Military Domestic Violence Reports Didn’t Rise During COVID-19 Pandemic

Oct. 29, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The Defense Department hasn’t seen an increase in domestic violence reports among military families since the new coronavirus crisis began, despite the COVID-19 pandemic reportedly causing a spike in such activity across the globe, the head of the Pentagon’s Office of Military Family Readiness Policy told reporters Oct. 29.

“We are not currently seeing that within our military services,” said the office’s director, Carolyn S. Stevens, during a Pentagon press briefing. “In fact, the number of reports now are very similar to the reports a year ago this time.”

However, a lack of reporting may not be a reliable indicator of stagnant or decreasing domestic violence incidence.

A September 2020 article from the New England Journal of Medicine notes that while some parts of the nation saw a 50-percent-plus decrease in calls to domestic violence hotlines since the pandemic began, “experts in the field knew that rates of IPV [intimate partner violence] had not decreased, but rather that victims were unable to safely connect with services.”

Stevens said the reporting trend within DOD is a source of concern for the office, which must keep a close eye on it.

The pandemic has also prompted the office to offer many of its related support services virtually, she added, noting that service members and their families can use “virtual methods” to connect with the office’s family advocacy clinicians, new parent support counselors, home visitation program, and victim advocate services.

Independent of the pandemic, Stevens said the Office of Military Family Readiness Policy—which she said “is divided between children, youth, and family advocacy programs and the Office of Special Needs”—has also recently launched training for first responders to help raise awareness about how individuals can use technology to perpetuate domestic violence.

Stevens said the office realized that it “needed to move away from thinking about this issue as simply a face-to-face issue between an alleged offender and a victim,” and understand how abusers could use phone calls, text messaging, and other device-based strategies to harass victims. The new training, which the office developed in collaboration with law enforcement, aims to increase first responders’ fluency about the issue, she said.

In September, the Department of the Air Force announced plans to survey USAF and Space Force personnel about their experiences with interpersonal violence—including domestic violence—in order to shape future prevention efforts, Air Force Magazine previously reported.

USAF Wants to Drop Cruise Missiles from Airlifters

Oct. 29, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Air Force airlifters are one step closer to becoming bomb trucks, after the service awarded Lockheed Martin a $25 million contract to continue developing palletized munitions.

The contract, awarded in August and announced this week by the company, includes a demonstration in 2021 to assess the ability of C-130s and C-17s to deliver air-launched weapons, such as Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles. The Air Force already has tested the capability on a special operations MC-130 and a C-17 during the Advanced Battle Management System “on-ramp” demonstration in early September.

The roll-on capability, which does not require any hardware changes to aircraft, can fit on any C-130 that carries palletized cargo.

“The ability to use the same airlifters to deploy missiles without modification provides the flexibility that could save billions in platform modification costs and also provides a new capability to get a large number of airborne assets into the theater,” said Scott Callaway, director of Lockheed’s Advanced Strike Systems.

The Air Force Research Laboratory and the Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation offices have shown interest in developing the capability “as soon as possible,” he said. The effort is in addition to a Strategic Capabilities Office “EnMasse” program that, instead of using existing aircraft, is looking for a separate “arsenal plane” to deliver stand-off weapons, he said.

Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost has highlighted the palletized munition capability as a major initiative for the command, saying last month that it is a way for mobility forces to contribute more to a fight in “non-traditional ways.”

“We have very capable C-17s that are around the world at any one time,” she said during AFA’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference. “Our ability to flex to use this airplane in multiple ways is what really brings this richness to operations.”

Van Ovost said the command has not yet looked “at the full concept,” but she emphasized that weaponized mobility platforms are “not taking the place of any of the Global Strike capabilities.”

“This is just the capability we want to have, should we need it, and if we pull it into an [operations] plan, that’s great,” she said.

DOD Strategy Paves New Path for Electronic Warfare

Oct. 29, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The Pentagon on Oct. 29 released a strategy for military use of the electromagnetic spectrum that could ultimately spur the creation of a new combatant command to oversee those operations.

The Defense Department has waged war via the electromagnetic spectrum for decades, using aircraft like the E/A-18G Growler and the EC-130H Compass Call to jam electronic signals and transmit computer code to other wireless devices.

But a growing number of commercial companies, personal electronic devices, and military systems that use wireless wavelength have crowded and complicated the spectrum in the digital age. That’s leading the military to see electromagnetic warfare and spectrum management as intertwined, not independent, concepts that should be coordinated across the department for the first time.

“This is the beginning of a unique opportunity,” a Pentagon official said on a background call with reporters. “The new strategy will have wide-ranging impacts across the DOD that will shape the future of the department, influencing how the DOD makes decisions on how best to design, resource, and implement EMS concepts as a new foundation for multidomain warfighting.”

The strategy pushes for new tactics, training, technology, and partnerships that would let the military hop across and hide in frequencies more easily, sense and attack or defend against other actors on the spectrum, and better withstand cyberattacks on the spectrum. DOD is considering its options for sharing and leasing frequencies with the private sector so it can digitally patrol as much of that space as possible.

“Whether it’s using commercial spectrum, or federal spectrum, or military spectrum, we have priority, we have to be able to access and maneuver in any spectrum to be able to defeat our enemies and deny them access in the same way,” another official said on background.

Like many other technology development efforts in DOD, officials want to connect their electronic warfare and spectrum management tools across services to be more responsive and less reliant on a few specific systems built for the EW mission.

That could lead to an overhaul of the Pentagon’s current electronic warfare inventory as it looks to modernize. The armed forces have explored those possibilities for years, and are in the process of replacing certain systems like the Compass Call. That fleet’s hardware is transferring to the EC-37B, a business jet modified for the electronic attack mission that will gradually become available over the next decade.

In the wake of a yearlong enterprise study of EMS issues in 2018, the Air Force moved electronic warfare personnel, like those in the 55th Electronic Combat Group, under a new information warfare organization. The service is also building out its staff at Air Force headquarters to handle the topic and soliciting ideas for EW tech demonstrations.

While the strategy did not delve into possible investments, its implementation is likely to shift future budgets and priorities among the military services and high-level DOD offices. Those changes will also have ripple effects for IT infrastructure modernization, an issue long neglected by the Pentagon, and other areas where the Pentagon wants to share common tools with other federal agencies and industry.

A roadmap to guide the path forward is due out in March. In partnership with the Pentagon’s chief information officer, Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. John E. Hyten will oversee that rollout as a senior member of DOD’s Electromagnetic Spectrum Operations Cross-Functional Team. Hyten is responsible for quarterly updates to the Defense Secretary on their progress.

As consensus has built inside the Pentagon that space is a warfighting domain like the land, air, and sea, people are still debating whether the electromagnetic spectrum counts as a domain as well.

One major change that might come from the implementation plan is the creation of a combatant command to handle daily electromagnetic spectrum operations. U.S. Strategic Command is currently in charge of that work, but could hand it off to a specialized organization much like it turned space warfighting over to U.S. Space Command last year.

“There’s a recognition in the department that [STRATCOM does] not have enough manning and structure to accomplish all of the things that they need to do within the electromagnetic spectrum,” the first defense official said on background. “A lot has been said about governance at the strategic level here in the Pentagon, but there’s also governance at the operational level that needs to be looked at. For now, that task resides with U.S. Strategic Command.”

Collins Gets $700M to Upgrade F-15 Ejection Seats

Oct. 29, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

F-15 Eagle drivers will get upgraded ejection seats under a new $700 million contract to Collins Aerospace, a Raytheon Technologies subsidiary, awarded on Oct. 29.

The new ACES 5 ejection seat will replace the F-15’s older ACES II ejection seat, found in most of the Air Force’s fighter and bomber fleet. Collins, in a release, said its new seat includes improved head, neck, arm, and leg “flail prevention,” along with a catapult that can adjust based on the occupant’s weight.

The company claims the new seat reduces ejection-related injuries to less than 5 percent, and spinal injuries to less than 1 percent.

Video: Collins Aerospace on YouTube

Work will be conducted in Colorado Springs, Colo., and is expected to be complete by Oct. 22, 2030. ACES 5 has already been selected for the T-7A Red Hawk, and will also be installed on the F-16, F-22, B-1, and A-10 fleets. Under a justification and approval notice posted in October 2019, the service plans to buy 3,018 of the seats, according to FlightGlobal.

Watch USAF Test-Launch an Unarmed ICBM in California

Oct. 29, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Air Force Global Strike Command test-launched an unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile from Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif., in the predawn hours of Oct. 29, AFGSC announced.

Such tests help the service ensure the Minuteman’s weapon system is accurate and reliable, and yield data that USAF can use to make sure the nation’s nuclear deterrent stays “safe, secure, and effective,” according to a command release.

“The ICBM community, including the Department of Defense, the Department of Energy, and U.S. Strategic Command, uses data collected from test launches for continuing force development evaluation,” the release stated.

An Air Force Global Strike Command unarmed Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile launches during an operational test at 12:27 a.m. PDT on Oct. 29, 2020, at Vandenberg Air Force Base, Calif. **Photo: USAF**

The tests also help reassure America’s allies and partners, added Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.

“We must continue to invest in this viable deterrent, and the Airmen who support this mission, as part of the most responsive leg of our nuclear triad,” he said in the release.

The 91st Missile Wing provided the missile, which was outfitted with a “test reentry vehicle” that eventually reached the Marshall Islands’ Kwajalein Atoll more than 4,000 miles away, the release noted.

Personnel from the 90th Missile Wing at F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., the 91st Missile Wing at Minot Air Force Base, Mont., the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont., and Vandenberg’s 576th Test Squadron supported the test launch, according to the release.

Watch a narrated video of the test launch below:

Video: 30th Space Wing Public Affairs

Space Force’s No. 2 Officer Tests Positive for COVID-19

Oct. 28, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory and Rachel S. Cohen

Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. David D. Thompson tested positive for COVID-19 on Oct. 28, the Department of the Air Force told reporters in an email that evening.

“He took the test today after learning that a close family member, with whom he had contact, tested positive for the virus,” the email states.

Thompson has not shown symptoms of COVID-19 so far, Department of the Air Force spokesperson Ann Stefanek said. He was on leave last week but returned to the Pentagon for work on Oct. 26 and 27, from which he remotely addressed a virtual symposium hosted by the National Defense Industrial Association and Texas A&M University.

The four-star general is now working from home as he waits for the virus to leave his system. Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., and Air Force Secretary Barbara M. Barrett have not tested positive for the new virus within the past 24 hours and will not quarantine, Stefanek said.

Raymond and Brown recently ended their own time in isolation after a COVID-19 scare among the Joint Chiefs of Staff left them potentially exposed to the virus. It’s unclear who else on the Pentagon-based Space Force staff may have interacted with Thompson while he was in the office this week.

As of midday Oct. 26, the Department of the Air Force recorded a total of 8,741 cases of COVID-19 among Air Force and Space Force troops—excluding Air National Guard personnel.

Brown: USAF’s Too Focused on Chinese Assets, Not Enough on Intent

Oct. 28, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force has an inadequate understanding of China as a potential adversary, service Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. warned Oct. 28.

Brown, speaking during a Hoover Institution virtual event, said that while the National Defense Strategy outlines China as a key potential adversary, the USAF is too focused on how many planes the People’s Liberation Army Air Force has, how many rockets they can fire, and how far they can fly. The service needs to “start broadening and deepening our thinking of how the PRC operates, how the People’s Liberation Army Air Force operates. How they think, how they make decisions,” he said.

The idea is a key part of Brown’s “Accelerate Change, or Lose” directive, which he released shortly after taking office this summer. In the document, Brown wrote that the study of potential adversaries needs to become a bigger part of the training and education provided to Airmen. The push does not just apply to China. Brown wrote that to be ready for a high-end fight, the service also needs a “deep institutional understanding” of Russia, “starting with recruitment and accession, and through all of our Airmen and leader development programs.”

By the Air Force having a better understanding of China, it can “actually execute, and fly, and operate, and exercise with partners in the region. We can have a better sense of how it contributes to competition, how it better contributes to assurance and deterrence,” said Brown, whose previous job was commanding Pacific Air Forces.

Additionally, having a better understanding across the force can guide exercises and planning to ensure that “we don’t trigger something, or are asleep at the switch when things are going on,” he said.

The Air Force does contribute to the military’s understanding of China through ongoing intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, and by close relationships with partner nations in the region. For example, Brown said he had just gotten off the phone with leaders of the Singapore and Australian air forces, which he said are “relationships that matter. That’s a way the Air Force helps.”

As part of the push to “accelerate change,” Brown said the Air Force needs to make the right investments in future weapons systems, ones that can communicate and share data effectively, to be “light, lean, and agile.” Additionally, the service needs to think through how it can preposition capabilities across the vast Pacific to be ready if needed.

“We don’t want to get in a position where we’ve got a bit of worry,” Brown said.

Hill Airman Makes USAF History in the F-35A

Oct. 28, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Lt. Col. Jared “Vic” Santos, 388th Fighter Wing special projects manager, recently became the first USAF Airman to accrue 1,000 flying hours in the F-35A Lightning II fighter jet, the wing announced.

Santos hit the milestone during an approximately two-hour, “four-on-six tactical intercept” training sortie Oct. 22 over the Utah Test and Training Range, according to a release.

Wing Commander Col. Steven Behmer heralded the moment as a victory for Santos, his wing, and the service at large.

“A relatively short time ago, the Air Force was standing this program up,” Behmer said in the release. “Now we’ve got our first 1,000-hour-pilot. Pilots like Vic are able to pass that experience on to younger pilots in the F-35 community. They are really going to get the best out of this jet, which is already very capable, and continuing to improve.”

But despite the accomplishment, Santos stayed humble.

“Hitting 1,000 hours doesn’t mean I’m special,” he said in the release. “It just means I’m old.”

The U.S. Air Force Academy alumnus piloted the F-15C and F/A-18 before starting his tenure with the Joint Strike Fighter at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., a time when Santos admitted the fifth-generation fighter still had a number of limitations.

“Back then we had block 1B software,” he recalled in the release. “We were constrained to .9 mach, 18 degree angle of attack, 5 Gs. We had no data link, either multi-function or Link 16.”

Witnessing the F-35 program’s evolution to its current state has “been exciting,” Santos added, noting that its stealth and sensors lend it “an edge.”

“The analogy I use is: I’m not a great boxer, but if you blindfolded my opponent and gave me a gun, I’d win every time,” he said in the release. “The stealth is the blindfold, the sensors and weapons are the gun, and combined they make the F-35 an outstanding weapons system.”

Lakenheath F-15Es Return From Middle East Combat Deployment

Oct. 28, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

F-15Es and Airmen from RAF Lakenheath, U.K., returned home after a six-month deployment to the Middle East where the “Bolars” flew more than 8,500 hours supporting combat operations in the region.

The 492nd Fighter Squadron, supported by the 492nd Aircraft Maintenance Unit and the 48th Operational Support Squadron, deployed in May and dropped about 350 precision-guided munitions in support of the ongoing Operation Inherent Resolve targeting the Islamic State group in Iraq and Syria, according to a release.

The 48th Fighter Wing did not disclose the specific base or country of the deployment—the first amid the COVID-19 pandemic for Lakenheath. The aircraft and Airmen returned on a rolling basis from Oct. 15-24.

“Deploying and redeploying a fighter, maintenance, and support package in the COVID environment was no easy task, but our Liberty Wing came together and made it happen,” said Col. Jason Camilletti, commander of the 48th Fighter Wing, in the release. “Our deployers demonstrated why the Liberty Wing is the very best at delivering combat air power and we’re happy to get these warriors home.”

Wing and squadron members told Air Force Magazine that to prepare to deploy during the early stages of the pandemic, the unit broke up into two teams, alternating on a one-week-on and one-week-off schedule to spin up.