USAF Spends More, But Fighter Readiness Lags. GAO Wonders Why

Oct. 22, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

The Air Force ramped up operations and maintenance spending to keep its F-35A fighters flying over the past six years, but readiness continues to lag behind goals, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office.

Indeed, the Air Force is spending more and more to sustain its entire fighter fleet, but has seen only middling gains in mission capable rates, which measure the percentage of time an aircraft can fulfill at least one of its missions, the government watchdog found.

GAO did not include precise, year-by-year figures on sustainment funding and mission capable rates by aircraft type in its public report, bowing to concerns from the Pentagon that deemed that data sensitive. But the analysts noted that:

O&M funding requests rose almost 27 percent from fiscal 2018 to 2023 for to sustain A-10, F-15, F-16, F-22, and F-35A aircraft;

O&M spending outstripped those requests during that period, rising by 40.7 percent;

And all told, the service spent nearly $34.2 billion on fighter sustainment—not including engine depot maintenance, service life extension programs, and certain spare parts procurement.

Yet that jump in spending also came at a time of high inflation, erasing many of the increases.

Not once in that period did any of the Air Force’s F-15E, F-22, and F-35A fighters meet their objective mission capable rate. The aging F-15C and F-16C fleets hit their marks three times, meanwhile, and the A-10, F-15D and F-16D all met their goals once.

Sustainment troubles also plagued the Navy and Marine Corps, according to GAO, which found that “none of the 15 tactical aircraft variants [across the services] met their mission capable goals in fiscal year 2023.”

Air Force leaders counter that mission capable rates are just one way of measuring readiness across different units, and that changes in the way rates are calculated contributed to the negative picture. The F-35 Joint Program Office, responsible for overall F-35 sustainment, has pushed back on prior GAO criticism, arguing that sustainment costs are coming down.

Still, availability issues with the F-35 were already deemed bad enough In March 2023 for the JPO to declare a so-called “War on Readiness,” with the goal of increasing mission capable rates by 10 points, to 64 percent, within a year.

It wasn’t to be. The Air Force said this summer its F-35A fleetwide mission capable rate was 51.9 percent in fiscal 2023—down from prior years and below its goal. Now, the GAO reports that during that fiscal year, the Air Force exceeded planned O&M spending on the F-35 by nearly 7 percent.

Steady increases in projected sustainment costs for the F-35 are not unexpected, given that the size of the Air Force fleet is growing over time. Yet for four years in a row now, the service has spent more than expected on operations and maintenance for the Lightning II.

The Air Force also has spent more than requested on F-22 sustainment while still missing its mission capable goals. USAF is planning billions of dollars in Raptor upgrades and modernization in the coming years, now that it’s clear the aircraft will be needed longer than previously anticipated. The Air Force took a “pause” on its Next-Generation Air Dominance Platform, meant to replace the F-22, this summer potentially setting that project back by several years.

The only aircraft on which the Air Force spent significantly less than projected was the A-10, with costs falling 13.5 percent below expected. The A-10 fleet is gradually being retired.

Costs for the F-15 and F-16 fleets came in basically on target, as USAF divests its F-15C/D fleet.

GAO noted the apparent disconnect between rising sustainment spending and stubbornly low aircraft readiness.

“The variances observed between the executed and requested amounts for tactical aircraft are not meaningfully associated with mission capable rates,” the watchdog report states.

Space Force Component Eyes More Exercises in Indo-Pacific

Oct. 22, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Two years after standing up, U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific is bolstering partnerships and expanding exercises across the Indo-Pacific theater, said Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Mastalir, the Space Force’s first component commander.

The command is replacing bilateral engagements with multilateral ones, building ties to counter competitors including China, Russia, and North Korea, Mastalier said in a conversation with AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies

“What you have at stake is a scaling issue, and understanding how you’re going to scale from the conflicts that we have faced in the past to one that may include [China], North Korea, and Russia,” Mastalir said . “So being able to understand not just which weapons systems do we need in place, but across the entire paradigm, from potential policy friction points, whether it be information sharing with allies and partners, to integrating for counter-C5ISRT operations across multiple domains.”

That sweeping approach is in line with U.S. Indo-Pacific Command’s broader pivot toward great power competition, Mastalir said, but it is heavy lift for a small Space Force component command launched not quite a year ago with just 20 Guardians.

SPACFOR-INDOPAC’s spent the past 11 months figuring out its organization and its place within INDOPACOM. Now it is plunging into new challenges.

“The rate of discovery learning is decreasing, and that’s a good metric,” he said. “But the demand signal is increasing as we tell our story and as we continue to integrate across the other components, and they learn about what it is Space Forces Indo-Pacific brings to the fight.”

A patch for U.S. Space Forces, Indo-Pacific, the USSF’s first overseas component to a combatant command. Photo by Gunnery Sgt. Jonathan Wright/United States Forces Japan

Exercises

Exercises are a key focus. Guardians are developing the tactics, techniques, and procedures needed for a high-end fight, Mastalir said, and other service components and allies need experience working with the Space Force and leveraging all its capabilities.

“One of the points of emphasis is to transition from numerous bilateral engagements and exercises to more multilateral,” Mastalir said. “Demonstrating on a daily basis with your allies and partners that you’re prepared to fight and win a war, should you need to, is really the ultimate way to deter a war.”

SPACFOR-INDOPAC took part in Pacific Sentry, an Army-led exercise with Australia in 2023; this year, it joined with Australia and Japan on Keen Edge, traditionally a bilateral U.S.-Japan exercise. More efforts are planned with South Korea as well.

“When you look at the Freedom Shield and Ulchi Freedom Shield exercises that we do in [Korea], again to start bringing all of the components into those exercises and really start to prepare for how we need to work together,” Mastalir said. “We’ve been doing that, certainly in the other domains, for years, and now that space is on [Korea], and soon we’ll be in Japan, that’ll really further our effort to integrate space into that.”

Sub-Components

Space Forces Indo-Pacific added its first sub-component in South Korea just a month after it stood up itself, and this summer Space Forces Korea was elevated to an O-6 command when Col. John Patrick took over as its new commander. Patrick came to the job after a stint at the NATO Space Centre, where he gained extra insight into working with partners and allies, Mastalir said.

Another sub-component, Space Forces Japan, will stand up before the end of 2024. “That’s what we shared with Japan, and they’re very excited about the prospects of that,” he said. Space is still a nascent area for many military forces, and the U.S. has a lot to offer.

“We can engage with those partners where they’re at and really kind of bring them along,” Mastalir said. “As both Korea and Japan look to develop their space capabilities—and they have, I would say, aggressive plans to develop military operations where the space domain is concerned—it allows us to [practice being] integrated by design. So as they build their capabilities, having a component right there in country, working with them, having them exercise with us, is really great awareness for how they might consider building those capabilities so that it can integrate across the joint force.”

Competitor Collaboration

China, Russia, and North Korea, meanwhile, are also collaborating more among each other, Mastalier noted. “There is evidence of collaboration, and we have not seen that before,” he said. “So that’s very disconcerting.”

Their collaboration changes the dynamics of potential conflict, and blurs the lines of where conflicts could occur. “There’s been a tendency to view in a silo some of these potential conflicts, and how we’re going to operate,” Mastalir said.

But since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, all three have become more collaborative, both militarily and economically. The result, he said, is altering the way U.S. and allied forces must view its rivals.

B-2 Back in Service 3 Months Faster After New Inspection Process

Oct. 22, 2024 | By David Roza

Changes to the depot inspection and maintenance process for the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber resulted in one aircraft returning to service around three months ahead of schedule—a significant improvement for the B-2 fleet, which numbers just 19 jets.

The “Spirit of Nebraska,” tail number 89-0128, completed its programmed depot maintenance (PDM) at Palmdale, Calif., on Oct. 15 in 379 days, 91 days ahead of the usual 470 it takes for a B-2, according to an Oct. 21 press release from the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

PDM is a top-to-bottom inspection, overhaul, and repair process, usually done at a higher-level depot facility. All Air Force aircraft receive regular depot work, which becomes more important as the aircraft get older, explained Col. Francis Marino, B-2 System Program Manager within the Bombers Directorate at the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

“As any aircraft continues to age, you’re going to see more and more issues that need to be repaired on a PDM line,” Marino said in the release.

Airmen with the 190th Air Refueling Wing and 131st Bomb Wing teamed up to conduct training for hot- pit refueling of B-2 Spirit stealth bombers at Forbes Field Air National Guard Base, Kan., March 2, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Phoenix Lietch)

“Spirit of Nebraska” entered service in 1995, and the average age of the B-2 fleet is about 28 years old. The main objective of the B-2 PDM is to restore its low observable materials, which help reduce its footprint across the visual, electromagnetic, and acoustic spectrum.

“Many aspects of the low-observability process remain classified; however, the B-2’s composite materials, special coatings and flying-wing design all contribute to its ‘stealthiness,’” according to the Air Force.

With “Spirit of Nebraska,” the PDM team sped up the process by moving its fuel system inspection up on the schedule. In past PDMs, the inspection team might not flag a fuel leak until after some of the low observability restoration was complete, delaying the process by 45 days as they pulled off parts and materials to fix the leak and then reassemble the jet.

It also helped that the PDM team conducted pre-inspections of the jet before it arrived at Palmdale, which gave them a head-start spotting problems, ordering parts, and planning the repair schedule.

“The pre-inspection is great because it reduces the number of surprises at PDM,” Marino said.

B-2 Spirit bombers assigned to the 509th Bomb Wing conduct operations in support of Bomber Task Force Europe 20-2 over the North Sea March 12, 2020. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Matthew Plew)

That’s important because there are not many B-2s available: the fleet started with 21, but one was lost in 2008 after crashing at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and the Air Force decided it would be too expensive to fix another after it crashed at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., in 2022.

That leaves 19 B-2s, but not all 19 are available for combat at any given moment, retired Air Force Col. Mark A. Gunzinger, director of future concepts and capability assessments at The Mitchell Institute, wrote in a 2023 paper. At the time, only 16 of the 20 B-2s were available for combat after subtracting those in testing or maintenance, he wrote.

In a conflict with a nuclear power, some B-2s would likely be held back to deter nuclear attacks on the U.S. homeland, and the vast distances of the Indo-Pacific mean that any B-2s left over would spend a lot of time airborne and not be able to generate many sorties.

“In other words, DOD’s long-range, penetrating strike capacity in a conflict with China could consist of only six to eight B-2 sorties per day depending on B-2 basing, sortie durations, and the time needed to turn aircraft between sorties,” Gunzinger wrote. “The loss of a single B-2 in combat or due to a peacetime accident would equal the loss of at least 10 percent of this sortie potential. This is the definition of a fragile force.”

The next-generation stealth bomber, the B-21 Raider, is currently in flight test. Air Force officials have indicated they plan to buy 100 B-21s by the mid-2030s. The B-2 is notionally scheduled to start retiring in 2032, but until then, much responsibility rests on the shoulders of those who maintain it.

“Until the B-21 is fielded, the B-2 is the world’s only long-range penetrable strike bomber and the only aircraft that can do what we need it to do today,” Marino said. “As long as the aircraft is operational and our adversaries continue to come out with new and advanced weaponry across the electromagnetic spectrum, we’re going to have to continuously invest in the B-2s lethality, its survivability, and of course its readiness.”

This Air Force Unit Adds a New Voice to Operational Testing: Maintainers

Oct. 21, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

With the Air Force in the midst of its biggest testing boom in decades, a division at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is making sure those tests include an often-overlooked perspective: that of maintainers.

“We do a really good job at evaluating software and hardware components to make sure it works for the air crew, but no one was giving the same kind of look to maintenance for a long time,” said Capt. Cameron Castleberry, head of the Maintenance Operational Test (MxOT) Division within the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron.

Formed two years ago, MxOT focuses on fighter maintenance, teaming maintenance experts alongside test pilots, engineers, and acquisition specialists.

“We can answer the question of, is it effective for ops, but also, is it suitable and sustainable for the long term for maintenance and the logistics footprint?” Castleberry told Air & Space Forces Magazine earlier this month.

Maintenance has its own tactics, techniques, and procedures for sustaining aircraft and identifying potential challenges with both physical components and digital software. Because MxOT’s team members have operational experience, they can provide unvarnished, practical feedback to testing teams.

That feedback can include bult assessments, such as “’This isn’t going to make sense for our maintainers out in the [Combat Air Force],’ and ‘it’s certainly not going to improve the CAF and the maintainers who are actually out in a contested environment,’” said 2nd Lt. Taleah Cooper, MxOT’s Assistant Project Manager.

The benefits are obvious. “The longer it takes maintainers to work on something on the ground because something is not suitable for them, the less we’re actually putting jets in the sky,” Cooper said. “So anything that we can help make sure that maintainers are able to fix things the way that they should and do their jobs even better is our goal with every single test and tactic that we develop.”

Major upgrades for the F-35 and F-22 highlight how critical it is to get maintainers’ perspectives. Any changes to the fifth-generation jets can require major adaptations down the line.

“When you mess with software, some things change other parts that you didn’t intend to, right?” said Castleberry. “So we provide an on-the-ground, real-time look at what some of those changes do.”

The F-22’s Raptor Agile Capability Release program is delivering rapid upgrades at an increased pace, including both software and hardware. In addition to quarterly test events devoted to reliability, maintainability, and sustainability, Tech Sgt. Victoria Hall, F-22 Operational Test & Evaluation Production Superintendent, said MxOT also holds “mini-events” to enable the team to quickly document and sign off on a fix, rather than holding it back from release for weeks or months.

At the same time, MxOT is testing new procedures to help ensure Airmen can regenerate aircraft when operating under stress in an agile combat employment operation, with limited resources and little time to spare

Castleberry cited two ongoing updates for the F-35, one to develop a checklist of procedures so pilots can check their aircraft independently before taking off again and the other to do integrated combat turns. Both would contribute to ACE scenarios and testing is ongoing for both, with safety mechanisms in place.

“When you think about maintenance as a whole and the test community as a whole, culturally, the two couldn’t be further apart,” Castleberry said. “That’s for very good reason: Maintenance is in charge of generating airpower that is safe and effective for pilots, and so by virtue of that, they have a lot of rules. They have a lot of guidance and a lot of guidelines to keep the aircraft safe and airworthy. … Whereas the test community, as a whole, is very much on the other side of that spectrum, where they want to be leading it, they want to be to the tip of the spear, and they need to, for the warfighter, to go try risky things and do things that are potentially non-standard to generate the right stuff for the warfighter.

“So those two things are very different, just culturally, and that is OK. It is very interesting and fun, from my perspective, to watch those two things merge, because there’s a balance right between needs and wants for both sides.”

The Fighter Pilot Factory: USAF School Forges Pilots and Friendship

Oct. 21, 2024 | By David Roza

They fly U.S. Air Force aircraft at a U.S. Air Force base in north Texas, but the student and instructor pilots at the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training Program (ENJJPT) hail from more than a dozen countries across Europe and North America.

“It’s completely normal to fly with two different instructors on the same day and five different instructors through a five-day work week, and it’s completely normal for all of those instructors to be from different countries,” U.S. Air Force 1st Lt. Mark Reyes, who finished the 55-week undergraduate pilot training program at ENJJPT on Oct. 18, told Air & Space Forces Magazine recently. “It’s something that’s very unique to ENJJPT, and it’s something that I was very attracted to when coming here.”

With 207 aircraft flying about 250 missions per day, ENJJPT makes Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, one of the busiest airfields in the Air Force. It is a pilot factory, churning out about 190 undergraduate pilot training (UPT) graduates and about 180 graduates of its Introduction to Fighter Fundamentals and Pilot Instructor Training programs every year. ENJJPT trains half of all U.S. Air Force fighter pilots and is the sole source of fighter pilot training for several NATO allies such as Belgium, Denmark, and Germany.

“What that does for freedom and strategic deterrence just can’t be understated,” said USAF Col. Jeffrey Shulman, commander of the 80th Flying Training Wing, ENJJPT’s host unit. “And it’s done here in Wichita Falls, Texas, of all places, because of the great weather and blue sky.”

Thanks to ENJJPT, some of Reyes’ earliest memories as a military aviator are forever linked to the allies he shared them with, whether it was the German instructor pilot who taught him to fly the T-38 trainer jet, or the Italian student pilot who flew his wing on their first formation solo flight.

The same goes for Reyes’ American classmate, 1st Lt. Benjamin Bayless, who snapped photos of the Grand Canyon and the Rocky Mountains from a T-6 trainer while flying his first cross-country sorties alongside about a dozen instructors and student pilots from all over Europe.

“It was just an incredible experience, and we got to do it with a smattering of NATO partners, which just really put the cherry on top,” Bayless said.

enjjpt — Pilots from the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program sit in victory circle at the Charlotte Motor Speedway in Charlotte, North Carolina, May 28, 2021. The team flew a four-ship of T-38 Talons in support of the Memorial Day ceremony held at the speedway at the Coca-Cola 600 NASCAR race. (U.S. Air Force photo by 2nd Lt. Ebony Bryant)

That bonding serves a strategic purpose: bringing allies closer together so they can fight well together in a future conflict, Shulman said.

“When there’s a bureaucracy roadblock and they need a quick answer, they have a friend they can call,” said the colonel, who flew F-16s over Afghanistan alongside allied pilots and in support of allied ground troops.

Shulman recalled how quickly NATO pilots had to come together for Operation Odyssey Dawn, the 2011 bombing campaign of Libya, or the air policing mission in response to Russia launching its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.

“Flying together is the easy thing, but the intangible thing about ENJJPT is the leadership that we teach here, the relationships,” he said.

Back at the Forefront

ENJJPT started almost exactly 43 years ago on Oct. 23, 1981, to improve interoperability of NATO air forces, reduce training costs, and offer an alternative training location to the cloudy skies often found over Europe. Fourteen NATO countries participate: Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Germany, Greece, Italy, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Romania, Spain, Turkey, the United Kingdom, and the U.S.

“I think what a lot of people look forward to here at Sheppard is working with all the nations together,” said Lt. Col. Kevin Bourdiaudhy, the Belgian Air Force Senior National Representative at ENJJPT.

“A lot of us have worked together in exercises in Europe,” he added. “If you can come do that for three, four years in a row with this great team here at Sheppard, with a lot of blue skies, sun, and less rain than in Belgium, I think there’s a lot of motivation right there.”

More than 8,300 pilots have graduated ENJJPT’s various programs since 1981. But the program’s relevance appeared to wane in the early 2000s, according to a framed letter in Shulman’s office written in 2005 by a four-star general, who described the program as “a Cold War relic,” the colonel said.

Now, two and a half years into Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, ENJJPT seems anything but.

“I think ENJJPT is back on the forefront of importance, just based on what’s going on in the world,” Shulman said. “We’re getting a lot more attention, a lot more limelight.”

Case in point: representatives from Finland, which joined NATO in 2023, visited ENJJPT recently and flew with the Airmen there, and Shulman plans to visit Finland’s flight schools in return. That’s not to say Finland plans on joining ENJJPT, but it does indicate a growing partnership.

“It’s opening the lines of communication so we can steal ideas” from each other, the colonel said.

U.S. Air Force Capt. Tyler “Rico” Parker, right, an instructor pilot assigned to the 90th Flying Training Squadron, conducts preflight inspections on a U.S. Air Force T-38C Talon aircraft at Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, July 21, 2022. (U.S Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Joseph Pick)

Growing Pains

Interest in ENJJPT is high, but meeting the demand of 14 nations with growing defense budgets is a challenge. Shulman said ENJJPT is operating at capacity at the moment thanks to two limiting factors: aircraft spare parts and simulator instructors.

“It’s not that I don’t have enough airplanes, I just don’t have parts to put in my airplanes,” he said.

Some of the wing’s T-38 jets were built in the early 1960s, and the average age across the fleet is about 57 years old. Aircraft availability generally declines as planes get older and factories that originally built parts shut down. In 2022, the school reduced its UPT class size from 24 students to 18 because of its contract for maintaining the J85 engine, which powers the T-38. That means it takes longer for NATO allies to put trained pilots in operational seats.

“For our partners and allies, if they don’t get one or two slots graduating, it has a massive impact on them for how they program out F-35 slots, for example,” Shulman explained.

With that in mind, U.S. Air Force officials moved the school to the front of the line in terms of J85 engine maintenance, allowing class sizes to return to 24 students in May.

“Senior Air Force leadership has recognized that we need to make sure our partners and allies have stability and predictability when they’re going to graduate their pilots,” Shulman said.

“That’s a huge win for ENJJPT,” he added. “Some of the other bases are still struggling a bit, but we’re doing pretty healthy on the T-38. It’s still a great airplane.”

That still leaves the T-6 and T-38 simulator instructor shortage, which is tough to fill when competing with juicy airline contracts.

“I need [students] to go through the simulator before they hit the airplane, and if I don’t have somebody to teach them, it kind of messes up the flow of the pipeline,” Shulman said.

Generally, if a country wants to send more students to ENJJPT, it has to send more instructors to match, Bourdiaudhy explained, but it can take a while to find experienced instructors willing to move to north Texas for a few years.

“It’s a lengthy process, but from what I’ve seen, the nations that want to increase their students are slowly bringing those instructors, and they will be able to have those slots in the future,” he said.

ENJJPT is trying to work smarter with its existing instructor pilot staff. In the past, the 80th FTW used a time-intensive Excel document to track their flying hours and other work metrics, which made it a challenge for Shulman to gauge where to make adjustments. But a few computer scientists at the wing came up with a user-friendly digital tool that uses artificial intelligence to give leaders a better picture of instructor resource management in real-time.

“I can really see a pulse on how hard am I working my people, which as the wing commander, that’s what I really care about; am I burning my people out, or are they not working enough,” the colonel explained.

Have Each Others’ Backs

One of U.S. Air Force Capt. James Egelston’s fondest memories at ENJJPT was an around-the-world party where students and instructors got together in a hangar to share the food and culture of their home countries.

“I haven’t been to many countries in Europe, and that made it a very special experience,” said the F-15E weapons systems officer who graduated UPT on Oct. 18 on his way to becoming an F-15C pilot.

The ENJJPT community really came together in May after instructor pilot Capt. John Robertson died when the ejection seat of his T-6 fired while the aircraft was still on the ground.

“We’re all pretty closely knit here, the students and IPs,” said Reyes. “It was awful.”

Robertson died the same day Shulman landed in Texas to take command. The colonel saw the school and the local Wichita Falls community come together, holding a memorial service, a formation flyover, and a piano burn, a fighter pilot tradition. Roberton’s unit, the 80th Operations Support Squadron, put up a small memorial for him that’s still standing.

“The team rapidly planned this within hours, and it was flawlessly executed,” Shulman said, adding that the top general of the German Air Force, himself an ENJJPT grad, wrote a condolence letter to the school.

“JR happened to be an American, but he was an ENJJPT instructor, he was no different than any other partner,” Shulman said.

For Egelston, Robertson’s death highlighted the real reason why ENJJPT is so important.

“Being a combat aviator is great and all, but what really makes the Air Force so lethal, from my perspective, is your fighter community’s ability to take care of each other and always have each other’s backs,” he said.

Bourdiaudhy made a similar point.

“When the times get rough, the solidarities are even stronger,” he said. “I saw people come together and support each other. Nations mixed in small groups, not just a few Americans there, a few Germans there, a few Belgians there. No, all mixed, all together, all in one big room.”

New Report: Maintainer Faulted for Runaway Bomb Lift Hitting F-16, Sparking Fire

Oct. 21, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

A runaway bomb lift rammed into a parked U.S. Air Force F-16 deployed to the Middle East last November, sparking a blaze that caused $30 million in damages, according to a new USAF report.

The accident investigation board report, released by U.S. Air Forces in Europe last week, faults a maintainer for losing situational awareness and panicking, causing him to hit the accelerator on the weapons loader instead of the brake, as the main cause of the mishap. The investigation also found a lack of proper documentation for the bomb lift vehicle fleet at the installation, as well as “a loose culture of adherence to Air Force standards and technical procedures” among maintainers there.

The report comes on the heels of the Air Force rolling out new “privileged safety information” training to maintainers, citing an increase in ground mishaps involving maintenance, aircraft towing, and other flight line work. The new training gives maintainers access to the full picture of mishap events—including factors, findings, causes, and recommendations—so long as they sign a nondisclosure agreement.

The Nov. 17, 2023 mishap took place at an undisclosed location in the Middle East, involving an F-16 from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base, Italy, and maintainers and an F-15E from the 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, U.K. Around a month earlier, the Air Force deployed F-15Es and other fighters to the region to bolster its presence after Hamas’ attack on Israel.

The incident took place as a three-person crew of maintainers were swapping out munitions on the F-15E due to new mission requirements. As the crew was preparing to load new munitions, the crew chief instructed the weapons loader to move the bomb lift, also called a jammer. After disengaging the parking brake and shifting into reverse, the maintainer stated he only went five feet before he realized he could not stop the vehicle.

As the maintainer tried to hit the brakes and engage the parking brake, the bomb lift kept going backward and hit a sniper pod on the F-15E. The impact knocked the maintainer unconscious, and the loader then hit the aircraft’s landing gear and started heading towards a toolbox. The maintainer fell off the loader, and after hitting the toolbox, the vehicle redirected again and traveled 60 feet before hitting the F-16 on its right external fuel tank. A fuel leak sparked a blaze that destroyed the loader and significantly damaged the fighter.

Source: Air Force Accident Investigation Board report

Investigators found numerous maintenance issues leading up to the accident:

The crew attempted to use two other weapons loaders; one did not start, and the other had gear shifting issues halfway through the munitions swap, leading them to swap out for the mishap vehicle.

A lack of required documentation for inspections and needed safety fixes

A trend of maintainers taking better care of weapons loaders that they brought with them when deployed than the weapons loader stationed permanently at the location. The loader involved in this mishap was permanently stationed at the location.

The maintainer driving the loader at the time of the mishap was fully qualified but not proficient at operating that particular model during a live loading operation and did not know all steps of the emergency shutdown procedures.

Miscommunication about a new takeoff time led to the crew rushing “under quicker than anticipated time constraints.”

As for the mishap itself, investigators noted that different models of the MJ-1 jammer have different configurations for their brake and accelerator pedals. Given the maintainer’s lack of current proficiency, the fact that he did not recall what model he was operating, and analysis of the vehicle determining a catastrophic failure of the brakes was unlikely, they found it “more likely than not that [the maintainer] was engaging the accelerator pedal when he thought he was engaging the brake pedal.”

As he traveled backward, the maintainer could have stopped the loader by engaging the brake, pressing the ignition button, or pushing the throttle cable all the way in—all procedures outlined for an emergency shutdown. Instead, he kept hitting the accelerator, thinking it was the brake pedal.

From there, officials surmised that the impact of the loader on the F-15E’s landing gear likely caused the jammer’s hydrostatic drive pump to get stuck in the reverse position, citing impact marks on the pump. This caused it to keep going even after the maintainer fell off the vehicle. The drive pump’s issues were not helped by the fact that investigators found “significant and extensive corrosion” on the part.

An MJ-1 lift truck, during an integrated combat turn training, Nov. 25, 2022, Prince Sultan Air Base, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. U.S. Air Force photo by Staff Sgt. Shannon Bowman

Investigators noted that the F-16 sustained “extensive” damage and that its external fuel tank was destroyed in the fire. The F-15E escaped major damage, with only an external scratch on its sniper pod.

Several accident investigation board reports in recent months have noted issues with maintainers contributing to mishaps, though air crew have often been cited for mistakes in those same incidents.

In September 2023, a contractor walked into the moving propeller of an MQ-9 drone during ground tests last year, and an investigation found she was not properly trained on how to approach a running aircraft, had received conflicting guidance about the no-enter zones around the drone, and was unfamiliar with the handheld device she was operating at the time of the accident.

In August 2023, ground crew assigned to marshal a CV-22 failed to use standardized language or signals or the necessary daylight-fluorescent wands, while the co-pilot misjudged the distance to another parked Osprey, causing them to collide.

In May 2023, maintainers were cited for failing to prevent an F-15’s hydraulic failure, which led to an in-flight emergency and ended with pilot and air traffic controller errors causing the aircraft to crash into a ditch at the end of a runway.

Austin Makes Surprise Visit to Ukraine with a Focus on Air Defense

Oct. 21, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

KYIV—Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III huddled with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Oct. 21 and unveiled a $400 million military aid package to help sustain Ukrainian forces through a challenging winter.

The military support includes munitions for HIMARS rocket systems, artillery ammunition, mortar systems and rounds, armored vehicles, and anti-tank weapons.

But the U.S. move fell short of Zelenskyy’s appeal that the U.S. lift restrictions on American long-range ATACMS missiles and allow Ukraine to use them to strike targets inside Russia.

Air & Space Forces Magazine is traveling with Austin on his surprise trip to Kyiv. The visit is Austin’s fourth and likely last trip to Ukraine as Pentagon chief.

VIDEO: @SecDef stepping off the train in Kyiv. https://t.co/ZLeDlXbZlP pic.twitter.com/diokgpPUlw
— Chris Gordon (@ByChrisGordon) October 21, 2024

During a long meeting with Zelenskyy and top Ukrainian officials, Austin discussed the military situation Ukrainian forces face in the east, where Russian President Vladimir Putin’s armed forces have been grinding out gains while Ukrainian troops try to hold a small stretch of Russian territory seized near Kursk, Russia.

They also conferred over Ukraine’s efforts to recruit troops and regenerate its forces so Ukrainian forces can contend with their larger adversary, a U.S. Defense Department official said.

Zelenskyy and Austin spoke one-on-one for around 15 minutes, the official said, describing the talks as “freewheeling and open.”

A particular priority for Ukraine, which Zelenskyy has stressed publicly and privately, is acquiring more air defense interceptors, which have been all the more important as the war has devolved into a battle of attribution, both on the ground and in the air.

“During the meeting, we discussed critical defense priorities, including Ukraine’s air defense capabilities,” Zelenskyy wrote in a post on social media.

Russia has been attacking Ukraine’s energy grid, critical infrastructure, and troops with missiles, glide bombs, and drones, creating a wave of destruction just as winter approaches. As Austin stepped off an overnight train from Poland in Kyiv, the temperature was a few degrees above freezing, a reminder of the cold Russia aims to weaponize in the months to come. In the overnight hours before Austin’s arrival, Russia launched drones at the Ukrainian capital.

“We’ve been pretty consistent throughout saying that one of the key systems on the battlefield is air defense,” Austin said. “We will continue to push to get them the air defense systems and the interceptors that they need to protect their territory. It’s the second largest country in Europe, and so a big space to protect, a lot of cities and populated areas that they need to protect.”

Zelenskyy also has had to contend with American politics and sustaining political support in other countries in the West.

After an unsuccessful counteroffensive last year, Zelenskyy has offered a new “Victory Plan” in recent months, which calls for NATO to formally invite Ukraine to join NATO and frees the Ukrainian military to use ATACMS and other Western-supplied long-range missiles to strike targets inside Russia.

The Biden administration has declined to give Ukraine that latitude out of apparent concern that doing so could give Russia an excuse to escalate the conflict. Austin indicated no change is yet in sight. “We don’t have any change to our policy,” Austin told reporters before arriving here.

Former President Donald Trump has said that, if elected, he would swiftly negotiate a deal to end the war, but has not offered any details of how that would be accomplished. His running mate, Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), said in September that a deal could require a pledge of neutrality by Ukraine and the establishment of a demilitarized zone, but Ukraine’s leaders worry the arrangement would enable Russia to retain land seized during the conflict.

Austin also visited the Ukrainian Ministry of Defense. He was joined by U.S. European Command boss Army Gen. Christopher G. Cavoli and the head of Security Assistance Group-Ukraine, which runs a multinational coordination cell to provide equipment, training, and aid to Ukraine, U.S. Army Lt. Gen. Curtis A. Buzzard.

Their Ukrainian counterparts included Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustern Umerov, who was positioned around a circular table with Gen. Oleksandr Syrskiy, who commands Ukrainian forces, and other top officials, including the military spy chief and the minister responsible for defense production. Cavoli and Syrskiy also jointed Austin and Zelenskyy’s discussion earlier in the day.

Umerov promised updates on the “operational zone,” Army, Air Force, Navy, and defense production. The DOD official said the sides also discussed recruiting and retention with Zelenskyy and the military leaders. Zelenskyy signed a law in April to lower the conscription age to 25 to shore up manpower shortages.

“We have a good team from both sides,” Umerov said before the meeting.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III meets with Ukraine’s Defence Minister Rustem Umerov in Kyiv, Ukraine, Oct. 21, 2024. DOD photo by Chad J. McNeeley

Speaking to reporters before arriving in Kyiv, a senior defense official said that one point of discussion would be how Ukraine can use its resources against the Russian military’s larger mass to have a “concentrated effect.”

“Russia is not ready to call it quits and so that does place a steep burden on the Ukrainians to continue to field forces, to continue to train those forces, to employ vast amounts of equipment they’re receiving on a continual basis,” the senior defense official said. “It’s important for the Ukrainians to be able to take advantage of opportunities as they arise on the battlefield.”

During a speech at Ukraine’s Diplomatic Academy—yards from burned-out wrecks of Russian armored vehicles in the square outside—Austin sought to reassure the Ukrainians that the West would stand by them. “The Kremlin’s malice has not broken Ukraine’s spirit,” he said.

Austin also appeared to send a message to the U.S. public and Congress.

“For anyone who thinks that American leadership is expensive—well, consider the price of American retreat,” he said.

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zeleynskyy in Kyiv, Oct. 21, 2024. DOD photo by Chad J. McNeeley

SpaceX Wins New Launches; USSF Continues to Press for Competition

Oct. 18, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

SpaceX secured orders for Phase 3 launches under the National Security Space Launch program, the first provider to do so, even as the Space Force continues its push to increase its launch options.

Space Systems Command awarded two task orders to SpaceX Oct. 18, covering seven launches for the Space Development Agency’s data transport satellites and an undisclosed number of launches for the secretive National Reconnaissance Office.

SpaceX is one of three companies selected for “Lane 1” of NSSL’s third phase, conceived as commercial-like missions carrying a higher tolerance for risk. But the other two—United Launch Alliance and Blue Origin—are still certifying their new rockets for NSSL requirements. That leaves SpaceX’s Falcon 9 and Falcon Heavy rockets as the only proven workhorses, which is why SpaceX accounted for 90 percent of U.S. launches in 2023.

“We are excited to kick off our innovative NSSL Phase 3 Lane 1 effort with two task orders that support critical NRO and SDA missions,” said Lt. Col. Douglas Downs, SSC’s materiel leader for Space Launch Procurement. “Industry stepped up to the plate and delivered on this competition.”

ULA and Blue Origin did compete for the task orders, SSC officials said, even though their rockets have not yet been certified. The task order covers missions that are still months away—the NRO launch window will run from summer 2025 to summer 2026 and the SDA launches, timed for 2026, are to send into orbit Tranche 2 of its proliferated low-Earth orbit constellation.

“In this era of Great Power Competition, it is imperative to not leave capability on the ground,” Brig. Gen. Kristin Panzenhagen, program executive officer for Assured Access to Space, said in a statement. “The Phase 3 Lane 1 construct allows us to execute launch services more quickly for the more risk-tolerant payloads, putting more capabilities on orbit faster in order to support national security.”

In its release, SSC continued to stress the importance of competition for launch, noting that more providers will be able to compete for Lane 1 with an “on-ramp” opening up later this year. More task orders are expected after that in the spring of 2025. All told, Lane 1 is expected to include at least 30 missions.

Nine other potential launch providers are part of the Space Force’s Orbital Services Program-4, meant for fast-turnaround launches and small payloads. Firefly Aerospace, Astra Space, and Rocket Lab have all launched military satellites before.

SSC plans contract awards for Lane 2 launches, as well, comprising critical missions with low tolerance for risk. Panzenhagen told reporters last month that the command anticipates making three contract awards before the end of the year, but without a new budget from Congress, those awards are likely to be delayed.

Air Force Safety Czar Says New NDA Plan ‘Really Is Protecting’ Airmen

Oct. 18, 2024 | By David Roza

A new effort that requires aircraft maintainers to sign a non-disclosure agreement (NDA) so they can access more information about costly accidents will not change the level of transparency surrounding those events, the Air Force’s top safety officer said Oct. 18.

“The truth is, there’s no change in the status of the availability of access to the public, to the private, or to Congress through the [Freedom of Information Act] program, and anything that is not safety privilege,” Maj. Gen. Sean M. Choquette, the Air Force Chief of Safety and commander of the Air Force Safety Center, told reporters.

Earlier this week, news broke that the Air Force is rolling out new annual privileged safety information (PSI) training for maintainers across the service so they can receive the full picture of mishap events–—including factors, findings, causes, and recommendations—and thereby gain a better understanding of what caused them. After the training, maintainers would have to sign an NDA, a contract not to share confidential information.

The move is in response to a bump last year in ground mishaps involving maintenance, aircraft towing, and other flight line work, Choquette explained. The general said it was not a “marked increase or a significant increase, but we saw an upward trend.”

Two types of investigations take place when a mishap occurs. One is an accident investigation board (AIB), a monthslong legal proceeding where the final report is available to the public and can be used for disciplinary and other actions. The other is a safety investigation board (SIB), where the goal is to conduct a root cause analysis and get lessons learned out to the rest of the force as soon as possible.

Since the only goal of the SIB is mishap prevention, safety investigators keep their findings confidential so that people involved in the accident can speak freely about what went wrong, Choquette said. That protection is called safety privilege, meaning the information discussed can’t be released or used for disciplinary action, and the Air Force uses NDAs to maintain it.

“In order for [Airmen] to talk in a fulsome way about what occurred, we don’t want to put them in a situation where they feel like they can’t tell the whole story, because it’s going to come out in an article that’s going to be read by their family or their superiors or their subordinates,” the general said.

Maj. Gen. Sean Choquette, Department of the Air Force Chief of Safety, addresses students in the Air Force Safety Course at the 344th Training Squadron June 13, 2024, at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas. (U.S. Air Force photo by Christa D’Andrea)

For decades, Air Force aircrew have signed NDAs so that when a mishap occurs, aviators across the service can quickly pick up lessons learned from privileged SIB information. Often that information-sharing takes the form of wing commanders bringing all aviators on a base into an auditorium to discuss the issue. But historically, maintainers were not part of those meetings.

“It was purely operations,” Choquette said. “And I can’t tell you why that was the case, but we said, ‘hey, they need to be brought into the fold here, because ground operations mishaps were increasing, and they need to be better trained on where mistakes are being made.’”

In the past, when a mishap occurred, any maintainers involved would be brought into the SIB and sign an NDA afterwards. But because maintainers writ large did not receive privileged safety information training or sign NDAs, the lessons from the SIBs never percolated to the wider force until the AIB came out months later, which does not include all the relevant information because AIBs are for public release.

“The difference now is, instead of just signing an individual or multiple individuals who are involved in a mishap, every maintainer out there will be [provided] the capability to sign that NDA, become a part of the safety privilege system,” Choquette said.

The goal is for all 80,000 maintainers across the Air Force to sign onto the privileged safety information training and NDA requirements so that they can access SIB findings and be better positioned to prevent future mishaps.

“Our hope is that all of them will do that, because it really is protecting them and protecting the system so that will increase our readiness,” Choquette said.

The NDA would be the same one that aviators currently fill out. If maintainers see problems on the flight line, the hope would be for them to notify their chain of command, but if they share safety privilege information to the public, they could face administrative action, just like anybody else who does so, the general said.

One general area that might benefit from privileged safety information training is towing aircraft around the flightline, which has seen “a real increase in mishaps,” the general said.

Towing aircraft may sound simple, but maneuvering in and out of hangars and around other expensive aircraft while adhering to a range of spotter and clearance requirements is a complicated task.

“Those things are written into regulations, but, as in most things, a picture is worth a thousand words,” Choquette said. “If we can take an actual towing mishap, the information that came out of that safety investigation board, put a small group of people or a unit in a room and actually talk through the lessons learned out of that investigation, that drives home the concepts and how important they are and why they’re important.”

Airmen from the 2nd Aircraft Maintenance Squadron and 2nd Maintenance Squadron, take a break while working on B-52 Stratofortresses assigned to Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana, at Navy Support Facility, Diego Garcia in support of a Bomber Task Force mission, March 23, 2024. (U.S. Air Force photo by Master Sgt. Staci Kasischke)

At least one crew chief thinks the effort could help maintainers stay safe.

“I think it will aid in obtaining the full picture as a lot comes with a mishap,” the maintainer told Air & Space Forces Magazine on the condition of anonymity. “By that I mean major mishaps being a ‘Swiss cheese’ effect, and usually not due to one major misstep but an accumulation of events or missteps that can build into a perfect storm.”

Wider Reform

The new training is part of a larger safety center campaign to integrate risk and readiness, which aims to better prepare Airmen to make risk-informed decisions.

Officials say the campaign, as well as a wider safety center strategic plan unveiled in April, is meant to ready the force for Agile Combat Employment, a concept where small teams of Airmen launch and recover aircraft at remote or austere airfields, then relocate to avoid being targeted by enemy missiles. Airmen will likely have to carry out those operations without support and without connection to higher command, which is forcing a wider recalculation of risk across the service.

What does that look like in practice? Choquette pointed to the preflight risk assessments aviators perform, where they discuss aircrew qualifications, weather, aircraft conditions, threats, and other factors that affect the mission risk.

The general hopes to translate that practice to maintainers, so that production superintendents or other flight line leaders have a standard process by which they can assess the qualifications of their maintainers, the weather on the flight line, the state of the aircraft, and other risk factors.

That way, “they can make a better risk-informed decision, to execute smartly, or make some mitigations, [such as] ‘hey, I have a three-level supervisor out there, I really could use a five-level today because this is a complex operation we’re doing here, let’s swap these two NCOs out to better execute today,’” the general said.

The risk management could even apply to Airmen’s personal lives, such as whether or not to go skiing in bad weather or take a road trip on Memorial Day weekend.

On an even broader level, as the chair of the Joint Safety Council, Choquette is working with his counterparts to promote similar practices across the services and share best practices for common platforms such as the H-60 helicopter and V-22 tiltrotor transport.

“We share information out so that we’re not just learning from our own information and our own safety prevention systems, but we’re learning from each other,” he said.