Fourth- and Fifth-Gen Fighters Participate in Tyndall’s Checkered Flag

Nov. 4, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

About 80 aircraft have come together for Checkered Flag 21-1—a large-scale, air-to-air exercise off the coast of Florida.

The exercise, which focuses on integrating fourth- and fifth-generation fighters in several scenarios, runs until Nov. 14 at Tyndall Air Force Base. Participating aircraft include Tyndall’s F-22s and T-38s; F-22s from the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska; F-35s from the 388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah; F-15Es from the 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho; F-15s from the California Air National Guard’s 144th Fighter Wing; and F/A-18s from Strike Fighter Wing Pacific at Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif., according to Tyndall. Tankers and mobility aircraft also are participating.

“Checkered Flag is amazing,” 325th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Greg Moseley said in a release. “It is one of the largest air-to-air exercises that the Air Force holds, and there is no better location to execute training on this scale than at Tyndall.”

The exercise takes place in the Eastern Gulf of Mexico airspace, which includes more than 101,000 square miles of airspace for training.

“Our ranges connect to have several hundred miles in all directions to be able to train and execute like we fight,” Moseley said in the release. “You can take off from this airfield and turn south and you’re right in the airspace ready to train.”

For the 3rd Wing’s F-22s, the exercise is a homecoming of sorts. The Raptors originally were based in Florida before being reassigned to JBER following 2018’s Hurricane Michael. Tyndall had canceled some exercises following the storm, which caused extensive damage, before resuming with Checkered Flag 19-1 in May 2019.

Esper OKs PT Gear in Commissaries, Exchanges

Nov. 4, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Troops can now wear their physical fitness clothing inside base commissaries and exchanges, according to a memorandum from Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper released this week.

Service members and their dependents can now wear their PT gear in the stores as long as the attire is “clean, serviceable and in good condition, and appropriately modest,” Esper wrote in the Nov. 2 memorandum, which was posted on multiple social media pages.

Military department Secretaries can make exceptions “based on mission requirements and the need to maintain good order and discipline,” the memorandum states.

Airmen on discussion forums such as Reddit and the unofficial Air Force amn/nco/snco Facebook page largely expressed support for the change, with some surprise that wearing PT gear in the facilities was not allowed to begin with.

USAFA Cancels Fall Break, Shortens Semester Amid Pandemic

Nov. 3, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

U.S. Air Force Academy cadets will forgo Thanksgiving break and end the fall semester early as the school adjusts its academic calendar in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

Cadets will finish final exams on Dec. 11, and winter break runs Dec. 14, 2020, to Jan. 1, 2021. While Thanksgiving still counts as a holiday, students won’t have extra travel time built in to visit their families.

“Classes will be held on Veterans Day on Nov. 11 and the day after Thanksgiving on Nov. 27,” USAFA said on its website. “Cadet liberties on Thanksgiving Day will be determined based on conditions at USAFA and in the local community.”

Colleges and universities nationwide are canceling the fall break and extending winter break to curb the odds that students will bring COVID-19 to their families or back to campus as a result of holiday travel.

That decision comes as the Colorado academy tries to quash a potential coronavirus outbreak in the cold-weather months.

About 1 percent of USAFA and its Preparatory School cadets are returning positive test results, school Superintendent Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark said Oct. 29. Downtown Colorado Springs has a positivity rate of about 7 percent, and the academy is trying to keep the virus outside its gates.

“As we look ahead to winter break, our goal is to ensure that all cadets are able to depart the installation after final exams, if desired,” Clark wrote. “Any cadets who have tested positive for COVID-19 will be unable to travel.”

USAFA has tried to maintain some normalcy as it hosts the entire student body of about 4,400 cadets on campus this fall. It cut the spring 2020 semester short, sent all but the oldest students home, and graduated its seniors early in a socially distanced ceremony without friends and family.

The school brought all cadets back in August for a fall semester that mixes in-person and online classes. Cases of COVID-19 turned up over the summer and shortly after classes began Aug. 12, though the academy has not disclosed how many. About 750 cadets, faculty, and staff members are tested for the coronavirus each week in an effort to suppress further spread.

Now, USAFA is tightening restrictions while coronavirus cases rise in Colorado and around the United States.

“Due to a steady upward trend in COVID-19 positives across the installation and greater Colorado Springs area, I have decided to increase our COVID-19 posture,” Clark wrote. “This was a difficult decision; however, your safety remains a top priority.”

Social gatherings are limited to 10 people under a new state health order. School officials are still urging students to stay home if they are sick, avoid coming within 6 feet of other people, wear face masks around others, wash hands often with soap and water for at least 20 seconds, avoid sharing personal items, and frequently clean often-touched surfaces.

“The virus is still very much alive and until we have an approved COVID-19 vaccine, adherence to the established public health measures remains our best defense,” 10th Air Base Wing Commander Col. Brian S. Hartless wrote. “Teleworking, zoning your workplaces, and teaming our workforce has and will continue to be incredibly important. Double down on these efforts and continue to look for ways to do things smarter and safer than we’ve ever done them before. … Individual choices affect everyone around us.”

Clark said cadets must remain on campus unless they need to leave to pick up take-out meals or shop for groceries or personal necessities. Seventy-five percent of classes will be held online starting Nov. 2, and all academic clubs and teams will meet and practice entirely online.

“I recognize the mental toll that these kinds of restrictions take on all of us,” Clark said. “I need your help. We are a family, and we need to look out for one another.”

MC-130Js, F-15Es Deploy to Denmark for Baltic Exercise

Nov. 3, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

U.S. Airmen and aircraft from two bases in England recently deployed to Aalborg, Denmark for a two-week, multilateral agile combat employment (ACE) exercise hosted by the Combined Special Operations Air Task Group.

RAF Mildenhall’s 352nd Special Operations Wing contributed at least two MC-130J aircraft, which are used to refuel special operations helicopters and tiltrotor aircraft as well as for resupply, infiltration, and exfiltration missions. An undisclosed number of aircrew, special tactics operations Airmen, and special operations support forces are part of the exercise, 352nd Special Operations Wing spokesperson Capt. Kevyn Lee-Anne Stinett told Air Force Magazine on Nov. 3.

Airmen assigned to the 352nd Special Operations Wing prepare a U.S Air Force MC-130J Commando II for flight in support of a combined readiness exercise at Aalborg Air Base, Denmark, on Oct. 28, 2020. Photo: Senior Airman Christopher S. Sparks

RAF Lakenheath’s 48th Fighter Wing sent four F-15E fighter jets and about 30 aircrew and support personnel from its 494th Fighter Squadron to the training event, Stinett added.

“These forces are exercising rapid deployment and execution of special operations and agile combat employment assets and missions,” she wrote.

Agile combat employment is a budding USAF strategy in which the service can launch operations and sustain aircraft and forces from anywhere in the world, instead of relying on brick-and-mortar bases that could be targeted in a war.

In addition to giving U.S. Air Forces in Europe a chance to practice ACE concepts, Stinett said the training improves the 48th Fighter Wing’s flexibility so it can back up partner militaries in the Baltics.

“The [352nd SOW’s] role in this exercise is to train alongside the Baltic partner nations to enhance the ability of NATO forces to work together effectively and respond to threats from any direction,” she added. “Ready and trained response forces, particularly SOF, are important as both as a deterrence and capability.”

A U.S. Air Commando assigned to the 352d Special Operations Wing surveys the training grounds before a reconnaissance training mission at Bornholm, Denmark in support of a combined readiness exercise on Nov. 3, 2020. **Photo: Senior Airman Shanice Williams-Jones**

Dutch, Danish, and Belgian forces are also taking part in the exercise, she noted. Exercises like these help foreign militaries sharpen their contingency-response skills as well.

Female F-16 Pilots Test Anti-Gravity Suits Modified to Fit Women

Nov. 3, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

A team of five female Airmen last week evaluated a flight suit designed to be more comfortable and functional for women pilots battling gravitational forces in the cockpit.

High-speed pilots wear G-suits to avoid health issues when they rapidly accelerate in flight. The suits put pressure on the abdomen and legs to prevent blood from pooling away from the heart and brain, which can cause blackouts. Since 2001, female pilots have worn G-suits made for a standard male body.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and the innovation hub AFWERX modified the Advanced Technology Anti-Gravity Suits (ATAGS) with adjustable panels in the waist, thighs, and calves to make room for different body proportions, without reducing the performance of the air bladder that inflates around a pilot’s waist to protect them during high-G maneuvers, according to a 53rd Wing release.

“In the past, some pilots with a shorter torso have had issues with ATAGS that were too large riding up and causing bruising on the rib cages, while pilots who are hard to fit may have had one size that fits through the legs, but need a smaller size in the waist,” said Charles Cruze, an engineer in AFLCMC’s Human Systems Division.

Five pilots and one aircrew member flew nearly 20 sorties in an F-16D while wearing the modified suit Oct. 26-30. They compared its comfort and performance to the regular G-suit during high-G maneuvers and while sitting, standing, walking, and climbing in and out of the aircraft, Sharon Rogers, the lead test engineer with the 46th Test Squadron, in the release.

“I honestly didn’t expect to notice much of a difference because I’d never noticed significant issues with the ATAGS sizes before, but I was pleasantly surprised that these upgrades increased the ATAGS functionality significantly,” F-16 instructor pilot Capt. Brittany Trimble added.

After testing, the squadron’s report will guide the process of buying the redesigned suits. The suit could be delivered to pilots and aircrews within two years, according to the release.

“It is great to see the Air Force bring female pilots together to test these new improvements, and it also gave us a chance to share our career experiences with one another,” F-16 pilot Maj. Shanon Jamison said in the release. “There are things we have experienced in our career that many of our colleagues cannot understand, from as simple as worrying about getting your hair caught in a harness, to as complex as how to return to flying while juggling breast-feeding your infant. The chance to come together for an important test, while also receiving continued mentorship and leadership from the female cadre of fighter pilots, was both useful and fulfilling.”

The modified G-suit is one of multiple Air Force initiatives underway to improve equipment used by female Airmen, including better-fitting body armor, urinary devices, and survival vests. In August, the Air Force announced it will update its guidance on the physical size requirements used to design cockpits and aircrew flight equipment to better fit women. Current guidelines for aircraft design are based on a 1967 survey of male pilots.

New Schoolhouse for Trainer Jet Maintainers Opens in Texas

Nov. 3, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Nineteenth Air Force has transformed Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph’s Hangar 62 into an official hub for teaching the next generation of trainer aircraft maintainers.

The 19th Air Force Maintenance Training Center, which the numbered Air Force opened on Oct. 29, will serve as a schoolhouse where students learn the basics of caring for AETC’s main training aircraft—the T-1A Jayhawk, the T-6A Texan II, and the T-38A Talon, a 502nd Air Base Wing release stated. It will also offer “more advanced courses such as avionics and jet propulsion,” the release adds.

The center’s activation marks the first time the Texas base has had a formal program for molding new trainer aircraft mechanics since the 1990s.

“We’re reinvesting in our foundational skills to take great care of our Airmen who fly, who fix, who fight for our country,” 19AF Commander Maj. Gen. Craig D. Wills said during the activation ceremony.

Ruben Pesina of the 12th Maintenance Group repairs a panel from a T-38C Talon aircraft during a phase inspection at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. A trainer aircraft maintenance training center in Hangar 62 at the base will soon be producing a new generation of trainer aircraft technicians to serve Air Education and Training Command. **Photo: Steve Elliott/USAF**

In the 1980s, the Air Force decided that fixing trainer planes was “a commercial activity,” and delegated the tasking away from the Active-duty Airmen to civilians.

“Maintenance duties were turned over to a civilian force consisting of those Air Force-trained technicians who retired or separated from the service,” the wing explained in an Oct. 16 release.

Formal schooling for those maintainers at Randolph subsequently ended in 1995, the wing said.

Enough trained repairmen were available to tend to AETC’s airframes in the absence of an Active-duty workforce, the wing wrote. But since many of these people have retired or are preparing to do so, the new center will equip 19th AF to fill the manpower shortage created by their departures.

“In addition to producing technicians for the 12th Flying Training Wing at JBSA-Randolph and Naval Air Station Pensacola, [Fla.], the training center will serve maintenance units for the flying training wings at Columbus Air Force Base, [Miss.]; Laughlin Air Force Base, Texas; Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas; and Vance Air Force Base, [Okla.],” the wing wrote.

The new center is also speeding up and formalizing the education process by trading unstructured, on-the-job training for course-based learning, explained Brian Bastow, logistics management branch chief for 19AF’s logistics directorate.

The center’s courses will begin in the coming weeks, the wing wrote. Hundreds of students are expected to train through the center each year, Bastow said.

Brian Bastow, Logistics Management Branch chief for 19th Air Force’s Directorate of Logistics, cuts a ribbon held by Chris Padeni, 19th AF maintenance training superintendent (right), and Dean Jeavons, 19th AF maintenance requirements section chief (left), during the 19th Air Force Maintenance Training Center activation ceremony on Oct. 29, 2020, at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. **Photo: Sean M. Worrell/USAF**

The center was designed to meet the educational and practical aspects of maintenance training.

Its top level features office and classroom space, while its main level features a floor that was resurfaced to suit AETC’s aircraft, “specialized electrical components” to power the airframes, and new lighting and overhead heating, the wing wrote.

Other renovations included changing the hangar’s doors to ensure planes can be towed in and out, and removing paint from some windowpanes to let in natural light.

Maintenance students and instructors will share the building with Randolph’s 502nd Civil Engineer Squadron, which will use the northern portion of the hangar, the wing said.

After KC-46, USAF Looks Ahead to ‘Bridge Tanker’

Nov. 3, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is moving forward with its “bridge tanker” project—the air-refueling aircraft acquisition formerly known as “KC-Y”—in a “full and open competition” to replace the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet. It is a stepping stone to a more futuristic tanker, Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost said Oct. 27.

This particular tanker would bridge the gap in capabilities offered by the 179 Boeing KC-46s currently being delivered and a later tanker known as “KC-Z.”

Speaking at the Airlift/Tanker Association’s virtual conference, Van Ovost distinguished between the bridge tanker, ongoing studies of fee-for-service commercial tanking to bolster the military’s capacity, and the still-undefined KC-Z program.

“The Secretary of the Air Force has committed to a continuous recapitalization of tanker aircraft,” Van Ovost said. “We’re going to have a bridge tanker—we’ll have a full and open competition—on an aircraft to continue to recapitalize … the KC-135.”

Stratotankers will be 70 years old when the Air Force receives its last KC-46, and maintaining the older tankers is getting too expensive, she said. “The longer we keep” the KC-135, she said, “the higher sustainment costs are going to be.”

This new tanker will be a “non-developmental” program, meaning it will be based on an existing, proven aircraft, according to an Air Mobility Command spokesperson. The Air Force is defining which capabilities it needs in its next tanker and how it will “immediately follow the existing KC-46A delivery timeline,” she said.

She did not say when the tanker competition will unfold. Industry officials have estimated that if the Air Force wants production of the aircraft to closely follow behind that of the KC-46, which is supposed to end around 2027, the service will need at least a five-year head start. That means initial funding for a bridge tanker may appear in the fiscal 2022 budget request now being crafted.

Only two tankers are mature enough for a competition of this kind: the KC-46 and the Airbus A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport, which lost out to the KC-46 in the Air Force’s previous tanker contest in 2011.

Boeing is expected to offer its KC-46 for the next competition as well, despite the program’s ongoing troubles. Lockheed Martin has teamed with Airbus to offer a variant of the A330 when the Air Force issues its request for proposals. Those designs could be upgraded to offer capabilities the KC-46 currently lacks, but would not be a completely new design, as is envisioned for KC-Z.

“We’re still undergoing basic studies on the types of attributes that this aircraft would have: Whether it’s autonomous, or whether there’s a pilot in it; whether it needs to be stealth-like, or just needs to be really large,” Van Ovost said of the later KC-Z tanker.

Commercial air refueling is a separate matter, Van Ovost noted. While this next tanker is meant to replace older ones, the Air Force is looking at commercially owned planes to refuel jets on training missions.

They are “not for deployments, but for training here across the United States to help our fighter fleet, and help our other fleets to ensure that our joint force has the refueling contacts they need to stay ready for the joint fight,” she said.

Michele A. Evans, Lockheed Martin Aeronautics vice president, told Air Force Magazine in September that the company expected the Air Force to issue a request for information by the end of December for the bridge tanker.

If the Lockheed-Airbus team’s A330 MRTT variant earns an Air Force contract, the work would be done in Marietta, Ga., in a space that has hosted C-5 and C-130 work. Evans said USAF has “made it clear they want to leverage commercial variants” for future tanker acquisitions.

When the Air Force chose the KC-46, it was partially because that jet is smaller than the A330. Its size allows for a larger buy and gives the Air Force more flexibility in spreading them around to airfields with smaller ramps and runways.

Service officials have said, however, that AMC is still interested in a large aircraft like the KC-10 that is headed for retirement. Bigger aircraft let fighter squadrons “self-deploy” alongside a tanker, ground crew and ground equipment in a single package, they argue.

Senate Confirms Skinner as Next DISA Director

Nov. 2, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The Senate on Oct. 26 confirmed Maj. Gen. Robert J. Skinner as the next head of the Defense Information Systems Agency, as well as for promotion to lieutenant general. He will replace Navy Vice Adm. Nancy A. Norton as DISA director.

Skinner, who currently oversees command, control, communications, and cyber operations for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command in Hawaii, was nominated for the new job in September. He’s returning to DISA after serving as its chief of staff from September 2014 to March 2015.

The DISA director “leads more than 8,000 military and civilian personnel who plan, develop, deliver, and operate joint, interoperable command-and-control capabilities and defend an enterprise infrastructure in more than 42 countries,” according to the agency’s website.

He’ll be dual-hatted as commander of Joint Force Headquarters—Department of Defense Information Network at Fort Meade, Md. That organization handles cybersecurity and resource needs on the Pentagon’s IT infrastructure, from personal devices to cloud services that connect into the DODIN.

Skinner has jumped jobs often in the past few years: He joined INDOPACOM in October 2019 after running Air Forces Cyber for about a year. Before that, he was deputy commander of Air Force Space Command—predecessor to the Space Force—for one year.

“As the Air Force’s top cyber leader, he drove several critical initiatives in 2018, including the AFCYBER Insider Threat Program, the 33rd Network Warfare Squadron’s embrace of agile defensive cyberspace operations, and a series of groundbreaking cyber hunt missions across the U.S. military’s logistics and airpower bases in South Korea,” Federal Computer Week wrote in its 2019 list of the 100 most important people in federal technology roles.

While leading Air Forces Cyber, Skinner also played a large role in merging that organization with the service’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance enterprise. Bringing those together created 16th Air Force to handle information warfare.

He’s advocated for better-equipped and trained cyber forces as threats to America’s digital networks continue to grow. He has pushed for operations floors where ISR, cyber, EW, information operations, and space professionals work side by side for faster, multifaceted responses to problems.

In his new job, Skinner will have an important voice in the Pentagon’s attempt to adopt software that shares data with other systems and parts of the military more fluidly.

“I’m not certain there’s any one big system. There’s no silver bullet in this,” Skinner said last year. “As you start working with open architectures, and you start working with open standards, then I think that stuff can be brought together. … How do we leverage artificial intelligence, machine learning, 5G [networks]?”

Burt Tapped for Two Key Space Combat Jobs

Nov. 2, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Maj. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt is slated to take over as the deputy commander of the Space Force’s operations branch and as head of a related warfighting group underneath U.S. Space Command, a military spokesperson confirmed Oct. 30.

Burt is assigned to become commander of SPACECOM’s Combined Force Space Component Command, which provides daily global operations support through the Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif.; the Missile Warning Center at Cheyenne Mountain Air Force Station, Colo.; the Joint Overhead Persistent Infrared Center at Buckley Air Force Base, Colo.; and the Joint Navigation Warfare Center at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M. It also oversees certain Air Force, Army, and Navy space units.

She will also become the No. 2 officer at the Space Force’s Space Operations Command at Vandenberg, the field command that manages personnel and resources for the service’s combat units. Space Operations Command readies forces for U.S. Space Command to use.

Space Force spokesperson 1st Lt. Rachel L. Brinegar did not say when Burt will start the new jobs. The two-star general currently serves as operations and communications director at Space Force headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo.

Burt is a decorated space professional who commanded the 50th Space Wing and other organizations focused on missions including GPS enterprise operations and missile warning. She has worked in the space field over the entire course of her nearly 30-year career in the Department of the Air Force, and is a pivotal figure in standing up the Office of the Chief of Space Operations in the Pentagon and other aspects of Space Force planning.

She will run key pieces of the military space combat enterprise as Maj. Gen. John E. Shaw leaves to become SPACECOM’s deputy commander. The Senate confirmed his promotion to lieutenant general on Oct. 26.

Tapping Burt to take Shaw’s place also elevates a female officer to a pivotal warfighting position as the Space Force looks to diversify its ranks.