Here’s How the Air Force Reserve Plans to Accelerate Change

Here’s How the Air Force Reserve Plans to Accelerate Change

The Air Force Reserve will need to undertake both internal and external changes in order to heed Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.’s Total Force directive to “accelerate change, or lose,” its boss Lt. Gen. Richard W. Scobee said.

“It’s going to include reforming the organization internally, and how we deal with our Airmen, but also externally in how we present forces to the Joint Force,” he told reporters during a media roundtable at the Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 16.

Scobee said internal changes will center around making Reservists feel as though “their contributions to defense are very valued.”

That will require Congressional assistance on pay status reform, updates to Reserve medical and personnel programs, as well as “a lot of finance things,” he said.

And on the external side, Scobee said the Reserve must ensure its organization “is agile enough to meet” CSAF’s demands.

“What it’s going to take is some consolidation of some of the things that we’re doing, so you’ll see some of the overhead of what we’re doing start to come down … The other piece of it is … making sure we’re putting Airmen into those jobs, especially when it comes to JADC2 [joint all-domain command and control],” he said. “We’re on the point of the things of where the Air Force is going, so when we talk about connecting all of our sensors with our platforms, you know sensors to shooters, really we want to be involved in that.”

Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Sept. 23 at 6:29 a.m. to clarify quotes from Scobee.

US Looks to Compete—and Collaborate—in Space

US Looks to Compete—and Collaborate—in Space

America’s civilian and military space agencies are walking a fine line with Russia.

On one hand, NASA wants to preserve the partnership with its Russian counterpart Roscosmos that has spurred cultural and scientific exchange on the International Space Station and other joint missions since the 1970s. On the other hand, the Space Force was created to outpace Russian military activity in orbit, and it often publicly chides Moscow for what the U.S. sees as threatening behavior toward assets like satellites.

The U.S. must manage that dynamic as well as its relationship with China as the three countries vie for orbital dominance, aim to establish a presence on the moon, and grow commerce in the space between celestial bodies. The Space Force is taking on a new role as protector of U.S.-led civilian and commercial efforts in orbit and on the lunar surface, while NASA will continue to handle manned spaceflight and scientific ventures for civil purposes.

The potential effects of chilly U.S.-Russia political relations on space collaboration—like driving Russia and China closer together—have been scrutinized for years. That gets more complicated with the Pentagon’s current strategy of competition with Russia and China as global powers it believes are threatening the world order with weapons and risky maneuvers in space.

“There’s a long history, even in the height of the Cold War, there was great collaboration in the civil sector. There’s always been strong collaboration with Russia and NASA. I think that’s a benefit for our nation and I think it’s something that should continue,” Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond said Sept. 22 during an AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. “Whenever countries disagree, there’s always been agreement on partnership on the civil use of space.”

Video: Mitchell Institute on YouTube

NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine noted during the event that November marks 20 years of astronauts and cosmonauts working and living together on the ISS.

“There’s a lot of history here. The Space Force has a very different mission than NASA, but as far as a tool of diplomacy, I think we’re doing good by our nation,” Bridenstine said.

He did not comment on whether NASA plans to continue that tradition of diplomacy by working with Russia on the Artemis program, which plans to send the first woman and next man to the surface of the moon in 2024 and set up sustainable life there by 2030.

While Russia and the U.S. have a historic tradition to uphold, America and China lack the same sense of kinship.

Raymond declined to offer specifics on how the Space Force should work with China to make space a more peaceful domain in the future, noting that the U.S. asks all countries to operate safely and professionally. 

Bridenstine noted that NASA is legally blocked from working bilaterally with China, though that could change if Beijing extends its own olive branch or if Congress passes a less restrictive law. 

Just as the U.S. military is trying to firm up ties with countries in Africa and South America, where Russia and China are waging significant influence campaigns, it is gathering a modern alliance of nations that want to join America on the moon.

Twenty-six countries are interested in partnering with the U.S. on Artemis, Bridenstine said. He argues that NASA could use involvement with Artemis as an incentive to act responsibly in space: “We want you with us, but we also need you to agree to basic norms of behavior,” he said.

“We decided, when we saw the level of interest and enthusiasm, that we could use this as a tool to compel behaviors in space that would be appropriate for a spacefaring nation. A lot of those behaviors are already enshrined in the Outer Space Treaty, for example, and they’re agreed to with conventions like the Liability Convention and the Registration Convention,” Bridenstine said. “Not all international players are as good at adhering to those agreements as we would like them to be.”

NASA and the Space Force can work together to create new norms in space, which could shape behavior around how to maneuver near assets that belong to someone else, to ownership of resources mined on the moon, Raymond added.

The two will move forward under an updated memorandum of understanding, signed this month, that outlines 11 areas of collaboration like furthering deep space tracking technology to deepening the shared talent pool.

Bridenstine indicated the U.S. can do more to ensure existing space agreements are doing enough to keep all parties safe alongside the military mission to do so. Growth in the military and commercial sectors could regularly put the 1967 Outer Space Treaty’s Liability Convention to the test, for example. That language dictates that a country that launches a spacecraft “shall be absolutely liable to pay compensation for damage caused by its space objects on the surface of the Earth or to aircraft, and liable for damage due to its faults in space,” according to the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.

“We’re seeing satellites break apart and we’re seeing things get jammed. The question is, can we test the Liability Convention in a more robust way?” Bridenstine said. “The Outer Space Treaty is not just for fun and games, it’s intended to actually modify behavior in space. If we’re not testing the Liability Convention, then it’s really not worth the paper that it’s written on. So I think we need to be maybe more forward-leaning on ensuring that the Outer Space Treaty is adhered to.”

Bass: Addressing Childcare Shortage Will Take a ‘Whole of Air Force Approach’

Bass: Addressing Childcare Shortage Will Take a ‘Whole of Air Force Approach’

Air Force child development centers can accommodate less than one-fifth of eligible children, and top service leaders are looking at ways to address the issue, particularly as the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic are still being understood.

“We have about an 18 percent capacity on base to take care of children that are within the age of going to childcare or school,” Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass said during a question-and-answer session as part of the AFA’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference. “So, that’s a challenge right?”

To get after the issue, Air Force installations and their communities need to work together to “build a network” of options to try to make up that gap.

“If we don’t have that capacity on base, which, that is a separate line item that we have got to address and get after, then we’ve got to build the networks in the communities [so] that we have childcare options for families,” Bass said. “It is extremely hard for our single parents and dual working parents … to be able to get after that.”

On an interim basis, the push for more teleworking because of the COVID-19 pandemic has shown that Airmen can effectively work from home more often, and this could potentially free up some space in the child development centers, Bass said. For the longer term, “It is being looked at at the most senior levels in the Air Force,” she said.

Bass wants local leadership, especially first line supervisors, to work with Airmen and understand their individual situations to try to find ways to address problems.

“We’ve got to get to know our Airmen and know their challenges and help figure out a way to allow them to be able to be purposeful in our military and be able to take care of their families,” she said. “And it is different for everybody, depending on what squadron they’re in and where they sit.”

Military Spouses Bond Over Shared Experiences

Military Spouses Bond Over Shared Experiences

Military spouses must support each other and reach out when they need help, the spouses of top Air Force and Space Force leaders said during a panel discussion as part of the Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference. 

Military life can be stressful, with all the moving, trying to find jobs and friends in new locations, navigating TRICARE and other services, and now all the challenges that come with a global pandemic. Sharene Brown, wife of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., said what has helped her most over the years has been “connecting [with] and supporting others.”

“Knowing that others were experiencing similar emotions and stressors, and could share how they managed their own situations [was] powerful,” she said. “Connecting with others and finding resources to aid in my care for myself, as well as for my family, was paramount.”

Rachel Rush, wife of Space Force Senior Enlisted Advisor Chief Master Sgt. Roger A. Towberman, said she is relatively new to military life and has had to prepare herself mentally for each of the moves and changes. But, she said, spouses should “give themselves credit for how much we do.” 

“When [the movers drive] away from your house and that house is clean, give yourself credit. When you get a new house and you make it a home, when you get a new job, when you find new friends, all those things deserve credit,” she said. 

Rahn Bass, husband of Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass, said leveraging friends and other spouses, and leaning on senior leadership has helped him. Bass retired from the Army and said being put in the role of a Key Spouse has been a bit uncomfortable, because it is outside of his expertise. 

“But, if you’re going to grow, you have to … get uncomfortable,” he said. 

Mollie Raymond, wife of Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, joined the virtual panel discussion via a pre-recorded video. In it, she acknowledged that COVID-19 has impacted everyone. 

“Like so many Americans, our Air Force and Space Force families are experiencing life stressors, such as the loss of normal routines, balancing teleworking with childcare, navigating remote or virtual learning with our children, not to mention the fear that we have of becoming ill,” Raymond said, adding that she’s particularly worried about the “lack of social interaction,” because despite Zoom and social media, “we’re missing out on human interaction, and people feel isolated and lonely.”

To combat that loneliness, Brown suggested reaching out to other military families who might need support. 

“If you’ve been in the area for a little while and you know families are moving in, reach out to them, try to say hello in whatever ways you can,” she said. 

Rolls-Royce, Air Force Nearing Deal on VR Engine Training for Some C-130Js

Rolls-Royce, Air Force Nearing Deal on VR Engine Training for Some C-130Js

The Air Force and Rolls-Royce are finalizing a contract for new Virtual Reality Maintenance Training Software for the C-130J’s AE 2100 engines, giving Airmen the chance to virtually “break open” and train on power plants as opposed to working on an aircraft’s real engine.

The software system, combined with off-the-shelf virtual reality headsets and computers, will first be provided to the 58th Maintenance Group at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., which flies HC-130Js and MC-130Js, according to a Rolls-Royce release. Currently, Airmen who want to train extensively on the AE 2100 need to go to a Rolls-Royce facility in Indianapolis and work with company representatives. A contract is expected to be finalized within the next few weeks.

“We must transform the way we learn,” said Col. J.B. Baquet, commander of the 58th MXG, in a Rolls-Royce release. “The VR maintenance system will enhance training efficiency, shorten the learning curve, accelerate skill levels, and improve fleet readiness.”

The Rolls-Royce developed software is “extremely sophisticated” and developed over the past two years as the company moved into a “model-based design and engineering environment” for developing its new engines, said Nadine Melind, the director of services growth and solution design for Rolls-Royce Defense. From that development, it was then “natural” to progress into sustainment and maintenance and use the digital modeling of the entire engine for training.

“This will give them an experience they would normally not be able to have,” in being able to go, virtually, in-depth into the engine, she said. Once the systems are delivered, Airmen will be able to practice in the environment as often as they like.

“It’s very cost effective. It also means you don’t have to take an engine out of service, you don’t have to have all the tooling that’s required to disassemble an engine, you also don’t have to have all the components,” she said.

The delivery of the VR systems to Kirtland comes as the Air Force is looking broadly at increasing the use of VR in several other areas of training. Air Education and Training Command, for example, has adopted VR systems for its “Pilot Training Next” initiative to give pilots more repetition in a digital environment before, and in addition to, real-world flying.

Rolls-Royce began its effort on VR with the AE 2100 because it is the “largest community of AE engines in the world,” and particularly in the Air Force. The company also has developed a VR training “experience” for the BR725 engine, which is the civilian equivalent of the F130 engine the company is submitting for the B-52 re-engining competition. The VR system, with some modifications, could also be used for V-22 Osprey operators.

Air Force to Test Weapons Swarming Software in October

Air Force to Test Weapons Swarming Software in October

Air Force researchers in October will test whether a software version of the service’s developmental weapons swarm can make its way through a combat mission and reroute itself as conditions change.

The demonstration is part of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s Golden Horde initiative, a high-profile project to create munition swarms that autonomously work together when fired and “think” on their own to attack targets that match criteria given to the software.

Golden Horde assets could be used for traditional airstrikes, or carry sensors and other payloads for missions from reconnaissance to electronic warfare to aerial refueling.

“We’re actually going to be demonstrating digital twin-enabled operations … where we’ll be using a software variant of a collaborative weapon flying out in a swarm mission, encountering some issues along the way that it did not expect, and collecting that data back over through an [Advanced Battle Management System] cyber-assured cloud, to then feed a digital twin model using some [artificial intelligence and machine learning] techniques to ascertain where we might put either some different playbooks or a software improvement into the weapon system,” Craig Ewing of AFRL said during a Sept. 21 presentation on digital systems engineering in the Air Force.

Digital twins are virtual models of hardware that can be used in simulations to refine engineering work and speed up development of new military systems without relying as much on physical prototypes. They are a core piece of the Department of the Air Force’s new push to adopt digital engineering more broadly across its inventory. 

Golden Horde is one of AFRL’s three fast-tracked “vanguard” programs that receives more attention and resources from across the service because it is so promising.

Program officials will use technology developed for Gray Wolf, an earlier effort to develop a swarming cruise missile, as the model for the demonstration. The Air Force said last year it would abandon Gray Wolf in its early stages of development at Lockheed Martin and Northrop Grumman to focus on networking existing munitions through Golden Horde instead.

The data collected on Gray Wolf will help hone algorithms to ensure Golden Horde, a collection of Collaborative Small Diameter Bombs and Miniature Air-Launched Decoys, works as intended in real life. Scientific Applications and Research Associates and Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp. are networking those weapons together for the Air Force.

Gray Wolf is a potential experiment surrogate for the Golden Horde munitions, Christopher J. Ristich, head of AFRL’s Strategic Development Planning and Experimentation office, said Sept. 16.

“We’re looking at a whole variety of things, from small [unmanned aerial vehicle] systems to explore the behaviors of these collaborative weapons, up to actual surrogates for the weapons themselves,” he said. 

While the AFRL website notes that demos will begin late this year and “ultimately lead to an integrated capstone test event with … weapons working together to prosecute simulated targets in the fall of 2021,” Ristich said officials are rethinking aspects of the program as well as the schedule.

Defense News reported earlier this year that F-16 fighter jets would flight-test the CSDB-1 in 2020, followed by tests of the CMALD on the B-52 bomber next summer. 

“The first flight test scenarios will be simple, helping the Air Force gauge whether the weapons are properly communicating across the network and acting in accordance with the mission playbook,” Defense News wrote. “For example, a team of CSDB-1s could come across a threat while en route to attack a target and would have to change trajectory to avoid it.”

The Air Force may vet the concept as an integrated swarm in 2022.

USAF Wants Promotions to Be More Equitable, Brown Says

USAF Wants Promotions to Be More Equitable, Brown Says

USAF is exploring ways to make promotions less biased based on Air Force Specialty Codes and other demographics, Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown Jr. told reporters on Sept. 16.

The service got a relatively early start in tackling unconscious bias within the promotions process in the 1990s when it removed photos from promotions packages—a move Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper ordered the rest of the services to follow suit on by Sept. 1 of this year—Brown told reporters during a media roundtable at the Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference. 

He also cited USAF’s recent adoption of developmental categories for officer promotions as a further step in the direction of more equitable promotions. This shift allowed many officers to compete against their peers whose expertise, experience, and professional trajectories more closely align with their own, instead of forcing them to compete with combat-experienced pilots and other Airmen from Line of the Air Force career fields.

But now, Brown said, USAF is taking a deeper look at systemic biases that might still be impeding some Airmen’s ability to ascend its ranks.

“We started to look at how we bring folks in and open up the candidate pool in certain areas and look to see if there are biases that we have in our promotion system, biases in our accession systems, and biases in the testing that qualifies you for certain career fields … because some of those haven’t changed in a long time,” he told reporters at vASC. 

During the same roundtable, Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass said that the Air Force enlisted corps’ “underrepresented groups … are getting promoted at great rates.” 

For this reason, she said, she’s focusing on enhancing retention and inclusivity among that segment of the USAF population so the service “can tap into that talent pool and maximize” its culture and force, while ensuring Airmen feel “like they belong.”

“I’ve got a discussion in the next few weeks with a lot of my senior enlisted leaders across the force to talk about, you know, what does that mean for awards? What does that mean for recognition? And so I’ll tell you …. the jury’s still out,” Bass told reporters.

While she underscored the absence of photos from USAF promotion packages, she said that analyzing images of Airmen to ensure “good order and discipline, making sure that dress and appearance is the way that it needs to go, and for those purposes” is sometimes appropriate when deliberating awards.

“So again, kind of lots of lines of effort because we do have to make sure we’re guarding against unconscious bias, but we still are in the United States military and we’ve got to have … the dress and appearance that is appropriate for the profession of arms that we serve in,” Bass said. “So we’re having those discussions right now.”

Bass also said the service is deliberating how it might reincorporate enlisted Airmen’s experience levels into promotion decisions, Air Force Times reported.

Space Force Focuses on Threat as It Builds Training

Space Force Focuses on Threat as It Builds Training

The U.S. Space Force is leveraging what it’s learned at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and is using the Air Force model as it works to determine how best to train space professionals going forward, Maj. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt, director of operations and communications for the Space Force, said during a panel discussion as part of AFA’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference

“We talk about preparing for the future. I think it’s important that folks understand as we stand up the United States Space Force, all of that preparation is really steeped in training and culture, and foundationally, I think everyone understands that warfighting is warfighting. The kinematics and the domain may be different, but how we fight, and the doctrine, and the way we get offense and defense … are no different from one domain to the other,” she said, adding that what is needed to “fight and win” in space is a focus on the threat. 

“The threat is king,” she said. “It’s the foundation of everything we do, and it’s going to drive how we do training.” 

Maj. Gen. Charles S. Corcoran, commander of the U.S. Air Force Warfare Center, said that for many years, “We’ve designed platforms, we’ve designed widgets, but we didn’t necessarily design in the test and training infrastructure that we needed to, to test the systems, to develop the tactics, and to train appropriately.” 

Now, he said, the Warfare Center is trying to make sure the entire Department of the Air Force is thinking about the necessary test and training infrastructure, “as we design the future force.” 

“Warfighter focused, warfighter informed, that’s what we’re all about here,” he said, noting that his three priorities are “agile development, test and training infrastructure, and all things command and control.” 

Burt was previously the vice commander of the Warfare Center, and she said the Space Force is “learning and leveraging what’s been done at Nellis with the Virtual Test and Training Center.” The force has a Space Flag exercise that is similar to Red Flag, though it is entirely virtual, she said.  

Both forces need live, virtual, and constructive training capabilities, Corcoran and Burt said, but Burt noted that LVC and high-end simulators are particularly crucial for the Space Force, since many of the capabilities are brand new.      

“I want you to think about on the air side of the business, if I told you I wasn’t going to let a test pilot fly an F-22 until it came off the assembly line, and now that was an F-22, and that was your program of record, and you are not going to be able to change that airframe. And we’re going to fly it as-is,” she said. “That’s really what we’re talking about in space. Once the satellite is launched, the capability is launched. … We don’t get a redo. We don’t get to bring it back.” 

How Social Distancing Helped the Air Force Fix Lackland’s Dorms

How Social Distancing Helped the Air Force Fix Lackland’s Dorms

A tent city erected at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, on April 28 not only gave Air Education and Training Command “swing space” to ensure its Basic Military Training recruits and tech school students heeded COVID-19-era social distancing mandates, but it also gave the command a chance to make much-needed dorm repairs, AETC boss Lt. Gen. Marshall B. “Brad” Webb said Sept. 16.

The system, which is slated to deactivate on Oct. 1, is on loan from Air Force Materiel Command and staffed by Airmen from the base’s 433rd Airlift Wing and the Texas Air National Guard’s 149th Fighter Wing.

“That tent city gave us a lot of flexibility,” Webb said during a panel on USAF talent management that was held as part of the AFA’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference. “It also gave us the opportunity to … take down dorms kind of one at a time and get some phased maintenance, if you will, accomplished on those, and it’s gotten us on a really, really strong footing.”

Brig. Gen. Caroline M. Miller, commander of Joint Base San Antonio and the 502nd Air Base Wing, said these improvements were a joint effort between the 502nd ABW and the 37th Training Wing.

“The 502[n]d Air Base Wing secured a BEAR, or Basic Expeditionary Airfield Resource, base kit that delivered a capability to the installation to continue training Airmen in the event of a catastrophic infrastructure failure to one of AETC’s weapon system platforms (i.e., training dormitories),” she said in a Sept. 18 statement to Air Force Magazine. “Recognizing the critical vulnerability and capitalizing on the opportunity Tent City provided, we coordinated a plan with the 37th Training Wing, providing engineers from the 502[n]d Civil Engineer Squadron with a safe, controlled environment with minimal impact to the training mission.”

Since May 1, these engineers have performed “critical maintenance” on 11 buildings at Lackland, including “recruit, housing and training, Airmen training complexes, and dining/classroom facilities,” finished over 2,500 work orders, and resolved a maintenance backlog, she said.

“This is similar to the phased maintenance completed on aircraft to ensure their sustainment and operational readiness,” Miller added.

Lackland’s dorms demand the same kind of careful and consistent attention that USAF’s aircraft are given, said 37th Training Wing Commander Col. Rockie K. Wilson.

“AETC’s training dormitories are a unique asset that require proper sustainment to produce the Airmen we need,” he said in a Sept. 18 statement to Air Force Magazine. “Since these facilities are foundational to developing Airmen, they need to be sustained like a weapon system.”

While the combination of these buildings’ ages, the constant nature of AETC’s training mission, and the pandemic environment have made this crucial upkeep challenging, Wilson said the wing and its “joint base partners” have risen to the challenge.

“For the BMT specifically, much of this has to do with enabling access in conjunction with periods where our trainees are dislocated for readiness training and during non-accession periods to allow our Military Training Instructors to reconstitute themselves and their families,” he said. “The evolution of this process synergizes both the resilience of our training facilities with the readiness and resilience of our Airmen.”

In addition to these recent fixes, Wilson noted that two new dorms currently under construction at the base are slated to be finished by 2023. Two others should be tentatively constructed by 2026, he added.

“These projects will effectively mark the complete recapitalization of the legacy training facilities for basic military training,” he said.

In an April interview with Air Force Magazine, then-Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein cited AETC’s employment of the tent-city system as an example of the command’s creative approach to tackling the coronavirus challenge.