters that while the initial meetings have been via teleconference, the Pentagon has set aside space for the agency review team to come in and start working.

Muir said the department is following guidelines outlined in the 1963 Presidential Transition Act to provide the office space, funding, and briefings following the GSA’s memorandum. However, the team will have to meet recently outlined COVID-19 regulations inside the Pentagon, which limits the number of workers who can come in to the building.

Kash Patel, who recently joined the DOD as chief of staff for Acting Defense Secretary Christopher C. Miller, will lead the transition process for the Pentagon, according to Defense News. Additional officials, including senior executives and military leaders, will meet with the transition team throughout the process, Muir said.

Biden on Nov. 22 announced some nominees to serve on his national security and foreign policy team, including Antony Blinken as Secretary of State, Alejandro Mayorkas as Secretary of Homeland Security, Avril Haines as director of National Intelligence, Linda Thomas-Greenfield as ambassador to the United Nations, and Jake Sullivan as National Security Adviser. However, he has yet to name a Defense Secretary.

Former DOD official Michèle A. Flournoy has emerged as the likely contender, but POLITICO reported that Biden is not fully “sold” on picking her because of concerns raised by progressive Democrats.

USAF’s Rapid Capabilities Office to Oversee ABMS Development, Procurement

USAF’s Rapid Capabilities Office to Oversee ABMS Development, Procurement

Nov. 24, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities Office will oversee future development and procurement of the Advanced Battle Management System, which looks to connect sensors and shooters in real time, as it inches toward becoming a reality.

Assigning a program executive office for ABMS means the Air Force is ready to move toward buying systems and proving that its strategy is working, Will Roper, the Air Force’s assistant secretary for acquisition, told reporters in a Nov. 24 briefing. Roper said it is likely the service will start buying things and attaching them to platforms within the next year. For example, new radio links have shown that they are “ready to go be purchased and installed.”

“This is the graduation in ABMS, and there will be a future graduation when we get ABMS fielded,” he said.

The decision means the office currently tasked with overseeing development of secretive and advanced programs, such as the X-37B space plane and B-21 bomber, is responsible for turning technologies displayed in recent “onramp” events into systems purchased and installed on USAF aircraft. The service already has conducted three demonstrations, known as onramps, aimed at testing and showing off some of the capabilities being pursued under the ABMS umbrella.

“The next evolution for us is showing that we can do this in a way that isn’t just demonstrated, but we can actually go put it into real systems with real impact,” Roper said.

Traditionally, USAF acquisition programs—such as a new fighter jet—would be assigned to an existing program office, such as the PEO for Fighters & Advanced Aircraft. But there are many different types of new tech that could potentially be wrapped into ABMS, such as artificial intelligence-driven software capabilities, ground-based sensors, and space-based assets. There are 29 product lines across seven product categories that are being looked at under ABMS, Roper said.

“This will be something new, and something that’s new like ABMS probably needs a new construct for how we manage and execute,” Roper said. “So the RCO will gain the components that do not have a natural home within the Department of the Air Force, … but they will also be responsible for providing the consolidated work breakdown structure, the consolidated baselines, and, most importantly, making funding trades when there’s not enough funding to do all.”

The RCO already works across organizational issues, and it has “deep experience with multi-classification issues” that will help ABMS become real. Roper said he is looking to the RCO to “ensure that we deliver usable internet-type capabilities to the Joint Force and not more partial capabilities that don’t add up to the same operational effect.”

“I would rather have 70 percent of ABMS at a 100 percent level and ready to be used operationally, than have 100 percent of ABMS completed at a 70 percent level and not [ready to use], and the RCO will have that tasking,” Roper said.

Congress, however, remains skeptical. The Senate Appropriations Committee recently threatened to cut funding for ABMS until the Department of the Air Force can better explain its strategy. While the announcement comes as lawmakers are questioning the strategy, Roper said the timing was just a “happy coincidence.”

If funding is cut, Roper said USAF wouldn’t be able to test as many capabilities in future onramps, and there will be less operational input and participation.

“Cutting the funding for the onramps means we may be in danger of making them more technology demonstrations rather than what they currently are, which is a good balance of technology and warfighter tradecraft,” Roper said. “And I hope we’ll be able to convince Congress that we need to do both.” 

DOD Deploying Medical Personnel, More on Standby As COVID-19 Cases Surge

DOD Deploying Medical Personnel, More on Standby As COVID-19 Cases Surge

Nov. 24, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Defense Department deployed dozens of medical personnel to two states and one territory to bolster civilian medical facilities battling COVID-19, and hundreds more remain on standby as the pandemic surges.

Sixty-seven Air Force nurses and other personnel deployed to hospitals and long-term care facilities in North Dakota, while 62 medical personnel deployed to three hospitals in El Paso, Texas, and a critical care team is now working at a hospital in Guam. DOD personnel also are helping with telemedicine on the island, said Kenneth R. Rapuano, the assistant secretary of defense for homeland defense and global security, in a Nov. 24 briefing. In addition, there are hundreds of personnel on prepare-to-deploy orders, and more than 20,000 National Guardsmen deployed across 52 states and territories to help with pandemic response, he said.

While the number of cases of the novel coronavirus are dramatically increasing, the Defense Department’s response has not been as high profile as early on in the outbreak—when, for example, field hospitals and Navy ships were deployed. This is largely because the high number of cases is spread across the country, as opposed to being concentrated in large cities such as New York City, and medical professionals “have essentially developed enhanced treatment capabilities” that reduce the amount of time most patients are in hospitals, Rapuano said.

U.S. military bases across the globe have increased their health protection conditions based on local conditions, including the Pentagon, which will increase its protection condition on Nov. 26, Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman said during the briefing.

The military’s testing capacity has also increased from earlier in the pandemic, with 158 labs currently operating and processing about 70,000 tests per week with the capacity to surge to 300,000 tests, said Dr. Lee E. Payne, the assistant director for combat support at the Defense Health Agency and a retired Air Force major general. While DHA has seen supply challenges like the rest of the country, it has been able to largely work around them and meet about 99 percent of the required tests per week, he said.

Airmen in-process at the Hospitals of Providence Transmountain Campus in El Paso
U. S. Air Force medical personnel are welcomed to the Hospitals of Providence Transmountain in El Paso, Texas, on Nov. 8, 2020 by departing medical personnel of the National Disaster Medical System. Photo: Sgt. Samantha Hall./Army

As of Nov. 23, there have been 74,992 COVID-19 cases among U.S. military members and 11 deaths, including a member of the Hawaii Air National Guard who died Nov. 15. The 52-year-old Airman, who has not been identified, was assigned to Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, the Hawaii Guard said in a release. The death marks the second for the Air National Guard, and the Air Force as a whole. The Texas Air National Guard announced the death of a Guardsman earlier this month.

10 Companies Win Joint US, UK Space Pitch Day Contracts

10 Companies Win Joint US, UK Space Pitch Day Contracts

Nov. 24, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Ten companies from four countries won seed money for innovative projects to improve military space technology at the first International Space Pitch Day, hosted online by the United States and United Kingdom, the U.S. Space Force said Nov. 23.

Since early 2019, the U.S. Air Force has held “Shark Tank”-style pitch days where companies try to nab military funding after a short presentation and the swipe of a Pentagon credit card. The first space-centric pitch day came in November 2019, followed by this inaugural, multinational event a year later on Nov. 16. 

It is the first time two nations awarded joint defense contracts to foreign companies for technology development, the Space Force said. The service’s Space and Missile Systems Center partnered with the U.K. Defense and Security Accelerator and the Defense Science and Technology Laboratory’s space program, with input from players like U.K. Strategic Command and NATO.

Technology accelerator firm Starburst Aerospace helped choose 15 finalists to participate in the pitch day. More than half earned a piece of a $1 million pot from the Pentagon and the U.K. Ministry of Defense to further their ideas. The money puts them on a path to be able to offer their products for regular military use.

It’s another new step in the Space Force’s effort to strengthen partnerships and build a collaborative military space technology enterprise with other nations. The service relies on other countries for support through organizations like the Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. Pitch days also broaden the military’s prospective vendor pool to include more small- and medium-size businesses.

“Space is especially exciting with so many ideas brought to the table by these firms, and I’m confident international space cooperation has a bright future,” Department of the Air Force acquisition boss Will Roper said in a release.

According to the British government, the winners and their ideas are:

  • 114 AI Innovation: Artificial intelligence-driven tools to analyze and display multiple data streams for military space operations with allied countries and industry partners
  • Clearbox Systems: AI-enabled radio spectrum monitoring tool to better connect communications satellites
  • Clutch Space Systems: A space operations planning tool with data on weather forecasts, orbit projections, satellite and payload simulations, and more.
  • Cognitive Space: Using blockchain technology to “provide a common operational picture of space assets across multiple security levels while providing means of filtering accessible data and actions based on security clearance and need-to-know basis.”
  • Precursor SPC: A four-dimensional space weather tool that “improves ionospheric observation granularity by [10 times] while enabling space weather forecasting.”
  • Riskaware and Telespazio Vega: A modeling and visualization tool that provides risk and threat analysis for critical space assets and their impact on operations.
  • Rocket Communications: An “intuitive and visual system for operators to envision system status, orbits, and predicted events” and to “easily create multiple maneuver options and view/compare them.”
  • Slingshot Aerospace: A catalog of orbital data to improve space safety.
  • Spire Global UK: A tool to track ionospheric interference with navigation, communications, and missile defense assets.
  • Swim.ai: A real-time orbital situational awareness platform with “live digital twin models of all satellites,” and data including “location, attributes, trajectories, and impact of space weather. Alerts will notify operators and commanders of threats of intercept, weather risks, changes in pattern of life, overflights, and resources available for battle planning.”
Pentagon Increasing COVID-19 Restrictions as Cases Rise

Pentagon Increasing COVID-19 Restrictions as Cases Rise

Nov. 23, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Pentagon is again increasing its COVID-19-related restrictions amid a jump in positive cases in the region and more positive test results inside the building itself.

Beginning Nov. 26, the Pentagon will limit the number of workers inside the building and mandate face coverings if social distancing is not possible, as part of a shift to Health Protection Condition Bravo-Plus, Defense Department Chief Management Officer Lisa W. Hershman announced.

“The Acting Secretary of Defense’s No. 1 priority during the COVID-19 pandemic is protecting our workforce,” the Pentagon said in a statement. “The decision to move to HPCON Bravo-Plus took into account health data provided by state, district, and local governments in the National Capital Region, as well as nearby military installations, and is based on a steady increase in COVID-19 cases and positive test results on the Pentagon Reservation since the end of August 2020, as well as an increase in cases in the National Capital Region since the middle of September 2020.”

The specific changes are:

  • A goal of no more than 40 percent of the workforce in workspaces, with the other 60 percent teleworking.
  • Continue maximizing telework for all employees toward the 60 percent goal, with an emphasis on vulnerable populations who should stay home until the health protection condition improves.
  • Cloth face coverings mandatory when six-foot social distancing is not possible.
  • Random entrance screening of 5- to 15-percent of workers, with all visitors screened.
  • All gatherings limited to fewer than 25 people.
  • Reduced numbers of people allowed in the Pentagon Athletic Club, with face coverings required in all areas except cardio, swimming, and showers.
  • Increased parking available to reduce the use of mass transit.
  • Food court options are take-out only.

“We are continually emphasizing to our people the need to take actions to protect themselves and those around them by employing protective measures, including practicing good hand washing, social distancing, wearing cloth face coverings, and taking appropriate actions if feeling sick now,” according to the statement. “These can dramatically decrease the risk of infection and slow COVID-19’s spread.”

F-35 Crash Corrective Measures Must Remain Secret, JPO Says

F-35 Crash Corrective Measures Must Remain Secret, JPO Says

Nov. 23, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak

Action to correct hardware problems that contributed to the crash of an F-35 on May 19 at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., must remain secret, the F-35 Joint Program Office said Nov. 23.

“Explicit details related to corrective actions have the potential to compromise operational security,” a JPO spokeswoman said, without elaborating.

Broadly, she said, the JPO participates in accident investigations and identifies “corrective actions and evaluates, prioritizes, and incorporates those actions into aircraft maintenance and production procedures.” She added that “safety of flight remains the highest priority in the adjudication of corrective actions” and said the 585 F-35s in service worldwide have accumulated more than 335,000 safe flying hours.

The F-35 is safe to fly while the JPO determines and implements corrective measures, she said. The JPO declined to comment on whether the government or Lockheed Martin bears the responsibility for the hardware deficiencies, and who will pay to correct them. It is unusual for the government not to reveal corrective measures required when a military aircraft crashes due—even in part—to hardware and software deficiencies.

According to an accident investigation board report released in early October, the F-35 in question crashed mainly because the pilot incorrectly set a “speed hold” that was too high during the landing process.

However, the AIB identified a number of other issues with the F-35, all of which contributed to the crash. Those included a misalignment and “green glow” of the helmet-mounted display, which both caused the mishap pilot to think he was too low on landing and made it difficult for the pilot to see the landscape during the mission, which was conducted at night.

Other problems included a delayed response to the pilot’s commands to raise the nose, flight control software that overrode the pilot’s commands, and simulator instruction that differed from what would actually be experienced in the aircraft under similar conditions.

Moreover, the mishap pilot—and other pilots—reported that the F-35’s life support system requires the pilot to work too hard at breathing, causing “cognitive degradation,” or fatigue during the mission, that is markedly worse than in other aircraft, the AIB said.

Making an instrument landing approach in the F-35 isn’t easy and “could have been made more challenging” by the breathing system, the AIB reported. The pilot’s report of finding the jet physically “draining” to fly is corroborated by “emerging research” on the F-35’s systems, the AIB said. “There appears to be a physiological toll taken on a pilot’s cognitive capacities as a result of breathing through the on-demand oxygen system,” the AIB found.    

At the time the report was released, the JPO declined comment and referred questions to Air Education and Training Command, which was the AIB convening authority. But AETC referred queries back to the JPO, because the JPO is responsible for necessary changes to hardware.

The AIB said the mishap aircraft was the only Lot 6 airplane at Eglin at the time. A technical change order affecting the helmet had already been published, but wasn’t deemed urgent and required a visit to depot to install. Moreover, the simulator was found to “not accurately represent the aircraft flight dynamics seen in this scenario,” the AETC report said. The mishap pilot received “negative learning” from the simulator, and might have been able to recover the aircraft if the simulator training had been accurate—another “contributing factor” in the crash, the AIB said.

The US is Out of the Open Skies Treaty. What’s Next?

The US is Out of the Open Skies Treaty. What’s Next?

Nov. 23, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The United States is now officially out of the Open Skies Treaty, but questions remain about the road ahead.

The Trump administration announced in May it would leave the pact in late 2020. The treaty, which allows nearly three dozen signatory countries to inspect others’ military installations from above, entered into force in 2002, but U.S. officials have raised complaints about Russia’s conduct and argued that satellite imagery is a better option.

“Six months having elapsed, the U.S. withdrawal took effect on Nov. 22, 2020, and the United States is no longer a state party to the Treaty on Open Skies,” State Department Deputy Spokesperson Cale Brown said.

The Air Force has used a pair of six-decade-old OC-135B jets equipped with wet-film cameras for those flights, but canceled plans to replace the planes with newer airframes amid its withdrawal. That follows another modernization effort to install digital cameras on the fleet.

Many details of how the U.S. military will wind down its participation are still murky. The Wall Street Journal reported Nov. 22 the government has started the process of offering the jets up to other countries.

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

Steffan Watkins, a Canada-based expert on Open Skies Treaty implementation, noted that the treaty’s other parties are going digital and would likely run into the same modernization issues the Air Force has faced. Germany plans to certify its new digital sensor as the first infrared technology used for the Open Skies mission, while Canada and Italy are putting a digital electro-optical pod under the wing of the C-130 Hercules plane.

“If anyone were to want to buy the old OC-135s, and I can’t imagine anyone would, they’d really need the digital electro-optical sensors the American taxpayer just dropped between $30-42M dollars on,” he said in an email.

Federal officials are largely keeping mum on the process of offloading the jets, what will happen to the Airmen who fly and maintain them, as well as the pictures collected, and if there is work underway to find an alternative to the plane-based intelligence-gathering.

A spokesperson for the 55th Wing at Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., which manages the aircraft and the 45th Reconnaissance Squadron, referred questions to the Office of the Secretary of Defense. An OSD spokesperson referred questions to U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt. A STRATCOM spokesperson referred questions to the State Department, which in turn directed queries back to the Pentagon. The Air Force declined to comment on the record.

“We don’t know how this is going to go,” 45th Reconnaissance Squadron commander Lt. Col. Andrew Maus told the Omaha World-Herald. “We have our duty to train the crews and maintain the aircraft. We’re doing that.”

Watkins suggested the Open Skies crews could work on Offutt’s RC-135 fleet instead, which handles niche reconnaissance missions like analyzing electromagnetic signals and ballistic missile launches. That small group of aging planes is often a target for retirement as well.

Some analysts believe President-elect Joe Biden’s administration will try to rejoin the treaty along with other arms-control measures, while others say the information gleaned from the flights is more important to other signatories than it is to the U.S.

“Were Washington to re-sign the treaty, it then would have to resubmit it to the Senate for consent to ratification,” Steven Pifer, a senior foreign policy fellow at the Brookings Institution, wrote Nov. 19. “However, with at best 50 Democratic senators, … consent to ratify would still need 17 Republican votes. It is difficult to see that many Republicans consenting to ratify a treaty from which a Republican administration has just withdrawn.”

Pifer also suggested the U.S. could pursue an executive agreement to rejoin the treaty that could earn the votes of simple majorities in the House and Senate, and the approval of the other 33 Open Skies signatories.

“The new administration should make clear its intention to rejoin the treaty and put some clever lawyers to work figuring out a way to make that happen,” he argued.

USAF Announces Grey Wolf, AC-130J Formal Training Unit Basing Plans

USAF Announces Grey Wolf, AC-130J Formal Training Unit Basing Plans

Nov. 23, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Air Force Secretary Barbara M. Barrett wants to base the service’s MH-139A Grey Wolf Formal Training Unit at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., the Department of the Air Force announced Nov. 20. The same day, USAF also announced it wants to move its AC-130J Ghostrider Formal Training Unit from Hurlburt Field, Fla., to Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M.

The MH-139A FTU will be tasked with preparing pilots to safeguard intercontinental ballistic missile fields in five states, according to the release. 

“As the lead command for the Air Force’s MH-139 helicopter fleet, bringing the MH-139 FTU online is an important step to ensure the nation’s nuclear triad remains safe, secure, effective, and ready,” Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Timothy M. Ray said in the release.

USAF’s Grey Wolf pack is also equipped to handle “search and rescue, airlift support, National Capitol Region missions, as well as survival school and test support,” the release added. 

The AC-130J is a highly modified C-130J capable of extremely accurate navigation due to the fully integrated navigation systems with dual inertial navigation systems and global positioning system. Photo: USAF

The decision to move AC-130J Ghostrider Formal Training Unit “allows for Air Force Special Operations Command to realign its training mission under Air Education and Training Command and consolidate AC-130 initial and mission qualification training at Kirtland AFB,” the Department of the Air Force wrote in a separate release.

USAF can’t finalize the moves until it finishes mandatory environmental impact analyses, the releases noted. 

However, the Department of the Air Force said it expects to make its final Grey Wolf FTU basing decision next winter, and to begin the process of moving the AC-130J FTU—including “seven aircraft and 372 positions”—in summer 2022.

Investigation Found Pilot Error Caused Fatal June F-15 Crash

Investigation Found Pilot Error Caused Fatal June F-15 Crash

Nov. 23, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

An F-15C pilot’s fixation on an intercept during training, and failure to focus on the aircraft’s instruments as he encountered adverse weather, caused the fatal June 15 crash in the North Sea near the United Kingdom, U.S. Air Forces in Europe announced Nov. 23.

First Lt. Kenneth “Kage” Allen, 27, with the 493rd Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., was flying a local combat training flight with several other aircraft when the crash occurred.

“This unfortunate accident is yet another reminder of the inherent risks Airmen take on a daily basis to ensure the successes of our Air Force,” said Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa commander, in a release. “Lt. Allen was an outstanding officer and a tremendous asset to the team. No words can compensate for such a painful and sudden loss.”

On the day of the crash, Allen’s F-15C, tail number 86-0176, was the No. 4 aircraft in a four-ship flight conducting a defensive counter-air sortie in the 48th Fighter Wing’s local airspace over the North Sea. The exercise included a total of nine F-15Cs and one F-15D, which was playing the role of adversary air.

The weather report that day included multiple cloud layers up to 25,000 feet, so the pilots were instructed to use Instrument Meteorological Conditions Rules during the training engagements if they encountered rough weather and needed to rely on the aircraft’s instruments. Under these rules, the aircraft’s maneuvering would be limited.

Allen was flying east at an altitude of about 20,300 feet when his element lead instructed him to make a hard right turn toward the west and search for an adversary aircraft flying at a lower altitude. Allen made the descending turn, used the aircraft’s on-board radar to find the adversary jet, and fired a simulated missile. He then stabilized at a westbound heading, descending to about 12,000 feet at 507 knots, or roughly 580 miles per hour.

The range training officer told Allen his shot likely missed, so he began a steep diving left turn to again intercept the adversary aircraft. His F-15 pulled up to 3.8 G forces, and accelerated to 570 knots, or just over 650 miles per hour, while descending at a rate of 38,800 feet per minute. The F-15C dove to about 1,000 feet, then Allen abruptly pulled up to wings-level, pulling 8.2 Gs in an attempt to recover above the water.

The other pilots in the exercise told investigators that cloud layers were prevalent, both from 9,000 to 14,400 feet and 1,000 feet to 4,000 feet, meaning “the horizon was difficult if not impossible to discern below 9,000 feet,” according to the USAFE Accident Investigation Board report.

Investigators found that Allen changed his bank as he entered the cloud layer to comply with the instrument condition rules, but he did not adjust the low pitch attitude. When he passed through 10,000 feet and continued the intercept, he aggressively banked left, increasing his G forces and lowering the nose of the jet to 42 degrees. Allen approached the training floor of 4,000 feet while banked to the left at a 60-degree angle and accelerating.

The jet crashed into the sea while flying 566 knots, about 650 miles per hour.

“The [pilot’s] lack of awareness of accelerating through the briefed training floor of 4,000 feet clearly indicates [he] fixated on acquiring the [adversary], either visually or with his radar, and did not monitor his aircraft altitude, airspeed, and attitude cockpit instruments,” the report states. “As the [pilot] exited the low cloud layer at approximately 1,000 feet and ‘ground rush’ of the rapidly approaching ocean, [he] immediately sensed his low pitch attitude and position and initiated a recovery attempt of the [F-15], but was unable to complete the recovery based upon the low altitude and speed of his descent.”

The airspace environmental conditions and Allen’s spatial disorientation also contributed to the crash, according to the report.

Following the crash, the British coast guard coordinated the search for the wreckage, including a helicopter, lifeboats, and other maritime support along with several USAF and United Kingdom Royal Air Force aircraft. A Royal Navy surface vessel found the debris field about five hours later. Over the course of several weeks, search and salvage operations recovered much of the wreckage from the crash, the report states.

Allen arrived at RAF Lakenheath in February, having graduated from the F-15C flying training unit in January, and he qualified as an F-15C wingman in May. He had received high marks for performance in training, and was known in his squadron “as a hard worker who exerted significant effort studying and preparing for missions,” the investigation states.

“The loss of an Airman is never easy, and this aircraft accident was no exception,” said Col. Jason Camilletti, 48th Fighter Wing commander, in the release. “Our Liberty Wing community, especially the Reapers of the 493rd Fighter Squadron, was truly touched by the tremendous outpouring of support from families, friends, and partners around the globe in our time of grieving.”

The F-15C was completely destroyed at a loss of about $45 million.