How F-35 Middle East Deployments Are Shaping Future Ops

Aug. 18, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Air Force F-35As from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, have patrolled the skies of the Middle East continuously for the past 16 months, dropping bombs on the remnants of the Islamic State group and testing new tactics that will shape how the Joint Strike Fighter is used in the future.

The 34th Fighter Squadron’s deployment to the region from October 2019 to June 2020 checked off a lot of firsts for the F-35A, including the type’s first short-notice deployment and the first time the jet practiced agile combat employment—operating from both its home base of Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, and a small forward-deployed location.

“We proved that with the F-35 we can carry out a variety of mission sets. The requirements in CENTCOM go from close air support, all the way to opposed offensive and defensive counter-air and maritime support in the swing of a single day,” said Lt. Col. Aaron Cavazos, commander of the 34th Fighter Squadron, in a statement to Air Force Magazine. “You have to be ready for everything. We were doing everything from strafing in close air support, which wouldn’t normally compute in your brain with the capabilities a fifth-generation fighter brings, to running maritime escort for Carrier Strike Groups in the span of a single day.”

Back in October 2019, the 34th Fighter Squadron knew its deployment was coming, but the Airmen did not know when.

The squadron’s sister unit, the 4th Fighter Squadron, also from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, was finishing up the Air Force’s first combat deployment with the F-35A, and the 34th FS was next. It was going to be the Air Force’s biggest fifth-generation fighter deployment and it happened to come during a time of increased tensions with Iran, so it was fitting the deployment orders would be a bit of a surprise.

“I was flying a local exercise sortie at the time,” Cavazos said. “I got recalled by the command post while I was airborne to return to base and land. As a commander, that normally means somebody got hurt or we’re being deployed … A couple weeks later we had people flying combat sorties.”

The deployment marked a seminal time for the growing F-35A fleet. While the bulk of the squadron’s sorties focused on targeting the remnants of the Islamic State group, the F-35s also served a deterrence role against Iran, which is more in-tune with the higher end threat the stealth fighter was developed to fight as opposed to the long-established practice of conducting scheduled airstrikes, as directed in the air tasking order, in a permissive environment.

For example, the January 2020 Iranian ballistic missile strikes on U.S. bases in Iraq happened in the middle of the squadron’s deployment. While U.S. officials have not confirmed the presence of American aircraft in the region following the attack, Iranian and Russian officials claimed after the attack, six U.S. F-35s were tracked flying near its borders, spooking air defense crews to the point that one crew shot down a civilian airliner by accident.

“It is no surprise that the aircraft were deployed during periods of heightened tension within the Middle East,” said Brig. Gen. David W. Abba, the director of the Air Force’s F-35 Integration Office, during an AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event in March. “All I can tell you on that is that our aircrew and our jets were ready to respond on a moment’s notice, should the order have been given for anything, for any additional missions to be executed.”

Much of the squadron, while deployed, operated out of Al Dhafra—the base that has hosted Air Force stealth fighters deployed to the Middle East in recent years. But the squadron also forward deployed a third of its of Airmen and aircraft to an “undisclosed location” without the same level of support and infrastructure to conduct ongoing combat operations for about three months. The step was a real-life example of the agile combat employment effort the Air Force is practicing in other commands.

“Successfully implementing split operations was the biggest takeaway for us,” Cavasos said. “To be able to bed down in a forward location means that we now have unpredictability against potential adversaries. They are so used to us showing up in country, staying in the same place for half a year, doing the same things and leaving. They know it. We know it. Now we proved we can be more agile. That principal can carry over operationally to other regions and any potential adversaries there.”

While the broader F-35A fleet is still plagued by maintenance issues—only registering a 61.6 percent mission capable rate in 2019—the squadron was able to fly its first combat sortie within 24 hours and it didn’t lose one sortie due to a maintenance issue at either location while deployed, said Capt. Susan McLeod, the officer in charge of the 34th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, in a statement to Air Force Magazine. This at a time the F-35 enterprise is dealing with the continued problems of the Autonomic Logistics Information System, as the program moves toward its replacement.

“To support the forward deployed location and the extension to our deployment at the same time was a challenge,” said Senior Master Sgt. Westley Calloway, the lead production superintendent of the 34th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, in the statement. “We had to think creatively to solve logistics and communication challenges, because in a lot of ways we’re writing the playbook. But once those chains are established, we were able to maintain the health of our fleet and complete every task asked of us.”

The squadron returned to Hill in June, its deployment extended because of COVID-19 travel restrictions, and they have been replaced in theater by Hill’s 421st Fighter Squadron. The Utah base is the Air Force’s only operational F-35 location in the continental United States, and for the 34th, the deployment included pilots who had never deployed with any airplane as well as many young maintainers who had not worked in that environment before.

“I had guys straight from the basic F-35 course who got to see live combat, see how joint operations work, and the unpredictability of warfare. This experience is only going to help them going forward. It was a confidence booster and that perspective that will improve how they train back home,” Cavazos said. “Operationally, we’re becoming our own F-35 community. We aren’t a hodge-podge of pilots from other air frames anymore.”

Deep Freeze Crew in Quarantine to Keep Antarctica COVID-19-Free

Aug. 18, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Airmen with the 304th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron are quarantining in New Zealand, before the Air Force begins one of the most unique Operation Deep Freeze seasons in recent history.

Because of COVID-19, the 30 Airmen are in quarantine after arriving Aug. 6 at Christchurch. The team, made up of Active duty and Reserve Airmen from the 62nd and 446th Airlift Wing and one supply troop from the 627th Air Base Group at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., will leave quarantine next week and head to Antarctica—the only continent on the globe free of the new coronavirus.

“Antarctica is the last place on Earth that has been, and continues to be, COVID-free,” the squadron’s commander Lt. Col Brandon Tellez said in an Air Force Reserve Command release. “The [National Science Foundation] teamed up with my unit and we’ve come up with a plan to mitigate any potential transfer of the virus to any of the people we’re taking down there.”

Operation Deep Freeze is the military’s mission to resupply and support NSF personnel and research in Antarctica. It brings in personnel and equipment to the remote McMurdo Station and other locations on the continent. For this early deployment, the squadron is minimizing contact with aircrew and passengers, including mask wearing, and the C-17s will carry an air transportable galley and lavatory so passengers can use different facilities on board than the crew, according to the release. Because of the pandemic, the NSF contingent is keeping the “bare minimum” of people in Antarctica to maintain the buildings and runway, and conduct scientific work that is required year-round, Tellez said in the release.

The busiest part of Deep Freeze typically runs from September to November, as the C-17s ferry in personnel. Aircraft typically return in February to retrieve personnel, and during Antarctica’s winter months from June-August. This contingent arrived in New Zealand before the main-season team will deploy next month, according to the release.

The 304th EAS deployed with a full maintenance team, which is unique for a late-winter trip to Antarctica. Typically, a winter team would bring in just a crew chief, but because of COVID-19 the squadron brought the full team because if there were any issue with the aircraft, fixes would be delayed as a maintenance recovery team also would have to quarantine.

“So, what we did for this mission, which was a little non-standard, is we brought down our normal main season maintenance package with about one person from every specialty in maintenance down here with us,” Tellez said. “That way if anything goes wrong with the jet, we’re able to fix it without having to wait for a specialist to come out.”

8th Fighter Wing Addresses Concerns about Mold, Mildew in Kunsan Dorms

Aug. 18, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The 8th Fighter Wing addressed concerns about the condition of dormitories at Kunsan Air Base, South Korea, after anonymous footage appearing to show mold, mildew, and/or water damage in two of these buildings was recently posted by the popular, but unofficial, “Air Force amn/nco/snco” Facebook page.

One post contained a photo of a thermostat showing a temperature of 89 degrees Fahrenheit in a dorm (due to broken air conditioning), and appeared to show mold or mildew climbing the wall behind an Airman’s bed in Building 522.

https://www.facebook.com/AirForceForum/posts/1655630217943945

Another appeared to show visible signs of mold, mildew, and/or water damage on the same dorm’s hallway walls and day room furniture.

https://www.facebook.com/AirForceForum/posts/1655108874662746

And a third post from the same building appeared to show mold or mildew that accumulated on the ceilings and around a bathroom faucet in one Airman’s dorm, as well as on their personal belongings.

https://www.facebook.com/AirForceForum/posts/1654759514697682

But Building 522 wasn’t the only dorm implicated in the footage. A video shared by the page that was allegedly shot in a stairwell of Building 504 also appears to depict moisture-related building issues.

https://www.facebook.com/200999403407041/videos/1004787353323105/

In response to questions from Air Force Magazine, wing spokesperson Maj. Emily C. Grabowski said Kunsan’s climate has been more humid than normal—a condition that can exasperate moisture-related building issues— but these problems tend to be manageable.

“The typical 80-100-percent humidity on the peninsula has been exaggerated by record rainfall this year, with almost 30 inches of precipitation from mid-July to early August,” she wrote in an Aug. 18 email. “That being said, mild mold, mildew or dust buildup may occasionally be found in areas that have high volumes of moisture (day rooms, kitchens, and bathrooms), but is generally preventable and quickly remedied with appropriate housekeeping, as well as routine maintenance and repairs.”

Grabowski said the wing is fighting the moisture-related issues in the following ways:

HVAC systems in dorms use “continuous airflow and temperature management” to inhibit mold and moisture from building up within them.
Each dorm has its own dehumidifier.
The 8th Fighter Wing keeps “100 portable air conditioning units” on reserve in case HVAC systems fall short.
Airman may report dorm-related issues via a smartphone application.
They may also reach out “directly to Airmen Dorm Leaders who will closely monitor and track” their concerns “to resolution,” she wrote.
Civil engineers from the wing instantly address any building problems that are reported—dorms included.
Bioenvironmental engineers from the wing have taught Airmen how to be aware of, reduce the severity of, and successfully eradicate mold. “Some tips provided to our Airmen include how to combat humidity by keeping doors and windows closed, running fans in bathrooms, and cleaning mold off of surfaces with household cleaners or mild bleach solutions,” Grabowski noted.

And while Chief Master Sgt. Ronnie Woods, the wing’s command chief, acknowledged the base’s local climate is challenging to the Wolf Pack’s quality of life, he said the whole wing needs to be part of the solution.

“Our Airmen are resilient and they are making many sacrifices being away from family and loved ones,” he said in an Aug. 18 statement to Air Force Magazine. “It’s important we work diligently to ensure our 24 dorms are clean and free of defects so they have a comfortable place to relax, communicate with family, and recharge.”

In February 2019, Kunsan dorms were part of an Air Force Secretary-and Chief of Staff-directed military housing review, a wing release said.

However, Air Force spokesperson Ann M. Stefanek told Air Force Magazine last August that no mold or moisture issues were discovered at Kunsan during spot checks performed at the base.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated on Aug. 18 at 10:05 a.m. EDT to correct Grabowski’s rank.

Silveria: More Work to Do to Curb Racism, Sexual Assault at USAFA

Aug. 17, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The U.S. Air Force Academy must set a better example for students to discourage sexual assault, harassment, and other forms of discrimination on campus, the school’s outgoing Superintendent Lt. Gen. Jay B. Silveria said on Aug. 17.

Encouraging positive behavior among cadets is just as vital as calling out unacceptable ones, Silveria said. New cadets come to Colorado Springs, Colo., with perspectives influenced by people and experiences outside of the school’s control, and students may not adapt well to their new home.

“The 18-year-olds that show up here, they came from a family, they came from a background, from a high school, from an environment that I had nothing to do [with],” he said during an “Aerospace Nation” event hosted by the Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Video; The Mitchell Institute on YouTube

Silveria asked the virtual audience to picture someone driving in a car—presumably en route to their first day at the Academy—and overhearing another passenger making “a disparaging comment about a race or a gender” before walking into their new life at USAFA.

“We are fooling ourselves if we think that they’re going to walk up our ramp that has the core values on it, … they crest the top of the ramp, and that their values flip to ours,” he said. “We have to develop those values. So in addition to the instruction about what not to do, we have to teach them what to do.”

His remarks come at the beginning of the first school year after protests and demonstrations calling for an end to systemic racism and police brutality roiled America earlier this summer. The discussion also follows a January 2020 Pentagon report that showed 40 sexual assaults were reported at USAFA during the 2018-2019 school year, up from 23 the year before.

USAFA has tried to grow the diversity of its student body, and this year welcomes more than 400 minority students in its freshman class of around 1,150 cadets. Of those, 142 are Hispanic, 134 are Asian, 103 are Black, 26 are Pacific Islanders; and 10 are Native American. Women make up about 30 percent of freshmen cadets.

Silveria said the school has programs—including Basic Cadet Training—to teach cadets about healthy interpersonal skills. The academy has taken a two-layer approach to combating sexual assault and harassment within its ranks by training volunteer cadets to act as confidantes for students who want to discuss those issues. USAFA’s Sexual Assault Prevention and Response team offers additional resources and reporting options as well.

The threat of prosecution through the Uniform Code of Military Justice should also deter assault and harassment, Silveria said.

He hopes Lt. Gen. Richard M. Clark, who is about to take the helm as USAFA’s first Black superintendent, will help craft a more open and inclusive campus culture. Clark will oversee initiatives that are already in place to create a safer, more equitable school and start up new ones, as well as manage future requirements Congress may establish in upcoming defense policy bills.

“If there’s a societal issue that is outside of the Air Force Academy, then it is going on inside the Air Force Academy,” Silveria said. “As we deal with an awakening in our country and deal with racism, we have to also deal with that among our cadets, and help them understand how they’re going to lead.”

F-15EX Headed to Oregon, Florida as USAF Decides on Fighter Bases

Aug. 17, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak

Kingsley Field, Ore., will be the schoolhouse for the new F-15EX, the Air Force’s updated version of the Eagle fighter, the service announced Aug. 14. The Air Force also floated other potential Air National Guard operating locations that could adopt the F-15EX and F-35A Joint Strike Fighter.

Kingsley is where the Air Force conducts F-15C/D training today. The first finished F-15EXs will be delivered there in 2022, and Portland Air National Guard Base, Ore., will host the first operational F-15EX unit beginning in 2023, USAF said.

Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., will flight-test the jets starting in early 2021 as well. Eglin aircrews are getting training from Boeing and an F-15EX simulator this year. The initial phase of combined developmental and operational tests, which will check whether the software and hardware like cockpit controls work well together, should take about a year and a half.

“Airmen from the 96th Maintenance Group will undergo familiarization classroom academics and transfer to hands-on training upon the aircraft’s arrival here,” the Air Force said in a July 29 release. “These newly qualified technicians will become the trainers for the maintenance group.”

Other ANG bases now operating F-15C/Ds—Barnes Airport, Mass.; Fresno Yosemite Airport, Calif.; and Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base New Orleans, La.,—will phase out the older jets for either F-15EXs or F-35As, the Air Force added. The service did not indicate when it will make those decisions. Naval Air Station Lemoore, Calif., could also receive the F-35A.

So far, the service hasn’t announced any Active-duty units that will receive the updated Eagles.

The Air Force will now begin on-site evaluations and environmental impact assessments at each location, looking at “operational requirements, potential impacts to existing missions, infrastructure and manpower, and costs before deciding which aircraft will replace the F-15C mission,” the service said.

Active-duty bases already hosting or planned to host the F-35A include Hill Air Force Base, Utah; RAF Lakenheath, U.K.; Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, and Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla. Already-announced Guard locations for the F-35 include Burlington Air National Guard Base, Vt.; Dannelly Field, Ala., and Truax Field, Wis. One Air Force Reserve base, Naval Air Station Joint Reserve Base Fort Worth, Texas, will host the F-35A as well.

The F-15C/D fleet dates back to the 1980s and is “expected to run out of service life by the mid-2020s,” the Air Force said. USAF recently awarded Boeing a contract worth up to $23 billion to supply F-15EX fighters, which are modified versions of the F-15QA in production for Qatar.

The F-15EX is a two-seat fighter that advances the original Eagle design with fly-by-wire flight controls, a powerful new processor, an updated cockpit and a new electronic warfare suite, among other improvements. The Air Force has not decided if the jet will also replace the F-15E in the strike role.

The Air Force did not request the F-15EX, but former Defense Secretary James N. Mattis went along with a 2018 recommendation from the Pentagon’s Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office to buy the fourth-generation fighters as a near-term supplement to the fifth-generation F-35. Critics of the decision have argued that F-15EX money should be used to buy more F-35s, but the Air Force has said it can field the F-15EX faster than the F-35 because it requires less conversion training, less unique ground equipment, and reduced military construction.

Puerto Rico ANG Gets Its Own Disaster Relief Beddown Systems

Aug. 17, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The Puerto Rico Air National Guard recently received two of its own Disaster Relief Beddown Systems, the 156th Wing announced in an Aug. 14 release.

The systems—which allow their owners to erect tent cities to house first responders when responding to emergencies, such as the earthquakes that plagued the territory beginning in December—were reallocated to the PRANG from the North Carolina ANG’s 145th Airlift Wing and the North Dakota ANG’s 119th Wing, according to the release.

“A DRBS contains about 300,000 pounds of equipment necessary to support response personnel during disaster relief,” states the release. “One system includes 16 tents that can house up to 150 personnel and provides bathrooms, showers, and laundry machines. It also includes generators, lighting kits, and air conditioning to ensure operations can be placed in the most austere locations.”

DRBS 200th RED HORSE — An Airman with the Ohio Air National Guard’s 200th RED HORSE Squadron helps set up DRBS equipment in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, in January 2020. **Photo: Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory/staff**

These systems also include reverse osmosis water purification units that can generate as many as 30,000 gallons of clean water each day.

PRANG previously had to depend on other states to lend out one of 20 systems that were scattered at locations across the United States since none were based in Puerto Rico or elsewhere in the Caribbean, said PRANG Deputy Commander and Chief of Staff Brig. Gen. Paul N. Loiselle.

This was the case in January, when Ohio and New Mexico-based RED HORSE Airmen traveled to the territory to construct loaner systems in earthquake-affected areas.

Ohio Air National Guard airmen with the 200th RED HORSE Squadron set up a tent city for military responders in Guayanilla, Puerto Rico, using items from a Disaster Relief Beddown System, in January 2020. **Photo: Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory/staff**

This dependence made for expensive asks when natural disasters hit Puerto Rico—since C-130s are normally required to haul the systems between locations—and slowed the PRANG’s response time to disasters.

“These assets will save lives in the event of a disaster. Having them prepositioned on the island will reduce the air traffic congestion, minimize the time required to set up the full beddown system, and eliminate the costs associated with air transportation to and from the island,” 156th Civil Engineer Squadron Commander Lt. Col. Charles Comfort said in the release. “In addition, when required, positioning in Puerto Rico enables rapid assistance [to be] provided to other islands and countries in the Caribbean and Latin American regions. Building bridges to the Americas is what our unit does best and this equipment enables our bilingual engineer force to provide critical assistance to devastated populations at the time when it’s needed most.”

In January, Loiselle told Air Force Magazine that it was hoping to get two of the systems permanently based in Puerto Rico, but they weren’t adding any new kits at the time.

The PRANG’s receipt of these systems will enhance the Puerto Rico National Guard’s ability to respond to and operate amid disasters, said Puerto Rico Adjutant General Maj. Gen. José J. Reyes.

“The DRBS kits place the men and women of the Puerto Rico National Guard in a better position to support the people of Puerto Rico in case of an emergency,” he said in an Aug. 17 statement to Air Force Magazine. “These assets can help save lives during a disaster, as proven earlier this year when DRBS kits from the Ohio National Guard were deployed to Puerto Rico to assist in the aftermath of several earthquakes that caused much damage to the island’s southwest region.”

DARPA’s AI Dogfighting Tournament Sets Stage for Future Autonomy

Aug. 17, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Pentagon researchers this week will pit man against machine in an aerial dogfighting tournament to see if artificial intelligence algorithms can outsmart each other and a human F-16 pilot in combat.

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s AlphaDogfight Trials will host eight teams that have developed advanced AI that can simulate up-close combat maneuvers in flight. The program bolsters the technology needed for DARPA’s Air Combat Evolution (ACE) program, which aims to automate air-to-air combat and build human trust in machines that can act on their own.

“Autonomy in air combat is certainly not new,” ACE Program Manager Col. Daniel Javorsek said in a recent interview. “The fact that it can be performed at human levels is something that’s a bit more new. … You have to have a system that works and is credible and can provide value in the environment that we want it in.”

Participants include: Aurora Flight Sciences, EpiSys Science, Georgia Tech Research Institute, Heron Systems, Lockheed Martin, Perspecta Labs, PhysicsAI, and SoarTech. To reach this point, the teams sharpened their algorithms over the course of four trials and scrimmages from November 2019 to July 2020.

On Aug. 18, each team will test its algorithms against five AI adversaries created by Johns Hopkins University’s Applied Physics Laboratory.

One adversary, dubbed “Zombie,” flies straight and level to imitate a cruise missile or an older type of drone that the military would want to target. Another situation would make an F-16 act more like a bomber jet by cutting off its afterburner or limiting how well it can turn. Other scenarios will feature adversaries that act like fighter jets.

“If you can point in a particular spot, then you get points for pointing in a particular spot,” Javorsek said. “Once you’ve accumulated a certain amount of time in these rather precise conditions, then if you had had a weapon, then you would have met the criteria for a successful engagement.”

On Aug. 19, all eight teams will take turns facing off against every other competitor in a round-robin tournament to establish a ranking. The next day, the top four teams will square off for the chance to fight the F-16 pilot in a simulator.

The ACE program is teaching those digital brains by starting with easier problems and ramping up in complexity and speed. Typical autonomy efforts skip the middle steps, leading to less capable final products, Javorsek said. AI needs to learn to work as a team with other aircraft, too.

“Even though [dogfights are] probably less likely in the future, the need for an ability to handle that sort of situation won’t go away,” he said. “We continue to use it as a gateway into these more demanding scenarios like suppression of enemy air defenses or offensive counter-air.”

DARPA’s initiative starts with modeling and simulation before moving to two subscale aircraft, one propeller-driven and the other a miniature jet. That approach will force the AI to learn how different plane designs can behave. At a later point, the program wants to add AI into a combat-representative aircraft.

The first phase of ACE ends near the end of 2021, followed by two 16-month phases to put the concepts into practice across gradually larger aircraft. If all goes as planned, DARPA could hand their work off to the Air Force in 2024.

Javorsek said he regularly talks to officials in programs like DARPA’s Gremlins drone swarming initiative, the Air Force’s Skyborg wingman drone project, and its Autonomy Capabilities Team 3. ACT3 is designing an autonomous aircraft that can take down a manned plane in air-to-air combat, with hopes of a demonstration in July 2021.

Those groups are working more on the hardware side, Javorsek said. When their aircraft are ready to accept AI algorithms, DARPA wants to offer the software it’s developed as one option. Program managers are trying to coordinate now so that their creations can work together in the end.

In practice, DARPA envisions that autonomy software could handle things like aircraft maneuvers and targeting, while the pilot acts as a cockpit quarterback.

“As we are kind of pushing the roles and responsibilities of pilots into this battle manager category, then what we’re essentially doing in this program is enabling the autonomy to be even more capable to handle that aircraft maneuver and these rapid, high-tempo decisions in a dynamic environment,” Javorsek said.

Gen. James M. “Mike” Holmes, the outgoing head of Air Combat Command, said on Aug. 14 the service wants to incorporate autonomous aircraft into “red air” training before adopting AI-driven planes more broadly.

“We’d like to take it and see if there are ways to do some unmanned adversaries against our manned aircraft, and then let them learn and train their algorithms and see how good they get at fighting against us,” Holmes said. “I see the tests coming on as a part of that effort.”

Javorsek said DARPA is in the process of choosing the companies that will design more complex software for larger, more dynamic environments with more aircraft and conflict that extends past visual range. Those several companies should be on contract within the next two months.

Down the road, these efforts will move from simulators into live-fly testing with simulated weapons. Aircraft equipped with AI will have “safety pilots” onboard to ensure nothing goes wrong, though the software should be designed to avoid any accidents. Those tests will look at how often pilots rely on the AI system to handle tasks, and how well the humans handle their own battle management mission while AI does the rest.

“When I learned to fly, it’s kind of frightening how little support and augmentation was available to us from a cognitive support perspective, as well as flying the airplane itself,” Javorsek said. “There’s an awful lot more available to current pilots coming out of the pipeline.”

Combat Controller Receives Silver Star for 2013 Battle

Aug. 17, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Master Sgt. John Grimesey, the flight chief of the 21st Special Tactics Squadron at Pope Field, N.C., on Aug. 14 received the military’s Silver Star medal for his actions during a 2013 firefight in Afghanistan. He saved the life of one Soldier and killed more than 30 enemy fighters.

Grimesey initially received the Bronze Star medal for the battle, but the Air Force later upgraded the award as part of a service review of valor medals.

“I think about it every day. I even dream about it,” Grimesey said of the battle, according to an Aug. 14 Air Force release. “It’s an event that left an impression on me. While it was a harrowing experience, I look back with great pride and believe that my team and I were able to save lives and help ensure the security of the village.”

On May 25, 2013, Grimesey, then a senior Airman and combat controller with the 21st Special Tactics Squadron, set out with his team to clear a village in Ghazni Province so Afghan police could establish a presence. American and Afghan forces were working together when one team ran into a large group of Taliban members. The Taliban came between the partner forces and killed and injured Afghans, including the police chief.

A rocket-propelled grenade exploded near Grimesey as he looked around the corner of a wall, giving him a concussion. He sustained other injuries as well. Nevertheless, he returned fire and saved an Army Special Forces Soldier hit in the attack by dragging him 25 feet away from enemy fire.

“I snapped into a problem-solving mode,” he said. “The situation was dire and the only way to solve it was to rely on my extensive training and attempt to break down the large problem into small chunks. I had to prioritize with what I was being faced with.”

Grimesey then organized support from Army units in the area and called in multiple airstrikes from F-16s and an AC-130, ultimately killing 31 enemy fighters and saving his team of U.S. and Afghan forces. They recovered the Afghan commander’s body.

“You may not call yourself a hero, Master Sgt. Grimesey, but I do,” Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife said at the ceremony. “Because of your actions that day, families and friends did not experience loss. The men whose lives you saved will continue to positively impact those around them, creating a chain of reaction that ripples across generations.”

During the ceremony, Grimesey also received the Bronze Star medal with the second oak leaf cluster with Valor for his “quick and precise” response to another ambush in Afghanistan in 2017. He is starting his medical retirement process.

USAF to Create New 15th Air Force

Aug. 14, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Air Combat Command is preparing to consolidate its fighter, rescue, and command-and-control enterprises under a new numbered air force that will help military leaders wield those forces more effectively.

The Air Force will bring its Ninth and 12th Air Forces under one roof as the 15th Air Force the week of Aug. 17, ACC Commander Gen. James M. “Mike” Holmes said during an Aug. 14 Air Force Association event.

Video: Air Force Association on YouTube

The two organizations encompass several types of aircraft, from fighter jets to strike drones to surveillance planes and search-and-rescue helicopters. Consolidation can help train, upgrade, and develop tactics for those forces more holistically. Then, U.S. Southern Command and U.S. Central Command can call on those aircraft for operations as more collaborative, integrated teams.

The move is part of a broader ACC effort to rethink how forces can be more effective in combat. Last year, ACC similarly merged its intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, cyber, weather, and other units into the “information warfare”-focused 16th Air Force.

It’s one of Holmes’s last initiatives as he retires at the end of the month. He is leaving after more than three years at the helm of Air Combat Command.

Since March 2017, the four-star general overseeing the bulk of the Air Force’s combat assets and personnel has tried to create a more forward-thinking force that is ready to compete with advanced militaries like those of Russia and China, while adapting to digital-era combat and fending off the Islamic State group.

Reorganizing has been one way of giving lower-level commanders more freedom to do what’s best for their Airmen and to be more creative, which Holmes says is evident in how the Air Force handled Hurricane Michael when it slammed Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., in 2018 and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic.

“I’m happy with this refocus in Air Combat Command on pushing authority, responsibility, and decision down and allowing our people to have autonomy, mastery, and purpose in what they do,” he said.

The coronavirus pandemic has hindered ACC’s push to ready its units for a potential new conflict. The command split Airmen into “blue” and “silver” teams so that people would be exposed to fewer people on a regular basis, and training lost its momentum.

Building readiness happens more slowly when young Airmen need to spend more time building their expertise, and when busier-than-expected combat operations take aircraft away from maintenance and upgrades. Still, Holmes said ACC is about as ready to respond to a crisis as it was before COVID-19.

“We have to produce more pilots and navigators and special mission aviators and air battle managers and all the people that operate in the air across Air Combat Command, because every year we don’t produce them is another year that there’s a hole, and we won’t have enough,” he added. “It’s going to be a challenging couple of years.”

He also argues the Air Force has to be ready to sacrifice some of its older platforms to make way for more advanced technology, even if it means changing the way things have always been done. Congress should try not to hinder that process—because of parochial concerns or otherwise—by blocking the retirement of systems whose time is up, he added.

“Both on the fighter side and our ISR flight plan, on what’s the future of the mix between space and cyber and manned and publicly available information and unmanned aircraft, to bring them the intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance tools that we need going forward, there are some decisions that need to be made there that the next [ACC commander] will get to help make,” Holmes said.

Those decisions could be choosing to ditch certain platforms, or giving the go-ahead to develop new ones.

Lt. Gen. Mark D. Kelly, who will earn his fourth star as he takes over ACC, must also help the organization tackle racist and sexist policies and attitudes. Those efforts are front and center after George Floyd’s death at the hands of police in Minneapolis in May sparked conversations about race and discrimination across the military.

“If I was going to stick around longer, I would really love to be more a part of these efforts to help us reach closer to our ideal of being a place where we can take people from anywhere in our country, from any racial background, from any economic background, and give them an equal opportunity to work hard and move out and become the best person they can be,” Holmes said. “We’ve made great strides, but I think talking to our Airmen over these last six months with a fresh impetus to do that … I can’t escape the fact that we still have a ways to go, and I would love to have the opportunity to keep working on that.”