Airmen Turn C-5 Into ‘Huge Floating Gas Station’ with Refueling Experiment

Dec. 21, 2023 | By David Roza

At 247 feet long and with a 222-foot wingspan, the C-5M Super Galaxy is the largest aircraft in the U.S. military—and, as a crew at Travis Air Force Base recently proved in the skies over northern California and Oregon, America’s largest flying gas station.

On Dec. 12, a Travis crew tried out a process called reverse flow air refueling between a C-5 and a KC-10 Extender tanker. Instead of the gas flowing out of the tanker and into the receiving aircraft through the refueling boom as it usually does, the gas went up the other way from the C-5, through the boom and into the KC-10.

Normally reserved for emergencies, this was the first time the technique had been tried with the C-5 since the aircraft was first designed in the 1960s. Airmen with the 22nd Airlift Squadron wanted to see how it worked with the C-5M, the modernized version in use since 2006.

“The whole reason behind doing this was to get some baseline data,” Maj. Justin Wilson, the squadron’s chief of standards and evaluations and C-5M evaluator pilot, told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “Now we can see what other scenarios we can use this in.”

A U.S. Air Force C-5M Super Galaxy performs a reverse flow air refueling proof of concept with a KC-10 Extender over Northern California and Oregon, Dec. 12, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Alexander Merchak)

Air Force planners are preparing for a possible conflict against China, where the branch’s aerial refueling tankers would be hard-pressed to help the rest of the military’s aviation fleet cross the vast Pacific Ocean. If a C-5 can ferry gas to a tanker, it could keep more tankers in circulation, Wilson said.

“By using a C-5 as a huge floating gas station, it allows more tankers to be positioned for offloading to fighter or mobility aircraft, versus having to use one tanker to refuel another, which takes away a tanker asset from the mission,” he explained in a press release. “This allows more tanker aircraft in the theater and extends their range or orbit time.”

The operation was an unusual one for the crew, and especially for the flight engineers who run through the checklists and operate the fuel panel in order to push gas through the C-5’s various tanks. As gas moves through and leaves the aircraft, it shifts the jet’s center of gravity, which requires constant monitoring and communication with the flight deck. The center of gravity affects how to handle the jet, how efficiently it flies through the air, and other factors as the pilots work to keep the massive plane connected to the tanker.

Despite the challenges, the flight was a success, with the C-5 offloading 23,500 pounds of fuel (about the weight of two African elephants) in approximately 30 minutes. By comparison, a tanker can offload 6,000 to 7,000 pounds a minute depending on the aircraft, Wilson said. But the point was not to prove the C-5 is more efficient than a tanker. Instead, it was to prove the operation could be done, to see how much gas could be moved, and how quickly the C-5 could move it.

The KC-10 had to burn gas to stay in a refueling formation for 30 minutes, but overall the aircraft flew away with 15,000 more pounds of fuel than it had before. That would extend the tanker’s range by about an hour and a half to two hours, depending on what mission it is flying, Wilson said. Two hours may not sound like much, but it could make all the difference for a fighter pilot running low on fuel hundreds of miles from the nearest runway.

c-5 — U.S. Air Force Airman 1st Class Sebastian Paredes, 60th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron C-5M Super Galaxy crew chief, puts tools away prior to flight at Travis Air Force Base, California, Dec. 12, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Alexander Merchak)

The reverse air flow refueling is the latest experiment using transport aircraft in unusual ways. Past flights have seen C-17 and C-130 transports launch cruise missiles out of their cargo compartments and haul gas to distant runways. The experiments are part of a larger effort by the Air Force to maximize the use of its fleet in a possible conflict. A C-17 could also move gas back to a tanker, Wilson said, albeit with less in its tanks than the larger C-5.

Now that the flight is over, future planners know what results they might expect to see if they ever have to use a C-5M to reverse flow air refuel in the future.

“It’s just one more thing that the C-5 is capable of doing,” Wilson said.

For Tech. Sgt. Robin Ogg, 60th Operations Group C-5M senior evaluator flight engineer, the flight also showed how flexible the crew could be to do something new.

“This mission on the C-5 meant showcasing precision, teamwork, flexibility, and adaptability,” he said in the release. “It highlighted the importance of trust and coordination within the team, emphasizing everyone’s crucial role. The experience left me with a deep sense of pride and accomplishment.”

Lawmakers Open Investigation into Osprey Safety after Deadly USAF Crash

Dec. 21, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

In the wake of a CV-22 crash off the coast of Japan last month that killed eight Airmen and other deadly incidents involving the Osprey, the House Oversight Committee has opened an investigation into the tilt-rotor aircraft and is requesting extensive documentation from the Pentagon.

In a Dec. 21 letter to Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III, committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky.) wrote that his committee is “concerned about safety and performance issues surrounding the Osprey program” and wants more information “to better understand the Osprey program’s performance, safety, and oversight.”

On Nov. 29, a U.S. Air Force CV-22 went down off the coast of Southern Japan, killing all eight Airmen on board. It was the deadliest Air Force aviation mishap since 2018, and all three services that fly the Osprey—the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps—have grounded their fleets in response.

While the crash was the first fatal CV-22 mishap for the Air Force since 2010, the Osprey has been involved in multiple deadly incidents in recent years. In August 2023, three Marines were killed when their Osprey crashed in Australia. In June 2022, five Marines died when their Osprey went down in Southern California. And in March 2022, four Marines died in a V-22 crash in Norway.

The Air Force also grounded its CV-22 fleet briefly in 2022 after a series of hard clutch engagements—in which the clutch slips and reengages—which caused USAF Ospreys to make emergency landings.

The Osprey, which can take off and land like a helicopter, then move its rotors and fly like an airplane, has long had a reputation for safety incidents, though proponents argue its safety data is comparable to other platforms.

Still, Comer noted in his letter that more than 50 service members have died in Osprey crashes since 1992.

“While, statistically, the Osprey is not considered as dangerous as some other military aircraft, the Committee remains alarmed that most fatalities involving the aircraft have happened during training exercises, not combat operations,” Comer wrote.

A previous Oversight Committee hearing on the program in 2009 was hampered by a lack of cooperation by the Pentagon, Comer noted. Given the costs and continued reports from government watchdogs about issues with the program, “oversight is needed to ensure public safety,” Comer wrote, while noting the Osprey’s military advantages.

Comer set a deadline of Jan. 4 for the Defense Department to provide:

Safety records, including accident investigations and incident reports

Maintenance and reliability data and logs

All documents and communications “detailing incidents or accidents involving Osprey aircraft

Training and professional development protocols for air crew and maintainers

Performance evaluations and assessments of the Osprey

Budget documents, including acquisition and maintenance

Any third-party evaluations of the program

Future plans for the program, including upgrades or modifications

The Pentagon’s V-22 Joint Program Office did not immediately respond to a query from Air & Space Forces Magazine on the request for documents.

Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Maj. Gen. Patrick S. Ryder confirmed to Air & Space Forces Magazine on Dec. 22 the DOD had received the letter and said “the Department will respond accordingly.”

Space RCO Director: Effort to Modernize Aging Network for Controlling Satellites ‘On Track’

Dec. 21, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

ORLANDO, Fla.—The Space Rapid Capabilities Office, charged with quickly delivering cutting-edge, often-classified technologies for the Space Force, has made key progress in its push to modernize the aging system used to control U.S. government satellites, its director revealed last week.

Additionally, the secretive organization deployed “threat awareness sensors” in geosynchronous orbit this year that have already yielded intelligence on foreign capabilities, director Kelly Hammett told reporters at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference.

Compared to the Space Force’s other two acquisition arms—the Space Development Agency and Space Systems Command—the Space RCO reveals very little about what it does. But Hammett did say that his organization’s size and portfolio continue to grow as they take on new projects and ramp up work on others.

Perhaps the most high-profile program for which the office is responsible is the Satellite Communications Augmentation Resource (SCAR), which will provide desperately needed upgrades to the Satellite Control Network (SCN)

SCN, composed of 19 antennas stationed around the world, from Diego Garcia Island in the Indian Ocean to the village of Oakhanger in southern England to Schriever Space Force Base, Colo., is used to track a satellite’s location, collect its health and status reports, and send signals to control its subsystems such as power supply, antennas and mechanical and thermal control.

satellite control network — The sun sets beyond the radomes and Joe English Hill at New Boston Space Force Station, New Hampshire, Sept. 17, 2022. U.S. Space Force photo by Paul Honnick.

But the antennas are old—Hammett noted that they are technically the second-oldest active weapons system in the Pentagon, after the B-52 bomber—and can only maintain contact with one satellite at a time—an increasingly untenable situation given the growth in the number of satellites in orbit.

SCAR will boost SCN with electronically steerable phased array antennas that can connect with multiple satellites in a time, expanding communications capacity ten-fold, according to the SpRCO. The office awarded a $1.4 billion contract to BlueHalo in May 2022, and Hammett told reporters in Orlando that in August 2023, the program completed a “one-meter demo,” clearing the way for full-scale radars to be produced.

The first radar is “on track” to be delivered in March 2025, Hammett added, but the SpRCO’s work hasn’t slowed while it waits.

“We are actually right now working very hard to figure out how to deliver the SCAR system, how to modernize the SCN, and to put together that integrated roadmap across the Space Force to modernize,” Hammett said.

In particular, the office has worked with other Space Force organizations to finalize the first location for a SCAR antenna, Hammett said, though he could not say where that would be.

“The modifications to the infrastructure at that location are underway,” Hammett said. “So they’ll be ready for us when we bring the first unit in 15 months versus, there’s a big gap because we haven’t worked all the details and we deliver the first unit and then it sits there or in a vendor facility somewhere. We don’t want that to happen. We want these things to get out there to be fielded and to be employed in time.”

Getting SCAR in place could be particularly important for the Space Force given the service’s increased interest in so-called “dynamic space operations,” which involves satellites maneuvering within and between orbits to conduct both defensive and offensive operations.

Right now, most satellites’ movement is defined by “station keeping,” or ensuring they stay in place in orbit. More extensive maneuvers will require more robust command and control, and that C2 has to “actually get out to antennas and tell the satellite, ‘You move here then, and you move here then,” Hammett noted. “And this all has to be done in near real-time.”

The Space RCO is also working on a program called Rapid Resilient Command and Control (R2C2) that will provide the software necessary for such control, Hammett added, with the goal of delivering working software in around three months for demonstration projects.

Also in 2023, the RCO had its first satellite launch in January. At the time, the Space Force described two of the three payloads on the launch as being for “enhanced situational awareness,” but little else was revealed about their purpose or results.

Hammett declined to offer many details about the payloads, but he did say they completed testing and checkout after launch in roughly 60 days.

“They’ve been flying around the GEO belt collecting data,” Hammett added. “And we have learned a lot of interesting data that I can’t go into the details, but I can say that has been shared with the intelligence community, it is changing the intelligence estimate on certain foreign capabilities.”

Now, the Space RCO is working with the rest of the Space Force to proliferate those sensors “to the rest of the enterprise,” Hammett said.

US and China Hold First High-Level Military Talks in More Than a Year

Dec. 21, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S.’s top military officer spoke with his Chinese counterpart on Dec. 21, the first senior-level military-to-military talks between the two countries in more than a year, the Pentagon said.

In a video call, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. spoke with People’s Liberation Army Chief of the Joint Staff Department Gen. Liu Zhenli.

Brown emphasized the need for more communications between the two sides as the number of risky aerial intercepts and maritime incidents between the U.S. and its allies and the Chinese military increases, according to a readout provided by the Joint Staff.

“Gen. Brown discussed the importance of working together to responsibly manage competition, avoid miscalculations, and maintain open and direct lines of communication,” the Joint Staff readout stated. “Gen. Brown reiterated the importance of the People’s Liberation Army engaging in substantive dialogue to reduce the likelihood of misunderstandings.”

Between the fall of 2021 and the fall of 2023, the Pentagon says there have been more than 180 “coercive and risky air intercepts” of U.S. military aircraft by the Chinese military. In October, a Chinese fighter came within 10 feet of a U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress at night in what the U.S. military said was a particularly dangerous incident.

The top generals’ call follows a meeting in November between U.S. President Joe Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping outside of San Francisco in which the two leaders pledged to restore military-to-military communications. The last time a top Pentagon leader spoke with their Chinese counterpart was in November 2022, when Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III spoke with the Chinese defense minister, a post that is currently vacant.

The U.S. expects China to name a new defense minister in the spring, a U.S. defense official told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Relations between the two countries have grown steadily more tense in recent months, driven by Beijing’s anti-American rhetoric; the Biden administration’s efforts to curb China’s access to advanced U.S. semiconductor technology; a Chinese spy balloon that traversed the continental United States in early 2023, continued provocative actions by China towards vessels and aircraft in and over the South China Sea; an August 2022 visit to Taiwan—the self-governing democracy China views as a rebel province—by then-Speaker of House Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.); and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan.

“The two military leaders discussed a number of global and regional security issues,” Joint Staff spokesperson Navy Capt. Jereal Dorsey added.

Despite the high-level discussion, the U.S. is pushing for more regular communication to avoid miscalculation in a crisis. In particular, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command boss Navy Adm. John Aquilino told reporters in October he has repeatedly attempted to talk to the commanders of his Chinese counterparts, the commanders of the PLA Eastern and Southern Theater Commands, for the past two years, but none of those requests have been accepted.

More formal mechanisms for discussions have also been frozen, such as Defense Policy Coordination talks and Military Maritime Consultative Agreement meetings, which are designed to ensure safety at sea—both sets of talks last occurred in 2021. Those talks are expected to resume in the future, according to a DOD official.

“Gen. Brown reaffirmed the importance of holding the bilateral Defense Policy Coordination Talks, holding Military Maritime Consultative Agreement talks, and opening lines of communication between the Commander of United States Indo-Pacific Command and the commanders of the PLA Eastern and Southern Theater Commands,” the Joint Staff said. “The Chairman regularly communicates with Chiefs of Defense across the world and remains open to constructive dialogue with the PRC.”

Why Hypersonic Missiles’ Greatest Strength Also Makes Them Vulnerable: New Report

Dec. 20, 2023 | By David Roza

A recent think tank report warns that a wave of emerging weapons such as hypersonic glide vehicles, scramjet cruise missiles, and maneuvering reentry vehicles could evade today’s missile defenses due to their high speed and unpredictable maneuvers. But unique phenomena at hypersonic speeds (about 3,800 miles per hour or faster) could also make those weapons easier to detect and track for certain sensors.

“Hypersonic weapons, the things that make them so dangerous are also what make them so vulnerable,” said Masao Dahlgren, a Missile Defense Project fellow at the Center for Strategic & International Studies and author of a new report on hypersonic missile defense, during a panel discussion Dec. 18.

“There’s a lot of work being done right now, for example, on the wakes and the plumes left by hypersonic weapons,” Dahlgren said. “These things are flying at extreme speeds through the air. The plasma that surrounds them rips molecules off of the vehicle surface. There are chemical reactions that may release novel wavelengths of light.”

Tools for detecting those wavelengths could be helpful additions to the military’s growing network of space-based sensors for missile warning (detecting missile launches), tracking (tracking missile trajectories), and fire control (guiding interceptors to a threat).

Today, the U.S. uses a mix of space- and ground-based sensors to detect and track missiles. The Space Based Infrared System (SBIRS) and Defense Support Program (DSP) satellites provide initial missile warning and early tracking, which kicks off “a sophisticated network of ground and maritime radars to determine the positions, trajectories, and signatures of ballistic missiles,” Dahlgren wrote.

The information from those sensors must be fused together into a single picture to identify how many missiles have been launched, where they are, and where they are going, all necessary information for defeating them.

“The whole story of this starts with sensors. They drive every other piece of the puzzle when it comes to designing these constellations,” Dahlgren said Dec. 18. “Better sensors mean cheaper interceptors.”

hypersonic missile — A screenshot from a new report by the Center for Strategic & International Studies shows how ground-based radars may not be able to track hypersonic weapons.

The problem is that emerging weapons technologies could evade current sensors. The limits of Earth’s geometry mean that new classes of hypersonic missiles could fly under the radar horizons of ground- and maritime-based radars, Dahlgren wrote. To detect those threats, the military is spending billions of dollars to launch space-based sensors for missile warning and tracking. It is also developing more space-based sensors for fire control.

On Dec. 20, the Space Development Agency approved the design and production plan for defense contractor L3Harris to build 16 satellites for detecting and tracking hypersonic missiles in low-Earth orbit. The announcement comes about three weeks after the Space Force completed a critical design review for six missile warning and tracking satellites that will occupy medium-Earth orbit (MEO) starting in late 2026. Before the end of the decade, the service envisions more than 90 missile warning and tracking satellites in LEO and 27 in MEO.

Those lower orbits will complement a pair of Next Generation Overhead Persistent Infrared satellites flying high overhead in geosynchronous orbit and two more in highly elliptical orbits over the north and south poles.

Historically, the U.S. has used infrared sensors to detect thermal signatures of missiles from space, Dahlgren wrote. That works great for detecting the large, hot exhaust plumes of a missile launch, but the infrared signatures of hypersonic weapons diminish beyond the boost phase, he explained.

“Distinguishing a hypersonic heat signature against the Earth’s background has been likened to tracking ‘a slightly brighter candle in a sea of candles,’ requiring extensive testing to validate,” Dahlgren wrote.

hypersonic missiles — A screenshot from a new report by the Center for Strategic & International Studies shows the different heat signatures of ballistic missiles (top) and hypersonic weapons.

To make things more difficult, a hypersonic missile is so small that it may not be easily found among the pixels on a sensor’s focal plane array, Dahlgren said. Using sensors with a wider field of view covers a larger portion of the Earth’s surface, but it may sacrifice the fidelity needed to track a missile and provide fire control—just one example of the many tradeoffs of designing a sensor architecture.

One way to cover blind spots in that architecture could be to explore new technologies for spotting the unique signatures of hypersonic missiles. These could include hyperspectral or ultraviolet sensors capable of spotting the “wake of ions, gases, particles, and other chemical byproducts” released when the surface of a hypersonic object reacts with high-temperature airflow, Dahlgren wrote. Radar could be another alternative sensor, and it may even be possible to intercept radio emissions from data-linked missiles, he added.

Infrared sensors will be able to take higher-resolution images as technology improves, Dahlgren said, but a diverse mix of sensors could help ensure that nothing slips through the cracks.

“Combining these multiple types will allow greater persistence and capability if one type is degraded, whether from environmental conditions, enemy deception, or other means of signature reduction,” he wrote. “While it may be possible to evade one part of the electromagnetic spectrum, it is harder to evade several of them.”

“There’s more than one way to get at this problem and that’s something that I hope will receive more emphasis and will be a contribution of this report,” Dahlgren added at the panel discussion.

New threats and sensors are developing at a fast pace, which means the military needs the policies and support to keep up with those changes, said Army Col. Alexander Rasmussen, chief of the Tracking Layer at the Space Development Agency.

“Sometimes we focus on developing the tech, but we need the changes in the policy, we need the changes in acquisition, to support a very responsive approach, a spiral development,” he said at the panel discussion. “How can we change the institutions and the cultures to have that almost wartime focus now, so that we’re not surprised later, is what we really need to get after.”

Air Force OTS Celebrates First Graduates of ‘Transformational’ New Program

Dec. 20, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

The revamped version of Air Force Officer Training School, OTS-Victory, celebrated the graduation of its first class of 138 officers at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., on Dec. 8. And the school is already gearing up for another graduation Dec. 22, according to Air University spokesperson Lt. Col. William Russell—reflecting OTS’s shift to more classes with smaller sizes.

OTS transforms civilians or prior enlisted individuals with college degrees into officers in a 60-day program, far quicker than the years students spend at the Air Force Academy or in the Reserve Officer Training Corps.

In October, OTS shifted to a new model, branded OTS-Victory, a move then-deputy commandant Col. Derrick Iwanenko described as “the most transformational change in the history of OTS.”

Instead of five classes per year, each with around 500 officers, the OTS-Victory model is for around 20 classes per year, each with fewer than 175 trainees. This shift streamlines scheduling for trainees and instructors, providing increased flexibility for stakeholders and reducing candidate waiting times.

Currently, 18 classes are scheduled for fiscal 2024 for OTS-V. Once the officers graduate, they go to follow-on training for their respective career fields in the Air Force and the Space Force, Russell noted.

OTS-Victory prioritizes hands-on experiences, enhances joint conflict training, and expands capacity for officer training during crises. Its curriculum has five modules, with the first one covering military basics and the next two delving into Air Force structures, wargaming, and basic leadership. Module four readies trainees for a 60-hour, 28-day field exercise named Mission Command Experience (MCE), equipping them for leadership in challenging scenarios. The last module explores conflict concepts like anti-access/area denial and rapid mobilization. Trainees then participate in the Commandant’s Challenge, testing skills acquired over the 60-day course.

“All of it has changed to produce a better warfighter,” said Iwanenko, who recently assumed command as OTS commandant in a Dec. 15 ceremony. “For the first time, we’re a competency-based course, executing Mission Command Experiences. Within our condensed timeline, nobody is executing the level of reps and sets we’re able to induce for the trainees through Mission Command.”

The updated structure means there are up to five classes going at any one time in different training stages. The staggered schedule designates trainees in modules four and five as ‘upper class,’ allowing them to mentor those in the lower modules.

U.S. Air Force and U.S. Space Force newly commissioned officers celebrating after Officer Training School Victory graduation, December 8, 2023, at Welch Field, Maxwell Air Force Base, Alabama. U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Tyrique Barquet

The new environment promotes continuous improvement, feedback, and growth, said outgoing OTS commandant Col. Keolani Bailey.

“I’m extremely grateful and honored to have had the privilege to serve and to be a part of our OTS transformation,” Bailey said in a release.

“I am also thankful for the officer trainees who invest their best to develop themselves, their peers, and our staff as we continually improve to become the premier leader development institution within the profession of arms.”

AMC Announces Dozen DFCs, Hundreds More Awards for Afghanistan Evacuation

Dec. 20, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Air Mobility Command is awarding nearly 300 more decorations to Airmen for their service during the evacuation of Afghanistan in the summer of 2021, the major command announced Dec. 20.

The latest AMC awards board in November handed out:

12 Distinguished Flying Crosses

Four Bronze Star Medals

208 Air Medals

73 Meritorious Service Medals

The Distinguished Flying Cross is the nation’s fourth-highest award for heroism and the highest award for extraordinary aerial achievement. The Air Force has handed out more than 125 DFCs to Airmen involved in Operation Allies Refuge, the name given to the airlift evacuation out of Kabul. Airmen honored have ranged from C-17 pilots to loadmasters to flight nurses to U-28 Draco spy plane crews.

air force award — Airmen discuss the situation as Afghan citizens rest after being evacuated from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 19, 2021. (U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Brandon Cribelar)

The Bronze Star Medal is awarded for heroic or meritorious achievement or service in connection with combat operations while not participating in flight.

The Air Medal is given for “single acts of heroism or meritorious achievements” in flight in support of combat operations, to a lesser standard than required for the DFC.

Air Medals sit on display during a ceremony at Travis Air Force Base, California, Jan. 9, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Lan Kim

The Meritorious Service Medal is “the counterpart of the Bronze Star Medal for the recognition of meritorious noncombatant service,” according to the Air Force Personnel Center.

Both the DFC and Air Medal can be awarded with a “V” device for valor or “C” for actions performed in combat conditions. The Bronze Star Medal can be awarded with a “V” device for valor.

In its latest release, AMC noted that honorees from the latest awards board included “maintainers, loadmasters, Raven-trained security forces, aeromedical evacuation personnel, and tanker aircrews.”

“The majority of the decorations were awarded with combat devices and one of the Bronze Star Medals include a valor device,” the release stated.

OAR lasted 17 days, including round-the-clock operations involving some 800 military and civilian aircraft from more than 30 nations, including about half the Air Force’s C-17 transport jets and more than 500 U.S. Air Force aircrews, along with hundreds of support Airmen on the ground. It was the largest non-combatant evacuation operation in U.S. Air Force history.

More than two years later, Airmen are still being recognized for their actions.

“While long overdue, I am proud to recognize another group of mobility Airmen who accomplished heroic feats two years ago,” Gen. Mike Minihan, commander of AMC, said in a statement. “There is no clearer evidence that Airmen will always be the magic.”

All told, there have been seven Air Force awards boards related to OAR.

An earlier AMC awards board in November awarded Eight Distinguished Flying Crosses, two Bronze Star Medals, 229 Air Medals, and 98 Meritorious Service Medals, and a previous board in the fall of 2022 handed out 96 DFCs and 12 Bronze Star Medals.

Dynamic and Responsive: Space Force Leaders Plan for a New Kind of Operations

Dec. 20, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

ORLANDO, Fla.—For decades, the Space Force and the Air Force before it have had a tried-and-true method: massive, costly satellites are sent into orbit by launches that have been planned for months. Once there, those satellites mostly stay put in their orbits, preserving as much fuel as possible because, once that fuel is gone, the spacecraft’s service life is over.

Now the Space Force is rethinking that formula, investing to build large constellations of much smaller satellites. “Resilience” is the priority. But USSF and industry leaders are also adding another watchword to their operations: “dynamic.”

Whether delivering satellites into orbit in a matter of days, maneuvering satellites more actively, or refueling them in orbit, the Space Force is reshaping its operational concepts to better operate in an increasingly complex and unpredictable domain.

“We know speed to orbit and we know resiliency on orbit are fundamental principles that we want to adhere to,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman told reporters at the Space Force Association’s inaugural Spacepower Conference. “Now how do we take advantage of it, if we were to have it? That’s the work left to be done.”

Retired USSF Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw began articulating the concept of “dynamic space operations” earlier this year when he was still vice commander of U.S. Space Command. Now Saltzman is going further, describing it as “almost continuous maneuvering, so that the satellites from any one radar shot looks like it’s maneuvering and it’s just kind of constantly changing its orbit as it goes through—preserving mission but changing its orbit.”

Such maneuvering is not possible with most existing USSF satellites, which only carry enough propellant for “station keeping” and cannot be refueled. For now, Saltzman said, dynamic operations is only in the “good idea phase.”

But more development is ahead. “Our futurists, our people that are considering operational concepts that are several years down the road, this is one of the things that they’re factoring in,” he said.

This is all driven by threat, military and industry space experts say.

“When we listen to the demand signal from U.S. Space Command and the need to do dynamic space operations, the need to be able to maneuver without regret, that capability is now coming from us,” said Brig. Gen. Kristin L. Panzenhagen, program executive officer for the Assured Access to Space directorate. “It shouldn’t be a surprise or anything—one of the principles of warfare is maneuver. So now here we are in the space domain with a need to do that.”

U.S. Space Force Col. Robert Davis, Space Sensing program executive officer, left, and U.S. Space Force Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, Assured Access to Space program executive officer, participate in a panel at the inaugural Space Force Association Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida, Dec. 13, 2023. U.S. Space Force photo by Airman 1st Class Spencer Contreras

The need being articulated by SPACECOM is twofold, added Kelly D. Hammett, director of the Space Rapid Capabilities Office.

“If somebody is sending a co-orbital [anti-satellite missile] at you, you can actually run away,” Hammett told reporters. “You can move. You can respond and do things. And that’s on that side of the house. … The other piece is maneuver for space warfighting. Our commercial systems are watching what the Chinese in particular are doing on orbit right now. They’re practicing tactics and techniques. They’re maneuvering, they’re showing how they would ingress on potential targets. They’re completing robotic maneuvers and rendezvous and [proximity] ops. How will we have capabilities to address those threats and potentially fight the space war fight?”

A few days after Hammett’s remarks, the Chinese launched their uncrewed Shenlong space plane, which reportedly deployed six mysterious objects into orbit. Officials have previously spoken of a Chinese satellite with a “grappling arm” that could grab other nearby satellites, and a Russian “nesting doll” satellite that deployed multiple spacecraft after reaching orbit.

Being able to respond to these threats will require what Saltzman and other leaders call “regret-free maneuver,” or the ability to move a satellite without worrying too much about the precious fuel burned to do so.

One possibility is refuelable satellites—Hammett suggested the Space RCO is now only building satellites that can be refueled. Saltzman also suggested it could mean equipping small satellites with large amounts of fuel. On Dec. 11, the Assured Access to Space directorate issued a request for information from industry on ideas of refueling and mobility.

“One thing we really need to understand fully is the concept of operations and the demand signals,” Panzenhagen said. “So we appreciate from the program office side, we’ve had a lot of tabletop exercises, really trying to understand what those requirements are. We’ve got now satellite program offices that are starting to build for refueling capability. For the industry side of the house, what we really need to understand is one, the state of technology and I think we’re getting a much better understanding of that, and the RFI … will continue to aid in that understanding. But we also really need to understand the business case.”

There is plenty of interest from industry for developing “space tankers.” Startup Orbit Fab has designed a standard port for satellites to dock into its “gas stations in space,” with the first refueler scheduled to go up in geosynchronous orbit in 2025. Northrop Grumman also offers in-orbit refueling through its subsidiary, SpaceLogisitics, and launch provider Blue Origin recently unveiled a new spacecraft, Blue Ring, “focused on providing in-space logistics and delivery,” including fuel.

“The Blue Ring is going to offer a lot of on-orbit capability: several kilometers per second in Delta V, a hybrid propulsion solution, and thousands of kilograms of mass toward the capability and the ability to stay on orbit, the ability to maneuver on orbit, the ability to maneuver between orbits and beyond GEO into cislunar,” said Blue Origin vice president of government sales Lars Hoffman. “These kinds of capabilities that we’re talking about here are going to complicate the calculus of our adversary. It’s going to challenge their thinking. And it’s opening up all sorts of new ideas for our Guardians to be thinking about, ‘What would I do with that?’”

Refueling isn’t the only major change coming in how the Space Force responds to new threats and requirements. During his keynote address, Saltzman took several minutes to stress how important the “Victus Nox” mission was, and how significant it was to prove USSF and its industry partners can build a satellite in less than a year and prep it for launch in a matter of days .

The “tactically responsive space” (TacRS) mission helped advance the Space Force’s drive to be both fast and flexible.

“It’s about taking advantage of capabilities on the ground, mating them, and getting them on orbit in new and innovative ways,” said SSC commander Lt. Gen. Michael Geutlein.

U.S. Space Force Lt. Gen. Michael Guetlein, Space Systems Command, commander, speaks during the inaugural Space Force Association Spacepower Conference in Orlando, Florida, Dec. 13, 2023. U.S. Space Force photo by Airman 1st Class Spencer Contreras

More TacRS missions are coming as the Space Force builds on its capacity to respond “under attack,” said Geutlein.

Becoming more dynamic and responsive will come with potential challenges, though. Hammett noted that command and control in space is poised to become vastly more complex if satellites can move rapidly—especially given the catastrophic effects a collision in space can have.

“When you think about … all the systems that SDA, SSC, and we are building, there are a lot of things coming in the next three years, and now they can all maneuver,” Hammett said. “Now they all need to maneuver to respond to threats. How do you synchronize those? How do you tell everything where to go and when to go there? You need more capability to C2 those things.”

Saltzman said the change in approach literally changes “how you do space domain awareness: Keeping track of a dynamically moving object is fundamentally different than anything we do now.” That poses challenges to USSF, but even greater challenges to potential adversaries.

Now, as USSF celebrates its fourth birthday and heads into its fifth year, Saltzman is focused on maintaining that momentum.

“Being able to put something on orbit in a matter of days, like we showed, the ability then to protect the satellite through dynamic maneuvering: How do these operational concepts support the theory of success?” Saltzman asked. “How do they help us either create resiliency, do responsible counterspace campaigning? How does it help us avoid operational surprise? … What are the potential possibilities for how all this fits together? And kind of the easy answer is I don’t know yet. We’re asking all those questions.”

Senate Confirms New Air Force, Space Force Vice Chiefs; Other Four-Stars

Dec. 19, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force and Space Force will get new No. 2 officers, and three USSF and USAF generals will lead combatant commands after the Senate cleared its last remaining general officer nominations Dec. 19.

Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife will gain a fourth star and take over as Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Lt. Gen. Michael A. Guetlein will gain a star and move up to Vice Chief of Space Operations. Both men waited months for their nominations to be approved amid a standoff between Sen. Tommy Tuberville (R-Ala.) and the Pentagon over its reproductive health policies, which provide funds to service members to travel out of state to seek services, including abortions.

Tuberville initially placed a legislative hold on all general and flag officer nominations starting in March. On Dec. 5, he lifted that hold on all nominations below four-star generals and admirals. On Dec. 19, with the Senate looking to wrap up its legislative business for the year, Tuberville once more ceded, allowing the last group of nominations to be approved in a quick voice vote.

Slife’s confirmation in particular is crucial as the service has been without a confirmed vice chief since Gen. David W. Allvin was sworn in as chief of staff last month.

In addition to Slife and Guetlein, five other Air Force and Space Force officers were approved as part of the last-minute push. Three will be promoted to four-star generals and lead combatant commands:

Lt. Gen. Gregory M. Guillot will lead U.S. Northern Command and NORAD

Lt. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh will lead U.S. Cyber Command

Lt. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting will lead U.S. Space Command

Two will lead Air Force major commands:

Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach will become the head of Air Combat Command

Lt. Gen. Kevin B. Schneider will get a fourth star and become commander of Pacific Air Forces

The seven newly confirmed promotions also clear up a backlog that was preventing a handful of other officers from moving into new positions, and clears the way for other general officers who had stayed on longer than expected to finally retire.

Of the 11 combatant commands, four will now be led Air Force generals and one by a Space Force general.