Narcan Now Available at Exchanges on Base to Combat Opioid Overdoses

Sept. 17, 2024 | By Rachel S. Cohen

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Troops and their families can now purchase Narcan from their local exchange as the military grapples with the effects of the national opioid epidemic.

Making Narcan, the naloxone nasal spray that can reverse an opioid overdose within minutes, more widely available to the military community through Army and Air Force Exchange Service stores may curb drug-related deaths among service members and their loved ones.

“If you look at where our bases are, there’s a very definite Venn diagram over areas that are being affected, unfortunately, by this epidemic,” Lt. Col. Sharon Arana said at AFA’s Air, Space and Cyber Conference here Sept. 17. “The intent was to remove a barrier to access for this critical medication for our families.”

Arana leads Air Combat Command’s Sword Athena team, one of a network of Airman-led groups that spearhead changes to policies that affect the readiness of Airmen and their families.

The change was spurred by a Sword Athena event at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va., in February that brought together command staff and military families to discuss issues that may have fallen under the Air Force’s radar. The event raised problems with access to Narcan, prompting Sword Athena to reach out to AAFES to make the spray more easily accessible, Arana said.

Narcan is now available in AAFES stores and online. A two-pack of Narcan, which doesn’t require training to administer, currently costs $44.99 on the exchange website. The store also offers pouches to carry the antidote on the go.

Last year, the Defense Department reported more than 300 fatal overdoses among Active-Duty service members between 2017 and 2021, and nearly 15,000 non-fatal overdoses from 2017 to February 2023, when the Pentagon responded to an inquiry from Sen. Ed Markey (D-Mass.). About 175 of those fatal overdoses involved fentanyl, a potent synthetic opioid.

About 81,800 people died of opioid-involved overdoses in the United States in 2022, according to federal data.

The 2024 National Defense Authorization Act mandated that by Jan. 1, 2025, the Pentagon must issue regulations to ensure the antidote is available on all military installations and each operational environment, as well as to track the naloxone that is distributed.

The department must also track the illegal use of fentanyl and other controlled substances across the military. Congressional lawmakers called for a briefing on the progress of efforts to curb substance abuse no later than June 1, 2025.

Lockheed Eyes Low-Cost Attritable Drone for CCA Increment 2

Sept. 17, 2024 | By Shaun Waterman

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Lockheed Martin, having “gold-plated” its initial bid for the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, will focus on lower cost, more attritable aircraft in its proposal for the second increment, the head of the company’s legendary Skunk Works division told reporters Sept. 17.

“What we see from a macro-level environment is … something that has more expendable characteristics and is at a much, much lower cost point seems to be a good place to go explore. And so that’s where we’re exploring and putting time and energy in,” said John Clark, a Lockheed vice president and general manager of the experimental engineering outfit. He spoke at a briefing at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference organized by the defense contractor.

He added that the Air Force was still developing requirements for Increment 2 of the CCA program, which aims to produce uncrewed, autonomously piloted aircraft that will partner with manned fighters like the F-35 and provide additional firepower.

“Right now we’re actively looking at how the Air Force is going to go with their requirements,” he said, adding that he did not want to get out ahead of service leaders.

But he also cited the famous advice from ice hockey legend Wayne Gretzky: “’Skate where the puck is going to.’ That’s where we think it’s going to,” he said.

Lockheed was one of three unsuccessful bidders for Increment 1 of the CCA, and Clark said the company offered stealth capabilities in that bid that were above and beyond what the Air Force requested. He attributed that decision to the company’s conviction, based on its operational analysis, that stealth was required to make the aircraft survivable and capable of providing “something that actually had value to the Air Force over long haul.”

“With 20/20 hindsight, you could certainly armchair quarterback [that decision] and say, well, the Air Force isn’t valuing survivability right now, so we gold-plated something that they didn’t need gold-plated,” he explained.

Because of the physical characteristics of the winning designs for the current generation of CCA aircraft, and in particular the tail fins, they are likely to be visible to the enemy long before they are able to deploy their sensors, Clark said.

“These tails on the side … are big reflectors,” he said, making the aircraft visible to enemy radar, “which is why, when you look at things like the B-21 [bomber] or … the RQ-170 [Sentinel UAV] they don’t have tails.”

“The whole objective with [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, or] ISR, is you’re trying to create an asymmetric advantage. If I can see you well before you can see me, I have an information advantage, and I can exploit that information to my benefit,” he said.

Clark added there is a trade-off between visibility and affordability. “I think that there will be a reckoning to come at some point when acquirers are looking at, ‘All right, I’m going to spend $15 million or $20 million an airplane, and the [operational analysis] is telling me that 80 percent or more of them don’t make it home.’”

That begs the question of what is the sweet spot for balancing cost and survivability, he said. “How many airplanes am I willing to spend that sort of money on before that’s a losing proposition financially as a nation?”

He said he was “very interested in how the Air Force will ultimately choose to go down that path. What is the right place [in the force structure] for an expendable asset, and what’s the right place for an attritable asset, and where do you want to have something that comes home every time?”

Ukraine, New to F-16s, Takes a Cautious Approach, Says US General

Sept. 17, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—Ukraine is taking a cautious approach toward employing its new F-16s, the top U.S. Air Force officer in Europe said Sept. 17.

“The pilots are new to it, so they’re not going to put them at the riskiest missions,” Gen. James B. Hecker, the head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and NATO Allied Air Command, told reporters Sept. 17 at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber conference. “Ultimately, that’s a Ukrainian decision. But I think that’s the approach that they’re taking.”

Ukraine first began flying the F-16 in August, and the aircraft has already proved successful in shooting down Russian cruise missiles and drones. But in one missile and drone barrage, a Ukrainian F-16 crashed, killing its pilot. Ukraine is investigating the incident.

Ukraine’s Air Force commander was fired soon after. Hecker said the U.S. has offered its assistance, but the U.S. had yet to “see if they take us up on that offer.”

The U.S. has not only trained Ukrainian pilots and maintainers but is also trying to boost the status of the country’s air force within the Ukrainian military.

“In a lot of the former Soviet Union countries, the army was kind of the service, and everybody else was below that and maybe didn’t get a voice at the table,” Hecker said. “So I have been asking that the Air Force get positions on the General Staff.”

The goal, which Hecker said is backed by U.S. Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli, the head of U.S. European Command and the NATO Supreme Allied Commander, is to enable Ukraine’s air force to do more joint operations with the country’s ground forces.

Despite doubts that Ukraine would be able to maintain the jets, Hecker said Ukrainian maintainers are succeeding. “We’ve trained a lot of Ukrainian maintainers, and from all accounts, when I talk to the instructors that are training them, they catch on very quickly,” Hecker said. “I know they’re flying. That’s good news.”

The Biden administration has shelved a proposal to hire American civilian contractors to help maintain the aircraft, hoping instead that contractors from European nations will assume some of that responsibility.

Meanwhile, Ukrainian F-16s are likely to be employed mainly in an air defense role as its air force develops the skills and understanding to leverage all its capabilities.

To date in the war, Ukraine has shot down more than 100 Russian aircraft, Hecker said, and Russia has shot down at least 75 Ukrainian aircraft. That’s kept both sides from fully employing its fighters for fear of losing them.

“What we see is the aircraft are kind of staying on their own side of the line, if you will,” Hecker said.

“What none of us probably forecasted is that nobody would get air superiority, neither Ukraine or Russia,” he said. “And now it’s been two and a half years, and neither one has, and that’s because of the integrated air and missile defense systems that both of them have.”

Russia is continuing to field glide bombs, ballistic and cruise missiles, and drones, increasing the air defense mission for Ukraine. In addition, Russian President Vladimir Putin recently ordered an increase in Russia’s military to some 1.5 million troops. “Russia is getting larger, and they’re getting better than they were before,” Hecker said.

Ukraine has been promised at least 80 F-16s, with the first aircraft coming from Denmark, the Netherlands, Belgium, and Norway. On Sept. 17. Ukrainian President Volomyr Zelenskky said the country had a new “ambitious” strategy to “increase the number of combat aircraft in Ukraine and speed up our pilot training.”

U.S. and Denmark are leading the training, but the U.K. and others are also training pilots on Western tactics in jet aircraft. There are over a dozen countries in the Ukraine Defense Contact Group’s Air Force Capability Coalition, co-led by Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States. That group is “advising Ukraine and providing training, funding, aircraft, and critical equipment” to build up a fouth-generation fighter force, according to U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Javan Rasnake, a Pentagon spokesperson. After a Sept. 6 meeting of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group, Canada said it would train new pilots without previous flight experience. The Ukrainian pilots training in the U.S. and Denmark have previous experience flying Soviet-era combat aircraft.

“We can’t train them fast enough,” Hecker said. “The good news is we have a coalition that is helping with the training.”

SAIC on CJADC2 – Live at ASC24

Sept. 17, 2024

Joshua Conine, Director of Space C2 Growth and Jay Meil, Director of AI and Data Strategies and Chief Data Scientist at SAIC talk about Combined Joint All-Domain Command and Control at AFA’s 2024 Air, Space, & Cyber Conference at the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.

Amentum on Drones and Wearable Tech – Live at ASC24

Sept. 17, 2024

Art Boghozian, Director of Business Development for Unmanned and Counter-Unmanned Business at Amentum speaks on drones and wearable tech at the AFA’s 2024 Air, Space, & Cyber Conference at the Gaylord Convention Center in National Harbor, Md.

How Commercial Space Services Kept US Troops Safe While Leaving Niger

Sept. 17, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—The Space Force used commercial satellite services to support the withdrawal of U.S. forces from air bases in Niger this summer, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said Sept. 17—a key milestone in the service’s efforts to integrate commercial capabilities into operations and dig deeper into space-based intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance.

Saltzman highlighted the effort during a keynote address at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference here as he described the successes of the Tactical Surveillance, Reconnaissance, and Tracking (TacSRT) “pathfinder” program.

TacSRT functions as a marketplace from which the Space Force can buy tactical information from commercial providers to support combatant commanders. In speeches over the last 18 months, Saltzman has noted how the program has supported natural disaster responses across Africa, South America, and Asia; in his keynote, he said it provided “timely analysis of suspicious activities by violent extremists along the border of Rwanda and the Democratic Republic of Congo.”

Yet it was the withdrawal of troops from Air Base 201 in Niger that “stands out the most,” said Saltzman.

“In August, throughout the withdrawal, the team maintained overwatch of everything within 5 kilometers of the base,” he said. “On average, the timeline from collection on orbit to delivery into the hands of security forces was about three-and-a-half hours, but the team got it down to as little as one-and-a-half hours from collection to the security forces by the end of the event.”

Two U.S. air bases in Niger served as critical hubs for missions targeting extremist groups in the volatile region, but the Pentagon withdrew its forces after a military junta overthrew the elected Nigerien government in July 2023. Amid widespread unrest, the Space Force was able to monitor the situation in an area where situational awareness was limited for forces on the ground, Saltzman said.

“What the TacSRT pilot program does is, we simply ask a question into the marketplace: ‘Hey, what generally does it look like around Air Base 201?’” Saltzman told reporters after his keynote. “Are there any items of interest, trucks that are massing? Is there a huge parking lot? Do we see people milling around? We simply ask the question. And commercial industry provides us products that try to help us answer the question.”

Providing that information to security forces to ensure the withdrawal proceeded smoothly and safely is “just proof positive that space makes a difference and makes the joint force better,” Saltzman said.

Air, Space & Cyber Conference. Keynote Address: State of the Space Force — Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Chief of Space Operations September 17, 2024. Photo by Mike Tsukamoto/ Air & Space Forces Magazine

Space-Based ISR

The Space Force is eager to use more commercial satellites and systems, with leaders saying it will allow them to gain and field capabilities faster than they could build themselves with limited resources. In particular, the service’s first Commercial Space Strategy ranked TacSRT fourth on a list of mission areas where the Space Force would seek to create “hybrid” architectures of military and commercial systems.

Now that TacSRT has proven it offers operational value, the question is how the Space Force will expand and fund it. Congress added $40 million for the program in fiscal 2024, and lawmakers are now debating over the level of funding for 2025.

Included in that debate are questions over the roles of the Space Force and the intelligence community. The House Appropriations Committee directed in its proposed budget bill that the Space Force and the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency coordinate their efforts to avoid duplication, while giving the NGA director the ability to provide lawmakers with regular assessments and recommendations for the TacSRT program.

The Senate Appropriations Committee, for its part, wants to renew the program’s funding at $40 million.

Saltzman indicated that he was unconcerned about the TacSRT program stepping on any toes, saying in his keynote that it is meant “to complement the exquisite work done by the intelligence community.” Both he and Col. Richard Kniseley, the head of Space Systems Command’s Commercial Space Office, told reporters that the program is not buying imagery, but rather “operational planning products.”

TacSRT also does not provide targeting information, Saltzman noted—the Space Force and the National Reconnaissance Office are working on a separate program to deploy targeting satellites.

“It’s taking the data that’s already available, procured through the NRO and some of it through the NGA, and getting the commercial analytics to make sense of it and to figure out some pattern movements, if you will,” Kniseley said during his own media roundtable.

In that sense, Saltzman said, the program is almost akin to “surveillance as a service.”

Commercial satellite imagery has proven to be a lucrative market for everything from environmental monitoring and forecasting to disaster response, areas where the U.S. military is often called upon for help. The Pentagon wants to shift some of its own surveillance and reconnaissance enterprise for tracking threats to space as well.

Space Force Chief Lays Out New Enlisted Guardian Career Path

Sept. 17, 2024 | By David Roza

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—The Space Force’s top enlisted leader unveiled an ambitious project to transform the career paths for the service’s 4,900 enlisted Guardians. The new “Vision for the Enlisted Force: Development Path” aims to make each Guardian’s training experience more meaningful and to better prepare them for the increased responsibility they will face in the branch’s unique force structure.

“We have today, at the five-year point of the service, to make the decisions and set the conditions for the success of Guardians 20 years from now,” Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John F. Bentivegna told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The new model is part of a larger plan to transform the entire Guardian experience, which Bentivegna hopes to achieve through three key initiatives: improving the quality of life and service for Guardians and their families; optimizing training, development, and talent management; and investing in the legacy of the service so that Guardians feel connected even after they hang up the uniform.

“I want to make sure that your experience is one that you value, one that you respect, one that you brag about when you talk to your friends and your neighbors and your family,” Bentivegna said Sept. 17 at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference. “That’s why I envision the Guardian experience. That’s why these are my key initiatives.”

A slide representing Chief Master Sgt. of the Space Force John Bentivegna’s vision for the enlisted Guardian lifecycle. The slide illustrates the share of responsibilities expected or each tier of Guardians, not necessarily the length of time they will be expected to perform specific tasks.

Recruiting

Before enlisted Guardians ever get near basic military training, the process begins with recruiting. Today, the Air Force Recruiting Service recruits for the Space Force, but it must do that at two vastly different scales: AFRS will bring in roughly 27,000 enlisted Airmen across 130 job specialties this fiscal year, compared to just 700 new Guardians in three job categories for the Space Force.

The partnership is working well so far, but Bentivegna sees the potential for change.

“They’re doing a phenomenal job and I have no complaints about the Guardians that are being recruited today,” Bentivegna said. “It’s just doing so in a model that’s not optimized for what we need, or it doesn’t embrace the opportunities that we could leverage because of who we are and the size that we are.”

The Space Force is creating a detachment within AFRS to build a strategy for taking on the recruiting mission, Bentivegna said last month. Bentivegna also hopes to refine the service’s initial assessments of recruits. The Armed Services Vocational Aptitude Battery (ASVAB), the military’s standard entrance exam, does not capture with enough granularity whether a candidate is best suited for a particular career field, he said.

“It doesn’t really give me a measurement of success to say, ‘based on the assessments we’ve done, I really think you’d be really good at intel,’ or ‘I really think you’d be good at cyber.’” the chief explained. “The fidelity just isn’t there yet.”

Lt. Col. Nathan Malafa, Thunderbirds commander/leader and Thunderbird #1, administers the oath of enlistment to Air and Space Force recruits at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, in April. Airman 1st Class Gabriel Jones

Beyond specific skill sets, Bentivegna also hopes to test potential recruits for character and grit, personality traits he believes can be as important as technical skills for a Space Force career.

“I don’t want to disenfranchise anyone who has the grit and character to be a Guardian, but maybe they didn’t go to a high school that offered advanced placement courses,” he said. “I want to be able to cast a wide net and encourage individuals from all walks of life, and I can teach them orbital mechanics, I can teach them math and science.”

Booting Up

The project would also refine initial skills training, where Bentivegna hopes a Guardian’s performance will have a more direct impact on their early career. For example, the Space Force assigns new Guardians based on which tech school they just graduated from, but does not necessarily factor in whether the Guardian performed particularly well in a specific kind of intelligence, for example.

A future model would continually assess Guardians’ strengths and interests, which could affect their first operational assignment and level of responsibility coming out of tech school. While the needs of the service come first, USSF’s compact size enables more flexibility for placing Guardians where they can make the most meaningful impact. The chief compared it to how college students can choose focus areas, elective courses, or minors within their degree field.

“Did they show strengths and interest in orbital warfare for space superiority, or in advanced research of capabilities that some of our adversaries may be developing,” he said. “I want to structure these courses so that they’re meaningful: They understand as they go through it, it’s going to have a direct impact on their career opportunities and career progression.”

Likewise, trainees who show higher levels of maturity and aptitude might expect more responsibility and opportunity “as you prove yourself to the institution through these transparent and equitable processes,” he said. But the chief cautioned against using the word “promotion,” which he believes has a more competitive connotation than the term “career advancement.”

“It’s not about competition amongst Guardians,” he said. “It’s about individualized accomplishments and progression in their own individual career.”

Specialist Three Raquel Goins, 65th Cyberspace Squadron cyber operator, completes training on a computer at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., in April. (U.S. Space Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Luke Kitterman)

Bentivegna also hopes to weave the space domain into a Guardian’s tech school experience. Currently, cyber and intelligence enlisted Airmen and Guardians go to the same tech schools, where much of the concepts and philosophy focus on winning in the air domain.

“In the future, we want it to be space-minded-specific domain training that they’re getting in the tech schools,” he said.

The Space Force is considering splitting off its own tech schools, though that option is still being evaluated, Bentivegna said. In August, Bentivegna also announced a new Noncommissioned Officer Academy tailored to the Space Force. USSF is also developing course programming for officers, launching its first Officer Training Course this month, a one-year, full-time program for all newly-commissioned officers.

“There are things long-term where we will have a relationship with the Air Force, but there are things as a service that we need to do on our own,” the chief said in his keynote address.

Combat Leaders

Unique among the military branches, the Space Force’s officer-to-enlisted ratio is nearly 1:1, with some operations leaning more enlisted-heavy, Bentivegna said. That suggests different requirements for senior enlisted experts, he said, anticipating that “there is going to be a need for master sergeants specifically to do more tactical leadership with increased responsibility … doing the day-to-day mission in our combat squadrons.”

The model is a change from today’s construct where senior noncommissioned officers are responsible for a smaller share of day-to-day responsibilities.

“A lot of times today our senior noncommissioned officers, our master sergeants, get through their technical sweet spot and right away we’re pushing them to do management and backshop activities,” Bentivegna explained. “I don’t think that’s where we need to be in the future.”

Changing that may require more flexibility in how assignments are distributed.

“It’s less about ‘I need a sergeant, here’s a sergeant who’s up for an assignment,’” he said. “It’s more about individualized talent management specifically informed by the Guardian and the needs of the service.”

Under the future model, Guardians can expect to stay hands-on even as they rise to the highest enlisted ranks. Bentivegna recalled trying to get into meetings as an E-9 only to be told “you don’t need to go to that meeting because this is not like, management stuff, this is operational stuff,” he said. “You don’t have the clearances, you don’t need to know what’s going on operationally.

“That’s a complete pivot where we’re going: where our senior leaders are going to be just as responsible for the readiness and training and execution of operations as their teammates,” he added. “When I talk about the future, I want to really hammer home the expectation that you never lose that requirement to be operationally relevant.”

Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John Bentivegna addresses an audience of recently promoted guardians at the Space Force Chief Master Sergeant Orientation Course, Joint Base Andrews, Md., in April 1. (U.S. Air Force photo by Andy Morataya)

Getting There

The project marks the Space Force’s latest effort to balance mission readiness, quality of life, and personal fulfillment, a balance which it holds at the core of its identity. Other initiatives include a part-time Guardian force, continuous fitness tracking, and distinct new uniforms.

But actually implementing these changes takes time, with some Guardians citing the term “semper soon,” a riff on the branch’s motto “semper supra.”

Bentivegna acknowledged that achieving this new vision for the lifecycle of enlisted Guardians could take years. For now, he and his team are still figuring out what policies, programs, or even legislation may need to change and what stakeholders need to be involved. As chief enlisted leader, Bentivegna has the power to provide guidance, influence, and intent, but not to execute policy decisions.

Still, the chief said the project is necessary for the Space Force to be ready for the future. The project comes at the end of a busy 18 months which saw the service reissue its mission statement, stand up new units called integrated mission deltas and integrated system deltas, and redefine its operating theory, called competitive endurance. The changes have been “evolutionary” for the service, he said, which drove his vision for the enlisted force. That, and questions from senior service leaders asking how to develop the force of the future.

“It will take many evolutions, many steps, years, to fully implement this,” Bentivegna said. “But if we don’t invest in the future today, we’re never going to get there.”

Expert: Air Force, Other Services Need to Embrace Cyber as Weapon of War

Sept. 16, 2024 | By Shaun Waterman

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—The Air Force and its fellow military services need to stop thinking about cyber as a technology issue and focus on learning how to use it as a weapon of war, the U.S. Navy’s former top cyber advisor Chris Cleary said Sept 16.

“I still think all the services are struggling as to how they’re going to embrace cyber,” Cleary told Air & Space Forces Magazine after speaking on a panel about cyber dominance at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“You talk about cyber dominance, and people start talking about Zero Trust and what the [Chief Information Officers] do,” said Cleary, now a vice president with defense contractor ManTech. “No. This is about warfighting.”

Earlier, Cleary told the panel, moderated by Department of the Air Force CIO Venice Goodwine, that military cyber operators need to start thinking and talking about the ways that cyber tools could be used to inflict damage on the enemy.

“What is our business?” he asked, “The Department of Defense exists fundamentally for two reasons, to deliver lethality or prevent lethality from being delivered upon us.”

His remarks come as Air Force leaders are publicly grappling with the relationship between cyber and other nonkinetic conflict modes like electronic warfare and information operations. In particular, they are weighing the future of the 16th Air Force, a sprawling Numbered Air Force that encompasses cyber attacks, electronic warfare, traditional surveillance and reconnaissance, public affairs and information operations, and weather forecasting.

Air Forces Cyber is being elevated to the status of a service component command, on part with Pacific Air Forces or Air Forces Central. But that leaves a question mark over the future of the 16th Air Force, since AFCYBER accounts for a significant proportion of its 49,000-strong personnel.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told the conference earlier Sept. 16 that service leaders remain committed to the integration of cyber and electronic warfare in a single command structure: “There must be uniform focus on this (EW) area as a whole,” he said.

As the cyber dominance panel was drawing to a close, Goodwine asked the audience of Air Force personnel and industry contractors to shout out what cyber dominance meant to them. “Winning,” yelled one Airman.

“Thank you,” replied Cleary.

To be taken seriously as warfighters, Cleary explained, cyber operators needed to embrace their role as bringers of death and destruction on America’s enemies. “You are a player on the field, not a support element in the back office, but you have to demonstrate you can hit with power,” he said.

There were still too many commanders who are skeptical of the real utility of cyber capabilities, Cleary said, seeing them as “a parlor trick.”

Commanders need to have confidence that “cyber effects can be delivered at a time and place of our choosing to support other kinetic things that we’re going to do,” he said. Without that confidence, he said, they will “just put a [conventional/kinetic] weapon on that target anyway, just to be on the safe side,” eliminating the potential advantages offered by a non-kinetic option.

The services can help by being more transparent about their offensive cyber capabilities, especially if they want proper funding from Congress, he said. “You can’t say you need $1 billion and then when they ask what for, tell them: ‘I can’t discuss that,’” he said.

Those who want a public discussion of U.S. offensive cyber capabilities are treated “as if they’d taken a crazy pill,” he added.

Cleary argued that classification issues shouldn’t be a barrier to public messaging about offensive cyber capabilities.

“I can tell you about the Columbia class submarines the Navy is building. I do not know how deep it can go, how quiet it is, or the range, yield or accuracy of its weapons. But I know it goes underwater, I know it’s probably quieter than the last one, and I know it carries nuclear warheads,” he said. “And I know how many we’re building and when they’ll be delivered. None of that has to be secret.”

‘We’re Struggling’: Leaders Say Air and Space Forces Need More Resources for Pivotal Stretch

Sept. 16, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md.—With only a few weeks left before the Department of the Air Force begins fiscal 2025 without a new budget, leaders argued both the Air Force and Space Force are underfunded now and for the foreseeable future at pivotal moments for both services during AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 16.

“As I look at our needs going forward, it is apparent to me that more resources will be required,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in a keynote address to open the event. “The Space Force is beginning a transformation that must be executed quickly and at scale. That takes resources. The Air Force must move to a new generation of more competitive capabilities as quickly as possible. That takes resources.”

Kendall has often expressed frustration with Congress’s delayed budgeting process; on a near-annual basis, lawmakers have used so-called continuing resolutions to keep the government from shutting down. The stopgap bills keep spending frozen at the previous year’s levels and prevent new programs from being started. Fiscal 2025 starts Oct. 1, and there is virtually no chance a new budget will get done before then.

Yet beyond the usual consternation over continuing resolutions, Kendall and other leaders went further in calling out a perceived funding shortfall for the department.

In summer 2023, lawmakers agreed to the Fiscal Responsibility Act, which limited defense spending to one percent growth in fiscal 2024 and 2025. Accounting for inflation, that has meant a real term decrease in the Department of Defense’s budget.

With a modest size and aggressive modernization plan, the Space Force has been hit particularly hard by those caps. The Space Force’s 2024 budget, as enacted by Congress, was around $29 billion, less than the Biden administration requested. In fiscal 2025, the service is requesting $29.4 billion.

“We have the smallest budget and the largest [area of responsibility,]” Vice Chief of Space Operations Gen. Michael A. Guetlein said. “We need people and we need money. And right now, being the smallest service, we’re struggling to get the resources we need to do the modernization that you need, but also to buy the new kit, the leading edge kit, to get after the threat that is accelerating at an exponential space.”

Guetlein said there is a solution to keep the U.S. ahead of China and Russia, which he warned were catching up to America in space: “What we’ve got to do is invest and invest to a point that we can stop that gap from closing, but reverse that gap.”

The budget crunch is also hurting the Air Force, which is responsible for the massive Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile program, not to mention its new B-21 Raider and its paused Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter

Price was a key driver of the NGAD decision. Kendall told reporters Sept. 16 that the service wants to buy an NGAD fighter, envisioned initially to cost multiple hundreds of millions of dollars, but for the price of an F-35, which costs around $80 million. Whether the Air Force can afford an advanced new jet is just one of the many tough choices the service faces in the next few years, its No. 2 officer said.

“It essentially comes down to it comes down to military personnel, modernization, or readiness. Those are the trades. The challenge with modernization is you have to pay for it somehow,” Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. James C. Slife said. “We know what we have to do. That’s not a particular mystery. … We don’t want to hollow force. The very difficult work in deciding how to modernize is you either have to have more resources, to Secretary Kendall’s point, or you have to make very difficult choices within the resources you have.”