ABMS Goes to the Pacific in ‘Valiant Shield’

Sept. 25, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

American military forces used a large-scale training exercise in the Pacific this month to experiment with new ways of commanding troops as part of the Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System effort.

The Air Force’s third ABMS demonstration, known as an “on-ramp,” quietly unfolded Sept. 14-25 within the biennial “Valiant Shield” exercise spanning Hawaii, Guam, and the Mariana Islands Range Complex. About 11,000 Air Force, Army, Navy, and Marine Corps personnel, 100 aircraft, and several ships participated.

As the U.S. postures against China, the scale and location of Valiant Shield offered a chance to practice passing surveillance, targeting, and other data between the services to better respond to threats in the vast Pacific region.

“This training enables real-world proficiency in sustaining joint forces through detecting, locating, tracking, and engaging units at sea, in the air, on land, and cyberspace in response to a range of mission areas,” according to U.S. Pacific Fleet. “The range of capabilities include maritime security operations, anti-submarine and air-defense exercises, amphibious operations, and other elements of complex warfighting.”

It’s the third ABMS exercise so far and the second this month, following a homeland defense training event in early September that practiced shooting down a cruise missile surrogate.

From left, USNS Charles Drew (T-AKE 10), USS Comstock (LSD 45), USS Shiloh (CG 67), USS New Orleans (LPD 18), USS Chicago (SSN 721), USS America (LHA 6), USS Ronald Reagan (CVN 76), USNS John Ericsson (T-AO 194), USS Antietam (CG 54), USS Germantown (LSD 42), and USNS Sacagawea (T-AKE 2) steam in formation while E/A-18G Growlers and FA-18E Super Hornets from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, a P-8 Poseidon from Commander Task Force 72, and U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors and a B-1B Bomber fly over the formation in support of Valiant Shield 2020. Photo: Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Jason Tarleton/Navy

Over the course of two weeks, U.S. forces sunk the decommissioned USS Curts frigate with fire from Navy and Air Force aircraft, multiple cruiser ships, and a fast-attack submarine. The USS Antietam also struck an island off the coast of Guam with a Tomahawk cruise missile, using targeting data provided by Marines. Troops also pulled in virtual training to simulate more aircraft and ships than could participate in real life.

“What we did this time was use different ABMS options to link the joint force in the Multidomain Operations Center-Forward that we were experimenting with, which contained a joint fires cell manned by [representatives] from all the services and links to the Multidomain Task Force, the carrier strike group, as well as all the USAF locations,” Col. Brian Baldwin, 36th Air Expeditionary Wing commander at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, told Air Force Magazine in a Sept. 24 email.

Air Force personnel communicated with parts of the Navy carrier strike group, like fighter jets and command-and-control assets. “The F-22 is a state-of-the-art aircraft,” Rear Adm. James Aiken, Carrier Strike Group 3 commander, told reporters on a Sept. 24 call. “With joint all-domain command and control, the Navy can actually leverage a fifth-generation aircraft. It becomes a force multiplier for all the services being integrated.”

Software automated some processes, like pulling air tasking order information to tell pilots what time they should meet a tanker to refuel and what route they should take, Baldwin said.

Another app showed commanders the real-time status of various bases they could use to store resources and where to launch and land planes. That software in the deployed ops center could shape how the military thinks about spreading forces around an area where installations are threatened or where formal infrastructure doesn’t exist.

E/A-18G Growlers and FA-18E Super Hornets from Carrier Air Wing (CVW) 5, a P-8 Poseidon from Commander Task Force 72, and U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors and a B-1B Bomber fly over the formation in support of Valiant Shield 2020. **Photo by Mass Communication Specialist 1st Class Timothy M. Black/Navy.**

Valiant Shield tested the idea of using a group of multiple aircraft to “talk” to others and direct them around the battlefield.

“We had the KC-46 in Hawaii with a lot of the cloud network-sharing applications that we’re working on for [ABMS],” Baldwin added on the call. “They integrated with F-22s and [a] C-17 out of Hawaii as a forward node that would enable the joint fight over a wide area, and enhance that data-sharing through the network.”

Pacific Air Forces boss Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach recently told reporters he hoped the exercise would show troops in U.S. Indo-Pacific Command how to communicate without fail.

“If all you had was text messaging on your phone, you journalists would be in big trouble, because your cell coverage may be down or whatever, so you have backup ways to communicate,” he said. “The same holds true of me. We’ll want to be able to talk to everybody all the time with backups, so that it becomes very difficult to take away our communication. The way you do that is with multilayered and with networked systems.”

About one-third of the ABMS objectives were pared back because of timing and the coronavirus pandemic, he added.

The military is still wrestling with how best to share information and react quickly in a place like the Pacific Ocean, where combat assets could be thousands of miles apart and interrupted by signal jammers or other weapons.

“If there was an easy button, we would love to hit it,” Baldwin said. “Working on getting all of those sensors that have data out there, to then get those available for all the joint warfighters, to then make decisions and employ the right kind of effects, is what we are after.”

Earlier this week, 15 more companies received contracts to try out their data analytics, communications, and other technologies in future ABMS demonstrations. They include: Amazon Web Services, Anduril Industries, Colorado Engineering, Edgy Bees, Environmental Systems Research Institute, Global C2 Integration Technologies, General Atomics, Grey Wolf Aerospace, Kratos Technology and Training Solutions, LinQuest, Oddball, Red River Technology, SES Government Solutions, Venator Solutions, and VivSoft Technologies.

More than 60 companies have been tapped to participate in ABMS so far, though not all of their products will end up in regular military operations. They are each eligible for up to $950 million in federal contracts over the next five years as the military decides which hardware and software to buy.

C-17s Begin Deep Freeze Flights in Antarctica

Sept. 25, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Winter flying season in Antarctica is underway, as C-17s and Airmen deployed for Operation Deep Freeze begin flying in crucial personnel and equipment.

The C-17s, deployed from Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., have flown three missions in recent weeks, transporting 151 personnel and 165,000 pounds of cargo to McMurdo Station, Antarctica, according to a Pacific Air Forces release. Airmen quarantined for two weeks before flying in to keep Antarctica the last continent on the globe free of COVID-19.

Operation Deep Freeze is the military’s 65-year mission to support National Science Foundation research in Antarctica. The mission’s season typically begins in early August, with the busiest part running from September to November.

“The 2020-2021 ODF season marks the 61st Anniversary of the Antarctic Treaty and the 65th year of military dedication, ingenuity, and labor in support of the Antarctic mission,” said Col. Jamielyn Thompson, Joint Task Force-Support Forces Antarctica deputy commander, in the release. “Each season presents new challenges and this year was no different as we took special precaution to prevent the spread of COVID-19 while also providing transportation and logistics to the U.S. Antarctic Program and the National Science Foundation.”

Last month, 30 Airmen deployed from the 62nd and 446th Airlift Wings at McChord to New Zealand, where they quarantined before the flights began. Crews also are minimizing contact with passengers, wearing masks, and carrying a separate galley and lavatory to further protect from COVID-19. The NSF is keeping only the minimum number of personnel in the facilities to avoid the virus, according to a release.

‘Operation Blood Rain’ Makes Case for a New Kind of Airdrop

Sept. 25, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Earlier this year, the Air Force undertook an experiment to determine whether fresh blood could be safely airdropped to medics working in harsh settings.

During an April 20 test drop, USAF filled a cooler with four bags of volunteer-donated blood, attached a parachute to the cooler, and then pushed the container from a C-145 aircraft to see if the resource could survive the fall, according to a 96th Test Wing release Sept. 23.

A box containing blood bags flies out of the back of a C-145 Skytruck for a study called Operation Blood Rain on April 20, 2020, at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. **Photo: Air Force/courtesy**

“The C-145 passed over the drop zone at about 200 feet, flying at approximately 115 mph,” the release stated. “The loadmaster released the box of blood out of the aircraft and the parachute opened shortly after.”

After making a safe landing, Eglin Air Force Base laboratory technicians examined the blood, and compared it with a control batch of volunteer-donated blood, which was stored in vials and, notably, not dropped from any aircraft. The techs concluded that red blood cells in the airdropped samples didn’t disintegrate or otherwise break down, according to the release.

A box containing blood bags is opened to check for damage after being released from an aircraft for a study called Operation Blood Rain on April 20, 2020, at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla. **Photo: Air Force/courtesy**

“The research team determined an airdrop is a viable way of delivering blood to combat medics treating hemorrhaging patients in a pre-hospital setting,” it continued. “However, further research is required to fully validate the safety of the method.”

The project team now plans to see if it can replicate the results of the airdrop using different airframes and ground conditions, the release said. In the long term, the group aspires to enable drones to fly blood to deployed combat medics, it added.

“These deliveries would help extend the ‘golden hour,’ or period of time following a traumatic injury when there is the highest likelihood that prompt medical and surgical treatment would prevent death,” the release said.

The endeavor’s focus on austere environments is also consistent with the service’s new Air and Space Expeditionary Force model, which Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. recently suggested may see an influx in USAF deployments to bare-base spots.

An Airman prepares to check bags of blood released from an aircraft for Operation Blood Rain on April 20, 2020. **Photo: Air Force/courtesy**

How It Began

The experiment, which the release said “began as a dinner conversation during a combat aviation advisor team’s high altitude and cold weather training,” made it to the semifinals of Air Force Materiel Command’s Spark Tank innovation competition.

“The idea was ‘sparked’ by the time- and resource-intensive process of collecting fresh whole blood during their recent training as well as the various remote CAA deployment locations,” the release explained.

A team composed of physicians from the 96th Medical Group and combat aviation advisors from the 492nd Special Operations Wing started brainstorming the mechanics of the study in January, the wing wrote. The project’s timeline was compressed by virtue of the CAAs’ skillsets and gear, which made identifying project needs simple, the wing added.

Before Airmen actually dropped blood from the sky on April 20, teams from the 492nd Special Operations Wing did test runs using saline, the release noted.

Gauging Suicide’s Impact on USAF’s Total Force in 2020

Sept. 25, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

As the Defense Department prepares to release its Annual Suicide Report in the coming weeks, Air Force Magazine details the impact suicide has had on the Total Force so far in 2020, and how the service’s top uniformed leaders and its reserve component are working to tackle the issue.

Total Force

As of Sept. 16, 98 Airmen had taken their own lives in 2020—putting the service “almost exactly on pace” to hit the same number of suicides as it did in 2019, when it undertook a Resilience Tactical Pause to address the issue, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. told reporters during a media roundtable held as part of the Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

Brown said the lack of connection during the pandemic has exacerbated the problem, but he outlined several steps the service is taking to combat suicide within its ranks, including:

Pushing out “a playbook” to leaders in the field. This comment wasn’t a reference to a new publication, but to the general wealth of pre-existing resources available on USAF’s resilience webpage, USAF spokesperson Capt. Leah F. Brading later clarified to Air Force Magazine. “Gen[.] Brown recently reminded commanders in a call to action to use the resources like those on resilience.af.mil and these talking points/questions to help guide on-going discussions,” she wrote in a Sept. 18 email.
Increasing USAF’s use of telemental health care
Figuring out how to loop military family members into the service’s resiliency training efforts to “make them part of the support network,” since any of these individuals “could be the first sensor to really help us out.”
Examining how the service can guarantee Airmen “a good transition handoff into … their family and friends,” so none of them “fall through the cracks.”

Brown said “probably about 45 percent” of Air Force suicides stem from relationship problems, so he also wants to increase the number of counselors who are able to “talk to our young Airmen about relationships,” advise them on how they can cultivate meaningful ones, and build resiliency so that relationship efforts don’t leave them feeling “crushed.”

At the same conference, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass said she’s asked her team to work with the Surgeon General community and USAF resilience personnel to initiate working groups on mental health. She said these groups will address steps the service needs to take, and to identify USAF policies that can be changed (as well as Defense Department-level ones that might require Office of the Secretary of Defense intervention to change). This should tentatively equip the service to “partner with those who fight on … the Hill for our Airmen,” she said.

The Air Force also needs more mental health professionals. “We’re putting all of this on our mental health Airmen, but we don’t have enough of them,” Bass said.

The Air Force has a responsibility to care for those Airmen whose psychological health situations may disqualify them from continued service, she added.

“Now, here’s a hard truth—and I know for some people this may not be wholly satisfying—but there are some people who have gone through so much trauma or have mental health challenges that service may not be where they need to be,” she said. “But, … we owe them … service. We owe them something to help get them back on the right track, to help get them in a place where they are healthy and OK, and that’s OK.”

Air Force Reserve

As of Sept. 22, eight Reserve Airmen had taken their own lives so far in 2020, Air Force Reserve Command spokesperson Sean P. Houlihan told Air Force Magazine via email.

“While a decrease from this time last year, there remains an emphasis among squadron commanders and senior enlisted leaders to stay connected with Airmen through the challenges of the COVID-19 telework/virtual environment and the tyranny of distance, as many Reservists do not live close to their supervisors,” Houlihan wrote.

Since the Total Force undertook a Resilience Tactical Pause last year, the command trained Reservists “in every status and at every level” to recognize what “stress, fatigue, and suicidal tendencies” look like, Houlihan noted.

The COVID-19 pandemic has yet to cause “a marked uptick in psychological health visits” among Reservists, though he noted that the Air Force’s embrace of telemental health means Reserve mental health professionals may also treat Airmen via virtual appointments.

The command recognizes the new coronavirus crisis likely has future challenges in store for AFRC personnel and their families, and it’s empowering wing leaders with “tools to aggressively reach out” to these individuals. Houlihan said these tools include master resiliency trainers, also known as MRTs.

“MRTs are from various backgrounds to include psychological health, Violence Prevention Integrators (VPI), Airmen and Family Readiness, and Sexual Assault Response Coordinators (SARC), to just name a few,” Houlihan wrote.

The command is equipped with more than 100 of these trainers, who are keeping in touch with Reservists via virtual platforms.

Air Force Reserve Chief Lt. Gen. Richard W. Scobee also has gained more flexibility to help Reserve Airmen in crisis, independent of their status, Houlihan said.

“He has told commanders, chiefs, and front-line supervisors through social media and virtual visits to take care of Airmen first, then work out the status piece,” he said.

Other recent steps the Reserve has taken to boost resilience include:

Employing 30 full-time first sergeants around AFRC and 10 full-time chaplains at its host wings, a plan that Air Force Magazine first reported in February
Starting a video-based engagement campaign wherein Reservists “share their stories of physical, mental, and spiritual wellbeing, as well as overcoming personal or professional adversity”
Conducting wing-level resilience tactical pauses that aim to halt suicides, underscore the urgency of mental health, and signal-boost the relevant “tools, resources, and support” that are available to Reservists
Offering the Reserve’s Yellow Ribbon Program virtually
Creating a newsletter for soon-to-deploy Airmen and their families that “has valuable resources and contacts to use both before, during, and after the deployment,” Houlihan wrote.

Air National Guard

Eleven Air National Guard Airmen had taken their own lives as of Sept. 24, ANG spokesperson Lt. Col. Devin T. Robinson told Air Force Magazine in an email that day. According to Robinson, ANG’s year-to-date total “is tracking exactly” with the number of suicides it had recorded at the same time last year.

“The Air National Guard is committed to preventing suicides and has a host of resiliency tools and resources available to target areas of greatest concern to our Air National Guard Airmen and their family members,” Robinson wrote. He also said ANG is dedicated to slashing the stigma associated with asking for help and values Airmen who reach out for support.

With an Eye on China, Reaper Drones Train for Maritime War

Sept. 24, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

MQ-9 Reapers, the workhorse drone of America’s two-decade counterterrorism fight in the Middle East and Africa, want to show they’re getting a second wind.

The MQ-9 workforce is fighting to keep its place in the Air Force as the service looks to end production of the aircraft and begins scoping out its replacement. The Air Force has grown skeptical that the Reaper could hold its own against advanced nations like Russia and China, which could shoot the non-stealthy aircraft down or jam its transmissions. Military officials worry the Reaper is too vulnerable and lacks the stealth, electronic protections, and speed that planes will need to survive.

In the absence of upgrades that would protect the drone in challenging airspace, the MQ-9 enterprise is adapting its tactics and training to prove useful in a theater of war that looks much different from its typical surroundings.

The MQ-9 schoolhouse at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., recently rewrote its syllabus to prepare Reaper pilots and sensor operators for a more complex fight, 29th Attack Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Brian Davis told Air Force Magazine in a Sept. 21 interview.

“It incorporates maritime interdiction capabilities, it incorporates a lot more major contingency operation capabilities, air interdiction,” Davis said. “It reinvigorates our strike coordination and reconnaissance capability, and it also increases our combat search and rescue capability.”

The Air Force approved the new coursework shortly before the start of Exercise Agile Reaper, the first training event focused on those tactics in the Pacific. In keeping with the pivot away from the Middle East, patches on Airmen’s uniforms made for the event feature an MQ-9 superimposed over a red silhouette of China.

The exercise at Naval Air Station Point Mugu, Calif., began Sept. 3 and will end Sept. 29. It partners three MQ-9s with the Navy’s Third Fleet, which deploys carrier strike groups, submarines, and other sea vessels and aircraft to the Eastern Pacific, along with Air Force C-130s, and special warfare and Marine Corps personnel, Davis said.

“It’s a demonstration of our capability to rapidly move the MQ-9 anywhere in the world, to unfamiliar locations, and then get out and show the operational reach capabilities of the MQ-9 to provide maritime domain awareness to our joint service partners,” Davis said.

Though Davis declined to provide specifics about the exercise because of operational security concerns, he said MQ-9s were contributing information to a common operating picture that helped the Navy decide where to strike. Reaper operators handled maritime strike coordination and reconnaissance, counter-fast attack craft operations, and close air support over water.

For strike coordination and reconnaissance missions, Reapers would pick up on activity in the area and ensure other aircraft are clear to fly in and fire at their targets. MQ-9 unit commanders have discussed bolstering that and similar missions for at least three years as anti-aircraft threats grow around the world and the Pentagon’s priorities began to change.

In 2017, the head of the 432nd Air Wing at Creech Air Force Base, Nev., said training crews to handle that work would take about a month because they spend most of their time on airstrikes and collecting surveillance imagery. Now, Davis indicated those flights are part of a growing maritime portfolio for the MQ-9.

“We can look out at very long ranges that a lot of our other aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventory cannot get out to, and we can possibly ID vessels … without the use of tankers or other logistical requirements,” Davis added. The aircraft flew about 2,000 miles to reach the exercise, showing how far it can travel without stopping or accounting for the needs of a human pilot in a cockpit.

As the Reapers handled airstrikes during a mock amphibious assault on San Clemente Island off the California coast, they also looked more than 100 miles away to see where the Navy should strike vessels at sea.

He added that MQ-9s are connecting to military space assets in new ways for command and control, targeting, and navigation, but did not elaborate. A photo taken at the exercise showed an Airman setting up a satellite communications antenna at Point Mugu.

Agile Reaper posed the opportunity to try out a deployable control system that lets Airmen fly the MQ-9 outside of a typical storage container or brick-and-mortar building. Davis declined to discuss how those controls performed, but said it proves Reaper operations don’t need a large, well-established logistics footprint to handle missions.

Units across the Air Force are practicing quickly packing up and deploying to and from austere locations that lack the infrastructure of a regular air base, in case installations are threatened or hit in a future war.

“We surprised the entire community by how rapidly we can set up and operate the MQ-9 at its full capability. That portion went really well,” Davis said. “The things that didn’t go so well are just a nature of rinsing and repeating, because this is the first time we’ve ever done it.”

The exercise will spur further changes to the MQ-9 training program to incorporate what Airmen learned, he added.

Triple Nickel Hones Skills at Thracian Viper 20

Sept. 24, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

For Aviano Air Base’s 555th Fighter Squadron, Thracian Viper 20 is about more than just training.

The multilateral exercise, to which the squadron sent Airmen and six F-16s, boosts “operational capacity and capability,” as well as interoperability with Bulgaria, Maj. Rohan Naldrett-Jays, the squadron’s chief of standardizations and evaluation, told Air Force Magazine. But, it also helps the Italy-based squadron fine-tune its ability to deploy aircraft and manpower anywhere in the European theater with agility—a critical part of Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.’s “accelerate change, or lose” directive for the Total Force.

Naldrett-Jays said the pursuit of agile deployments within Europe and relationship building with NATO partners, “not just in times of combat, but in times of peace and … training,” are two ways the Triple Nickel is working to speed change at the squadron level.

The unit is looking to alter its approach to warfighting, by sending “small contingents of a fighter squadron and [moving] them across Europe,” to back up “European and NATO operations,” and “to support those in multiple locations all at once from one fighter squadron,” he said.

During Thracian Viper 20, USAF, Bulgarian, Greek, and Romanian air forces worked to coordinate military planning efforts.

“What it actually looks like if you’re here is the mission planning process—so, helping each other mission plan and get ready to go off [into] the airspace and conduct operations safely. [And], how to force package, so … what strengths and what weaknesses do[es] each airframe have, and then, obviously, learning from each other,” he said.

Another goal of the exercise was to come up with local procedures for F-16 operations so USAF aircraft could return to the area, Naldrett-Jays added, saying he hopes Graf Ignatievo Air Base, Bulgaria, becomes a mainstay for the squadron, since its Airmen are already familiar with the base “and what support we need to bring with us.”

“Areas like this are gonna be huge, based on how we’re strategizing for the future,” he said.

The exercise helped the squadron modify its standard operating procedures to factor in its partners’ (and, by extension, their airframes’)—strengths and weaknesses, he said.

“It’s been a challenge, but it hasn’t been a bad thing by any means, because these are things that I’m excited that we get to kind of work through now so that if we have to go somewhere as a NATO partner … we’re ready to show up to the table and win as a team,” he said.

F-16s also got the chance to practice taking on Soviet-era aircraft, Naldrett-Jays noted.

“Yesterday [Sept. 23] … we had four F-16s, two MiG-29s, and two L-39s,” he recalled. “We all split in half, basically, and we went out in a two-ship of F-16s. We would orbit over a point in the airspace and manage our radars to try and find the L-39s and the MiG 29s in the airspace.”

Thracian Viper is making the squadron better versed in what it means to balance field training and regular duties in the COVID-era, since he said the pandemic forced Triple Nickel to bring a smaller squadron footprint than planned and leave a detachment back at Aviano in case immediate deployers were needed elsewhere in the U.S. European Command area of responsibility.

“Where we’re at from an Air Force perspective, as far as coronavirus is concerned, is trying to conduct training, keep our readiness at a high state, and find ways to become better fighter pilots and a better force without letting coronavirus get in our way,” he said.

DOD to Keep COVID-19 Restrictions, Mask Requirements Until Vaccine Broadly Available

Sept. 24, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

The military’s travel and other restrictions related to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic are likely to stick around for a while, until a vaccine is broadly available, which Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark A. Milley said he expects to be a matter of months.

Milley, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper, and Senior Enlisted Adviser to the Chairman Ramón Colón-López on Sept. 24 hosted a virtual town hall with service members, with multiple questions focused on COVID-19 restrictions. In response to a question on how soon restrictions would be lifted, Milley said for now, any changes are “conditions based” and depend on where service members are stationed.

“We have to be mindful of our No. 1 priority, which is the health of the force writ large,” Milley said.

Restrictions on travel, along with mandatory quarantines, will remain for the time being. Additionally, “we know, factually, that masks work,” he said, along with social distancing and hygiene practices, so those requirements also will remain.

A vaccine is on the “fast track” through the Operation Warp Speed joint effort between the Defense Department and Department of Health and Human Services. “I fully expect a successful, safe vaccine in the near term,” Milley said, adding that he doesn’t have “exact numbers,” but he expects vaccines to roll out in the fall through the end of the year for initial groups before being broadly distributed.

The vaccine will eventually be a “great solution, and it will defeat the COVID virus over time,” he said.

Esper said the Pentagon has distributed more than a dozen memorandums on force protection since January, which have provided centralized guidance to commanders who then can provide “decentralized execution based on local conditions.” There will continue to be “red” areas that will be limited for permanent change of station moves, with waivers available. “We’re going to continue that kind of conditions-based approach as we move forward,” he said, adding that conditions will change “all the time.”

Here’s How a Three-Month CR—or Longer—Would Affect the Air Force

Sept. 24, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

As Congress looks to delay passage of a new federal funding package until after the November election, the Air Force is warning that even a three-month gap would harm national defense.

“[Continuing resolutions] immediately disrupt major exercises and training events, affect readiness and maintenance, curtail hiring and recruitment actions, and adversely impact contracting negotiations,” Air Force spokesman Capt. Jacob N. Bailey said in a Sept. 24 email.

A stopgap spending bill would also slow the service’s adoption of technology it wants to compete with other advanced militaries like those of Russia and China.

As the start of fiscal 2021 looms on Oct. 1, the wheels are already turning to get a continuing resolution in place to avoid a government shutdown. CRs have been invoked nearly every year for the past few decades, causing heartburn across the federal workforce.

House lawmakers on Sept. 22 passed a bill to keep the federal government open through Dec. 11. The Senate could hold a vote on that legislation next week, according to Politico. Congress may decide later to extend the funding freeze into 2021, and pass appropriations at the beginning of a possible second term for President Donald J. Trump or to kick off a first term for former Vice President Joseph R. Biden.

The Department of the Air Force wants about $169 billion in fiscal 2021, split between $153.6 billion for the Air Force and $15.4 billion for the Space Force. Under a CR, though, federal agencies must stretch their 2020 dollars until they run out. Congress can also make exceptions to let certain programs move forward.

A three-month CR would push back production of the manned E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node jet, which allows aircraft flying nearby to pass data to others in the area. The service wants to buy five new ones starting in fiscal 2021 to replace the EQ-4B drones, a Global Hawk variant used for the same mission.

If procurement is delayed, “the AF will be forced to join a waitlist for the next available opportunity to purchase an aircraft,” Bailey said. Bombardier builds the E-11A as a military version of its “Global Express” civil business jet.

The three-month CR would also drag out construction of the Consolidated Space Operations Facility at Schriever Air Force Base, Colo. Military space officials want the larger building to house both the Joint Task Force-Space Defense and the National Space Defense Center, amid growing demand for satellite and radar operators and intelligence analysts. Construction is supposed to finish in March 2022, but would take longer if the final $88 million does not arrive on time.

The effects of a CR would snowball if the funding delay stretches longer than three months, Bailey said.

A yearlong continuing resolution would block 48 new programs from starting, cut short production increases to seven aircraft and weapons, stop 19 military construction projects, stifle the service’s response and recovery efforts for the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and limit the Air Force’s plan to grow its workforce by 1,500 people.

“CR funds will not cover current personnel costs, in addition to the 3 percent military pay raise, without further funding,” Bailey said. The Air Force wants an additional $2.5 billion on top of last year’s appropriations to expand F-35 Joint Strike Fighter operations, cyber mission defense teams, and global mobility forces. Without that boost, units will struggle to keep up with operations.

He added that a year’s worth of stopgap measures will interrupt the Air Force’s training pipeline and how those people spread across the force. That means the service can ask or force people to leave to remain solvent.

Department officials have also warned that a long-term CR will interfere with the Space Force’s attempt to get up and running as a full-fledged branch of the armed forces.

Under a yearlong CR, the Space Force’s GPS III Follow-On program would see a delay of at least one year to an upgrade that makes the satellite’s signals harder to jam. The service wants to buy two of the more advanced GPS systems in 2021.

To lessen the blow, the Space Force is asking Congress to provide $2.6 billion for operations and maintenance, $10.3 billion for research and development, and $2.2 billion for procurement ahead of a formal appropriations bill. Without the ability to spend money from its own separate accounts, the Space Force has to pull money from Air Force appropriations.

Dipping into USAF money risks “weapon system readiness and delivery schedules, partnership opportunities with industry and other governmental entities, and defense industrial base sustainability,” Bailey said.

“This administrative burden would adversely impact Space Force’s
mission execution as staff would devote more time to duplicative administrative work,” according to a document outlining fiscal 2021 funding concerns.

In the Air Force, a yearlong CR would delay purchase of the first eight Boeing MH-139 helicopters that will patrol nuclear missile fields and ferry VIPs around metropolitan Washington in case of emergency.

Production of nearly 200 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missiles and 10 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missiles would be pushed back at Raytheon and Lockheed Martin. The Air Force’s weapons enterprise is anticipating issues as multiple new designs move through development and testing, particularly in the hypersonics portfolio.

“If it’s a shorter month or two, we probably have enough margin to cover,” Weapons Program Executive Officer Brig. Gen. Heath Collins told Air Force Magazine on Sept. 22. “If we get into a very extended CR period, that will have some pretty significant impacts to a number of our programs.”

Facilities for the F-35 and F-16 fighter jets, T-7 trainer jet, and Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent nuclear missiles would be delayed under a one-year CR, and work would stop on a dormitory for Basic Military Training recruits at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.

A continuing resolution similarly threatens the sweeping reforms Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. is pushing. He wants to ditch aircraft and software that won’t survive in future fights, and invest in a smarter, faster way of waging war. Brown indicated a CR gives the Air Force another opportunity to state its case for why it needs money now.

“That’s something that doesn’t help us accelerate change, or be able to do things a bit faster with some predictability,” Brown said of a CR on Sept. 16. “It will cause us to take a step back and then have to take a relook, realizing that no matter who gets elected in November, we will actually continue to work through this.”

“I wanted to do less talking [to Congress] and more action,” he added.

B-1B Fleet Finishes Integrated Battle Station Upgrade

Sept. 24, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Eight years, 62 aircraft, and about $1.25 billion later, the Air Force’s entire B-1B Lancer fleet has completed the Integrated Battle Station upgrade to modernize the jet’s datalinks, cockpit displays, and test system.

The IBS program, the largest and most complicated update ever for the Lancer, included 1,050,000 hours of planned work at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla. Each aircraft needed 17,000 individual parts, and 13 miles of new wiring. The program began in 2012 when Boeing upgraded two aircraft at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif. The next 60 were all upgraded at Tinker and the last aircraft is finishing up this week.

“I think everybody’s heard of how complex this upgrade is, and how complicated it’s been,” said Lt. Col. James Couch, commander of the 10th Flight Test Squadron, which handled test flights in the program. “But through teamwork, through maintenance and the (System Program Office), and through engineering, ops, we all came together as a team and we did something that’s never been done before in the B-1 enterprise. This is the most comprehensive upgrade in the history of the B-1 bomber.”

The program first began with the individual Center Integrated Test System—a display in the cockpit replacing the outdated computer that monitors the jet’s systems to help troubleshoot issues. Shortly after, the upgrade folded in the Link 16-supporting Fully Integrated Data Link and the Vertical Situational Display Unit. The individual mods are funded individually, with Boeing serving as the prime contractor. But, since they all focused on the same area of the aircraft, the Tinker line was able to integrate them so work could be done concurrently, said William Barnes, the B-1B systems program manager with the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

Under original requirements it would take about 218 days to complete each bomber, but Tinker was able to set an internal goal of about 170 days, with the fastest turnaround being 154 days.

In recent years, the B-1 fleet has faced serious structural issues, dropping the jet’s mission capable rate into the single digits. Tinker in 2019 stood up a separate line to address structural issues, independent of the cockpit modernization work, but USAF managed the fleet to limit downtime, said Rodney Shepard, director of the 567th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron. For example, when Global Strike issued time-compliant technical orders on specific issues, that work was added to the aircraft in the IBS program.

When the upgrade began, the B-1 had not yet transitioned from Air Combat Command to Air Force Global Strike Command. The service is now looking to retire some of the recently modernized aircraft, according to its fiscal 2021 budget requests, which calls for cutting 17 of the aircraft because of the ongoing structural issues.

Going forward, Air Force leaders have said they look forward to integrating new systems onto the B-1, especially hypersonic weapons. The new systems installed as part of the IBS will make that “much easier,” Barnes said. The Link 16 data and other displays bring “situational awareness that is just beyond reproach,” Couch said.