USAF Looks to Buy Female Body Armor for Guard, Reserve Security Forces

USAF Looks to Buy Female Body Armor for Guard, Reserve Security Forces

The Air Force wants to procure up to 2,000 more Female Body Armor units for Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve security forces Airmen.

The modular, scalable body armor system is designed specifically for women’s bodies, and will protect female defenders against fragmenting munitions, handgun, and small arms threats, with a four-tiered system that allows protection levels to be tailored to different missions, according to a federal contract announcement.

The action is a sole source additional scope firm-fixed priced modification to a contract awarded to Tactical & Survival Specialties, Inc. (TSSi) of Harrisonburg, Va. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center’s Female Fitment Program Office awarded the contract to begin production and development for the female body armor this summer.

Female body armor
The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center Female Fitment Program Office has awarded a contract to begin production and development for body armor designed to better protect female Airmen during combat and contingency operations. The new body armor will be specifically fitted to the female body preventing exposure to risks. Graphic: USAF

“This is a perfect example of Air Force Materiel Command getting feedback from the field and delivering the Air Force we need to the warfighter,” AFMC commander Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr. said in a June press release. “I’m proud of the team pulling together to do what is right for our Airmen. They deserve gear that offers the protection they need while allowing them to compete their mission.”

The initial contract called for 5,600 FBA units, but in July, Security Forces said they needed 88 more to outfit Guard and Reserve with the same body armor used in the Active-duty force.

The Female Fitment Program Office was created in response to former Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein’s initiative to revitalize the squadron, with the goal of quickly identifying problems and fielding solutions. The office worked with the Air Force Security Forces Center to find adequate protection for women working in combat or other dangerous environments.

“Our female Airmen had gaps due to poor fitment issues,” said Maj. Saily Rodriguez, Female Fitment Program manager, in the June release. “The new gear fits properly, which improves protection and offers better comfort for gear that has to be work in difficult environments and conditions.”

Delivery is anticipated in March 2021.

Space Force Grappling With How to Define Readiness

Space Force Grappling With How to Define Readiness

The U.S. Space Force is trying to figure out what “readiness” means for space operations, seeking to sever itself from the Air Force’s aircraft- and deployment-centric model.

The Air Force’s Air and Space Expeditionary Force model doesn’t work as a measure of Space Force readiness, Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, said in an AFA Mitchell Institute virtual event Oct. 16.

Video: Mitchell Institute on YouTube

Mission capable rates and other traditional measures of readiness don’t translate to Space Force, Saltzman said.

“Readiness is that term of art to express: Can you do your mission or not?” he observed. He said he was about to take a briefing on readiness and expected to be “underwhelmed,” because “quite frankly, we took a system that was primarily designed to show how Air Force expeditionary units made themselves ready for deployment or a high-end fight, and we tried to make that system work for Space Force,” which usually operates from garrison and is doing its mission every day.

Readiness assessments “never had the same flavor, because we never had to pick up and go somewhere and join in a fight,” he said. Today, it boils down to, “do you have enough people to man your consoles 24 hours a day? That is one small but important piece of what readiness is” for Space Force.

The new service is trying to determine what will decide if its organizations are ready, in the form of the advanced training, exercises, and “experiences they need to be ready … on-orbit, against a near-peer competitor.”

The “day-to-day” won’t change, Saltzman said, “but I want to make sure we’re capturing the broader advanced training, operational test, [tactics, techniques, and procedures] developments, and enhancements … All the things we’ve learned it takes to be truly ready for the high-end fight.”

“We have to understand the space mission differently,” he added.

Space Force must do the balancing act of being unpredictable while at the same time not spooking adversaries into thinking an attack is underway, Saltzman said.

“You want to be provocative, unpredictable, so that you can kind of keep your competitors … off balance, and at the same time demonstrate norms of behavior that we would call ‘safe,’” he said. The terrestrial analogies would be “safe intercepts … in the air world, and the laws of the sea that keep people safe over the waters. In an ideal world, that’s what we would want to pursue.”

Once everyone agrees to safe practices and norms in space, it will be easier to identify nefarious activity, Saltzman said. For now, he added, it’s “hard to tell if something is provocative, an act of war, or just sloppy behavior, or maybe operator error.”

X-37 Lessons Learned Could Help Space Force Define Future Capabilities

X-37 Lessons Learned Could Help Space Force Define Future Capabilities

The Space Force is already thinking about future spaceplanes and other platforms that will succeed those now in service, though the near-term focus will be on making existing capabilities more resilient, Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, said in an AFA Mitchell Institute virtual event Oct. 16.

The two X-37B reusable unmanned spaceplanes that have collectively amassed years in orbit conducting operational and technological experiments will likely not be replaced with something just like them, Saltzman said.

“We’ve gotten a lot of great utility out of both of those vehicles,” he said, citing lessons learned about “how to apply a reusable vehicle, how to get the most out of it, how to [refurbish] it.” Those lessons will “live forever, and we’re going to try to apply those as much as we can.”

Video: Mitchell Institute on YouTube

Saltzman said he doubts the X-37s will be replaced with something identical. 

“That seems kind of, ‘status quo,’” he observed, noting that the approach will likely follow former Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein’s maxim that, “We want to get to ‘new-new,’ not just ‘new-old.’”

The X-37Bs are “an example, maybe, [of] technology that has served its purpose and it’s time to start looking at the next available capability. But the lessons learned from a reusable vehicle certainly will apply to whatever we do going forward.” He couldn’t offer specifics, except to say, “I can tell you we’re looking at it from a broader lens than just trying to enhance an older capability and technology.”

Asked if Space Force’s first “new” platforms will be of a reusable, on-orbit satellite service/refuel type, Saltzman suggested such systems may already be in place.

“We’ve been doing this a long time and we’ve got a lot of capabilities. We’re not new to the space effects for warfighters … What’s ‘first’ is probably a relative term.”

In terms of new platforms “under the Space Force banner,” Saltzman said, “We’re still developing our warfighting construct, and it takes a while to … resource it … and buy the right systems.” Near-term projects will be “enhancements to existing capabilities,” such as new GPS satellites, enhanced Extremely High Frequency systems, “new capabilities to protect and defend, and maybe new satellites that will be more resilient than the big targets they’ve been in the past. That’s going to be our near-term focus.”

Bass: USAF Not Changing Stance on Marijuana

Bass: USAF Not Changing Stance on Marijuana

While Airmen are responding to the increasingly prevalent legalization of marijuana in states across the nation and wondering if the Air Force will change its policies as well, the service has no plans to change its stance on Airmen’s use of the drug, the service told Air Force Magazine on Oct. 16. In fact, any change would require an act of Congress. 

Earlier in the day, an Airman used a Q&A held as part of the 2020 AF Impact Symposium as an opportunity to ask Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass about the issue.

“Medicinal use of cannabis is currently legal in 33 states and recreational use is legal in 11 states,” Staff Sgt. Haidyn Harned, a 57th Intelligence Squadron electronic signals analysis Airman from Joint Base San Antonio, Texas, told Bass. “In response to this rising trend and the possibility of federal legalization, what is your stance/opinion/outlook regarding cannabis use in the military/Air Force?”

Bass said she would have members of her team look into the particulars of the policy. Soon after, a spokesperson provided a statement to Air Force Magazine.

“Following today’s engagement, CMSAF Bass wanted to clarify that although some state and local laws have legalized the medicinal and recreational use of marijuana, it is still prohibited for use by military members.” 

USAF spokesperson Ann Stefanek added: “At this time, the Air Force does not plan to reexamine this policy.” 

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 7:18 p.m. EDT on Oct. 16 to reflect new information from Bass and the Air Force.

New National Strategy Calls for Promoting, Protecting Critical Tech

New National Strategy Calls for Promoting, Protecting Critical Tech

The Trump Administration released a new, all-of-government national strategy for high technology on Oct. 15, setting as its “pillars” the need to both develop new capabilities and protect them from world competitors seeking to steal them.

The document outlines a common set of 20 technology priorities for government agencies to nurture and protect, while acknowledging the list will evolve over time.

In addition to those technological priorities previously set by the Pentagon’s director of defense, research, and engineering—items such as quantum computing, artificial intelligence, networking, semiconductors, space, and hypersonics—the new national list includes non-military areas such as agriculture and public health.

The strategy comes in response to peer adversaries’ ability “to mobilize vast resources in these fields,” and steal a march on the U.S., according to a White House press statement.

“The United States will not turn a blind eye to the tactics of countries like China and Russia, which steal technology, coerce companies into handing over intellectual property, undercut free and fair markets, and surreptitiously divert emerging civilian technologies to build up their militaries,” the press office said.

A high priority will be to incorporate cyber security “early in the technology development stages, and work with partners to take similar action,” according to the document.

A “holistic” approach to the technology strategy is required because “many technology breakthroughs occur at the intersection of two or more disparate technologies,” the policy notes.

The Pentagon is already implementing many of the approaches laid out in the strategy. It has codified a tiered cyber security compliance model, which must be included in proposals for new work. The Pentagon has also embarked on a series of programs to defeat adversary tactics in tech transfer. These include pairing small businesses developing useful new technologies with “safe” investors who won’t try to export intellectual property once having acquired a financial stake in the business.

The new policy seeks to “secure our national security innovation base” by “strengthening rules where gaps exist, insisting that agreements be enforced, and working with like-minded allies and partners to promote, advance, and defend our industry, address unfair practices, and level the playing field for American workers,” a White House spokesman said.

To promote U.S. dominance in technology, the strategy calls for development of a high-performing technology workforce, increasing government research and development funding, and coaching allies and partners who don’t yet have systems in place to guard against technological pillage by adversary investment.

The 20 priority technologies in the strategy include advanced computing, artificial intelligence, autonomy, quantum computing, communications and networks, distributed ledger technologies, microelectronics and man-machine interfaces, data science and storage; advanced materials, manufacturing technologies, aerospace engines, advanced conventional weapon technologies; advanced sensing and space technologies; agricultural and bio-technologies; chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear (CBRN) mitigation technologies; medical and public health technologies.

To promote the “National Security Innovation Base,” the document details 12 broad initiatives aimed at encouraging and retaining investment and innovation. It says the U.S. should lead the world in setting technology “norms, standards, and governance models that reflect democratic values and interests.”

The initiatives also call for the U.S. to make government a desirable partner for tech companies, encourages public-private partnerships, including with academia, among state and local governments, and “with the private sector, [to] create positive messaging to increase public acceptance of critical and emerging technologies (C&ET).”

Among 10 initiatives to protect U.S. technology, the policy calls for proper control of tech transfer “under export laws and regulations, and multilateral export regimes.” It seeks to engage industry on the need to observe good cyber security and raise industry’s awareness of its “strategic vulnerabilities.” The policy also seeks to “ensure supply chains, and encourage allies and partners to do the same.

The policy specifically called out Russia for seeking to gain U.S. technology through “dual use” private partnerships, particularly in the area of artificial intelligence, which Russia “believes will bring it both economic and military advantages.”

Meanwhile, China, in addition to “stealing technology” and “coercion” of companies in which it has a financial stake, fails to “provide reciprocal access in research and development projects,” uses tactics such as dumping to corner markets, and promotes “authoritarian practices that run counter to democratic values.” The U.S. must also “prevail against state-directed models that produce waste and disincentivize innovation.”

SECDEF Is Worried about USAF’s Current—and Future—Tanker Fleet

SECDEF Is Worried about USAF’s Current—and Future—Tanker Fleet

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper on Oct. 15 said he is keeping a close eye on the modernity and readiness of the Air Force’s tanker fleet.

“When I think about strategic mobility, I think about airlift and sealift principally, and with airlift, you have to think about tankers,” he told Thomas W. Spoehr, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, during an on-stage discussion at the Washington think tank. “And so one of the concerns I have out there is, you know, is our tanker fleet modern and ready?”

Reflecting on USAF’s beleaguered new KC-46 tanker, Esper said he’s “spent time with” both the service and Boeing—the aircraft’s manufacturer—touring the aircraft and trying to figure out how the Pegasus’ remote vision system might be successfully overhauled by 2023. Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper recently told reporters the new-and-improved system, known as the Remote Vision System 2.0, may pave the way for autonomous refueling.

“So I’m really focused right now in that leg with regard to tankers, because we know we need 487 tankers out there, so I have to extend the life of the current fleet [and,] at the same time, try and pull to the left that future fleet,” Esper said during the discussion. “So that’s one big thing I look at.”

U.S. Transportation Command boss Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons recently identified the approaching tanker shortage as TRANSCOM’s biggest challenge, suggesting that halting the retirement of some legacy tankers could help it avert a “train wreck.”

Esper: Military Exceeded COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Collection Goal

Esper: Military Exceeded COVID-19 Convalescent Plasma Collection Goal

The Defense Department “collected nearly 11,000 units” of COVID-19 convalescent plasma by the end of fiscal 2020—almost 3,000 units more than its original goal—Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper announced Oct. 15. 

Speaking at the Heritage Foundation’s Washington headquarters, Esper said DOD created a plasma-gathering strategy earlier this year “to support advanced illness within the force.” 

“The priority for ASBP [Armed Services Blood Program] donations will be patients receiving treatment in military treatment facilities and operating units,” a Military Health System web page about the collection effort states. “However, the ASBP will continue to work closely with industry partners to support patients receiving care at the VA [Veterans Affairs Department] and in civilian hospitals.

USAF partnered with DOD on the plasma drive, Air Force Magazine previously reported.

Donations of blood plasma containing antibodies for the new coronavirus may boost the ability of eligible recipients’ immune systems to fight the pathogen, the Air Force wrote in July.

However, the MHS web page notes that, so far, only “anecdotal evidence” that this plasma can be an effective treatment for COVID-19 exists. 

“Current clinical studies are evaluating the treatment of severe infection (seriously ill and those in ICU) with high titer (antibodies) plasma,” it states.

Other “unknowns” about the use of plasma to fight the virus include the proper timetable for administering plasma so that it works, whether it can potentially help people “with mild or moderate” COVID-19, and whether giving people plasma following possible or confirmed exposure to the virus—but before symptoms appear—could keep them from getting COVID-19 or make their case shorter or less severe, according to the web page.

“Researchers are taking all of this into consideration and are working to develop appropriate products to serve as potential therapeutics,” it adds.

USAF, Israeli Air Force Team Up for Mideast F-35 Training

USAF, Israeli Air Force Team Up for Mideast F-35 Training

F-35As from the U.S. Air Force’s 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron and F-35I “Adir” fighters from the Israeli Air Force’s 116th Squadron teamed up for Enduring Lightning III, a joint offensive counter air training exercise over Israel, on Oct. 12, according to an Air Forces Central Command release.

“U.S. and Israeli F-35s faced exercise surface and air adversaries with the goal of achieving an objective at a simulated target area,” it stated.

U.S. and Israeli F-35s participate in exercise Enduring Lightning III
U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning IIs and Israeli Air Force F-35I Adirs fly in formation during exercise Enduring Lightning III over Israel, on Oct. 12, 2020. Photo: Senior Airman Duncan C. Bevan

Additional USAF and IAF aircraft and personnel supported the fighter squadrons during the exercise.

The 908th and 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadrons provided refueling backup via KC-10 and KC-135 tankers, the release noted, while F-16I fighters from the IAF’s 115th Squadron acted as “a simulated adversary force” and its 122nd Squadron—also known as the “Nachson Squadron”—handled air traffic control.

A U.S. Air Force KC-10 Extender refuels a USAF F-35A in support of exercise Enduring Lightning III over the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility on Oct. 12, 2020. Photo: Senior Airman Duncan C. Bevan

AFCENT Commander Lt. Gen. Gregory M. Guillot praised the Enduring Lightning series of exercises as “invaluable opportunities” for participants to boost readiness and enhance relationships.

“The partner nation integration exercises have improved our ability to influence stability in the region and sustain our power projection capabilities,” added 380th Expeditionary Operations Group Commander Col. Kristen Thompson in the release. 

Shaw Airmen, F-16s Deploy to Saudi Arabia

Shaw Airmen, F-16s Deploy to Saudi Arabia

Airmen and F-16s from Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., recently deployed to Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, the 20th Fighter Wing announced

While in the Middle East, the 77th Fighter Squadron and 77th Fighter Generation Squadron personnel will be tasked with generating combat air power to help make the region more stable and secure, according to the release.

“The Gamblers are ready to patrol the skies, deliver precision airstrikes, and train alongside regional partners to maximize capabilities in regards to mutual security concerns,” 77th Fighter Squadron Commander Lt. Col. David Bennett said in the release.

The 378th Air Expeditionary Wing, which the Airmen will join for the extent of their deployment, posted photos of the fighters’ arrival to its Facebook page on Oct. 14.

https://www.facebook.com/378AEW/posts/216659556505994