Five DOD Medical Facilities to Participate in COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

Five DOD Medical Facilities to Participate in COVID-19 Vaccine Trial

Sept. 3, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Volunteers at five military medical facilities across the U.S. will become part of the Phase III trial to vet biopharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca’s coronavirus vaccine, the Pentagon announced Sept. 3.

Naval Medical Center San Diego, Calif.,; Joint Base San Antonio’s Brooke Army Medical Center and Wilford Hall Ambulatory Surgical Center in Texas; Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Md.; and Fort Belvoir Community Hospital, Va., will take part.

“The Department of Defense continues to play a key role in the development of a potential COVID-19 vaccine,” Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs Thomas McCaffery said in the release. “Now that vaccines have passed the first phases of testing for safety, dosing, and response, we are ready to move into the next phase where volunteers are needed to join large clinical studies. We are excited to have several sites identified to support the next steps in the vaccine development process.”

The Defense Department put out a call for essential workers like health care and emergency response personnel, grocery and restaurant employees, and others who are more exposed to the virus through their jobs. The study is also looking for people who live in densely populated areas, live or work in correctional facilities or nursing homes, and those whose communities are hardest-hit by the virus because of age, underlying health conditions, or race.

Vaccine trial coordinators in those areas will reach out to volunteers who are beneficiaries of the Military Health System and are a good match for the study, DOD said. People looking to volunteer can sign up at www.CoronavirusPreventionNetwork.org.

United Kingdom-based AstraZeneca is seeking about 30,000 adults at 80 American sites to determine if its vaccine can prevent COVID-19, according to the National Institutes of Health. It is part of Operation Warp Speed, the multiagency push to develop and distribute a safe coronavirus vaccine and therapeutics by January 2021.

Oxford University’s Jenner Institute and the Oxford Vaccine Group developed the vaccine and licensed it to AstraZeneca for further development. Oxford’s solution uses a chimpanzee adenovirus to familiarize the human body with the “spike protein” that a coronavirus uses to enter host cells.

“The trial primarily is designed to determine if [this vaccine] can prevent symptomatic COVID-19 after two doses. The trial also will evaluate if the vaccine candidate can prevent SARS-CoV-2 infection regardless of symptoms and if it can prevent severe COVID-19,” NIH said. “It also will assess if the experimental vaccine can reduce the incidence of emergency department visits due to COVID-19.”

The vaccine is also under evaluation in the U.K., Brazil, and South Africa.

Two Spaceflight Experiments Win AFRL Approval

Two Spaceflight Experiments Win AFRL Approval

Sept. 3, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Two spaceflight experiments on object tracking and atmospheric ionization won the Air Force Research Laboratory’s latest competition for promising technologies, the lab said Sept. 2. 

The “Precise” project and the Cislunar Highway Patrol System beat out 25 other internal proposals in a six-month bid to win further military backing. That competition, dubbed Space Warfighting Operationally Resilient Demonstrations (SWORD), will become an annual event within AFRL’s Space Vehicles Directorate.

“We had to really ask ourselves, which of these projects has the potential to deliver the biggest impact to our fighting forces?” AFRL Chief Space Experimentalist Lawrence Robertson said in the release. 

AFRL will continue to run research and development efforts for both the Air Force and Space Force, rather than standing up an entirely new space-focused lab.

The Precise experiment will be the lab’s first foray into very low Earth orbit, or 200 to 300 kilometers above the planet, as the Pentagon explores the utility of closer orbits for military operations.

Satellite instruments and radio waves will comb the ionosphere to understand how gases come together in various ways that could affect satellite communications and GPS signals—and later avoid that interference.

“The Precise experiment builds on more than 50 years of AFRL investigation into the physics of the upper atmosphere,” Program Manager Rachel Hock-Mysliwiec said in the release. “It will examine ionization processes in the ionosphere, the region of ionized gas between 90 and 600 km altitude, which impacts radio propagation used by warfighters for communications and navigation.”

Pentagon endeavors typically put satellites in farther orbits because those require less propulsion to keep them aloft, unlike systems closer to Earth that contend with greater gravity. DOD is now changing that trend through programs like the Space Development Agency’s plan to put thousands of satellites in low Earth orbit for communications, missile tracking, and more.

The Cislunar Highway Patrol System (CHPS) looks higher, to the area between geostationary orbit and the moon. As the Space Force tries to better understand what’s traveling in that expanse—a key region for military awareness given the U.S. push to return to the moon and then look to Mars—CHPS will evaluate how objects move in cislunar space and new ways to track them.

“We need to address really basic things that start to break down beyond GEO, like how do we even write down a trajectory?” said Jaime Stearns, principal investigator on the project. “CHPS will also explore other technologies required to support the mission, like communication and navigation.”

The lab chose the efforts based on their technical merit and military utility. The programs must still submit their budgets, anticipated timelines, and technical objectives to the lab but are slated to begin work Oct. 1.

Air Force Academy Names Newest Mascot ‘Nova’

Air Force Academy Names Newest Mascot ‘Nova’

Sept. 3, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The U.S. Air Force Academy has named its newest mascot “Nova,” the school announced in a Sept. 3 tweet.

“Nova, an exceedingly bright star, represents the future of our Academy as a commissioning source for both Air & Space Force officers,” the school wrote.

The female gyrfalcon, who was hatched in May, was the USAFA Falconry Team’s first feathery addition since the October 2019 passing of Aurora, another gyrfalcon, at the age of 23, Air Force Magazine previously reported. 

Nova was introduced to the world via this baby picture shared by the U.S. Air Force Academy in June. Photo: William Dollar/courtesy of USAFA

The public was invited to submit potential names for the new mascot earlier this year. However, as per tradition, votes by the Academy’s Cadet Wing finalize its falcons’ monikers, USAFA spokesperson Maureen Welch told Air Force Magazine in June.

The Merriam-Webster Dictionary defines a “nova” as “a star that suddenly increases its light output tremendously and then fades away to its former obscurity in a few months or years.” But Aurora’s destiny as an education bird—a job Welch said makes a falcon an ambassador for its species and USAFA, alike—means she’ll likely have a far more lasting impact than her name implies.

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B-1s, B-2s Train Down Under

B-1s, B-2s Train Down Under

Sept. 3, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Air Force B-1s and B-2s deployed to the Indo-Pacific came together to train with U.S. and Australian joint terminal attack controllers down under, dropping training bombs at three different training ranges throughout August.

The B-1s, deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and B-2s deployed to Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia, made multiple passes over the Delamere, Bradshaw, and Mount Bundley training areas where Marine Rotational Force-Darwin and Australian joint terminal attack controlers controlled the strikes, according to a Pacific Air Forces release. The bombers were refueled by KC-135s deployed to Australia from Kadena Air Base, Japan.

USMC Col. David M. Banning and Royal Australian Air Force Group Capt. Stewart Dowrie assess footage from a RQ-21A Blackjack taken onAug. 14, 2020, of a B-1B Lancer airstrike. Banning is the commanding officer of Marine Rotational Force-Darwin, and Dowrie is the commander of Australian Headquarters Northern Command. Photo: Gunnery Sgt. Scott M. Schmidt/USMC

The B-2s flew 3,991 miles to make the trip. Once in Australia, they flew low passes while Marines called in “rapid” air strikes with live munitions, according to PACAF.

“It’s imperative that the U.S. Marine Corps and Australian Army work together,” said Australian Army Sgt. Aaron Costes, a JTAC with 102nd Coral Battery, in the release. “It’s such a feat that we can infill and have an aircraft come in from such long distances.”

Australian Tiger helicopters and Marine Corps RQ-21A unmanned aerial vehicles identified targets for the strikes, according to PACAF.

A U.S. Marine Corps forward air controller with Marine Rotational Force-Darwin observes two B-1B Lancers after a successful air strike simulation at Mount Bundey Training Area, Northern Territory, Australia, on Aug. 6, 2020. Within the scenario, a combined team of U.S. Marines and Australian Defence Forces provided target information to U.S. Air Force bombers. Photo: Gunnery Sgt. Scott M. Schmidt/USMC

“Airmen and Marines integrate seamlessly together because we speak the same language,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Christopher Conant, B-2 Bomber Task Force commander, in the release. “We both understand how to maneuver cognitively and physically to achieve an objective.”

The B-1s deployed to Andersen from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., in mid-July and have flown several long-distance training flights, integrating with Japanese aircraft and flying over the South China Sea. B-2s deployed to Diego Garcia on Aug. 11, where they are using Air Force Global Strike Command’s overseas mobile operations center for the first time, according to a release.

USAF Asks Airmen, Civilians to Sound Off on Uniforms, Appearance Regs

USAF Asks Airmen, Civilians to Sound Off on Uniforms, Appearance Regs

Sept. 3, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

When it comes to telling its troops how to suit up and stay sharp-looking, the Air Force wants to make sure Airmen feel like their perspectives matter.

The Department of the Air Force has created a crowdsourcing campaign that will empower Airmen and USAF civilians to share their ideas about how it can improve its uniforms, gear, and dress and appearance rules, the service announced Sept. 3.

Beginning the same day, service members and civilians can submit their ideas by logging into USAF’s IdeaScale platform, navigating to its homepage, and locating the “Dress and Appearance” tile there, a USAF release stated. New IdeaScale users can sign up for the platform with their Common Access Cards, it noted.

Idea categories include grooming and appearance standards; physical training gear; dress, utility, and maternity uniforms; and more, according to the release. Airmen may also share their thoughts on things like accessories, badges, and specialty insignia, it added.

USAF subject matter experts will review the ideas and decide whether or not to present them to the Air Force Uniform Board, the release stated. 

“The uniform board will make recommendations to the Air Force Chief of Staff,” the release explained. “All CSAF-approved ideas will be implemented within AFI 36-2903, Dress and Personal Appearance of Air Force Personnel. If an idea does not meet the Air Force Uniform Board, a notice with rationale will be sent to the submitter.”

If members of the USAF community previously sent in relevant proposals via the Airmen Powered by Innovation campaign, those ideas will be migrated over to the new campaign, the release noted.

Air Force Military Force Policy Deputy Director Lisa M. Truesdale said soliciting ideas from the USAF community is crucial to cultivating an inclusive climate.

“If we want an environment in which Airmen feel valued, we need to create transformative opportunities to foster a culture of innovation and then listen to their ideas,” she said in the release.  “Additionally, wearing the uniform and having pride in your personal appearance enhances esprit de corps.”

USAF will take the Total Force’s opinions into account when crafting dress and appearance guidance, she added.

“Individuals contribute their highest levels of creativity when they are cared for and feel a sense of belonging,” she said in the release.

Lockheed, York Win Contracts for First SDA Satellites

Lockheed, York Win Contracts for First SDA Satellites

Sept. 2, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

A high-profile effort to spread thousands of satellites close to Earth for better communications, missile tracking, and more is getting underway with contracts to Lockheed Martin and York Space Systems.

The Space Development Agency on Aug. 31 awarded $187.5 million to Lockheed and $94 million to York for 10 small test satellites apiece as part of “Tranche 0” of SDA’s low Earth orbit proliferation plan.

Satellites are slated to begin launching in 2022. They are the first batch in SDA’s “transport layer” of data-sharing satellites that will pass targeting and tracking data and other communications down to military personnel on Earth.

Fourteen “A-class” satellites will feature optical crosslinks to talk to other satellites on the same plane as they travel past each other, as well as those in different planes and orbits. Those are due to SDA for launch by September 2022. Six “B-class” satellites will have optical crosslinks as well as tactical data links to talk to the ground using a Link 16 transmitter, SDA Director Derek Tournear told reporters on an Aug. 31 call.

The amount of money each company received is based on their proposals’ anticipated requirements and schedules. While Lockheed is a longtime player in space technology, York’s selection is part of a push into private-sector, commercial companies that don’t typically work with the Defense Department. York is a startup but already has satellite work elsewhere in the Pentagon, like the Army’s Harbinger imaging system.

The two beat out several other bidders that Tournear declined to name, based on how realistic their proposal is, past performance on contracts, and their readiness to deliver space hardware.

“You can utilize those commoditized components in a very rapid manner to meet the military utility and military specifications, so I’m really excited about that,” Tournear said of York.

Each contractor is sourcing their crosslinks from different providers, and must prove that their creations can integrate with the other company’s. If successful, SDA will build toward a Tranche 1 with hundreds of operational satellites for various military purposes by the end of fiscal 2024. It wants to pull in other companies as needed to avoid boxing itself into “vendor lock” and to ideally keep prices down.

“This would give you a … global network to be able to pass targeting data directly from different sensor systems, fuse them together, and send them to a weapons platform so … you can put an effect on target. That does not exist today,” Tournear said.

Right now, weapons operators rely on separate communications devices that only connect to their system instead of getting firing data from anywhere. The U.S. military also lacks a way to detect and track advanced missile threats around the globe.

“This capability will connect to systems that include fighter aircraft like F-16, F-22, and F-35, missile defense networks like PAC-3 and THAAD, weapons systems, and integrated air and missile defense networks, and will provide sensor-to-shooter targeting and situational awareness for tactical land and maritime warfighters,” Lockheed noted in a Sept. 1 release. 

Tournear added SDA is working toward a capstone event with combatant commands at the beginning of fiscal 2023. That will demonstrate whether the first round of satellites can speed up the time it takes to find and strike a target.

CSAF Helps Dedicate AFA’s New Doolittle Leadership Center

CSAF Helps Dedicate AFA’s New Doolittle Leadership Center

Sept. 2, 2020 | By Tobias Naegele

In the opening weeks of his tenure as Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. has drummed home a recurring theme: “Accelerate change”—or risk losing America’s strategic combat edge. Now the Air Force Association is joining that fight with a new approach to military-industry collaboration.

The Doolittle Leadership Center will be a “cauldron of creativity and collaboration,” said AFA President and retired Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright, at an intimate dedication ceremony livestreamed from the DLC on Sept. 2. The Doolittle Leadership Center will be “a place to bring together the best military, industry, and research community talent and expose them to new ideas as they get to know and trust each other, expanding imaginations and horizons across the national security community,” he added.

Video: Air Force Association on YouTube

Brown called the center “the perfect environment for Air Force Association members to study, develop leadership skills, and collaborate in the national security arena.” Citing his call for more rapid change and innovation, Brown said the Air Force must “focus on joint warfighting concepts enabled by joint all-domain command and control, and rapidly move forward with digital, low-cost, high-tech warfighting capabilities.”  

“Only through collaboration within and throughout will we be able to succeed,” Brown concluded. “I’m very thankful for the Air Force Association for opening this incredible facility to enable the collaboration and innovation. All Airmen, past and present, regardless of rank or stature, have a role in shaping our future… The Doolittle Leadership Center is a perfect environment to foster that renewed focus for all who bleed blue.”

Patricia Mulcahy, the Space Force’s deputy chief of space operations for personnel, speaks at the unveiling of AFA’s Doolittle Leadership Center on Sept. 2, 2020. Photo: Mike Tsukamoto/staff

Representing the Space Force, Deputy Chief of Space Operations for Personnel and its Chief Human Capital Officer Patricia Mulcahy described the rapidly evolving space domain as one demanding partnership and innovation for new ways of doing business in a brand new military service.

“The Doolittle Leadership Center will be a critical enabler of the Space Force’s ability to adapt to the rapidly changing character of space operations,” she said. “We see the DLC as helping us to innovate by capitalizing on the rapid change we see across our space industry …. The Doolittle Leadership Center’s industry and think tank engagements will be instrumental in helping our people fully leverage their bright minds and their desire to serve.”

The center is named for Gen. James Harold Doolittle who, as a lieutenant colonel at the start of World War II, led the secret, daring mission to strike Tokyo with Army Air Force B-25 bombers launched from the aircraft carrier Hornet more than 600 miles from Japanese shores. The raid had little kinetic effect, but its strategic value in shoring up American confidence five months after the bombing of Pearl Harbor helped invigorate American resolve and sew doubt in the minds of the Japanese. Doolittle went on to be a four-star general and the founding president of the Air Force Association.

Speaking from her home in California, Jonna Doolittle Hoppes, a granddaughter of Jimmy Doolittle and executive director of the Doolittle Foundation, praised the ideas behind forming the center and its aim “to reach down through the ranks and touch individual Airmen—a plan that involves listening to them, learning from them, [and] developing them into strong leaders.”

This new center, she said, “is going to be about people. Gramps always said there is no ‘I’ in ‘team,’ that every success he enjoyed was because of his people. I’m pretty sure he’s smiling right now.”

AFA Doolittle Leadership Center
Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. helped Air Force Association Chairman of the Board and retired CMSAF Gerald R. Murray and AFA president retired Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright unveil the new Doolittle Leadership Center in Arlington, Va., on Sept. 2, 2020. Photo: Mike Tsukamoto/staff

Doolittle was the ideal candidate for whom such a center should be named, said Marc Tang, director of GBSD business development with Northrop Grumman, who addressed the gathering by telling the story of the Doolittle Raiders through pictures, video clips and personal reflection. Like Jonna Doolittle, he had a personal connection to the Raiders story to share: His grandfather, Lt. Gen. Tang Zi-Chang, was a Chinese Nationalist leader who helped rescue, shelter, and return to freedom most of the Raiders after they crash-landed in China following their one-way mission off the carrier Hornet. Doolittle and his co-pilot Lt. Col. Richard E. “Dick” Cole were among those Gen. Tang rescued.

“Speed was something they understood inherently and change was something they saw and embraced throughout their historic careers and lifetimes,” Wright said. “They understood—as I know all of us understand—how important collaboration, partnership, and innovation are to achieving extraordinary effects in any battlespace, be it air, space, land, sea, or cyber.

“War is a collaborative endeavor. … We fight and we win in coalitions. When an idea develops in one fine mind it gets better when we inject competition and cooperation into the picture,” Wright added. “A diversity of thinking exposes blind spots and poses new answers to vexing problems. This is the nature of innovation and is precisely what our Doolittle Leadership Center is all about.”  

Soofer: No New ‘Tactical’ Nukes for USAF

Soofer: No New ‘Tactical’ Nukes for USAF

Sept. 2, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The Air Force doesn’t need to grow its stockpile of “tactical” nuclear weapons to complement the Navy’s newly deployed submarine-launched W76-2 warhead, the Pentagon’s top nuclear policy official indicated Sept. 2.

“The Air Force is doing more than its fair share in this area,” Robert Soofer, deputy assistant secretary of defense for nuclear and missile defense policy, said during an AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. “I don’t think they need to do anything more.”

Video: Mitchell Institute on YouTube

The Air Force is buying new intercontinental ballistic missiles, air-launched cruise missiles, and nuclear-capable bombers, refurbishing the B61 gravity bomb, designing a modern nuclear command, control, and communications enterprise, and equipping the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter to carry nukes.

With an eye on Russia’s nuclear arsenal, American military officials have started arguing that the U.S. needs to focus not only on geopolitically strategic weapons like the traditional ICBMs and submarine-launched ballistic missiles. Nuclear warfare could emerge on the battlefield in a smaller-scale, regional conflict, and the Pentagon says its existing inventory of nukes wasn’t designed to keep those kinds of attacks in check.

The Navy deployed the estimated 5-kiloton W76-2 warhead on a submarine in the last weeks of 2019, according to the Federation of American Scientists. Though still destructive, its yield is thought to be a fraction of the 90-kiloton W76-1 or the 455-kiloton W88 also used by SLBMs, and about three or four times less powerful than the nuclear bombs the U.S. dropped on Japan in 1945.

Soofer’s comment indicates the Air Force will not follow suit in adopting an additional, smaller warhead for its missiles.

Two future USAF systems, the B61-12 bomb and the Long-Range Standoff Weapon, will already offer “low-yield” options, or 20 kilotons or less, as well as bigger blasts, according to the Federation of American Scientists. The ability to “dial a yield” is touted as an important measure of flexibility in deterrence or combat, though their opponents say using the weapons can still open the door to all-out nuclear war.

The B61-12, which can be fired via free-fall or using precision guidance, is slated for production from fiscal 2022 to 2025, the National Nuclear Security Administration said in June. The first LRSO missile is expected to be built in 2026.

The U.S. has deployed earlier versions of the B61 across Europe, where some believe Russia could use nuclear bombing as a combat tactic to assert dominance or claim territory. Proponents of new weaponry say the Air Force’s low-yield nukes would be flown on aircraft that may not make it through air defense systems like a sub-fired missile could.

The Air Force did not respond to a query about whether it plans to develop additional low-yield weapons as part of its new “conventional-nuclear integration” strategy, which looks at both types of weapons on the same spectrum of conflict instead of in separate categories altogether. That document aims to prepare the service to fight battles where nukes may be used to seize a city or in other, typically non-nuclear scenarios.

National Guard Takes Cyber Shield 2020 Online Due to COVID-19

National Guard Takes Cyber Shield 2020 Online Due to COVID-19

Sept. 2, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The National Guard will conduct the 2020 edition of its annual Cyber Shield Exercise completely online in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The mission of Cyber Shield is to develop, train, and exercise cyber forces in the areas of computer network internal defensive measures and cyber incident response,” National Guard Bureau spokesperson Wayne V. Hall wrote in an Aug. 31 email to reporters. “These capabilities facilitate National Guard Cyber Teams’ abilities to conduct missions to coordinate, train, and assist federal, state, and industry network owners that are threatened by cyberattack.”

The exercise, slated for Sept. 12-27, is projected to include more than 800 Guard personnel from at least 41 states and the District of Columbia, plus U.S. government and private sector partners, according to Illinois National Guard spokesperson Lt. Col. Brad Leighton. NGB expects Air National Guard personnel to comprise about 20 percent of its uniformed participants, he said.

Most Guard personnel will participate remotely, with Microsoft Teams being the main platform used during the exercise, Army Col. Teri D. Williams—commander of the Virginia Army National Guard’s 91st Cyber Brigade and the officer in charge of Cyber Shield 2020—told reporters during a Sept. 2 NGB media call about the exercise. Troops will also have access to email, a ticketing system, and a chat capability, she added. 

In contrast with last year’s iteration of the exercise, which featured a single, extended cyber scenario, this year’s event will feature a collection of single-day cyber events and training exercises, said George Battistelli, exercise director and chief of the Army National Guard’s IT Security, Compliance and Readiness Division.

“At the end of the day, we will tear down, we will reconstitute, and have another event and another scenario for the next day, and so on,” he told reporters during the same call.

Battistelli said this format serves two purposes. First, he said, it allows the Guard “to baseline everybody’s training from a DCOE [Defensive Cyber Operations Element] perspective.” Next, it ensures that regardless of Guard members’ cyber strengths and weaknesses, that they all get “on the same page.” 

Williams said the Guard intentionally incorporated knowledge gaps and skills shortfalls that were identified via the Command Cyber Readiness Inspection Program into this year’s exercise.

According to Battistelli, this program examines risk posture and open vulnerabilities. He said this year’s exercise will take “open vulnerabilities and potential open exploits” that were trending across the Guard and intentionally attempt to exploit them. That way, he said, commanders can get a specific look at how bad actors—internal or external, alike—could intrude into their networks and gain illicit access.

Illustrating these cause and effect relationships between CCRI findings and network weaknesses also serves as a reality check for commanders, he said, since it forces them to take seemingly low-risk hypotheticals more seriously. 

Both Battistelli and Williams were hesitant to divulge the specifics of Cyber Shield 2020 scenarios, as well as the particular kinds of information and cyber skills the exercise will test, for fear of potentially tipping off participants to the challenges that lie ahead.

However, Batistelli said participating personnel could expect to see phishing—which he said “continues to be the number one attack vector”—as well as insider threats. This year’s exercise also will include a greater focus on information operations, he added.

“The first part of the week will focus on … a lot of the things that you see in the news, and … then later in the week, we focus a little bit more on some of the newer technology,” Williams said. “We certainly jump into the … industrial control [systems] … portion of the exercise.”

While a full list of participating ANG wings wasn’t available by press time, Leighton told Air Force Magazine that all three of the Illinois ANG’s wings will be taking part. A small number of Coast Guard, Marine Corps, and Navy personnel are also signed up for the exercise as of Sept. 2, he added.