Air Force Taps Selfridge ANGB to House 12 New KC-46 Tankers

Air Force Taps Selfridge ANGB to House 12 New KC-46 Tankers

Jan. 12, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Air Force has chosen Selfridge Air National Guard Base, Mich. as the preferred location of a dozen new KC-46A Pegasus refueling aircraft. After an environmental impact analysis in 2025 and final approval, the base will welcome the fleet’s arrival starting in 2029, set to replace the A-10 Thunderbolts and KC-135 Stratotankers currently stationed at Selfridge.

Securing these new tankers is “a huge win for Selfridge, Macomb County, and our entire state,” Sen. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said Jan. 12 via X, formerly known as Twitter. “This decision will not stop me from pushing to bring a new fighter mission to Selfridge as well.”

The base’s potential for hosting a separate fighter mission remains, as the Air Force’s updated release on Jan. 12 indicated that Selfridge is open to consideration for fighter aircraft or other assignments. The A-10s positioned at Selfridge will phase out starting in 2026, while the KC-135s are slated for divestment beginning in 2027.

A U.S. Air Force KC-135 Stratotanker aircraft assigned to the 128th Air Refueling Wing, Wisconsin National Guard, prepares to refuel an A-10 Thunderbolt II assigned to the 127th Wing, Selfridge, Michigan National Guard, during an air bridge to exercise Air Defender 2023 (AD23), June 5, 2023. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Master Sgt. Lauren Kmiec.

For years, Peters has been urging the service to designate the base as the home for the new tanker squadron and a new combat aircraft mission to replace the aging A-10s. In December, Peters urged the House and Senate Appropriations Committees to fund more fighter aircraft, like the F-15EX, at Selfridge in the 2024 defense appropriation bills, in a joint letter signed by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.).

Peters had previously voiced disapproval of the Pentagon’s decision to allocate the F-35 training center to Arkansas’s Ebbing Air National Guard Base. He contended that Selfridge has superior qualifications, surpassing all mission requirements in infrastructure, runway length, and aircraft shelters.

The Air Force is procuring 179 KC-46As for Air Mobility Command from Boeing in a fixed-price contract to replace half of the aging KC-135 fleet. The Pegasus, a heavily modified Boeing 767, offers increased fuel capacity, improved efficiency, and enhanced cargo and aeromedical evacuation capabilities compared to the 50-year-old Stratotankers.

The tanker took its inaugural flight in 2014, and the first batch of KC-46A was delivered to McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas in 2019. Boeing has provided 76 KC-46As to date, with an additional $2.3 billion awarded in November for 15 KC-46s delivery scheduled for mid-2027.

Congress had prohibited the Air Force from retiring operational KC-135s until FY23 to address capacity gaps resulting from KC-46 delays. The USAF intends to extend the tanker’s service life by a decade, retaining some of them until at least 2050.

As for the A-10 Thunderbolt IIs, the branch retired 21 of the aircraft last year, decreasing the total inventory from 281 to 260. Despite concerns about the aircraft’s survivability against advanced adversaries, U.S. Central Command have utilized Warthogs to meet fighter squadron needs in the Middle East. The aircraft carried out missions in the region during the recent conflict between Israel and Hamas.

VCSAF Slife: New Force Generation Model Better Explains ‘Capacity, Risk, and Readiness’

VCSAF Slife: New Force Generation Model Better Explains ‘Capacity, Risk, and Readiness’

Jan. 12, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

As the Air Force plans to unveil sweeping changes to its structure, organization, and training to “re-optimize” for competition with China, one part of the service’s overhaul is already underway: a new force generation model for how to deploy Airmen.

Known as AFFORGEN, the new Force Generation model is designed to help the Air Force, combatant commanders, and the broader U.S. military better understand how to deploy Airmen and Air Force assets, part of an effort first outlined in 2021.

“It gives us a better ability to articulate capacity, risk, and readiness to the joint force,” Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife told Air & Space Forces Magazine in an interview shortly before his elevation to the USAF’s No. 2 job.

Primarily driven by the need for airpower for America’s fights in the Middle East, the Air Force has deployed Airmen from a myriad of bases to large, fixed sites, such as Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar. Service officials say this “crowdsourcing” model will not be applicable to a future fight as the Pentagon pivots towards its long-term focus: China and the Pacific. Instead, a more cohesive plan is required in the future.

“In a relatively low-threat environment, where we’re operating for years at a time out of large main operating bases, that model has been sufficient to our needs,” Slife said. “We organized our Air Force to be as flexible as possible, break it up into as many small little things as we can, and deploy. We’re in a different strategic environment now.”

The Air Force and all military services train and equip forces that deploy at the direction of the secretary of defense. Commanders want forces, while the services emphasize the need to maintain long-term readiness.

“That’s the tension the secretary of defense has to deal with every single day,” Slife explained. “There’s an insatiable demand from combatant commands. There’s a limited capacity from the services.”

To balance this tension, AFFORGEN establishes a two-year cycle for deployable units. There are four six-month phases, which take the units from “reset,” to train to maintain readiness to deploy before returning to reset.

“The service has a responsibility to think on a different time horizon than combatant commands do,” Slife said. AFFORGEN will help explain that balance better to senior Pentagon leaders, he said.

AFFORGEN is being put to the test in the Middle East as tensions soar in response to attacks by Iran-backed militias on U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, and on commercial shipping. Airmen were deployed to U.S. Central Command this fall under the AFFORGEN model, according to the Air Force. Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall visited those Airmen and Guardians in December to get a firsthand look at how the process works in action.

“As I got to know the Air Force and the Space Force more intimately, it became more apparent to me that we need to make some changes,” Kendall told Airmen and Guardians at an all-call meeting at one base in the Middle East, according to a news release.

AFFORGEN is still being adjusted and service officials have indicated it will not be a one-size-fits-all approach. Units in commands such as Air Mobility Command, Air Force Global Strike Command, and Air Combat Command likely will not deploy in the same way as those at the regional commands, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFA) or Pacific Air Forces (PACAF).

AFFORGEN will also be complemented by new Air Task Forces, which will provide a package of forces that train, deploy, and fight together.

For now, the service plans three Air Task Forces: two for U.S. Central Command and one for U.S. Indo-Pacific Command. The first ATFs are scheduled to begin their AFFORGEN cycle this summer, the Air Force says.

Through these changes, the Air Force is aiming for a greater understanding of the long-term risks and benefits of deployments. But Airmen will still be ready if called upon.

“The secretary of defense gives us orders and we execute those orders,” Slife said.

US, UK Strike Houthis in Yemen Following Ship Attacks

US, UK Strike Houthis in Yemen Following Ship Attacks

Jan. 11, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

American and British aircraft and warships carried out strikes against multiple targets in Houthi-controlled Yemen on Jan. 11, in response to continuing attacks on commercial shipping, U.S. and U.K. officials said.

The airstrikes and sea-launched cruise missiles were aimed at more than a dozen sites.

“Today’s strikes targeted sites associated with the Houthis’ unmanned aerial vehicle, ballistic and cruise missile, and coastal radar and air surveillance capabilities,” Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III said in a statement.

The strikes were carried out by U.S. Air Force, U.S. Navy, and U.K. Royal Air Force aircraft. Missiles were also launched from U.S. Navy surface and subsurface vessels, U.S. officials said.

The strikes were directed at over 60 targets at 16 locations, according to Air Forces Central commander Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich. In a statement, Grynkewich added that over 100 precision-guided munitions of various types were used, including Tomahawk cruise missiles from the Navy. The Royal Air Force struck two targets with Paveway guided bombs from four Typhoons, the U.K. Ministry of Defense said in a statement.

U.S. and U.K. officials said “non-operational support” was provided by Australia, the Netherlands, Canada, and Bahrain.

Grynkewich said U.S. forces targeted “command and control nodes, munitions depots, launching systems, production facilities, and air defense radar systems,” while the U.K. said it targeted a drone launching site and an airfield.

The U.S. and 12 other countries issued a joint statement on Jan. 3 warning of “consequences” if attacks continued, which the U.S. officials indicated should be treated as a final warning to the rebel group.

On Jan. 9, the Iranian-backed group launched its largest salvo yet in what U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) called a “complex attack” that involved two dozen drones and missiles. F/A-18s from the aircraft carrier USS Dwight D. Eisenhower and the guided-missile destroyers USS Gravely, USS Laboon, and USS Mason successfully defended against that attack, shooting down 18 attack drones, two anti-ship cruise missiles, and one anti-ship ballistic missile, according to CENTCOM.

The British Navy has also been involved, and the HMS Diamond shot down seven drones on Jan. 9, British Defense Secretary Grant Shapps said.

None of that, however, was enough to deter the Houthis.  On Jan. 11, the Houthis launched their 27th attack on commercial shipping lanes in the Red Sea and surrounding waters since Nov. 19.
 
The U.S. and British strikes on Jan. 11 followed multiple calls between Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. and U.K. Chief of Defense Staff Adm. Sir Tony Radakin, and Shapps saying, “watch this space” on Jan. 10.

Houthi forces were already bracing for the attack before it took place and were vowing to retaliate. 
 
“Any American attack will not remain without a response,” Houthi leader Abdul Malik al-Houthi said in a speech Jan. 11. “The response will be greater than the attack that was carried out with 20 drones and a number of missiles,” he added, referring to the Jan. 9 attack.

Iran, which has supplied weapons and provided intelligence to the Houthis, also anticipated the U.S. and British action. The Behshad, a suspected Iranian spy ship that has been parked in the Red Sea since 2021, left the Red Sea on Jan. 11 as Tehran braced for military action against its proxies, according to the ship-monitoring website Tanker Trackers.

Iranian forces, meanwhile, seized the oil tanker St. Nikolas on Jan. 11 while the vessel was transiting the international waters of the Gulf of Oman, according to the U.S. military.

Iran and the so-called Axis of Resistance of groups it has aligned with have launched attacks against U.S. forces and international shipping in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war.

In response to more than 130 attacks against U.S. troops in Iraq and Syria, the U.S. has conducted airstrikes against Iranian-aligned militia groups, including a rare targeted killing last week of a militia leader in Baghdad.

The U.S. and its allies have held off on striking back against the Houthis until now, instead launching the defensive Operation Prosperity Guardian maritime coalition. U.S. officials and regional security experts say the Houthis are more unpredictable and hardline than other Iranian-backed groups.  

Vessels are at particular risk near Yemen because they must use Bab el-Mandeb strait to cross between the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden, a critical chokepoint. According to the U.S. government, nearly 15 percent of seaborne trade passes through the Red Sea, which connects to the Mediterranean Sea via the Suez Canal. Many commercial shippers have been forced to divert ships around the southern coast of Africa, causing significant delays and costs for the global economy.

“I will not hesitate to direct further measures to protect our people and the free flow of international commerce as necessary,” President Joe Biden said in statement.

First Ever Pentagon Industrial Strategy Sets the Vision; Action Plan Coming Soon

First Ever Pentagon Industrial Strategy Sets the Vision; Action Plan Coming Soon

Jan. 11, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The Pentagon’s first-ever National Defense Industrial Strategy is not “aspirational,” but sets the stage for a series of concrete steps to improve the resiliency, surge capacity, and long-term health of the defense industrial base, DOD officials said in unveiling the document Jan. 11. An implementation plan will be coming next month, they add.

“We are finalizing a detailed classified implementation plan,” Laura Taylor-Kale, assistant secretary of defense for industrial base policy said, which will include “near-term, measurable actions and metrics to gauge progress.” An unclassified version of the implementation plan will be published next month, she said, while the classified version will be released to necessary White House and Capitol Hill officials in March.

While the NDIS is meant to govern defense industrial policy over the next 3-5 years, it’s also a vision for “generational change” of the acquisition system, said Taylor-Kale.

The 60-page strategy, released under the signature of Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks, describes the current state of the defense industrial base as adept at innovation and developing advanced capabilities but without the speed, breadth, and depth to adequately respond if the U.S. gets into a major war with a peer competitor.

It sets out “how we got here” Taylor-Kale said, along with broad prescriptions for improvements.

“The current and future strategic environment requires immediate, comprehensive, and decisive action in strengthening and modernizing our defense industrial base ecosystem to ensure the security of the United States and our allies and partners,” Hicks said in a foreword to the document. “As this strategy makes clear, we must act now.”

Later, at an event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies, Taylor-Kale noted that the NDIS is “program, sector, and theater agnostic,” although it does discuss submarine and shipbuilding specifically. She declined to say what new major programs will be most affected by the new strategy.

She noted that while the strategy doesn’t discuss particular kinds of batteries, for example, “we know we’re going to need lithium” to power those batteries, and so it discusses approaches to expand access to defense-critical raw materials, such as Rare Earth Elements.   

The need for a strategy was highlighted by real-world crises like the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine, Taylor-Kale told reporters at the Pentagon. After extensive discussions with analysts, industry and other stakeholders, it distills that knowledge into “what is it that we need in order to move forward.”

The NDIS will “guide the department’s engagement policy, development, and investments in the industrial base over the next three to five years,” William LaPlante, undersecretary of defense for acquisition and sustainment, said in a brief preview at the Reagan Defense Forum in December.

“A strategy is what allows all of us to make choices … of what we’re going to do and invest in and what we’re not going to do,” he said. The strategy also calls out the risk of inaction, he noted.

The document highlights:

  • The need for resilient supply chains to produce needed items “at speed, scale and cost,” LaPlante said.
  • Workforce readiness, particularly with regard to the ship- and submarine-building industry.
  • “Flexible acquisition,” with a professional acquisition workforce able to “use all the tools” available to it to buy things efficiently with “the right mix of customization.” This will include heavy reliance on commercial, off-the shelf items and procedures, he said.
  • “Production is deterrence,” LaPlante said. The industrial strategy must not be viewed as “a U.S.-only solution,” he said, but a “resilient industrial ecosystem among not just the U.S. but our allies and partners.”

The document says the U.S. will engage in joint production of certain high-demand items, make more direct use of needed technologies if they are developed by foreign partners, and inject more speed and responsiveness into the Foreign Military Sales enterprise. The FMS system will anticipate partner needs and accelerate cases, the strategy states.

Taylor-Kale said the NDIS also accounts for the need to have a well-coordinated effort using an all-of-government approach, including allies and partners.

At CSIS, she said the strategy does not call for for an overhaul of defense acquisition policies, which has been undertaken in recent administrations. The Pentagon only uses “about a quarter” of the authorities it already has to be flexible in contracting, she said, and the strategy calls for greater use of flexible methods.

Five years ago, under the Defense Production Act, the Pentagon only executed $60 to $70 million worth of acquisition actions, she noted, but “last year, it was $900 million.” That was achieved with no new legislation, she said.

The Pentagon will pay special attention to removing “the pain points and choke points” industry complains about in the supply system, she noted.

Specific action areas called out in the report:

Supply Chain Resiliency

The strategy calls for:

  • Incentivizing contractors to invest in extra capacity
  • DOD to do a better job anticipating and managing needed stockpiles
  • Expanding domestic production and widening the base of industries on which the DOD draws
  • The use of data analytics to understand where the lowest-tier suppliers are, expand their numbers and help ensure their survival, as well as invest in their cybersecurity.

Without taking these corrective actions, the U.S. and its allies might not be able to “adapt to new and emerging threat environments,” the document states. The defense industrial base risks facing program-delaying material shortfalls.

“‘Just-in-time’ delivery has created fragility in the production capabilities for many end items, making sub-tier suppliers especially vulnerable,” the strategy noted.

Workforce Readiness

The strategy calls for expanding student participation in science, technology, engineering, and manufacturing (STEM) pursuits; investing in the development of defense-critical skills; expanding apprenticeship programs; “de-stigmatizing” careers in manufacturing and trades; and expanding recruitment from “non-traditional communities” to widen the pool of potential defense workers.

Taylor-Kale noted that the Pentagon, in concert with outside experts, has mapped the regions where there is a shortage of workforce and where additional workforce might be available, and will work with the Departments of Labor and Commerce to make the best use of it where it is. Workforce “is very regional,” she said.

Flexible Acquisition

The strategy calls for more industry standards and open architectures; more investment in research and development, and consideration of exportability in all new procurements. It also calls for “more discipline” in the requirements process to prevent “scope creep,” prioritizing off-the-shelf acquisition where appropriate, and negotiating license agreements to ease concerns about intellectual property.

Economic Deterrence

Focused mostly on international industrial collaboration, this push calls for:

  • Strengthening economic security agreements among partners and allies
  • Enabling “international interoperability standards” so that all allies can use common equipment that in turn will work with other coalition gear
  • Fortifying alliances to share science and technology
  • Strengthening enforcement of laws preventing adversaries from buying up essential defense industrial base suppliers and protect various levels of the industrial base from cyberattack
  • Work to ensure that material required for national defense “is not sourced from adversarial entities.”

Taylor-Kale told CSIS that the strategy calls for more multi-year procurements, and sending industry “more consistent demand signals” so it can confidently anticipate and prepare for Pentagon needs.

New DAF Office for Prosecuting Major Crimes Now Fully Operational, with Six District Locations

New DAF Office for Prosecuting Major Crimes Now Fully Operational, with Six District Locations

Jan. 11, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

A new Department of the Air Force office for investigating and prosecuting certain major violent and sexual crimes is now fully operational, the department announced Jan. 10, with six field locations scattered around the globe. 

The Office of Special Trial Counsel will be responsible for deciding whether to prosecute 14 different offenses under the Uniform Code of Military Justice, including: 

  • Murder 
  • Rape  
  • Kidnapping 
  • Domestic violence 
  • Stalking 
  • Sexual harassment 

Lawmakers dictated the creation of the office of the special trial counsel in the 2022 National Defense Authorization Act. It marked a major change to the military justice system, taking decisions about prosecuting such offenses out of the chain of command as the Pentagon seeks to stamp out sexual assault in the ranks and ensure offenders are punished. 

“I am committed to the success of this path forward,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in a statement. “That success depends on the willingness of victims of these crimes and others to report offenses when they do occur. We know this can be an extremely difficult decision. We will do everything we can to ensure victims are supported and justice is done.”  

Guidance issued by Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III required that each department’s office be fully operational by Dec. 27, and the Pentagon announced Dec. 28 that it reached that milestone. 

On Jan. 10, the Department of the Air Force issued its own release noting that it has established six “districts” to cover all Air Force major commands and Space Force field commands. 

  • District 1 covers Air Combat Command, Air Force Special Operations Command, and Air Force District of Washington and has a location at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Va. 
  • District 2 covers Air Mobility Command and Air Force Materiel Command and has a location at Travis Air Force Base, Calif. 
  • District 3 covers Space Operations Command, Space System Command, Space Training and Readiness Command, Air Force Global Strike Command, and U.S. Air Force Academy and has a location at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas  
  • District 4 covers Air Education and Training Command and also has a location at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas  
  • District 5 covers U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa with a location at Ramstein Air Base, Germany  
  • District 6 covers Pacific Air Forces and has a location at Kadena Air Base, Japan 

“This allows each district the opportunity to not only prosecute the cases across a specific domain, but also allows them to track trends in misconduct involving covered offenses and provide consistent training for younger counsel on that command who will sit second chair,” a senior Air Force official told reporters during a Pentagon briefing.

The official added that the office has 40 prosecutors and six paralegals. By fiscal 2027, those numbers will increase to 66 and 14, respectively. 

“Every OSTC litigator is personally selected, specially trained and qualified, and vetted from nomination through certification,” Brig. Gen. Christopher Brown, lead special trial counsel, said in a statement. “This process ensures our counsel are experts in the execution, management and supervision of complex litigation.” 

The office also has agents from the Air Force Office of Special Investigations on its staff to coordinate with local law enforcement when working a case. 

“Notwithstanding OSTC’s independent authority, commanders remain a crucial stakeholder in the military justice system with the ultimate responsibility for command climate and good order and discipline within their units,” Brown added. “Commanders of victims and accused are uniquely suited to provide input to OSTC disposition decisions, and we welcome their perspective.”  

With E-4 ‘Doomsday’ Planes in High Demand, USAF Turns to VR Training on Digital Replica

With E-4 ‘Doomsday’ Planes in High Demand, USAF Turns to VR Training on Digital Replica

Jan. 11, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The Air Force’s E-4B ‘Doomsday’ fleet—designed to give senior U.S. leaders a flying command post to control forces in the case of a national emergency or crisis—consists of just four aircraft, with one always on alert. That doesn’t leave a lot of time for maintainers and operators to train on the airframe.

To solve that issue, the 595th Command and Control Group is building out extensive virtual training software. That required a complete 3-D scan of the E-4B’s interior and exterior, along with a storyboard detailing user engagement in the VR environment, 55th Wing spokesperson Ryan Hansen told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Seven VR modules of the aircraft are currently in production, with the first one set to be delivered in February. Additionally, the wing has secured funding to develop 14 other modules, specifically tailored to maintenance tasks for the E-4B. The development process for these modules will begin in March, Hansen said.  

“The E-4B is a high demand, low supply asset that has a vast range of missions,” Scott Petty, 595th C2G Virtual Reality Training Laboratory manager said in a statement.

To ensure Airmen receive the necessary qualification and recurring training, the unit wants to embrace what it calls “extended reality,” or “XR,” including everything from virtual reality training on the new digital model to mixed or augmented reality training. The goal is to provide an efficient training regimen for essential personnel without having to depend on the actual aircraft, the spokesperson said.

The 595th C2G also received a prototype training device called the ‘Weapon System Maintenance Trainer,’ developed through an Air Force Global Strike Command WERX challenge. This emulator enables essential personnel to train, operate, and troubleshoot multiple E-4B mission systems without being on the aircraft. The WSMT responds just like the actual systems on the aircraft would, according to Hansen.

Since 2021, the VR training lab has commissioned four Doomsday training modules. Maintainers and operators are currently using these original VR modules to familiarize themselves with the aircraft, said Hansen.

“The Air Force recognized the need to leverage emerging technologies to provide the best training to the Airman,” said Petty, a former E-4B crew chief. “We have three virtual reality training systems with plans of expanding. The 595th C2G’s vision is to establish the premier virtual reality training program in Air Force Global Strike Command.”

Jason Richards, with Mass Virual, stand inside the landing gear cavity to get a 360 degree scan of E4-B system inside of the 595th Command and Control Group;s hangar located at Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska, on March 15, 2023. The Insta 360 devise will recreate the scans into a realistic 3-dimensional rendering for maintainers to use while training in a virtual environment. (U.S. Air Force photo by Josh Plueger).

The E-4B is the evolved version of the E-4A, which has been flying since the 1970s. By 1985, all aircraft were converted to the B models. The Air Force plans to replace the aging fleet, set to retire in the early 2030s, with the Survivable Airborne Operations Center (SAOC). They issued a request to the industry for the development of up to four potentially used, but similarly sized commercial-derivative airframes back in 2020.

In December, Boeing confirmed that it has been excluded from the competition to produce the SAOC, leaving Sierra Nevada Corp the sole company competing for the SAOC contract. The Nevada-based manufacturer produced the service’s light attack/armed reconnaissance aircraft, A-29 Super Tucano.

While the Air Force has yet to officially choose a manufacturer, the service has said it plans to invest $889 million for the development of the SAOC fleet in fiscal 2024, a significant increase from the $98 million allocated for the effort in 2023.

Mobility Pilots Prepare to Fight Fatigue in All-Out Pacific Conflict

Mobility Pilots Prepare to Fight Fatigue in All-Out Pacific Conflict

Jan. 11, 2024 | By David Roza

Maj. Nate Mocalis was dog tired.

He and five other Airmen were a little over halfway through a 72-hour mission flying a KC-135 tanker back and forth across the country, refueling other aircraft. Mocalis and his copilot were landing the 130-foot-long bird amid a strong crosswind after a 16-hour stint in the cockpit. They were stable all the way through the final approach and into the flare—the moment where pilots point the nose up slightly to bleed speed before touchdown—when the copilot let out the crosswind controls, forcing the pilot to accelerate and lift back into the air to avoid a serious mishap. 

“That’s not something that this individual, with their high level of experience, would do on a normal day,” Mocalis recalls now. “This was simply a fatigue-induced error.” 

Fatigue is a common safety hazard. About 24 percent of Air Force Class A mishaps from 2003 to 2020 were fatigue-related, according to a study by Air Force scientists that was published in the May 2020 edition of the medical journal Aerospace Medicine and Human Performance. Mastering that challenge looms large as the Air Force eyes flying the vast distances that define the Indo-Pacific theater.  

To prepare, the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command hosted its first-ever human performance industry day conference in December at Scott Air Force Base, Ill., where Airmen and health tech companies shared the challenges and possible solutions for managing the mental and physical stresses of non-stop flying. 

“To be clear, this is about the Pacific challenge,” AMC commander Gen. Mike Minihan told conference attendees.  “We’re going to max-perform humans, and I want all the insights and assistance possible. Nothing’s off the table.” 

Minihan envisions air and ground crews training to perform their jobs with minimal rest for 48 hours straight. He wants enablers that his troops can use now, whatever the cost. 

“This is a ‘now, get it done’ thing for me,” Minihan said. “It’s not for us, it’s for the joint team. This is to make everybody else successful.” 

pilot
1st Lt. William White, left, 535th Airlift Squadron and Maj. Brittain Caldwell, 204th Airlift Squadron pilot, prepare to conduct nighttime ‘blackout’ training utilizing white phosphor night vision goggles aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft Feb. 9, 2022, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Mysti Bicoy)

Status Quo 

The standard flight duty period for a single crew operating an Air Force aircraft is 16 hours, which includes two to three hours for travel to the operating location, briefing, and completing all the prerequisites before take-off. The limit can extend to 24 hours or longer with extra crew members and a place to rest on the plane, or it can drop to 12 hours in cases of high-risk, high-stress missions, such as low-flying a C-130 through a combat zone. 

The limits exist for a reason: Flying is hard and takes enormous concentration. Pilots must make thousands of decisions to keep their aircraft aloft, manage the crew, and complete their mission. The mental load is draining, said Maj. Melinda Marlow, a C-130 pilot, but the physical demands—ranging from extreme temperatures to noisy engines—also take a toll. 

“What that all equates to is a significant cognitive load over a significant period of time, without the ability to do the things you might normally do to help relieve that,” the way office workers might go to the gym or take a walk, said Marlow, chief of staff action officer at AMC headquarters. 

Easing that load—or knowing when a break might be most valuable—is hard to pin down, largely because aircrews lack the diagnostics to assess their own levels of fatigue.  

“The status quo is we just ask the crew, ‘Hey, how’s everyone feeling?’” Mocalis said. “But as humans, we’re really poor judges of objectively assessing our actual fatigue and risk due to our levels of alertness.” 

The more fatigued one is, the harder it is to know just how tired you really are, and how much that affects response times and judgment, experts say.   

“If you get just five hours a night for weeks and weeks, you will start to think that’s normal, like ‘This is how I feel, this is how I operate,’” said Maj. James Brown, chief of the support flyer training branch at AMC’s operations directorate. 

While smart watches, heart rate monitors, and the like aren’t essential to know when one feels tired, those sensors can gauge how tired one is and when. For example, a psychomotor vigilance test (PVT) can track alertness by measuring how long—in microseconds—it takes a participant to tap a screen when cued. The PVT can be used to establish a baseline which can then be used to demonstrate when someone is under-rested.   

Combined with other sensors, that data can help monitor performance and make well-informed mission decisions. It should also help Airmen build the habits necessary to minimize fatigue, predict when individuals will be most exhausted, and assign missions to those best suited based on data, not just gut judgment.   

“That’s a conversation starter for us to develop a game plan, like, ‘Hey this guy is more of a night owl compared to this guy who is a morning person,’” Mocalis said. “It helps us be smart in how we delegate missions.” 

wearable
Air Force Tech. Sergeant Matt Hurless, 92nd Air Refueling Squadron in-flight refueling specialist, displays a Smart/Wearable Fatigue Tracking (SWiFT) watch during a Phase 3 Lead Wing exercise, June 6th, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sergeant Heather Clements)

Enter Sandman 

Despite all the energy drinks on the market, “there really is no chemical substitution for sleep,” said Col. Robert McCoy, AMC’s chief of aerospace medicine. Once it’s tired enough, the human body starts nodding off to grab microbursts of sleep, which can be dangerous for anyone operating a refueling boom, an aircraft, or any other vehicle.  

While it may be impossible to get eight hours of uninterrupted sleep in the midst of a conflict, cat naps can do wonders for aircrew just trying to get through the next critical phase of flight. McCoy found that out for himself aboard a maximum endurance C-130 flight from Arkansas to the Philippines. 

“A couple of the aircrew members had never taken a 15-, 20-minute nap, and they were amazed at how powerful a tool that could be,” he said. “That’s how most of us [physicians] got through medical school, those 15-, 20-minute naps.” 

While any sleep is better than no sleep, humans sleep better in places that are cool, dark, and quiet. Military aircraft are none of those things. The noise level in a KC-135 is around 90 decibels, Mocalis said—about the same noise level as a gas-powered lawnmower. The floor of that aircraft is cold, while the ceiling can be unbearably hot. Cabin pressure is typically higher and the air drier than on commercial airliners, further straining crews and accelerating dehydration.   

One solution could be providing sleep pods—small compartments on a single palletized container that could enable Airmen to get a better, high-quality, restorative sleep.  

Sleep pods are one promising technology, but the main emphasis of AMC’s human performance effort is on helping Airmen better adapt to tiring circumstances.  

“There is no real guidebook for aircrews on how to adjust their body clock and their circadian rhythm to perform on a different shift,” said Mocalis. “Each individual is trying to navigate that on their own without guidance.” 

fatigue
Hawaii Air National Guard Tech. Sgt. Noah Robinson, C-17 Globemaster crew chief troubleshoots aircraft maintenance utilizing a Digital Technical Order System (DTOS) during preflight checks aboard a C-17 Globemaster III aircraft Feb. 9, 2022, Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii. (U.S. Air National Guard photo by Mysti Bicoy)

Warning Light 

The 711th Human Performance Wing, the Defense Innovation Unit, AMC, and other groups are all working with off-the-shelf wearables and apps that can measure biometrics, including sleep quality, heart rate, stress, fatigue, and alertness. These tools could alert crew members before fatigue reaches dangerous levels.  

“Inside your vehicle or your airplane, you have all these sensors that tell you how the airplane is doing or how the car is doing, but nothing on how you are doing,” said Brown. ”It’s a mental check of ‘OK, I should probably take a strategic nap or use some caffeine or get something to drink.'” 

One effort at the 92nd Air Refueling Wing at Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., is called Smart/Wearable Fatigue Tracking (SWiFT) and seeks to leverage wearables to track how Airmen’s fatigue levels change throughout the day and optimize their sleep and exercise patterns accordingly. 

“Our crews can use this tool real-time in the cockpit to determine which pilot is best suited to fly a critical phase of flight, like taking the final landing after an exhausting multi-day mission with multiple circadian rhythm swaps,” said Mocalis. 

The major hopes these tools can help Airmen advocate for themselves, since they can now point to data showing they are objectively too tired to safely perform a mission. The data could also track the impact of other factors, like when McCoy enjoyed a hot meal aboard his max endurance flight to the Philippines.  

“It was amazing how much a cooked meal rather than peanut butter and jelly, which is my go-to, makes a difference as a morale booster and how much more alert I was after eating that,” said McCoy. 

The benefits may appear small at first: an hour of high-quality sleep here, a perfectly-timed shot of caffeine there. In aggregate, those small edges could make all the difference in a future fight. 

“We’re talking about extremes. The scenario in which we need to utilize maximum endurance operations is an extreme,” said Marlow. “So when we’re operating in these extreme environments, how do we do it safely and smartly?” 

At AMC, Minihan wants to move fast on maximizing human performance but knows aircrew must trust the technology they will be reliant on. Building trust requires delivering results, and Mocalis saw one promising result at the tail end of his 72-hour mission.  

A day after the go-around incident, the pilot and his crew were exhausted after multiple circadian rhythm shifts and countless miles. 

“It felt very much like the end of a massive road trip, as if battling through a snowy interchange at night in a foreign city,” he recalled. 

Mocalis looked forward to letting his copilot handle the final landing of the mission, but first they decided to take a PVT. The test found that the copilot’s alertness was well below that of Mocalis. He chose then to take the landing and put the plane down safely himself. For the first time, they had objective data to help them make the safest possible decision.  

“When you feel tired, it’s a relief knowing it’s the other person’s turn to fly, but when you realize you’re the one who is the most alert,” the major said. “Then it’s like ‘time to suck it up, let’s go!’” 

Ellsworth Pauses Flight Ops After B-1 Crash; Carcass Not Yet Declared a Loss

Ellsworth Pauses Flight Ops After B-1 Crash; Carcass Not Yet Declared a Loss

Jan. 10, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

As investigators probe the wreckage of a B-1 bomber that crashed while landing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., on Jan. 4, the runway will remain closed until at least Jan. 19, according to a Notice to Airmen. Ellsworth itself is restricted to visitors on “official business only,” the notice said.

A team of investigators, including personnel from the B-1 depot at Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., are conducting a safety investigation to see if there is any immediate mechanical or procedural reason to ground the entire B-1 fleet. While B-1 operations at Ellsworth have been halted, operations continue at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas—the other main B-1 base—and other bombers are available at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., for test operations.

Service officials said it will take until at least Jan. 19 to fully document the crash site and move the carcass to a hangar, where further investigation can continue. During that same time, the runway manager will conduct a sweep of the airfield for debris needed for the investigation and to clear any potential foreign objects that could threaten future flight operations.

A Global Strike Command spokesperson said an accident investigation board chairman has been selected but that officer’s name has not yet been announced.

The accident investigation board is a longer process that can take many months to discover the root cause or causes of a Class A mishap. A Class A is any accident that involves loss of life, severe injury, loss of an aircraft, or other damage totaling more than $2.5 million. Such an investigation probes crew actions, health, rest and training; the aircraft’s maintenance history; weather conditions; and other salient factors.

Weather conditions at the time of the accident were poor, with below-freezing temperatures and fog in the area. The mishap aircraft was the second in a two-ship formation returning from a training flight; the lead aircraft landed without incident.

It has not been determined yet whether the aircraft is a total loss, according to the Global Strike Command spokesperson, who could only say that the mishap aircraft is “not airworthy.”

Unofficial and unconfirmed imagery circulating on Facebook pages and other social media show a B-1 covered with snow or foam that has been severely burned and bent in a catastrophic manner in a grassy area off a runway. In one image, the B-1, photographed from behind, is resting on its engines and missing its tailcone, with its left elevator badly bent. Additionally, the flaps on the swept-forward wings appear to be skeletonized, likely from fire.

Another image attributed to a NewsCenter 1 webcam shows the aircraft severely damaged from just forward of the wing roots to the nose.

Satellite imagery of Ellsworth dated Jan. 6—taken by Planet Labs and shared with The War Zone—shows that the aircraft struck the ground beyond the overrun of runway 31/13, and after briefly staying on the centerline, veered left off the main runway and came to rest in the grassy area between the runway and the taxiway, leaving a heavy black trail in its wake.  

The four crew members ejected successfully from the aircraft. Three were treated at base facilities and one at a nearby hospital. All are expected to make a full recovery.

The AFGSC spokesperson said it has not yet been determined if the Air Force will attempt to replace the mishap aircraft by resurrecting one from the “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz. That determination may have to wait until the Accident Investigation Board (AIB) makes its final report. The Air Force is authorized to operate 45 B-1Bs, but now has only 44.

The Air Force persuaded Congress in 2020 to permit the service to reduce B-1B fleet from 62 to 45 airframes—but keep the same level of maintenance funding and personnel—in order to improve the mission capability levels of the type, which had been struggling to meet USAF standards after the B-1Bs flew extended duty in Afghanistan and Iraq, incurring heavy structural fatigue.

The Air Force justified the divestiture by saying, in part, that the B-1s identified for retirement would cost from $10 million to $30 million each to restore to full mission capability.

The last of the 17 B-1s retired in the divestiture went to Davis-Monthan in September 2021.

After the retirements, the remaining operational B-1 fleet saw an uptick in mission capability rates, with more spare parts and maintenance crews available for each one.

It’s not clear whether the aircraft sent to Davis-Monthan were put into recallable—or “inviolate”—storage, or whether they have been used for cannibalization purposes.  

Since 2012, the Air Force has been running an extended structural fatigue test on a B-1B wing and fuselage, “aging” the items with pulleys and bars to simulate years of flying. The service reported in 2021 that its goal is to accumulate 28,000 simulated flight hours on the wing and 27,000 hours on the fuselage, but it was at that time behind schedule, and had only “aged” the two test articles to about 16,000 hours on the wing and 7,200 hours on the fuselage. The tests are also paused from time to time to make changes and modifications to the test articles so they are representative of operational aircraft, which occasionally have stiffeners or other structural enhancements applied.

In 2021, the B-1 fleet averaged about 12,000 hours of flying time.

Whiting Swears in as New SPACECOM Boss, Vowing to Foster Partnerships

Whiting Swears in as New SPACECOM Boss, Vowing to Foster Partnerships

Jan. 10, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

Space Force Gen. Stephen N. Whiting became the new head of U.S. Space Command on Jan. 10, succeeding Army Gen. James Dickinson during a change of command ceremony at Peterson Space Force Base, Colo.

In his speech as commander, Whiting pledged to foster partnerships with military branches and allies, reaffirming his commitment to safeguard space and deliver capabilities to the joint force.

“Our highest priority is to preserve freedom of action in space,” Whiting said. “The People’s Republic of China and Russia consider space a war-fighting domain, and their increasingly assertive actions have made space more contested. Their actions have created real threats to our national space power and the critical space infrastructure upon which our nation relies.”

Whiting previously served as the first ever head of Space Operations Command, a field command under the Space Force, starting in October 2020.

Under his leadership, SpOC aided in the U.S. response to global events such as the invasion of Ukraine and terrorist attacks on Israel. Additionally, the field command established various new Deltas and Squadrons.

Now, he’ll take over at SPACECOM at a pivotal moment, as the Space Force reorganizes how its presents forces to the combatant command and the Pentagon plans to launch dozens of new satellites in the next few years. The command’s long-term future also remains unsettled amid a long-running dispute over its permanent headquarters, though it did declare full operational capability Dec. 15 at its temporary home in Colorado Springs.

Whiting is only the second Space Force general to lead a combatant command, following Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, who served as both Chief of Space Operations and SPACECOM commander from 2019-2020. The Space Force is the service dedicated to arming, training, and equipping space-focused forces; Space Command is the combatant command responsible for delivering space capabilities to joint and combined forces while protecting and defending the space domain by employing joint forces from the Army, Marine Corps, Navy, Air Force, and Space Force

In his speech, Whiting highlighted the significance of collaboration between Space Command and Space Force and vowed to avoid internal competition.

“No doubt there are tensions between services and combatant commands,” Whiting said. “But let me be clear, maximizing the outcomes for the nation in space ahead of any organizational equities will be my priority.”

Deputy Defense Secretary Kathleen Hicks and Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Navy Adm. Christopher W. Grady were also present at the ceremony.

Hicks, standing in for hospitalized Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, also noted the increasingly aggressive actions of China and Russia in space. She highlighted resilient space architectures—a new area of emphasis in space—as crucial to the U.S. response, asserting that “conflict is not inevitable.”

“The United States of America is committed to preventing conflict through deterrence by making clear to our competitors that the costs of aggression would far outweigh any conceivable benefits,” Hicks said. “Everyone at this command is part of how we do that.”

Whiting’s ascension at SPACECOM comes months after his nomination in July 2023, the result of a delayed Senate confirmation process. His departure from Space Operations Command clears the way for Lt. Gen. David N. Miller Jr. to assume command of that organization.