USAF Looks to Build Planes, Workstations to Fit More Aviators

USAF Looks to Build Planes, Workstations to Fit More Aviators

Aug. 7, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Tall or small, the Air Force wants to ensure that Americans of more shapes and sizes can fit into its future aircraft.

The service on Aug. 4 updated its guidance on the minimum physical size requirements used to design cockpits and aircrew flight equipment, which were originally based on a 1967 survey of male pilots.

The parameters established by the 1967 study exclude about 44 percent of women, including 74 percent of Black women, 72 percent of Latino women and 61 percent of Asian American women unless they are granted a waiver, according to an Air Force release.

Under the original guidance, for example, less than 9 percent of women met the requirements to fly the F-15 without a waiver, the service said.

“Ensuring our maximum recruitment population can be that deciding factor [that] nearly doubles our odds in what is already a stacked deck,” Air Force acquisition boss William B. Roper said in the guidance. “The time to move out is now.”

Now, all program managers will work with their lead commands to use the body sizes of the middle 95 percent of the U.S. recruiting population—not the current aircrew population—when setting the design specifications for aircrew flight equipment and the stations where Airmen sit, according to the guidance.

The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center will begin a three-year survey this fall with career enlisted aviators to provide future guidance. In the meantime, designs will be judged on whether they accommodate people with a range of heights, weights, limb lengths and torso lengths. Designs must account for fingertip reach; buttock-to-knee length; eye, shoulder, knee, and overall height when sitting; shoulder breadth; chest depth; thigh circumference; and weight, according to the guidance.

“This study will finally provide the opportunity to create a stronger, more capable force, utilizing the strengths of a diverse team representative of our great nation,” Chief Master Sgt. Chris Dawson, Air National Guard career enlisted aviator career field manager, said in the release.

The move is the latest in a series of steps the Air Force is taking to open up its cockpits to a more diverse pool of Airmen, and make flight equipment more comfortable for women.

In May, the Air Force removed the minimum and maximum height requirement for applicants who want to fly. Previous requirements disqualified 44 percent of women between the ages of 20 and 29, according to Air Education and Training Command. Additionally, the service is redesigning G-suits, flight suits, urinary devices, and survival vests to better suit female pilots.

DOD: Most Troops, Families Must Quarantine Before Traveling Overseas

DOD: Most Troops, Families Must Quarantine Before Traveling Overseas

Aug. 7, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Most of the Defense Department’s uniformed and civilian personnel and their families muse complete a risk assessment and self-quarantine for 14 days before moving overseas to curb the spread of the coronavirus, according to a new Pentagon memo.

Matthew P. Donovan, the undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness, released the latest health protection guidance for the armed forces Aug. 6.

Before traveling, service members, civilians, and family members need to determine how likely it is that they are sick or have come into contact with someone with COVID-19. That entails reporting any signs or symptoms of the virus in themselves, if they have been close to someone who has tested positive for or has symptoms of the virus, and that they know what to do if they become ill.

Family members will be reimbursed for their travel only if they certify that they completed the COVID-19 risk assessment, according to the memo.

DOD employees and their families must remain at home or another “appropriate domicile” for two weeks before moving to another country. They should limit close contact with others while watching for a fever or other COVID-19 symptoms like cough, shortness of breath, or fatigue.

The Pentagon is requiring the movement restriction before travel unless the destination country directs newcomers to quarantine upon arrival. In that case, travelers need to isolate themselves when they get to the host nation instead, according to the memo.

Those returning to the United States from a country designated as high-risk by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention must also quarantine for 14 days once they get home. Most countries across the globe count as high-risk places. If coming from a lower-risk nation, the person should monitor themselves for symptoms but does not need to isolate.

Donovan’s memo states that service members can travel freely within the United States to installations listed as “green” in earlier guidance. Officials had lifted travel restrictions at 95 of 231 installations as of Aug. 3.

As of the morning of Aug. 7, DOD reported more than 43,600 COVID-19 cases, 1,000 hospitalizations, and 22,200 recoveries among military, civilian, and contractor personnel and their dependents. Seventy-two of them have died.

AFRL Commander Wants Lab’s 2030 Strategy to Move Faster

AFRL Commander Wants Lab’s 2030 Strategy to Move Faster

Aug. 7, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

More than a year after the Air Force released its “Science and Technology 2030” strategy, the officer in charge of carrying it out says the future should come a little faster.

“The strategy is important, but accelerating it, … that’s at the top of my list,” Air Force Research Laboratory Commander Brig. Gen. Heather L. Pringle told reporters Aug. 4. “I don’t want to wait. I don’t want to go slowly.”

Speeding up S&T 2030 is one of Pringle’s top priorities as she nears the two-month mark in her new job. She is the lab’s first permanent leader since Maj. Gen. William T. Cooley was abruptly fired in January amid an Air Force Office of Special Investigations inquiry into misconduct allegations. AFOSI has not responded to questions about the status of the investigation.

The April 2019 strategy tries to make the lab more ambitious and hone in on the most game-changing ideas. It aims to bridge the gaps between the various stages of research and development to accelerate projects, and recruit prospective workers from new areas of academia and industry.

AFRL is figuring out which 20 percent of its work is the most promising, so it can focus money on those programs and set up an easy transition from the lab to the field, Pringle said. That includes the three “vanguard” programs that pull resources from across the lab to mature faster; several early-stage, three-year initiatives under the new Seedlings for Disruptive Capabilities Program; and an annual Warfighter and Technologist Summit that starts this month to find the next top-priority ventures.

“We have to grow to that [20 percent],” Pringle said. “There was a ramp that was being considered and then I accelerated it by two years to achieve the 20 percent.”

The bulk of that funding will go toward the best candidates in the advanced technology development and applied research phases, on the earlier end of the development timeline.

Pringle pointed to employing digital twins—virtual versions of hardware that lets developers experiment with updates and design—alongside autonomy algorithms and drones as a potentially transformational project.

“We’ll also be looking to develop metrics to measure our progress across the S&T 2030 priorities, and then ensure that we have the appropriate stakeholders,” Pringle said. The least useful projects will be cut in the shuffle.

She must lead AFRL as it hands off some people and programs, such as new satellite and sensor designs, to the Space Force. More than 700 of the lab’s 12,700 military, civilian, and contractors will become Space Force employees but still work at AFRL, Air Force Magazine recently reported.

“We need to prove that we are one lab supporting two services,” she said. “We want to be able to … use their language, understand their challenges, and be able to leverage that to solve multidomain problems.”

As the armed forces overlap in areas from hypersonic weapons to autonomy, Pringle said she’ll be collaborative, not territorial. 

“The Army has helicopters, the Navy has aircraft, both those services have forces that are going to the Space Force,” she said. “It’s going to be a multi-domain, multi-disciplinary solution, so it’s important that we break down barriers, not only at the leadership level, but across S&T.”

Army, Air Force, and Navy research lab bosses meet every few months, including an upcoming meeting on Aug. 12 to discuss metrics for measuring success in research programs.

Pringle will look for new ways to bolster the workforce, particularly amid the coronavirus pandemic.

“What I would love to achieve is to have the best culture in the science, technology, and innovation ecosystem,” she said. “We have the talent to get there, and I believe that with strong partnerships and a good focus that we can that we can get there.”

Small Part Falls off Kadena-Based F-15

Small Part Falls off Kadena-Based F-15

Aug. 7, 2020 | By Jennifer Hlad

An F-15 from Kadena Air Base, Japan, dropped an “eagle claw” at some point during a training flight Aug. 4, and the 18th Wing is looking into what caused the part to fall.

The part is a C-shaped metal object that is about 7 inches long and weighs 8 pounds, a spokesperson for the 18th Wing told Air Force Magazine. Eagle claws are there to hold munitions in place, though there were no munitions on the aircraft during the training flight, which took place off the coast of Okinawa. 

The spokesperson told Air Force Magazine that the eagle claws on all of the wing’s F-15 at the base were inspected “immediately following the incident.” And, he added, “Our teams thoroughly inspect each and every aircraft both before and after every flight to ensure safe flying operations.”  

No damage or injuries have been reported, and the part has not been found, but the Wing notified the Okinawa Defense Bureau and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs-Okinawa about the incident. 

In October, a torque tube and spring fell off an MC-130J during a flight from Okinawa, prompting the Air Force’s C-130 program office to look into the issue. 

Falling aircraft parts is one of the concerns Okinawan residents raise when advocating for a smaller U.S. military presence on the island. The local population also has expressed frustrations about cases of COVID-19 on the island. Okinawa had more than 60 days with no new cases, before clusters of cases emerged at two Marine Corps bases on the island shortly after the July 4 holiday. Since then, there have been dozens of new cases on the U.S. military bases and hundreds off of the bases. 

An unnamed Okinawa prefectural spokesman told Stars and Stripes, in reference to the eagle claw incident, “With everything going on with coronavirus, we just want them to not cause any more trouble at this moment.” 

Thompson Tapped as Space Force Vice Chief

Thompson Tapped as Space Force Vice Chief

Aug. 7, 2020 | By Rachel S. Cohen

Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson is nominated to formally become the Vice Chief of Space Operations, the Space Force’s second-highest officer, and is up for a promotion to four-star general, the Pentagon said Aug. 7.

Thompson took the job of vice commander of Air Force Space Command in April 2018, after holding the position from 2015 to 2017. The job carried over when AFSPC became the Space Force in December 2019, so the new nomination would establish Thompson within the Space Force’s new leadership structure.

The longtime space operator previously directed space assets for Air Forces Central Command and held leadership positions in operations and planning at U.S. Strategic Command. He has been a public face of military space operations as the Space Force gets up and running and the Pentagon starts treating the domain as a possible place of conflict.

“He is responsible to the Chief of Space Operations for the U.S. Space Force in carrying out space missions and integrating space policy, guidance, coordination and synchronization of space-related activities and issue resolution for the Department of the Air Force,” according to Thompson’s official biography.

The Senate will likely confirm his promotion.

Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, 1925-2020

Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, 1925-2020

Aug. 7, 2020 | By John A. Tirpak

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, twice U.S. national security adviser, unelected statesman of international affairs, and adviser to six U.S. presidents, died Aug. 6 at age 95.

As a major general, Scowcroft was military assistant to President Richard M. Nixon, and as a three-star general, served Nixon as a deputy assistant for national security affairs. He was national security adviser to President Gerald R. Ford, and later to President George H.W. Bush, who he also served as chairman of the Foreign Intelligence Advisory Board. He aided President Barack H. Obama in choosing a national security team, and headed or served as a principal in many Washington, D.C., think-tanks over about 40 years.

Scowcroft promoted a “realist” U.S. foreign policy, weighted toward reliance on alliances and coalitions, and famously opposed the 2003 U.S. war in Iraq, although he remained on good terms with the White House following the invasion. He maintained collegial and cooperative relations with other advisers, and was skilled at building foreign policy consensus. He is credited with inclusion and building trust among the various elements of the foreign policy team, and transparency about goals, yet kept a low profile and did not publicly discuss his advice to the President.  

Scowcroft attended the U.S. Military Academy and was commissioned into the Army in 1947, transferring to the Air Force when it became a separate service that year. He earned his wings in 1948, but after an accident took him off flying status, staff assignments dominated his career, which included working at times for the Joint Chiefs of Staff; Headquarters, U.S. Air Force; and the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for International Security Affairs. Along the way he earned both a master’s degree and a doctorate in international relations from Columbia University. He taught at both West Point and the U.S. Air Force Academy.

After serving as Nixon’s military assistant, Scowcroft was made a deputy assistant for national security affairs, working with National Security Adviser Henry Kissinger, and replaced Kissinger in November 1975. He retired from the Air Force a month later, after 28 years of service.

In the George H.W. Bush White House, he helped manage U.S. policy regarding the collapse of the Warsaw Pact and Soviet Union. During the 1991 Gulf War, he advised Bush to end the conflict after Iraq was ejected from Kuwait, warning that to press on to Baghdad would lead to a long, open-ended and costly occupation that would hurt the U.S. financially and in terms of its international leadership. Though Bush later acknowledged being criticized for not “finishing the job,” Scowcroft’s advice proved prescient.  

Scowcroft chaired or served on numerous blue-ribbon panels and presidential commissions regarding foreign policy. He was also vice-chairman of Kissinger Associates, founded the Forum for International Policy, and was president of The Scowcroft Group.

He supported the 2001 invasion of Afghanistan but opposed the 2003 invasion of Iraq, warning in a 2002 Wall Street Journal op-ed that it would hurt U.S. standing in the Middle East and international support for America’s war on terrorism. He later said that a premature withdrawal from Iraq before its new government was stable would turn into “a strategic defeat for American interests with potentially catastrophic consequences” for U.S. interests.

Scowcroft co-authored “A World Transformed” with former President George H.W. Bush about the end of Soviet communism, and, with President Jimmy Carter’s National Security Adviser Zbieniew Brzezinski and David Ignatius, “America and the World: Conversations on the Future of American Foreign Policy.”

President George H. W. Bush presented Scowcroft with the Medal of Freedom in 1991, and he was presented with over a dozen honorary doctorates during his career.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated at 4:31 p.m. EDT to include a tweet from Air Force Secretary Barbara M. Barrett.

International C-17s Fly Aid to Beirut Following Explosion

International C-17s Fly Aid to Beirut Following Explosion

Aug. 6, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Three U.S. Air Force C-17s, plus another from the multinational Strategic Airlift Capability group, on Aug. 6 began carrying aid to Lebanon after a massive explosion in Beirut’s port killed at least 135 people and injured thousands more.

The three Globemaster IIIs from Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, began flying food, water, and medical supplies to Lebanon in response to the Aug. 4 explosion.

U.S. Central Command boss Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. has expressed his condolences to Lebanon Armed Forces Commander Gen. Joseph Aoun and shared his “willingness to continue to work with the Lebanese Armed Forces to help provide aid and assistance to meet the needs of the Lebanese people during this terrible tragedy,” according to an Aug. 6 CENTCOM statement.

Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman told reporters during an Aug. 6 briefing that CENTCOM is working with the State Department and the U.S. Agency for International Development to ensure that the aid gets to the Lebanese people who need it, and that the Lebanese militant organization Hezbollah will not benefit.

The department is “optimistic and hopeful that this is an opportunity for all those who want to see a better outcome for the Lebanese people” after the disaster, Hoffman said.

A C-17 from the Strategic Airlift Capability—a multinational group including the U.S. that flies the transport jet out of Hungary—brought a search-and-rescue team and 14 tons of equipment to Beirut within 24 hours of the initial request, the program said on Twitter.

Lebanon’s investigation into the disaster points to about 2,750 tons of highly explosive ammonium nitrate that was long stored at a warehouse in the port, according to the Associated Press.

President Donald J. Trump told reporters shortly after the incident that unnamed generals believed an attack or a bomb were behind the blast. Hoffman, responding to multiple questions on the issue, said “different information” came to light in the days after the explosion, and the U.S. has not settled on a definitive explanation for the incident.

USAF Weapons School Wants KC-46 Experts in Three Years

USAF Weapons School Wants KC-46 Experts in Three Years

Aug. 6, 2020 | By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The Air Force Weapons School plans to start graduating its first KC-46 experts in three years under a new weapons instructor course, the service said Aug. 5.

Creating the course is a joint effort between the Weapons School, Air Mobility Command, and Air Combat Command. The school offers specialized education to people seen as the best in their field on how to best use Air Force assets in combat.

Syllabus development is currently underway, and the school hopes AMC and ACC will approve it by next June, service spokesperson 2nd Lt. Richard R. Caesar told Air Force Magazine. Later that summer, school officials will start finding a group of Airmen who will work out any kinks in the course in July 2022.

Caesar said the current goal is for undergraduate students to begin the course in January 2023, and to graduate the first KC-46 weapons officers in June 2023. That timeline coincides with when the Air Force hopes the troubled new KC-46 will be ready to use in regular operations.

KC-46 weapons officers will go back to operational units to create the tactics, techniques, and procedures that Airmen need to fly the tanker in challenging or dangerous areas.

“Upon graduation, weapons officers return to the field to prepare their units for combat and provide Air Force senior leaders with tactical expertise on integrated force packaging and how their particular platform best works with all others,” the service said July 24.

RQ-170 Practices Evading Air Defenses with B-2, F-35

RQ-170 Practices Evading Air Defenses with B-2, F-35

Aug. 6, 2020 | By Brian W. Everstine

Some of the Air Force’s most advanced, secretive aircraft flew together in a large-scale event this week to vet the service’s methods for destroying enemy air defenses, and to see how well older planes work with more advanced airframes.

The 53rd Test and Evaluation Group’s exercise ran from Aug. 4-6 at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., bringing together the F-35A, F-22, and F-15E fighters, B-2 bomber, RQ-170 reconnaissance drone, a Navy E/A-18G electronic attack plane, and command-and-control systems from various testing and operations squadrons.

Together, they represent some of the most important capabilities the Air Force says it needs to have the upper hand against adversaries with improved anti-aircraft missiles and weapons that block or confuse electronic signals.

Airmen wanted to prove whether the F-35 could suppress enemy air defenses so the stealthy B-2 and the RQ-170 could sneak by unharmed. Scenarios partnered the fifth-generation F-35 and F-22 with the fourth-generation F-15E and others to see how aircraft could wield new, unique electronic attack capabilities, according to an Aug. 6 53rd Wing release. Tools like signal jamming can help the Joint Strike Fighter move more freely in areas where it might be attacked.

The test included tactics, techniques, and procedures established at the service’s Weapons and Tactics Conference that had never been tried in flight tests. That involves using more advanced planes to support the B-2, complex ingress tactics using stealth, shaping how fourth- and fifth-generation planes talk to each other when taking on air defenses, and checking whether various electronic attack procedures are effective.

“Through events like these, we continue to improve our joint fourth- and fifth-generation tactics, which enhances our abilities in an advanced threat environment,” Maj. Theodore Ellis, weapons chief at the 53rd Wing Weapons, said in the release.

Running the large force test cost $1.4 million, according to the Air Force.

“The investment and trust in our team allowed the 53rd Wing to evaluate the interoperability of leading-edge capabilities and develop [tactics, techniques, and procedures] that will ultimately strengthen our nation’s air dominance,” said Col. Bill Creeden, commander of the 53rd Test and Evaluation Group.