Global Hawk Learns New Tricks While Congress Mulls Retirement

Aug. 13, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Air Force intelligence officials will keep improving the RQ-4 Global Hawk surveillance drone until Congress directs them to ditch it, the 16th Air Force commander said Aug. 13.

The RQ-4 enterprise is in limbo, as the Air Force wants to retire 24 of the aircraft in fiscal 2021, but lawmakers have not yet signed off on the plan. If the request is approved, the Global Hawk inventory would shrink from around 30 aircraft to 10.

“[Airmen are] going to continue to optimize everything we’re doing with the Global Hawk for as long as the Global Hawk’s in our inventory,” 16th Air Force boss Lt. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh said during an online Air Force Association event. His information warfare organization oversees intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, cyber, electronic warfare, and weather forecasting operations.

Video: Air Force Association on YouTube

On Aug. 12, Airmen briefed Haugh on changes underway to make the Global Hawk’s high-altitude reconnaissance flights more efficient. Global Hawks carry multiple types of sensors that can collect infrared images and signals intelligence through the electromagnetic spectrum, as well as track moving ground targets.

“We’re periodically assessing the effectiveness,” Haugh said. “We were able to be a little bit more predictive, in terms of a particular sensor, to ensure that we were optimizing that for every sortie.”

He declined to say where surveillance flights are benefiting from those improvements.

The Air Force doesn’t expect Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., where the 319th Reconnaissance Wing manages worldwide RQ-4 operations, will see any workforce changes because of the retirement, the Grand Forks Herald reported in February. That base hosts the Global Hawk version known as Block 40, while the service is trying to dump its Block 20 and 30 models.

Units around the world fly Global Hawk variants, built by Northrop Grumman, as a reconnaissance plane and as a communications link between other aircraft nearby. Military officials worry the drones are vulnerable to attack.

“The Air Force has proposed … to divest the RQ–4 Block 20 [Battlefield Airborne Communications Node] aircraft and procure manned E–11 aircraft to replace them,” the House Appropriations Committee wrote in fiscal 2021 defense spending legislation. “The committee supports the use of the fiscal year 2019 funding to execute the Air Force’s new plan for BACN.”

Others in the House and Senate are open to the idea, with more conditions. Senators want to ask the Pentagon to assure Congress that retiring the RQ-4 and its manned counterpart, the U-2, would not hurt military intelligence collection, while congressmen want to know if the Global Hawk’s replacement would be less cost-effective.

As Congress decides whether to green-light the RQ-4 retirement, Haugh’s organization will try to figure out what aircraft and other surveillance resources it needs to stay on par with or a step ahead of the rest of the world—with or without the Global Hawk.

In the Global Hawk’s case, Air Force officials are looking at ways to keep the drones that are left in the inventory flying longer. Newer RQ-4s are designed to last about 25 years, and an average aircraft will hit the end of that lifespan in the early 2030s.

If the fleet shrinks, the service could replace its highly demanded capabilities with sensors on other aircraft or on satellites. It could also find ways to fly the remaining RQ-4s in different ways to do more with less, depending on the situation in a particular part of the world.

“As we look at the conflict continuum, what are the [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] resources we need in competition, what ISR resources we need in conflict, and what is that mix of resources as we go forward in terms of blending what the Air Force presents, the authorities we leverage with the intelligence community?” Haugh said. “There will be a number of choices that are going to have to be made across the department in terms of how we invest in competition versus conflict.”

CMSAF Wright’s Last Message to Airmen Before Retirement

Aug. 13, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright called on Airmen to work together and treat each other with dignity in a divisive time, in his parting letter to the service, shared one day before his Aug. 14 retirement.

“Trust that we are all worthy individuals, who deserve respect and deserve to serve with dignity,” Wright wrote in the letter. “No matter what the challenges we face, we can always overcome them if we are united. Please don’t let those who are set on dividing us win. Don’t let them drive us apart.”

Wright, who has served as the Air Force’s top enlisted leader since 2017, will hand over the job to the next Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force, JoAnne S. Bass, during a ceremony Aug. 14 at Joint Base Andrews, Md. Bass, who previously was the command chief master sergeant of 2nd Air Force, will be the first female enlisted leader of any military service.

“We leave knowing that Jo will forge a path centered on the principal that Airmen must come first,” Wright wrote. “That’s who she is at her core … taking care of Airmen is what drives her.”

In the letter, Wright thanks his support team, his wife Tonya, and former Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein, who he served beside in leading the Air Force. “I am especially grateful for the late-night talks, the laughs, and the tough conversations he never shied away from,” he wrote.

He also thanks the broader Air Force for the, at times, unusual support he has received—for example, the jokes about being “Enlisted Jesus.”

“Thank you for showing us the love,” he wrote. “I never thought I’d have the distinct honor of being immortalized in memes, but I have to admit, they really made me smile.”

Through his tenure, Wright worked to give Airmen their time back, make changes to career evaluation to focus on potential, retain skill, and reward innovation. His time saw the end of enlisted performance reports for the Airmen first class rank and distance professional military education. However, he said it wasn’t a “perfect game” and there’s still work left.

“At the end of the day I know we won’t be remembered for the policies we updated, or the programs we put in place,” Wright wrote. “… I hope you think of us as good people who cared about Airmen, and as a team who tried to make things a little better. We valued progress over perfection—and woke up every day to do whatever we could to help Airmen succeed and to reach their goals.”

As he retires, Wright said his work with Airmen has “changed me forever.”

“While I’ll put on the uniform for the last time this week, I will always be an Airman,” he wrote. “Although I won’t serve in a position with the power to affect change on an enterprise level, I hope to always be a champion for you and your families.”

Air Force Goes for the Gold with Advanced Manufacturing Olympics

Aug. 12, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The Air Force Rapid Sustainment Office and its partners want more than 60 teams to channel the speed and precision of the world’s top athletes as they chase a new standard in airworthy, 3D-printed plane parts.

The “Advanced Manufacturing Olympics,” which are already underway and will end with a online showcase in October, will test the limits of innovative new manufacturing techniques that can lead to faster maintenance turnaround, cheaper upkeep, and more flexible flight operations.

For example, instead of waiting for a company to replace a broken aircraft part with one fresh from the production line, Airmen could simply use a 3D printer to create their own and install it within days. The tricky part is building those components if no blueprint for them exists, ensuring they are safe to fly, and shrinking the lengthy approval process.

“The old saying is, ‘They’re written in blood,’” Air Force Life Cycle Management Center boss Lt. Gen. Robert D. McMurry Jr. said of the established processes. “Because when we didn’t follow those rules, people died. … What we’ve got to figure out is how to get to near-certainty that [parts are] going to work for us the first time, and every time.”

Sixty-four teams from industry, government, and academia are vying for a $1 million pot of prize money spread across five challenges.

According to RSO Chief Technology Officer Lily Arcusa, teams in one event will try to replicate as many parts as possible from a box of components using reverse engineering and modeling. Another set of teams will quickly fabricate flight-ready F-16 fighter jet parts and get them certified for flight. A third challenge looks to prove that teams can produce new building materials that work as well as traditional metals and polymers. The fourth focuses on supply chain challenges, and the fifth aims to accurately build a 3D-printed part from existing design data.

A panel of judges from the military and private sector will vet the results of each test. First-place winners for each challenge will nab $100,000, those in second place will earn $50,000, and the third-place teams will get $40,000.

The challenges will build on the work the Air Force has already done to get 3D printers into Airmen’s hands and explore homegrown maintenance. In August 2019, Travis Air Force Base, Calif., said it was the service’s first field unit to get certified with an industrial 3D printer to create nonstructural aircraft parts.

Earlier this month, the Air Force said it had successfully tested a reverse-engineered, 3D-printed metal part on a B-52 bomber engine for the first time. Moving from initial contract to manufacturing took less than a month.

“Ideas that move from design to flight in less than a couple months is exactly where we want to be as an Air Force,” Arcusa said.

If their ideas succeed, the Air Force could respond faster to combat equipment needs at home and overseas. It would also help backfill parts for aging planes that were made by now-defunct companies.

“It is so important, we absolutely have to invest in it. We have to put significant resources of the department against it. We need to explore how to use it,” McMurry said. “It’s absolutely energized our senior leadership to move forward.”

Combat Hammer Underway at Hill

Aug. 12, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Bomb builders at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, this week are testing weapons for F-35As, B-1s, and MQ-9s as part of an in-depth combat evaluation exercise looking at the effectiveness of the bombs released from multiple aircraft.

The 86th Fighter Weapons Squadron, the military’s sole group tasked with testing the effectiveness of precision weapons, conducts the regular Combat Hammer evaluation at the Utah Test and Training Range. This year’s event includes F-35s from both Hill and Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., along with B-1s from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., and MQ-9s from Creech Air Force Base, Nev.

“During Combat Hammer, we are tasked to evaluate the reliability, maintainability, suitability, accuracy, and readiness of combat weapons systems against realistic threats and targets,” said Master Sgt. George Bermudez, superintendent of WESP at the 86 FWS, in a Hill release. “This requires an end-to-end evaluation of the total fielded integrated weapons system—from the manufacturer delivery to the effect on the target.”

In the exercise, the 86th FWS evaluates all parts of the bomb dropping process, from beginning to end, including the aircraft, the weapon, the delivery system, aircrew, support equipment, technical data, and maintenance, according to the release.

“We evaluate the bomb builds by each unit, and will then move onto the loading process, and finally to employment by aircrew members to the designated target site,” Bermudez said in the release.

While the Air Force did not disclose what weapons are used in this event, previous Combat Hammer evaluations focused on new precision weapons. For example, in 2019 the squadron evaluated the GBU-49 “Paveway II” bomb, with aircraft including F-35s, A-10s, B-1s, MQ-9s, F-16s, and B-52s participating, according to the base.

The squadron also hosted another Combat Hammer exercise in March with F-15Es from Seymour-Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

The exercise is one of now three combat evaluation programs. Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., has long held the Combat Archer evaluation, in which aircraft live-fire air-to-air weapons. Last month, the Air Force conducted the first-ever Combat Sentry evaluation with two E-3 Sentry AWACS flying with optionally manned QF-16s, subscale BQM-167 drones, and E-9A monitoring aircraft to test the airborne battle management and command and control in a live-fire environment.

TRANSCOM: Draft Defense Bills Keep Enough Tankers to Bridge the Gap to KC-46

Aug. 12, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Both the House and Senate versions of the 2021 defense policy bill will keep enough legacy tankers in the Air Force to “bridge” the fleet until the KC-46 is fully operational, the head of U.S. Transportation Command said.

The Air Force called for retiring 29 KC-135s and KC-10s in its budget request, even though TRANSCOM boss Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons said at the time that refueling is the most stressed part of his command. The service has argued it needs to cut old airframes to free up spending for new ones, though the KC-46 is still years away from being operational.

“The op tempo is actually quite high. We have not yet met our program objective of 479 tankers,” Lyons said Aug. 12 during a Foundation for the Defense of Democracies online event. “We will be healthy in the out years. Where the friction played out really on the Hill was the discussion about the delay in the delivery of the KC-46 … and the pressure to retire some of those legacy platforms as programmed, but before the KC-46 could be presented to the combatant command.”

The draft bills in both the House and Senate block the Air Force from retiring most of the aircraft it originally sought to cut, but the draft language does allow for some of the older tankers to head to the boneyard. Lyons said TRANSCOM did not advocate for all to be kept, but enough to bridge the gap. Much of the tanker capacity is in the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve, and the cuts were mostly targeting the Active duty at a time when crews were stretched thin.

“We were about to reduce the active component tanker capacity by 30 percent or more against a force that’s already pressing deploy-to-dwell ratios,” Lyons said. “The leadership, the members on the Hill, were very attuned to the issue.”

Across the military, aerial refueling is not necessarily given the respect it deserves, Lyons said. Immediate response forces, like combat deployments and bomber task forces, require tanking on a moment’s notice, and that requirement is only going to grow.

“The range, particularly on some of these new weapons systems, are going to be relatively limited without that tanker sitting right next to them,” Lyons said. “That’s why it’s so critical. Everything that we do is [to] ensure that we’ve got a capable and a sufficient aerial refueling fleet to meet day-to-day operations, and then respond to crisis, and ultimately respond to conflict if need be.”

The remote vision system—the array of cameras and sensors a boom operator uses to refuel a receiving aircraft—is the biggest reason the KC-46 is delayed. The Air Force and Boeing in April reached an agreement on an improved version of the system, called RVS 2.0, with the planned operational capability coming in in 2023.

While Lyons deferred technical questions to the Air Force itself, he said from the TRANSCOM perspective, “there’s still a lot of work to be done between now and then, and so we’re really eager to see it. The thing I’m pleased about is we got beyond this hurdle of whether we had a problem or not. It was clear when I flew aboard the KC-46 that we had a major problem to be resolved. I think we’re on a path to resolve that.”

Andrews Huey Shot At, Makes Emergency Landing in Virginia

Aug. 12, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

An Air Force UH-1N Huey took small arms fire and conducted an emergency landing during a training flight west of Washington, D.C., on Aug. 10.

The Huey, part of the 1st Helicopter Squadron at Joint Base Andrews, Md., was flying an instrument approach to the Manassas, Va., airport when it was hit by a bullet about 10 miles northwest, near Middleburg, Va., in affluent Loudoun County. The helicopter was flying about 1,000 feet above ground level at the time, the Air Force said in a statement.

The helicopter landed safely. An aircrew member sustained a minor injury, and the aircraft was damaged by the bullet, according to the statement.

The Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Federal Bureau of Investigation is investigating the incident.

The 1st Helicopter Squadron flies VIPs, including senior military and other governmental officials, throughout the Washington, D.C., area, along with flying medical evacuation. A smaller unit flies the same aircraft in a similar role at Yokota Air Base, Japan.

The squadron is slated to replace its aging UH-1N Huey fleet with the MH-139 Grey Wolf.

B-2s Deploy to Diego Garcia

Aug. 12, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force’s stealth bombers have returned to the Indo-Pacific.

Three B-2s arrived Aug. 12 at Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., for the first Spirit bomber task force since a deployment to Hawaii in January 2019. The deployment marks the first time B-2s have deployed to the region since the service’s continuous bomber presence ended in April.

After the 29-hour flight to Diego Garcia, the B-2s joined B-1s already deployed to Andersen Air Force Base, Guam.

“We are excited to return to this important location. [Diego Garcia] puts the ‘INDO’ in INDOPACOM,” task force commander Lt. Col. Christopher Conant said in a Pacific Air Forces release. “This Bomber Task Force is our National Defense Strategy in action. We are sharpening our lethality while strengthening relationships with key allies, partners, and our sister-service teammates.”

While the bombers are supporting INDOPACOM, Diego Garcia also has been a deployment spot for bombers supporting combat operations in U.S. Central Command. In January, B-52s from the 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron deployed to Diego Garcia instead of Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, in response to tensions with Iran, flying combat sorties into Iraq, Syria, and Afghanistan.

While the B-2s are at Diego Garcia, they will train with partner nations and serve as a deterrence in areas such as the South China Sea. During the 2019 task force, B-2s flew 27 sorties, totaling 171 hours in local and long-duration flights.

Meanwhile, the B-1s at Andersen continue to fly long-range sorties with partners. On Aug. 7, a B-1 from the 37th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron flew a bilateral training mission with 8 F-2s and 6 F-15s from the Japan Air Self Defense Force near Japan, and then flew a joint mission with the USS Ronald Reagan Carrier Strike Group in the Sea of Japan, according to a PACAF release.

Editor’s note: This story was updated at 8:20 a.m. Aug. 13 to reflect the regions the bombers are operating in.

Red Flags Wrapping Up at Nellis, Eielson

Aug. 11, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force’s two simultaneous Red Flag training events are set to wrap up this week, with the F-35 participating for the first time in the Alaska version.

Red Flag at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., and Red Flag-Alaska at Eielson Air Force Base are ending Aug. 14, following about two weeks of intense flying at each location’s training ranges. Both events began in late July and early August, as organizers worked to counter the spread of COVID-19 while still bringing together flying units from across the Air Force for high-level training.

“Our team built a great plan to keep our service members safe without compromising the rigorous training Red Flag is known for,” Col. William Reese, 414th Combat Training Squadron commander, said in a Nellis release. “We know our enemies won’t call a ‘time-out’ for this pandemic, so we’ve focused on warfighting integration and strengthened our partnership with our professional aggressor forces to ensure we are ready to defeat any threat.”

In Alaska, newly arrived F-35s from the 356th Fighter Squadron and Joint Strike Fighters from the 4th Fighter Squadron at Hill Air Force, Utah, are flying together. This event is the first time the fifth-generation fighter has participated in the exercise.

“The F-35 brings more information to the airspace than we’ve had in previous generations of aircraft,” Lt. Col. James Christensen, commander of the 356th Fighter Squadron, said in a release. “This Red Flag is really unique because we now have all fifth-generation fighters on the blue side. When we combine those forces together, we can be more lethal.”

In the Alaska version, the F-35s are flying along with F-22s from nearby Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, with F-16s from Eielson’s 18th Aggressor Squadron providing Red Air. The 356th Fighter Squadron received its first F-35s in April, and had to fly “as much as we possibly could” to prepare for the exercise, Christensen said.

“For us, this is kind of the intro to the airspace and an intro to four-ship tactics,” he said in the release. “This is the first time we’ve flown four aircraft together at the same time and we are combining the other F-35s and F-22s to make a large force exercise.”

In Nevada, Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps aircraft are training together for Red Flag 20-3. To prepare for the exercise, the base’s 99th Mission Support Group and 99th Medical Group created steps to mitigate COVID-19, including social distancing during mission briefings.

“The heart of the exercise—rigorous integrated training scenarios that challenge all participants and demand excellence—remains unchanged,” Reese said in the release.

Teams Impress Tyndall with Future Base Tech

Aug. 11, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

The innovation group AFWERX is hunting for new technologies that could revitalize Tyndall Air Force Base, Fla., nearly two years after it was crushed by the Category 5 Hurricane Michael.

AFWERX’s annual Fusion technology showcase, held online July 28-30, brought 370 exhibitors together to pitch their ideas in front of the military and network with others in the public and private sectors and academia.

On Aug. 7, Air Force judges chose 92 teams to get more time with the service and a greater shot at future development and production contracts for Tyndall as well as other bases. Those teams offered products ranging from facial-recognition technology for base access to a mentorship mobile app.

Vendors competed in six categories, and around 15 teams moved on in each area. They include:

Base security and defense
Installation resilience
Operational effectiveness
Culture of innovation
Reverse engineering and additive or agile manufacturing
Airman and family well-being.

AFWERX reaches out to small businesses, academics, and others that don’t typically do business with the Defense Department to find fast-paced, cutting-edge technology.

The finalists can again prove themselves to the Air Force at an Aug. 31 pitch event. Some will talk about how they would address particular health and well-being situations provided by the service, while companies in the other areas have the chance to speak more in-depth about their offerings, according to Mark Rowland, an AFWERX official who holds the title of “innovation actualizer.”

He added that vendors could receive some money to prototype their designs for early testing with Tyndall.

Though any base can benefit from the ideas shared at the Fusion showcase, the “Base of the Future”-themed event is geared toward making Tyndall better than it was before the hurricane.

Renovating the installation could cost nearly $5 billion over five to seven years, according to the Air Force. Officials have a vision of a forward-looking, 12-part campus that is more digital, multipurpose, and sustainable than the original base.

For example, Brig. Gen. Patrice A. Melancon, executive director of the office overseeing Tyndall’s revitalization, said the base is designing pedestrian traffic areas to be wide enough to accommodate autonomous vehicles when those become the norm. The base could also turn its airplane maintenance and logistics enterprise into something akin to an Amazon warehouse with tablets and supply drones.

“There are many [pitches] that align perfectly with our vision of a resilient, secure, and digitally integrated Air Force base,” Melancon said in an email. “The Tyndall [Program Management Office] is already exploring ways that we can leverage smart technology to assist in defense, like gunshot detection systems, and integrating building sensors, artificial intelligence, and machine learning to give us the ability to be much more proactive with our infrastructure maintenance.”

Tyndall is slated to become home to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, and potentially the MQ-9 Reaper drone, instead of the F-22s that were stationed there before the storm. Melancon said the coronavirus pandemic has not delayed Tyndall’s goal to begin hosting the F-35 in September 2023.

But it could push back the overall timeline for rebuilding the base, as the pandemic’s effects on businesses has slowed delivery times for mechanical, electrical, and power system parts. The Air Force was already worried about getting materials quickly and affordably as the storm-battered community surrounding Tyndall shops for the same products.

“We don’t know yet if that trend might continue and impact the overall program,” Melancon said. “COVID has been an adjustment, and we’ve certainly had to remain flexible.”

Rowland noted that while Melancon’s team is interested in several companies, the 325th Fighter Wing that runs the base must also get on board. After all, it’s the wing that will have to use those tools after the rebuild ends and the management office closes.

They all have the same goals but look at it from different perspectives, which can cause tension, Rowland said of the different Tyndall stakeholders.

“Part of my responsibility, really, is to help the rest of the team understand why it’s imperative to move away from what we’ve always done, and really, really harness what’s happening in the industry,” Melancon said July 30 during the AFWERX event.

Though COVID-19 derailed the in-person Fusion event, moving online let AFWERX open the showcase to a broader range of companies than would have shown up in Las Vegas. Facilitating nearly 400 pitches proved more complicated than expected, with less interaction than some companies may have gotten on a typical show floor, but Rowland said AFWERX will keep some virtual aspects to stay flexible once large, in-person gatherings can resume.

As AFWERX becomes a more recognized and trusted name within the Air Force, the organization wants to expand its already myriad initiatives.

It plans to host a space-focused showcase online in September to find new advances in intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance; commercial partnerships; resiliency; and transportation. Those ideas could transfer to the Space Force for further development.

“Events like this are exceptionally important because, when we need to take on a new area of research and a new set of challenges, we need to be able to expose that to innovators of all types,” Will Roper, acquisition boss for the Air Force and Space Force, said of the Fusion event.