Enlisted Leaders Defend Abrupt Tuition Assistance Cuts

Oct. 26, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Top enlisted leaders defended the Air Force’s decision to reduce tuition assistance by $750, saying it was the best option available as the manpower directorate scrambled to find money over the summer or risk canceling classes.

In late September, the Air Force announced it was only going to pay $3,750 of college tuition for Airmen and space professionals each fiscal year, a reduction from the previous limit of $4,500. Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass and Chief Master Sgt. Roosevelt Jones, the senior enlisted leader for the deputy chief of manpower, personnel, and services, speaking during an Oct. 26 town hall, said the service in 2020 had about $163 million allocated for tuition assistance. That funding ran out in July, and the service had to look elsewhere inside the A1 to make up that shortfall so it could eventually pay out about $180 million for tuition assistance.

“We had to go back and … try to find $17 million or $20 million dollars that wasn’t already allocated to it, otherwise we would have stopped classes come summertime,” Bass said. “The previous leadership team that was there was like, we have to find the money, but what [that] meant is … something else didn’t get funded.”

Money came out of other parts of the human resources domain, and going forward the service realized it couldn’t “count on that at the end of the year, … so we had to put some measures in place,” Jones said.

Officials discussed multiple options before reaching their decision, such as reducing the number of semester hours that could be used, or only allowing a certain amount per quarter that would likely be used quickly, meaning Airmen applying later would not be able to receive any funding. The service also considered reducing the total available to $3,000, before raising the amount.

Data showed that most Airmen used $3,750 or less, except for about 20 percent of Airmen who spend up to $4,000 or more.

“We wanted to make sure that we covered the majority of Airmen in the United States Air Force to be able to fund how much they normally utilize each year,” Jones said.

The Airmen who fall in the 20 percent who spend more can apply for an exception to policy to receive additional funding, Jones said.

“We had to put some measures in place to ensure that we had mil TA [military tuition assistance] for everyone, not just the few, not just [those] who got it quickly,” Jones said.

Overall, the Air Force pays more tuition assistance than the other services, Bass said, noting that going forward the service will continue to look at the issue to see if additional funding is appropriate.

From a leadership perspective, the negative feedback to the reduction has been “concerning,” Bass said. The military faces tough financial decisions, as budgets are likely to flatline or even shrink in fiscal 2022 and beyond, “and we can’t get shook at something like that. … When we look at our aging infrastructure, all of our airframes are antiques practically, and we’re looking at how do we maintain our readiness and how do we get after the Air Force We Need. We can’t get shook over $750.”

Hill F-35s, Airmen Return from Middle East Deployment

Oct. 26, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

F-35As and Airmen from the 421st Fighter Squadron returned home to Hill Air Force Base, Utah, within the past week after a six-month deployment for combat operations in the Middle East.

The 421st was the third Hill squadron in a row to deploy to U.S. Central Command, where they flew close air support, offensive and defensive counter air operations, and in multiple exercises with partners in the region, according to a base release. The squadron is a combination of the Active duty 388th and Reserve 419th Fighter Wings at Hill, the service’s only operational F-35 base in the continental United States.

“We’re all proud of the job that the 421st FS has done and we’re excited to have them back home,” said Col. Steven Behmer, commander of the 388th Fighter Wing, in the release. “They picked up right where our previously deployed squadrons left off. We’ll continue to train here and remain focused on providing F-35A combat capability.”

Hill F-35s have flown combat missions in CENTCOM non-stop since April 2019, meaning the redeployment marks the first time in 16 months that all F-35 units are at the Utah base at the same time. It is not clear if the squadron returning home leaves the region without a fifth-generation USAF fighter presence. Prior to the first F-35 deployments, Air Force F-22s had been steadily deployed to the theater.

The aircraft and Airmen returned to Hill on a rolling basis over the past several days, and are now in quarantine for 14 days to limit the spread of COVID-19.

“We’re extremely happy to welcome everyone home in time for the holiday season and look forward to seeing our folks reunited with their loved ones,” 419th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Matthew Fritz said in the release. “Deployments are always a challenge and each of our return deployers and their families deserve a pat on the back for a job well done.”

Pentagon’s Silicon Valley Hub is Helping NORAD Monitor US Airspace

Oct. 23, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The Air Force is moving forward with a new, algorithm-driven system to help North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command better detect airborne threats.

NORTHCOM and NORAD, which are tasked with protecting the homeland from attack, depend on a slew of radars and other data systems to monitor U.S. airspace. But those systems largely cannot communicate with other software, creating roadblocks in a process that should be fluid and collaborative.

So, the organizations launched their “Pathfinder” initiative to build a data ecosystem that lives in widely accessible digital cloud storage, and that pulls together many different streams of information into one operating picture.

“Today, Pathfinder is processing more sensor data than the current command-and-control system used for air defense of North America,” former NORAD-NORTHCOM boss Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy and Brig. Gen. Peter M. Fesler, NORAD’s deputy director of operations, wrote in a September paper.

“Because of the quantum leap in processing power that has been achieved since the fielding of the current system, and the approach used in [the Strategic Homeland Integrated Ecosystem for Layered Defense modernization strategy], Pathfinder is identifying information buried in the data, giving new life to old sensors.”

Pathfinder is also known as the “Air Threat Response” effort, run through the Defense Innovation Unit in California. DIU was created in 2015 to forge closer ties with Silicon Valley giants and tech startups and speed commercial products to the military. It revealed the Air Threat Response effort in its 2019 annual report released earlier this year.

The initiative applies “machine learning to classify objects and predict threats more quickly, allowing the operator to shift focus to decision-making rather than data and signal analysis,” according to the annual report.

DIU issued prototyping agreements to tech firms Kinetica and Raven Black in September 2019 to develop a product that NORTHCOM could test in exercises like the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System demonstrations. The prototype cost about $3.5 million between the two companies.

Kinetica focuses on high-speed data analytics and visualizations, while Raven Black handles cloud infrastructure. About 50 other companies bid to work on the program.

The Air Force moved the prototype into production with an $8 million order in late September. That contract is worth up to $100 million over five years. Kinetica co-founder Amit Vij hopes to give the military a product for daily use by the third quarter of 2021; Pathfinder initiative director Col. Ross Morrell wants to start using a basic product in the next 90 days, once their government cloud storage is approved.

NORAD and NORTHCOM aim to fully hand off Pathfinder to the Air Force in the next few years so the service can manage it in the long run.

The prototype ingests live radar feeds, Automatic Dependent Surveillance-Broadcast air traffic control data, and flight plan data from the Federal Aviation Administration, as well as weather data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, according to Dan Nidess, a program manager and systems engineering and technical assistance contractor for the Air Threat Response effort.

A single data feed can produce around 400 to 500 million records every day, Vij said. While the company hadn’t worked on air defense before, it offers data tables that can store billions of records to decide what airborne activity is normal and what is not.

NORTHCOM personnel already have access to that information, but have to manually wade through data files and analyze it themselves to make use of it. Pathfinder streamlines the process so that piles of data aren’t ignored.

“For NORAD, weather and clouds are noise. There’s so much sensory information that can be thought of [as] one thing but may be another,” Vij said. “Bringing to the table machine-learning algorithms that can easily filter these kinds of noises out, it really makes the operators more proficient in keeping the homeland safe.”

The team also tested how well the system fared at noticing entities and activities in North American airspace, compared to NORAD’s existing technology.

Pathfinder platform lead Lt. Col. Joshua Close said NORAD’s assets and its tactics haven’t always been enough to catch potential problems nearby: “There was mission failure, or there were issues that they weren’t able to successfully complete.”

When presented with those scenarios, the Pathfinder prototype alerted personnel to issues where the legacy systems did not.

Pathfinder also helps the command share information with other parts of the military to make them more aware and to respond faster. It “takes all those different data feeds and correlates them into tracks … to say, of all the sensor feeds that are getting ingested, which ones correlate together into some kind of object in the air?” Nidess said.

Service members vetted that during the second ABMS demonstration in early September.

“What we found is that our sensors can actually pick up a lot more than we expected,” Morrell said. “The sensors can actually pick up things like [unmanned aerial systems] that are flying around.”

Its success means that the military can spend less time and money replacing older technology and instead focus on reaping what it already offers and presenting it in better ways.

Morrell said NORTHCOM is figuring out how to condense the information from several different air defense systems onto one or two screens with two- or three-dimensional graphics, instead of spreading that data across eight screens.

Streamlining that process and relying on computers to crunch the information instead of human brains frees up people, time, and money, Morrell said. While the technology proved it can identify and track oddities in U.S. airspace, he said he couldn’t offer any metrics to show whether Pathfinder sped up that work.

Kinetica will continue adding other data, like land, sea, and space surveillance, and classified sources, into the software. It will also work with NORAD and NORTHCOM to connect it to the rest of their enterprise. The FAA is pursuing its own version of the product as well.

“There’s a lot of things to do with regard to entity classification and entity resolution, so providing more precision and accuracy and saying, ‘This is such and such a plane,’ or ‘This is looking like so and so kind of signature,’” Vij said.

USAF Pushes Safer F-16 Training After Contractor’s Death

Oct. 23, 2020 | By Amy Hudson

The Air Force revamped its F-16 Basic Course following a 2017 incident where an inexperienced student pilot strafed the wrong target and killed a military contractor.

Now, students must fly their first nighttime close air support sortie with an instructor pilot in the rear seat of a two-person F-16D. If a two-seat aircraft is not available, the student will practice their first solo strafe attack without ordnance “while observed from close proximity by the instructor,” Air Education and Training Command spokeswoman Capt. Lauren M. Woods told Air Force Magazine.

On Jan. 31, 2017, Charles Holbrook, a retired master sergeant and former tactical air control party Airman, was struck in the head with a 20mm round from an F-16’s Vulcan cannon when a student mistook him and cars for a target during a nighttime training mission at the Red Rio range outside of Holloman Air Force Base, N.M. He died at a hospital later that night.

An accident investigation board found that pilot error caused the mishap, but also said the instructor pilot failed to properly supervise the mission. The teacher’s vague, yet “overaggressive” direction significantly contributed to Holbrook’s death.

The Air Force’s new policy highlights “the requirement for very diligent pre-planning and execution of tactical scenarios with both students and ground parties in the range space,” Woods said. “This is a special-interest item briefed before every student sortie during the CAS phase.”

Holbrook’s widow sued the Air Force for $24.6 million, alleging the service was negligent in hiring, training, and supervising student and instructor pilots and joint terminal attack controllers. The Air Force recently settled with the family for an undisclosed sum.

“We also met with A-10 schoolhouse personnel from Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., to review A-10 targeting pod courseware to improve F-16 ground training. This allowed us to capitalize on existing video, content, and instructional techniques for courseware to improve training for students on CAS,” Woods wrote.

Inside NATO’s Enhanced Air Policing Mission

Oct. 23, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Aviano Air Base’s 555th Fighter Squadron this week concluded a nearly monthlong stint supporting NATO’s enhanced Air Policing mission in Bulgaria, during which Russian military aircraft didn’t cross into the European nation’s sovereign airspace, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa told Air Force Magazine on Oct. 23.

“One of the benefits of our long-standing partnership with the Bulgarian Air Force and other NATO allies is that opportunities like these allow us to face challenges in training, and enhance our real world capability,” USAFE-AFAFRICA Commander Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian wrote in an emailed response to questions from the magazine.

Though the Triple Nickel Squadron’s mission support concluded Oct. 20, the Bulgarian Air Force watches over its nation’s skies year-round, “providing territorial integrity and defense against our adversaries,” added USAFE-AFAFRICA spokesperson Maj. Selena Rodts.

“As we leave Bulgaria, we are thankful for the opportunity to support the eAP mission as guests, and look forward to more opportunities to work with the Bulgarian Air Force, especially as they grow their fleet of block 70 F-16’s,” Harrigian wrote, adding that Bulgaria’s recent purchase of the fighters will enhance NATO interoperability and provide “a highly capable, advanced, and interoperable aircraft to defend the skies in the region.”

During NATO’s enhanced Air Policing—or eAP—missions, extra fighter detachments rotate in and out of NATO’s Eastern Flank to help safeguard its skies. The effort was one of the measures all member nations agreed upon in 2014 to reassure regional allies in the wake of Russian activity in Ukraine and Crimea, Rodts explained.

USAFE participation in eAP also helps keep aircrews’ training current, enhances Airmen’s ability to work with their counterparts from other militaries, and helps all participant militaries synchronize and ready their “responses to regional security threats” and global contingency operations, Harrigian said.

“Operating together enhances NATO’s interoperability and fosters friendships that will be critical in times of crisis,” he added.

Bulgaria and Romania can use their own aircraft to police their sovereign skies, but the backup provided by USAFE increased NATO’s ability to protect its airspace “and sends a signal of readiness and deterrence,” Harrigian wrote. He noted that eAP missions are part of the equal protection NATO affords to its member nations, since they help the alliance “ensure a single standard of security for all Allies,” even if their respective militaries don’t boast “the full range of air defense assets.”

“Our presence in the region and commitment to the defense of our allies are important symbols of assurance and provide deterrence against potential adversaries,” Harrigian wrote. “While our participation with eAP is unrelated to the reposturing of forces in Europe, it is in line with the [2018 National Defense Strategy] and consistent with other adjustments the United States had made within NATO in previous times.”

Harrigian and USAFE did not say whether Bulgaria or other areas in the Black or Baltic Sea regions might house aircraft or Airmen from Spangdahlem Air Base in the future.

“The Department of Defense continually assesses its global force posture as part of its dynamic force management process to increase deterrence and assurance world-wide,” responded Rodts. “No final decisions have been made yet.”

Russian military planes routinely fly in the international airspace over the Black Sea, but NATO’s Integrated Air and Missile Defense Systems keep the alliance “constantly and fully aware of this activity.” The alliance also stands ready to launch fighters to “either meet and escort Russian military aircraft [operating] in international airspace close to” NATO’s or to respond to aircraft in distress, a NATO Allied Air Command Public Affairs spokesperson told Air Force Magazine.

USAFE hasn’t seen an uptick in intercepts of its aircraft in Europe since the since the Triple Nickel’s support of the eAP mission began.

“When Allied fighter aircraft meet Russian military aircraft, most of the encounters are professional; at Allied Air Command we have seen some individual behavior of Russian military aircraft pilots that can be classed as poor airmanship and unprofessional,” the spokesperson noted.

Dyess Airmen, B-1s in Guam for Bomber Task Force Deployment

Oct. 23, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

About 200 Airmen and four B-1s from Dyess Air Force Base’s 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron began a Bomber Task Force deployment to Guam this week to back up multilateral training being hosted by Pacific Air Forces, according to a PACAF release.

The Texas-based troops and aircraft arrived at Andersen Air Force Base on Oct. 20, the release stated. This is the first BTF deployment from Dyess to Guam in approximately five months.

B-1s in Guam — A water salute is performed as a B-1B Lancer aircraft taxis during a Bomber Task Force deployment at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Oct. 21, 2020. **Photo: USAF**

“Every bomber task force is important because they accomplish both tactical and strategic objectives,” said squadron commander Lt. Col. Ryan Stallsworth in the release.

BTF training operations help make USAF’s bomber force more lethal, ready, and experienced, he added.

Senior Airman Zach Cruz, 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron crew chief, closes a panel after inspecting a B-1B Lancer auxiliary power unit during a Bomber Task Force deployment at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, on Oct. 20, 2020. **Photo: USAF**

This new deployment is all about strengthening the squadron’s agile combat employment muscles, “whether that’s working with new entities to provide our capabilities and discuss requirements needed to complete tasks or simply changing how we complete our missions to become more agile,” Squadron Project Officer Capt. David Teubl said in the release.

In response to the National Defense Strategy’s focus on “strategic capability and operational unpredictability,” USAF has changed its approach to force employment to empower bombers like the Lancer “to operate forward in” INDOPACOM from more locations around the world “with greater operational resilience,” the release noted.

B-1s and Japan Air Self-Defense Force — A B-1B Lancer, assigned to the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron, Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, conducts training with a Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-15 fighter in the vicinity of the Sea of Japan on Oct. 20, 2020. **USAF photo.**

Prior to their arrival at Andersen, the B-1s trained with Japan Air Self-Defense Force fighter aircraft near the Sea of Japan and integrated with a U.S. Navy amphibious assault ship in the western Pacific.

“Our ultimate strength in the Indo-Pacific is joint force lethality—our ability to train and operate as one layered, capable, and credible combat team,” said Navy Capt. Luke Frost, the ship’s commanding officer, in the release. “The Air Force plays hard. Integrated air defense and sea control operations leveraging top-shelf capabilities of both the Navy and Air Force, like this, allow us to continually field a joint force ready to fight and win.”

Two of the bombers involved in the current deployment were intercepted by Russia over the Bering Sea on Oct. 20, PACAF previously confirmed to Air Force Magazine.

Former SECAF Sees More Opportunity for Military Reform

Oct. 22, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Nearly 18 months out of office, former Air Force Secretary Heather A. Wilson indicated the service has more work to do on the reforms she championed over the course of two years.

Wilson, now president of the University of Texas at El Paso, pursued multiple pet projects in the top civilian post. Three of those initiatives can go further, she said Oct. 22 during a conference hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

The former Secretary was known as an advocate for improving the military science and technology enterprise. She launched the “Science and Technology 2030” effort in September 2017 to speed the pursuit of tools like artificial intelligence and hypersonic weapons, and to boost the Air Force’s ties to academia, small businesses, and other underutilized parts of the research world. That project produced a new strategy in April 2019 that the Air Force Research Laboratory is trying to make real.

“I worry that there are still not enough scientifically and technically literate people at the senior levels in the service to understand what an enabler that is,” Wilson said.

Acquisition reform, a perennial concern for the Defense Department, also requires more scrutiny. Wilson advocated for a greater focus on software, and endorsed the “try before you buy” approach that is starkly different than traditional military procurement. She began releasing annual acquisition reports that the Air Force has not continued after her tenure.

In trying to speed the process of buying combat assets, Wilson wanted to give defense contractors more leeway in designing systems instead of levying prescriptive requirements.

“It’s the requirements system that really needs reform, and nobody ever thinks about that part,” Wilson said.

That effort is connected to the service’s attempt to make daily Pentagon bureaucracy less burdensome for Airmen. Wilson and staff rescinded 340 regulations and rewrote others that Airmen felt only made their lives harder, like one specifying how to build an obstacle course. A copy of each trashed regulation ended up in a pile next to her door.

“If Grand Forks Air Force Base needs an obstacle course, I bet they can figure it out. They don’t need to be told how to do everything,” Wilson said. “Particularly in the warfare of the 21st century, communications are going to be degraded. We’re going to have to depend on people making decisions using command intent to accomplish the mission. … We needed to treat people that way in peacetime.”

She indicated that similar concerns around military permissions will play out as the Pentagon and intelligence community’s space operations mature.

“Until recently, you needed the permission of the President of the United States to come close to another satellite. But given the right guidance, an 18-year-old can kill someone on his own authority in the middle of a war zone,” Wilson said. “Those are interesting, centralized controls for some things, and very decentralized in other circumstances. Getting that balance right will be difficult.”

One major initiative that Wilson worked on has gotten across the finish line since she left: a new promotion system. The Air Force is now judging people for promotion based on performance in their career field, and comparing them to others in similar professions. Until recently, the service lumped employees together regardless of career, which favored pilots with combat experience but led to underrepresentation in leadership of scientists and engineers.

“[Then-Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein] made a personal commitment to me that he would keep stewarding this, and in the end, it was signed and done,” Wilson said. “Of all the things we changed in the service for the long term, that’s probably the one that’s going to have the most important impact. … We weren’t stewarding the whole pipeline well. That’ll make a huge difference.”

In her new job, she continues to push for improved access to education, modernization of the nuclear triad, and a military force that can connect any shooter to any sensor to move faster in combat.

“Today in America, about 62 percent of boys and 69 percent of girls go on from high school to some form of college or technical training or community college,” Wilson said. “If we are going to maintain our preeminence and leadership in the world, we have to commit to educating more of the next generation in meaningful ways. … It is a national security issue.”

Citing Wildfires, Western Senators Lobby for Nevada C-130 Upgrades

Oct. 22, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Four Democratic senators are pushing the Air Force to send eight C-130J aircraft to the Nevada Air National Guard to bolster firefighting missions as the American West continues to suffer from devastating wildfires.

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen of Nevada, and Dianne Feinstein and Kamala Harris of California—the Democratic candidate for vice president—argue that upgrading the Reno, Nev., base’s C-130H fleet with newer C-130Js will help the Guard extinguish fires in Western states.

Air National Guard officials want to replace 1970s-era H-model planes with 24 newer C-130Js across three locations. ANG flies about 150 C-130s in total, the vast majority of which are C-130Hs.

The senators prodded the Air Force in February to consider the 152nd Airlift Wing as a candidate, but the Nevada ANG ultimately was dropped from consideration for C-130 replacements. Then, peak annual wildfire season struck.

Nevada Guardsmen deployed to quash blazes in their home state as well as California and Oregon. Two of their aircraft, outfitted with the Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System (MAFFS), handled more than 40 fires in northern and southern California as firefighter forces surged across the state, the senators wrote in a letter dated Oct. 16.

MAFFS is a portable fire-retardant delivery system carried by C-130s. Each of the eight systems holds up to 3,000 gallons of fire retardant.

“Transfer of this aircraft would provide a necessary upgrade to the 152nd AW’s C-130H fleet and provide support to the Nevada Air National Guard’s vital firefighting mission, which was used most recently as part of the coordinated federal and state response to California’s wildfires,” the senators wrote.

Air Force Magazine recently reported that this year marks the Nevada unit’s largest activation ever. The 152nd Airlift Wing’s C-130s had poured 300,000 gallons of fire retardant over the course of nearly 110 airdrops as of Oct. 1.

California is still battling 12 major wildfires as of Oct. 22, according to the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection (CAL FIRE). More than 4 million acres across the state have burned so far this year.

The four senators believe the Air Force should look at MAFFS, which is used by four airlift wings, as part of the criteria fleets should meet to be replaced. ANG considered mission, capacity, cost, and environmental factors in its search.

“The MAFFS unit is a key part of the 152nd AW’s mission, and an upgrade to new C-130J aircraft would greatly increase its performance flying MAFFS to fight similar deadly fires in the region,” they wrote. “It would also improve interoperability and support for [the U.S. Forest Service], the Bureau of Land Management, [CAL FIRE], and the 146th Airlift Wing in the Channel Islands, which is currently the only MAFFS unit flying the C-130J aircraft.”

The Air Force appears to be moving forward with its selection of other units. Earlier this year, the National Guard Association of the United States said ANG had narrowed the list of airlift wings that could get new aircraft to eight sites in Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Kentucky, Montana, Texas, West Virginia, and Wyoming.

The Great Falls Tribune recently reported that the Air Force has pushed its decision on when to deliver the new planes until after the Nov. 3 election, angering other senators who are lobbying for their own home states.

Eielson F-35s Get Arctic Survival Kits

Oct. 22, 2020 | By Amy Hudson

Arctic survival kits are the newest feature on the Air Force’s F-35A Joint Strike Fighters at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska.

The F-35 was not designed to carry sleeping bags and other equipment to protect pilots if they need to eject into the brutal Arctic temperatures, which regularly dip to -40 degrees Fahrenheit or colder. Alaska-based Airmen had to figure out how to fit roughly 10 pounds of survival gear into a 5-pound sack attached to the F-35’s ejection seat.

After months of research and testing, the 354th Operations Group commander approved the final kit, which includes survival tools such as a knife for gathering food, a poncho to stay dry, and flares to alert rescue crews to a downed pilot’s location.

Arctic Survival Kit Contents — Staff Sgt. Ross Dugger, a 354th Operations Support Squadron Aircrew Flight Equipment craftsman, lays out the contents of the new arctic survival seat kit for the F-35A Lighting II on Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, on Sept. 25, 2020. Some of the contents include a knife for gathering food, a poncho to stay dry, and flares to signal rescue teams. **Photo: Senior Airman Beaux Hebert**

“Due to the smaller size of the seat, we are limited on how many items we can pack in here,” Staff Sgt. Ross Dugger, a 354th Operations Support Squadron aircrew flight equipment craftsman, said in a release. “Over the years, we’ve worked with [survival, evasion, resistance, and escape specialists] to develop this kit and decided what is the most essential equipment needed to survive.”

Former 354th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Shawn E. Anger recently told Air Force Magazine the team took advantage of the local community’s Arctic simulation chamber to test equipment like sleeping bags. Their goal was to outfit the wing’s two F-35 squadrons with the survival kits before winter hit.

Airmen from the 356th Fighter Squadron, the F-35 Program Integration Office, the 66th Training Squadron’s Detachment 1, and the 354th Operations Support Squadron’s aircrew flight equipment team tried out the subzero chamber in November 2019. Once inside, the team timed how long it took to get the gear on and then stayed in the chamber for about five hours to see how the equipment fared in extreme cold.

USAF also shared what it learned with Norway. The Arctic nation also owns the F-35 and is “interested in keying in on our advances,” Anger said.

As maintainers with the 354th Maintenance Squadron perform the complex swap of summer survival kits for the Arctic version, they will also inspect each ejection seat to ensure pilots are safe if they need to escape.

“Hopefully they never have to use these items, but I take a lot of pride in my work, which could potentially save a pilot’s life,” Dugger said.