Global Strike Boss: CCAs May Escort Bombers After Concept Matures in Fighter Force

Dec. 5, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Air Force Global Strike Command is considering long-range, autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft as partners for its bombers but is waiting to see how they prove out with the fighter force first, the head of the command said Dec. 5.

Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere also discussed the appropriate size of the B-21 bomber program, the possibility of a mobile land-based strategic missile force, and the outlook for the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile during an event hosted by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

Bussiere said the service is “looking at” how it could use CCAs in partnership with bombers, but “we’re going to let the fighter force kind of mature that concept with [Increment] 1 … and then we’ll be prepared to integrate that into the Long Range Strike Family of Systems, probably at a later date,” if directed.

“I won’t get ahead of the Chief or the Secretary, but it’s a logical question to ask, whether long-range strike would benefit from the CCA concept,” Bussiere added. ” … Right now, we don’t actually have that in the plan.”

Bussiere’s comments come a day after 8th Air Force commander Maj. Gen. Jason R. Armagost said that “a large aircraft, like a bomber, has many apertures and many radios, and in many cases, more crew members to be able to manage things like” CCAs, adding that the service has kept its options open in how it has developed and procured the B-21.

The “obvious limitation,” Bussiere noted, would be the range of such aircraft. The Increment 1 CCAs being developed by Anduril Industries and General Atomics Aeronautical Systems are optimized for an air-to-air function and not necessarily for long-haul missions that would allow them to escort bombers.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall raised the possibility of CCAs to complement the bomber fleet in 2021, and for a time, they shared mention on his Operational Imperatives list of critical new capabilities. But a year later, he backed off the concept, saying “the idea of similar-range collaborative combat aircraft is not turning out to be cost-effective.”

Analysts argued there was still a way for the drones to help the long-range strike mission, though.

B-21 Fleet

Bussiere also said it would be a good idea to “reevaluate” either the total number of B-21 bombers or the rate at which they are procured, saying that the changing security environment weighs in favor of more of the “exquisite” capabilities on the new aircraft.

“Who would not want more?” he asked.

“There are several examples in the in the last five or 10 years where we’ve evaluated what the proper fleet size should be,” he said. And while the program of record calls for “at least” 100 B-21s, Bussiere said there is analytical justification for a bomber fleet of 220 aircraft, of which 75 will be B-52Js, suggesting a fleet size of 145 B-21s.

The figure of 100 “probably needs to be reevaluated, based on the world as we see it today,” he said. “It’s a force mix discussion within the Department of the Air Force, and it’s a resource and priority [question] within the Department of Defense [and] the nation.”

The Air Force could accelerate the program to deliver more than the small handful of B-21s planned each year, Bussiere said.

“If the Department of the Air Force, the Department of Defense, or Congress directs an accelerated ramp … for the B-21 program, there’s some capability growth within the current complex,” he said.

Asked if production capacity could be expanded by adding another company to produce the jet, Bussiere said he was not convinced that would be “the most efficient way” of expanding production. More likely, he said, “it would require opening up another production complex” with the prime contractor, Northrop Grumman.

Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin, in April testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee, brushed aside the idea of going beyond the planned 100 B-21s, saying he thinks that by the time they are all built, technology will have advanced to offer an even better option.

“I think we’re not going to reach that number until probably the mid-2030s and beyond,” Allvin said, adding that “there are other technological advancements” likely to arise before the service commits to the B-21 as the backbone of its bomber fleet.

But Bussiere said the number and speed of delivery of the B-21 is a “valid discussion” to have “based on the age of the B-1 and B-2” and the advancing strategic capabilities of Russia and China.

If indeed B-21 deliveries will not conclude until the late 2030s, as Allvin said, that suggests a production rate of only seven or eight airframes a year. The actual rate is classified.

Land-Based Leg

When it comes to the land-based leg of the nuclear triad, Bussiere said the Air Force has “looked at” the idea of making the next land-based ICBM mobile—an idea to improve its survivability that went to prototype stage with the Peacekeeper missile in the 1980s, and which has been suggested by a number of think tanks since.

“There’s been debate and discussion over the decades on whether or not we should have a mobile aspect or component of the land leg of the triad. It’s been studied,” he said. “The nation has determined that … we’re not there yet. So that is a policy decision. If the nation decides that we are going to implement some sort” of ICBM mobility, “then we will develop concepts and go through that process. But right now, that’s been looked at.”

DOD: Russian Weakness Fuels China’s Rise in the Arctic

Dec. 5, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

China is leveraging its support for Russia’s war in Ukraine to increase its access to the Arctic, where the two are now engaged in “unprecedented styles of collaboration,” a top Pentagon official said Dec. 5.

Iris A. Ferguson, Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for Arctic and Global Resilience, said China and Russia have conducted joint patrols with warships, bombers, and their coast guards in the past year or two.

“The increasing levels of collaboration between Russia and the PRC, and unprecedented styles of collaboration, especially in the military domain, give us pause,” Ferguson said during an appearance at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

China has no Arctic territory, but claims to be a “near-Arctic state” and has sought for years to increase its presence there, which it sees as strategically advantageous for shipping and military activity. The war in Ukraine, which left Russia isolated on the world stage, played into China’s strategy.

“A couple of years ago, I think the broad assumption was that the Arctic is too important for Russia to let the PRC in—this is one of the crown jewels for Russia,” Ferguson said. “But we’re seeing an increasing amount of access, not only economically, but diplomatically, scientifically…. The military angle is an interesting new addition to access.”

Beyond signaling its growing presence in the Arctic, China has benefited from its cooperation with Russia by gaining “access to remote places in the Arctic, to give them experience and exposure, from a military perspective, that’s new and unique,” Ferguson said.

While some of China’s interest in the Arctic may be scientific or economic, its lack of transparency, general aggressiveness, and focus on dual-use efforts are cause for concern, said Matthew P. Funaiole, senior fellow of the China Power Project at CSIS.

“It doesn’t want to have demarcation between [economic and military development],” Funaiole said. “It’s like, ‘How can we get both at the same time?’”

In July, the Pentagon released an updated Arctic Strategy that pledged to keep a “watchful eye” on Russia and China’s collaboration in the Arctic, and Ferguson reiterated the core tenets of that strategy: upgraded domain awareness and regular exercises.

Indeed, Ferguson said the department is looking at how it can better use its Arctic exercises “as a deterrent effect, working alongside our allies and partners.” Just this week, U.S. Air Force B-52 bombers conducted live-fire exercises alongside Norway and the U.K.

Following through on those, however, will require increased investment, something that DOD has shied away from in recent history.

“The Arctic is one of those places that, if you look at a map, it is really strategic. It’s also a place that has been [overlooked], I think, quite a bit over the past several decades,” Ferguson said. “And I think one reason for that was because we were really heavily focused on operations in the Middle East for so long. We invested really heavily in the Arctic region during the Cold War era, and we thought things were safe and fine, and climate change wasn’t necessarily a thing. And it was a strategic buffer, and we could focus elsewhere. And we consolidated a lot of our infrastructure. We got rid of a lot of our infrastructure, actually, and we kind of took it as like a little bit of a luxury, quite frankly, to be able to focus our sights elsewhere.”

But the risks of overlooking the Arctic today could be dire. The Arctic, she suggested, may seem unimportant when looked at on a flat map. But looked at on a glob, or in a polar-centric map, it’s importance and proximity to key parts of the world becomes clear.

China’s growing influence on Russia and its increasing military presence in the Arctic, she said, presents a clear and imminent threat.

Air Force Defers Decision on NGAD to New Trump Administration

Dec. 5, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is deferring decisions on the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter to the incoming Trump administration, opting to continue both its review of the program and the Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction contracts during the transition period, the service announced Dec. 5.

“The Secretary of the Air Force will defer the Next Generation Air Dominance way ahead decision to the next administration, while the Department of the Air Force continues its analysis and executes the necessary actions to ensure decision space remains intact for the NGAD program,” the service said in a press release.

The Air Force further said it is extending the current contracts for NGAD to “further mature designs/systems while ensuring the industry teams remain intact.” The service is also asking the industry competitors “to update their proposals to account for the delays resulting from the current pause (schedule/milestone update only).”

Boeing and Lockheed, each of which build fighters for the Air Force today, are the presumed competitors for NGAD. Northrop Grumman chief executive Kathy Warden previously revealed her company had declined to bid on the program, but would likely pursue the Navy’s next-gen fighter. Northrop is among those with contracts to develop engine/vehicle interfaces for NGAD, under the Next-Generation Aerospace Propulsion program, along with Boeing, Lockheed, GE Aerospace and RTX’s Pratt & Whitney.

Officials had previously said they planned to award an engineering and manufacturing development contract or contracts for NGAD—it’s not clear if there would be one or two—this fall. However, over the summer, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall ordered a “pause” on the program, saying the Air Force was no longer certain that the requirements set for it matched the evolving threat. He also acknowledged the price tag for NGAD—Kendall has said it would be “multiple hundreds of millions” of dollars per tail—was prohibitively high without more resources.

Kendall ordered an internal review of the program and formed a blue-ribbon panel of former Air Force leaders with unique knowledge of stealth projects to provide advice. No end date for the review was set, although senior service leaders suggested it would be finished before the Air Force’s fiscal 2026 budget proposal went to the Office of Management and Budget.

The NGAD is the centerpiece of the Air Force’s plans for achieving air superiority in the future and is one of Kendall’s seven “operational imperatives”; the capability development efforts considered most crucial to the service’s ability to credibly deter or defeat a peer adversary.

At AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber conference in September, Kendall said he thought the central, crewed platform in the NGAD family of systems could—with new technologies and a revised operating concept—be acquired for the same cost as an F-35, the last price for which was around $80 million a copy for the Air Force variant.

An Air Force spokesperson said that in updating their proposals, the contractors will not be amending their technical concepts, but simply adjusting their cost estimates, taking into account delays accruing from the “pause,” which was ordered in July. She also said there is sufficient money in the program to accommodate the extension without further budgetary action.

The spokesperson said she could not reveal the number of participating contractors, the value of the TMRR contracts, or the expected duration of the extension. The program remains largely classified.

The spokesperson also said the Air Force is not planning to separate the budgets for the NGAD fighter and Collaborative Combat Aircraft, which are in the same developmental program element. Both have their own discrete line items within the program element and separating them is not necessary, she said. The CCA represents much of the “family of systems” that comprise the overall NGAD program.

The Air Force’s fiscal 2025 budget request for NGAD was $2.75 billion, and its forecast called for spending nearly $28.5 billion on it through the end of the decade, a figure including the CCA effort. For NGAD alone, the five-year plan calls for $19.6 billion in funding. The Air Force said in the ’25 budget that its ’26 request would be around $3.2 billion for NGAD alone.

8th Air Force Commander: B-1 and B-2 Fleet Retirements Will Be ‘Conditions Based’

Dec. 4, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

There is no set timeline for retiring the B-1 and B-2 bomber fleets, but when one is established it will be based on strategic conditions and when the B-21 is available to succeed them, the commander of 8th Air Force said Dec. 4.

In the meantime, putting bombers back on short-notice nuclear alert would be costly and likely require more airplanes, and such plans should be assessed for their need and duration, Maj. Gen. Jason R. Armagost said.

Speaking with the Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance Deterrence Center, Armagost said that Air Force Global Strike Command’s Bomber Roadmap—which has not been shared publicly for several years—“will change based on the needs at the time” and has no hard calendar date for the last B-1s and B-2s to leave service.

A previous iteration of the roadmap said the two bombers will phase out in 2031-2032, but this was always dependent on the success of the B-21 program. Global Strike Command has said it expects to have neither the money nor manpower to support four bomber fleets: the B-1, B-2, B-52 and B-21.

“[With] the resourcing decisions that have been made, we know we’re aiming at a two-bomber fleet,” Armagost said. “But bombers aren’t just about” numbers of airplanes, but “about targets and target requirements and deterrents. And so that being said, that’s part of the ongoing discussion about what the bomber roadmap actually means.”

The infrastructure to support the bomber fleet is crucial as well, based on a “very well-planned-out and well thought-through plan“ for how to integrate new B-21s and send older bombers to the Boneyard. The key, Armagost said, is to ensure “no gaps in deterrence.“

Asked if the rise of China’s strategic nuclear arsenal suggests the Air Force will need a larger bomber fleet, Armagost said such decisions are for “people [at a] high level.”

“But again, it’s conditions-based on how we retire platforms. And so those conditions can change day-to-day, moment-to-moment, but I think there’s a very good plan for how we on-board the new, and we will not off-board the old just on a specific date. It will be conditions-based.”

Armagost said another consideration is that the B-21 has capabilities well beyond those of current bombers.

“We’re really trying to figure out … how to employ this differently, because it’s a different kind of airplane,” he said. “It’s sixth-generation stealth, and we can do some very, very interesting things with it that allow us to contest airspace [and] gain access for the penetrating force.

The B-21 is meant to fly in coordination with uncrewed air vehicles like Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Armagost also said.

“Our penetrating force clearly needs to interact with CCAs,” he said.

While CCAs have largely been associated with manned fighters, the Air Force bomber enterprise is staying involved too, Armagost said, “and structurally, I think we’ve preserved that option as far as the communications and the sensors available.”

Indeed, Armagost noted that “a large aircraft, like a bomber, has many apertures and many radios, and in many cases, more crew members to be able to manage things like that,” suggesting bombers may have a CCA management mission.

Asked if the heightened tensions with Russia and China mean the bomber force should go back on short-notice alert, Armagost said a broad statement about returning to alert would be “unhelpful.”

The question, he said, “always becomes about how long, and to what purpose, right? And so I think we understand pretty clearly how we would do it, and probably about how long we could do it with the current force construct we have.” But since the last time bombers were on alert, crew ratios have changed and the bomber force has decreased in size by a third.

The practical question becomes, “what would our force have to be constituted like to do that in the same way? And it’s a different answer than just putting them back on alert for a predetermined amount of time or in response to some kind of crisis. And so I think we understand that pretty well, and those are part of the discussions about how we configure the future force,” he said.

In concert with a number of think-tanks, Armagost said the 8th Air Force is “having richer discussions about what the future force construct looks like.”

Armagost also noted that Bomber Task Forces have been highly successful, expanding the number of overseas bomber bases from three to airfields in “23 percent of the countries in the world.” With each BTF, the Air Force is interacting with “four or five” countries’ air forces and learning a lot about operating in different areas, he said.

There is a “hunger” for partners worldwide to host a BTF, Armagost said, but “they do ask for more bombers than we can give.”” The interactions with other air forces “have been fantastic, and they’re seeming to continue to grow.”

2 Air Force Generals Picked to Lead New Acquisition Centers

Dec. 4, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force nominated two rising stars to lead its new Air Force Information Dominance Systems Center and its new Nuclear Systems Center. If confirmed, both will also become lieutenant generals.

The Air Force picked Maj. Gen. Luke C.G. Cropsey, who has been leading development of the Air Force’s next generation battle management solution, to lead the Information Dominance center, and Maj. Gen. Mark B. Pye to command the Air Force Nuclear Systems Center.

The new centers will both report to Air Force Materiel Command, which is being reorganized as as part of a servicewide “re-optimization” for great power competition.

The Information Dominance Systems Center will be responsible for developing and acquiring systems used in command, control, communications, battle management, cyber technology, electronic warfare, and digital infrastructure. Cropsey is a natural choice, having served the past two years as the Department of the Air Force’s integrating program executive officer for C3/BM. In that role, he is responsible for building out the Air Force’s contributions to Joint All-Domain Command and Control, a warfighting concept intended to connect sensors and shooters all around the globe.

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall has called Cropsey’s current job “one of the hardest” in acquisition. Since his appointment, Cropsey has become a leading figure shaping the service’s battle management modernization plans. He earned his second star only recently, pinning it on less than six months ago.

The Nuclear Systems Center will expand the existing Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, taking on the additional responsibility for a new program office for intercontinental ballistic missiles. Currently led by a two-star, the expansion includes upgrading the command to three-star level. The center will oversee the Air Force’s extensive nuclear modernization programs, including the the over-budget and behind-schedule Sentinel ICBM and the secretive Long-Range Stand-Off nuclear missile.

Pye, a B-2 pilot and weapons officer by trade, would, if confirmed, lead that center and also serve as the Department of the Air Force’s program executive officer for Nuclear Air Delivered Systems and the Nuclear Materiel Manager. Currently in his third-straight Pentagon staff assignment, he is director of programs under the Air Force Deputy Chief of Staff for Plans and Programs.

In prior assignments, Pye commanded a B-2 squadron, served as vice commander of the 53rd Test wing, and led the Air Force Inspection Agency.

Editor’s Note: This story was updated Dec. 6 to clarify that the B-21 bomber program will not be under the Nuclear Systems Center.

Airman Development Command: Coming in 2025, Will Be ‘Foundational’ Change, Allvin Says

Dec. 4, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force has begun a sweeping overhaul of its education and training programs with the standup of new centers that will be part of the future Airman Development Command that is scheduled to come online next year, service officials said.

Airman Development Command will be established in 2025 as part of the Air Force’s re-optimization plan to prepare for “great power competition.” The new command will take the place of Air Education and Training Command.

“It’s not one of those that will have the biggest splash or headlines, but the functions that it is going to do that is going to centralize force development is going to help us really streamline and accelerate getting our Airmen ready for the environment,” Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said in a recent interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine “Airman Development Command will be the force development for cradle to grave for Airmen across the entire institution of the Air Force.”

The Air Force is already moving to activate the centers that will fill out the new command. On Dec. 2, the Air Force Accessions Center (AFAC), which merged officer accessions and the Air Force Recruiting Service, achieved initial operating capability.

AETC is also opening so-called centers of excellence—designed to focus and foster expertise—as it prepares to become Airman Development Command.

The Enterprise Learning Engineering (ELE) Center of Excellence (CoE) began operating at the start of the month. A Flying Center of Excellence stood up earlier this fall. Five more centers of excellence—Institutional, Information Warfare, Logistics, Command and Control, and Combat Power—are projected to achieve initial operating capability this winter.

Members of Air Education and Training (AETC) command attend a town hall meeting about the Enterprise Learning Engineering (ELE) Center of Excellence (CoE) at Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas, Nov. 1, 2024. In support of AETC’s intent to soon redesignate as Airman Development Command (ADC), the command is planning to realign portions of the headquarters staff to establish the ELE CoE to directly support development and delivery of mission ready Airmen and Guardians to joint force commanders with the competencies needed to deter or defeat great power competitors. U.S. Air Force photo by Jonathan Mallard

“We’re already putting together the pieces of it … and all those processes are going through the bureaucratic piece, where we go through the department and up through Congress,” Allvin said. “You’ll be able to recognize it when we say, ‘Well, how did we get better?’ Well, it’s because some of those foundational things are being put into Airman Development Command right now.”

In addition to Airman Development Command, the service is taking other steps to develop more effective Airmen. The service has devised a new deployment model, is expanding sites across the U.S. for unit-level training, and is holding more large-scale exercises.

It has also established new Air Task Forces, units which are designed to be cohensive and train together before deploying. Those task forces are now practicing at sites across the U.S. known as Combat Support Training Ranges. As part of this initiative, the 11th Air Task Force, currently training at Tyndall Air Force Base, has been focusing on sustainment and base recovery after an enemy attack. The 12th Air Task Force training at Fort Bliss has been practicing on force protection. The task forces will swap locations early next year to flesh out their training.

“I think that the most impactful thing … will be seen maybe a couple years down the road when we have a single commander accountable for a common force development,” Allvin said. “Building those units of action and having a force development that has Mission Ready Airmen that understand the same set of competencies that are grounded in the same threat. All of those things are going to manifest themselves in a force that is more synchronized and aligned.”

B-52s, F-35s Fly Live-Fire Arctic Exercise with Norway and UK

Dec. 4, 2024 | By Greg Hadley and David Roza

Air Force B-52 bombers dropped live ordnance on simulated enemy positions in Norway on Dec. 3 as part of a training exercise meant to hone data-sharing and targeting skills between NATO allies near the Arctic Circle.

Exercise APEX Buccanneer saw U.S. B-52s, F-35 fighters, KC-135 tankers, and a U-2 spy plane work alongside Norwegian F-35s and P-8 maritime patrol jets, as well as British F-35s, Typhoon fighters, a Voyager tanker, and a RC-135 reconnaissance jet, according to a Dec. 4 press release. Norwegian army, navy, and special forces troops also took part.

The key tactic being trained on was multidomain find, fix, track, and target (F2T2). ‘Find’ means scanning the battlefield for potential targets, while ‘fix’ means locating the potential target’s exact position and identifying it as a worthy target. ‘Track’ means keeping track of the target’s exact location and identity, while ‘target’ means choosing and using the right tool to destroy or otherwise affect the target.

b-52 norway — U.S. Air Force Capt. Michael Brady, 20th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron pilot, prepares his night vision equipment aboard a B-52H Stratofortress during a Norwegian-led trilateral exercise above Norway, Dec. 3 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jacob Cabanero)

At APEX Buccaneer, American, Norwegian, and British troops practiced sharing information between multiple platforms to build a shared vision of the simulated battlefield and then drop weapons on it. Specifically, Norwegian joint terminal attack controllers on the ground directed payloads onto the targets. Only B-52s dropped weapons, a U.S. Air Forces in Europe spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“The trilateral exercise allowed for the seamless integration of the F-35 data-sharing capabilities, as pilots from all three nations exchanged real-time tactical information, creating a unified air picture and demonstrated the aircraft’s ability to operate as a force multiplier,” a USAFE press release said.

Group Capt. Hannah Bishop, head of operations plans for the Royal Air Force, said that interoperability “is vital to the defense of NATO’s northern flank.”

“This exercise has demonstrated important enduring strengths of our alliance: our ability to understand how each other operates, to share critical information quickly, and to work seamlessly with each other,” she said in the release.

A U.S. Air Force F-35 Lightning II approaches a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 100th Air Refueling Wing, Royal Air Force Mildenhall, England, during a Trilateral Bomber Task Force support mission over the North Sea, Dec. 3, 2024. (Air Force photo by Senior Airman Christopher Campbell)

Multinational training is a regular part of military life in Europe. In September, two B-52s flew alongside two dozen fighters, tankers, and other assets from six NATO allies over Poland in an F2T2 exercise. B-52s also dropped live weapons on a Lithuanian range in November as part of a training exercise.

“Together we are a credible deterrent, and if required, we are ready to defend the Arctic region,” Brig. Gen. Tron Strand, commander of Joint Air Operations Center in Norway, said in the release.

The threat looms large: on Nov. 26, Russian Su-27 fighters intercepted two B-52s near Kaliningrad, on the Baltic Sea coast. The bombers were there to train with Finland, a U.S. official said. Tension in the region is high after the U.S. cleared Ukraine to use American-made long-range missiles to strike targets in Russia late last month. Russian president Vladimir Putin followed up with what he described as a medium range ballistic missile launched at Ukraine a few days later.

Space Force Activates Component in Japan, with ‘Historic Opportunity’ to Deepen Ties

Dec. 4, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

U.S. Space Forces Japan activated Dec. 3 at Yokota Air Base, the latest milestone in the service’s push to establish components within combatant commands and a sign of a deepening space partnership between the two allies, U.S. military officials said.

Col. Ryan Laughton, the first component commander, received the guidon from U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific boss Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Mastalir. The unit is the second sub-component under SPACEFOR-INDOPAC, following Space Forces Korea.

Space Forces Japan will be a “small, dedicated” team to start, Laughton said multiple times in his first remarks as commander. Local media reports suggest the component comprises just 10 Guardians right now.

But Laughton, Mastalir, and U.S. Forces Japan commander Air Force Lt. Gen. Stephen F. Jost spoke during the ceremony of the importance of establishing a Space Force component at a pivotal moment in the U.S.-Japan alliance.

“Our two nations have long stood as leaders in peaceful space innovation and exploration, and with today’s activation, we will further deepen both our leadership prowess and our partnership when it comes to space,” Jost said. “As we move forward, we will continue to seek out opportunities to integrate the space domain into our deterrence efforts.”

The Japan Air Self-Defense Force has been building up its space capabilities in recent years, both with the U.S. and on its own, Mastalir noted.

“This year, Japan has launched multiple optical and radar intelligence-gathering satellites and capped off the year with the launch of Kirameki 3, yet another military communications satellite aboard the newest generation H3 rocket,” Mastalir said, adding that the country will launch its first space domain awareness satellite in 2026.

U.S.-Japanese cooperation in military space is also growing. Late last year, Japan joined the Combined Space Operations initiative, a multinational partnership to improve coordination in space. A few months later, Japan announced it would expand its Quasi-Zenith Satellite System, a collection of positioning satellites for the Indo-Pacific that hosts U.S. Space Force payloads. And last month, the Japanese reached an agreement to join USSF’s Wideband Global Satcom satellite network.

Still more opportunities to collaborate are on the table—and Laughton, an acquisition officer by trade, can help make that happen, Mastalir said.

“I wanted a materiel leader here at this component because we have a historic opportunity to buy, build, and operate capabilities that are allied by design with Japan, and there is no one better positioned to make that happen than Colonel Laughton,” Mastalir said.

Jost also hinted at how the U.S. and Japan can collaborate more in space.

“Whether it is enhancing satellite communications, accelerating space-based intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, assuring persistent navigation, or bolstering missile defense capabilities, our commitment is clear,” Jost said. “We will work hard side by side with our Japanese allies to capitalize on the opportunities and meet the future challenges in the space domain head-on.”

To make that happen, Laughton said, both the U.S. and Japan need organizations dedicated to space. In addition to U.S. Space Forces Japan, the Japan Air Self-Defense Force is poised to become the Japan Air and Space Self-Defense Force in the coming years.

“We are excited about synchronizing together, exchanging ideas and planning and exercising side by side, what we can do and achieve in from and to the space domain is rapidly growing, and so too must both of our organizations in order to seize key security opportunities,” Laughton said.

Those opportunities will also come as the broader U.S.-Japan military alliance is poised to transform. In July, the Pentagon announced plans to convert U.S. Forces Japan into a joint force headquarters, shifting from an administrative organization to an operational one. At the same time, Japan is establishing its own Joint Operations Command.

“It is not lost on me the importance of taking command of Space Forces Japan at a time when both the establishment of the Japan Joint Operations Command and the conversion of U.S. Forces Japan as a joint force headquarters are nearly upon us,” Laughton said. “Each of these events is significant by itself. Combined, this is a historic moment for our alliance. When we add the capabilities of our Japanese and U.S. space teams to both of these efforts, we now have something truly monumental.”

Nellis Warfighters to Begin Training on Next-Gen F-35 Simulator in 2025

Dec. 4, 2024 | By Patrick Reardon

The U.S. Air Force’s long-awaited, much-anticipated Joint Simulation Environment (JSE)—a high-fidelity simulated battlespace system that warfighters will use to train on fifth-generation platforms—is expected to reach initial operational capability in 2025 at the Joint Integrated Test and Training Center Nellis (JITTC-N) at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, with full integration expected by 2028, experts from HII say.

JSE’s development has been a years-long collaboration between the Air Force and U.S. Navy that is fully coordinated across services to help ensure a consistent strategic approach. In addition, government and industry collaboration and systems development is significant with the various elements of the JSE ecosystem being developed and evaluated.

HII, together with the Air Force and Navy, is playing an integral role in evolving and integrating the JSE technology at a faster pace than America’s adversaries.

HII currently supports the Air Force at the JITTC-N as the lead contractor, supporting capability studies, battlespace and platform integration, and software development tasks.

“[JSE] is so critical for the warfighter because today’s training ranges just can’t keep up with the fifth-gen platforms and how they need to train. These platforms can’t train systems high—they don’t have the space required on ranges. You don’t get the threat densities, and you can’t keep up with the adversary threat evolution,” says Mike Aldinger, HII Mission Technologies’ vice president for Live, Virtual, Constructive (LVC).

The initial instantiation of the JSE at JITTC-N will allow up to eight warfighters at once to train on F-35 platforms (in what Aldinger calls a “fighter in a box”) in a real-time combat simulation against eight Virtual Adversary Training Sims (VATS). Aldinger says this is planned for 2025, with the Air Force’s goal then being to extend the battlespace to support larger- and larger-scale simulations as JSE capabilities grow and the Air Force’s mission sets evolve.

The F-35 will initially be the primary platform in the JITTC at Nellis, but will also integrate F-22 and E-7 platforms with JSE’s capabilities. Within five years, Aldinger says, the JITTC-N is expected to support a fully joint training environment between multiple platforms across multiple services—including those of America’s coalition partner nations.

“JSE is intended to provide a standards-based simulation environment that all of the different platforms can use,” says John Bell, the chief technology officer for Mission Technologies. “One of the visions for JSE is to provide a platform-agnostic cockpit, which can be modular and can be reconfigured to support all the various specific platforms that our pilots need to train in.”

Bell says the cockpits are a good example of the advantage JSE provides the warfighter: a combination of virtual reality environment and physical reality—a fully synthetic environment that will allow all its users to train together today the same way they’ll fight together tomorrow.

HII’s integration efforts at JITTC-N have been an ongoing work in progress and will continue to evolve long after the JITTC-N reaches IOC in 2025, Bell says.

“Anybody who has paid attention to present day armed conflicts has seen that the way war is being conducted is completely different from wars of years past,” he says. “Because of that, the simulation systems that we have to build to train our warfighters are continually evolving. And because of that, the standards that we build to connect them together must continually evolve.”

“HII has a lot of experience in developing those standards,” Bell adds. “We’ve done this for the Navy, in building a complete worldwide distributed training network for all the Navy’s warfare systems. And so we’re able to bring that expertise to bear in the JSE.”

Learn more about HII’s involvement in developing the next generation of joint training here.