Slow Down Armed Overwatch Until SOCOM Justifies Fleet, GAO Says

Dec. 15, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Editor’s Note: This story was updated Dec. 21 with a comment from L3Harris.

Special Operations Command failed to fully justify its order for 75 AT-802U Sky Warden “Armed Overwatch” aircraft, the Government Accountability Office says in a new report, urging the Pentagon to slow down the program until SOCOM makes a better business case for so many planes.

The report, “Special Operations Forces: DOD Should Slow Acquisition of Armed Overwatch Aircraft Until It Conducts Needed Analysis,” was released December 15.

GAO recommended the Sky Warden—selected for the $2.2 billion Armed Overwatch program in 2022—should be slowed down starting in 2025 “to the minimum rate needed to maintain the aircraft production line and support operational test and evaluation.” The slowdown would limit Sky Warden purchases to only enough to conduct suitability tests and train the initial cadre of operators, while buying time for SOCOM time to rethink its requirements in light of changes both the mission and the capability of the aircraft, GAO said.

GAO suggested SOCOM needs a “substantially smaller” fleet of Sky Wardens, but did recommend a number itself.

The Pentagon largely concurred with GAO’s findings and said it is still determining how many aircraft are needed for an initial training cadre.

The Sky Warden is an Air Tractor with a crew of two and is offered in partnership with prime L3Harris Technologies, which supplies mission gear. The program sought a rugged fixed-wing aircraft that could operate from austere locations with a light logistical footprint, mainly for use in anti-terrorism, close air support or counterinsurgency missions in permissive airspace. It will replace the U-28 Draco, which lacks the weapons capability that has driven the urgency of the project.

In a statement provided to Air & Space Forces Magazine, L3Harris did not directly address the GAO’s recommendations, but said in part, “Our team recently achieved significant milestones toward our certification of the platform and is focused on fielding this fleet and supporting USSOCOM’s need to counter persistent multi-domain threats and deter strategic attacks in support of national defense priorities.”

As of late 2023, SOCOM owns 16 Sky Wardens and plans to add another 12 by the spring of 2024, GAO said.

“GAO found…that studies completed in 2021 and 2022 did not justify SOCOM’s planned fleet size of 75 aircraft,” the watchdog audit agency said. Four other “related studies conducted by external entities” published from April 2021 through March 2023 also failed to justify that number, it added. The agency said SOCOM documents and interviews with SOCOM leadership indicated the command had largely settled on a fleet of 70-75 airplanes in 2019, well before analyses were completed.

SOCOM “decided on the size of the fleet before conducting the required analyses,” and didn’t assess “how changes in the aircraft’s capabilities could affect the number needed for operations.” The GAO noted that the aircraft finally chosen “is more capable than the one modeled” in capacity studies. SOCOM is also studying how to modify the airplane “to meet intelligence requirements,” which may also affect demand for the aircraft, the agency said.

Finally, “despite changes to operational missions,” GAO said SOCOM has never revisited its Sky Warden requirements. Among the factors it cited: the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and force structure reductions now “under consideration.”

SOCOM told GAO that changes in the procurement timeline could affect the individual aircraft cost, but argued the command will be “better able to make informed decisions and efficiently use the more than $2.2 billion it estimates it will spend” on the Sky Warden through 2028.

The Armed Overwatch program rose from the ashes of the Air Force’s Light Armed Attack/Armed Reconnaissance and OA-X Light Attack Aircraft program, which SOCOM effectively took over at congressional direction in 2020. That later morphed into a different mission. Initially intended as a way for USAF to partner with developing countries on a close air support program, the program is now seen as a way to provide eye-in-the-sky and communications support to special operators on the ground, providing both ISR function and responsive light strike capability.

Armed Overwatch marks the seventh attempt by the armed forces to buy an off-the-shelf turboprop for COIN-like and special operations missions since 2008. Aircraft that competed for the Armed Overwatch program include the Beechcraft AT-6B Wolverine; Embraer A-29 Super Tucano, Sierra Nevada MC-145B, MAG Aerospace MC-208 Guardian and Leidos Bronco II.

Shaw Airman Talks Cessna Pilot to Safety After ‘Catastrophic’ Emergency

Dec. 15, 2023 | By David Roza

An Air Traffic Control (ATC) Airman at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C. recently saved the life of a civilian Cessna pilot and his passenger when the pilot experienced an in-flight emergency. Staff Sgt. Samuel McLean, ATC watch supervisor for the 20th Operations Support Squadron, was the only air traffic controller in the tower overlooking Shaw on Sept. 19 when a call came in via an unusual line.

“I’m in a lot of trouble,” the caller told McLean, according to a press release published Dec. 13.

The caller was an 18-year-old flying a Cessna 550 Citation II, a small two-engine business jet. The pilot had just left Sumter Airport for Columbia, S.C. with his cousin riding as a passenger, when the Cessna began leaking fuel and the radio and transponder stopped working. The malfunctions amounted to “a catastrophic failure,” the release said, especially with the aircraft only about 580 feet off the ground. Without a working radio, the pilot used his cell phone to call the ATC tower at Shaw.

“He sounded absolutely terrified,” McLean recalled.

With no working transponder or radio, the McLean could not find the Cessna on radar, so the pilot cited nearby landmarks to approximate his location, which was close to McEntire Joint National Guard Base, about 20 miles west of Shaw. The aircraft was moving westbound at a heading of 290 degrees. The pilot wanted to go back to Sumter, but was going the wrong way.

McLean directed the pilot to turn back east on a heading of 110 degrees. Meanwhile, he also coordinated with Radar Approach Control (RAPCON), which provides aircraft guidance at greater ranges than the ATC tower, to reroute an F-16 into a high holding pattern. When he at last spotted the Cessna over a tree line, he recommended headings based on his line-of-sight view, “a difficult feat to accomplish because vectoring relies heavily on the use of radar,” as the release noted.

“I kept the pilot on the phone until he saw Shaw,” the Airman said. “With his altitude being so low, he still couldn’t see Sumter.”

Over some 30 minutes, McLean was able to guide the pilot to the Sumter airport, hanging up only as the pilot prepared to land. Once on the ground, he called McLean back and let him know he landed safely.

“It was definitely the craziest thing that I’ve experienced,” McLean said. “And hopefully the craziest thing I’ll ever experience.”

Air Force ATCs like McLean learn to adapt quickly to new situations during their 72-day training course at Keesler Air Force Base, Miss.

“Due to the hectic nature of the job, it can be overwhelming at times,” the Air Force states on its website. “Air Traffic Control, whether military or civilian, is also commonly listed among the top five most stressful jobs. Applicants should possess a level head and be able to work well under stress.”

Air Force ATCs have a long history of saving lives in the sky. In 2020, Wendy Smith, a civilian Air Force controller at Kirtland Air Force Base, N.M., saved the lives of six CV-22 Osprey crewmen when she noticed something was wrong with the aircraft’s rotor blades as it climbed away. In 2008, Senior Airman Angela Huguley, another ATC, saved 19 people when she realized an Army RC-12 reconnaissance plane was about to mistakenly land on a closed runway amid poor visibility conditions. She quickly ordered the plane to abort the landing, avoiding “a catastrophic mishap and loss of life.”

There are so many such stories that the Air Force awards quarterly awards, the Lt. Gen. Gordon A. Blake Aircraft Save Award and Aircraft Assist Award, to recognize ATCs and airfield managers who save imperiled airborne aircraft or aircraft endangered on the ground. The award’s namesake was a base operations officer at Hickam Field, Hawaii, who received the Silver Star for directing a dozen B-17 bombers to safety during the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on Dec. 7, 1941.

Back at Shaw, McLean received the Air and Space Achievement Medal for the Cessna save. McLean’s fellow watch supervisor, Brian Egger, praised the Airman’s abilities.

“McLean’s ‘out-of-the-box’ thinking and his immediate reactions directly saved the lives of two civilians, and prevented the aircraft from crashing,” Egger said in the release.

USAF B-2s Fly with British F-35s Over the North Sea

Dec. 14, 2023 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

U.S. Air Force B-2 bombers teamed up with the U.K.’s Royal Air Force F-35 Lightning IIs to fly across Europe’s North Sea in a single-day exercise.

The Bomber Task Force mission saw the Spirits hailing from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., join forces with the RAF’s fifth-generation fighters on Dec 13.

A KC-135 Stratotanker from the 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, U.K., providing air-to-air refueling for the mission. Following the mission, one of the B-2s returned to Whiteman on the same day, and another landed at RAF Fairford.

“Strategic bomber missions aim to deter conflict, showcasing our rapid response capability and reinforcing commitment to the U.K. and NATO,” Gen. James Hecker, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said in a release. “Operating alongside RAF fifth-gen fighters enhances our strength through combined training.”

The Air Force’s BTF deployments are part of long-planned exercises, independent from current global events.

The last European BTF before the B-2 mission took pace last month, when American B-1B Lancers deployed to RAF Fairford, U.K. From there, they conducted multiple flights over Europe, Africa, and the Middle East. The B-1s returned to Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, in late November.

The USAF and the RAF also participated in a biennial, trilateral exercise with France dubbed ‘Atlantic Trident’ in November. In the 2023 RAF-hosted iteration, scenarios were designed to enhance aircrew training with fourth and fifth-generation jets.

The B-2 Spirit, a long-range nuclear and conventional strike bomber operational since the 1990s, will eventually make way for the B-21 Raider, which will also replace the B-1.

The Air Force is working towards acquiring a minimum of 100 Raiders within the next decade, which would bring its bomber fleet to 175 airframes, including 75 re-engined and upgraded B-52 Stratofortresses.

BTF missions prepare Airmen to execute global operations at a moment’s notice across many regions of the world. By advancing interoperability and integrating allied fifth-gen aircraft, this latest one was aimed at bolstering a coordinated response to potential threats via NATO integration.

BAH Rising 5.4%, But Some Bases Are Getting Much More

Dec. 14, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

The Pentagon announced the new basic allowance for housing rates for 2024 on Dec. 14, and the average increase will be 5.4 percent across the board. While that’s less than half of last year’s stunning 12.1 percent jump, it’s still among the biggest increases this decade.

The new rates kick in Jan. 1, 2024, and increases vary by location.

BAH is paid based on paygrade, location, and whether or not members have dependents. To find your rate, type your variables into the Defense Department’s BAH calculator.

Historic inflation and skyrocketing housing costs led to huge increases in BAH the Basic Allowance for Subsistence in 2023, and as inflation has ebbed, so have rate increases. BAS will rise only 1.7 percent in 2024.

The thee Air Force and Space Force locations with the greatest increases are:

Barksdale Air Force Base, La., about 13 percent

Sheppard Air Force Base, Texas, also about 13 percent

Joint Base Charleston, S.C., about 12 percent.

Other bases getting at least 5 percent increases after topping 15 percent growth last year include:

Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.

Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass.

Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D.

Seymour Johnson Air Force Base, N.C.

Shaw Air Force Base, S.C.

A few bases did see decreases in BAH, including:

Nellis Air Force Base, Nev.

Beale Air Force Base, Calif.

Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho

Patrick Space Force Base, Fla.

McConnell Air Force Base, Kan.

Service members who maintained BAH eligibility in those locations will not face cuts. They will continue to receive the same BAH as 2023, ensuring that those “who have made long-term commitments in the form of a lease or contract are not penalized,” the Pentagon said in a statement.

The Defense Department calculates BAH through annual surveys of roughly 300 rental markets across the country, determining the median price of rent and utilities for six different housing options in each of those markets.

BAH is intended to cover 95 percent of housing costs. For 2024, that means troops’ out-of-pocket expenses for housing range from $85 to $194 per month.

In the 2023 National Defense Authorization Act, Congress directed the Pentagon to produce a report on the “efficiency and accuracy of the current system used to calculate BAH.” That report is still pending, lawmakers noted in their conference report for the 2024 NDAA, explaining why they removed a provision from the bill that would have established a pilot program “to change the method by which the Basic Allowance for Housing rate is calculated,” a move that Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass has advocated.

Congress Passes NDAA, Provides 5.2 Percent Pay Raise for Every Airman, Guardian

Dec. 14, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Congress finally passed the National Defense Authorization Act and sent its 3,000 pages to the White House for President Biden’s signature. The annual defense policy bill was approved with overwhelming bipartisan support, as the Senate and House voted it through on Dec. 13 and 14, respectively.

Included is a 5.2 percent pay raise, the largest in 20 years, and new rules governing the basic needs allowance, which ensures service members with large families don’t fall below 150 percent of the federal poverty level. The measure, among several that the Air & Space Force Association argued to include, will expand the number of service members eligible by empowering the Secretary of Defense to ignore housing allowances when calculating household income for troops with “a demonstrated need.”

The NDAA authorizes programs and expenditures, but does not appropriate funds; that is legislated separately in a Defense appropriations bill. The NDAA mandates and directs policy, requires reviews and reports, and establishes minimum and maximum numbers of personnel, equipment, and spending.

Congress has yet to pass an appropriations bill, so the Pentagon is left to operate under a continuing resolution, keeping spending levels frozen at fiscal 2023 levels. The latest CR is set to expire on Feb. 2 for defense funding, but lawmakers are still negotiating a “top line” spending level for the entire federal government, a necessary first step before it can finalize a defense spending bill.

Aircraft Moves

Other provisions in the measure include slowing aircraft attrition. Congress imposed new limits on Air Force plans to retire F-15E and F-16 fighter jets, and also blocked plans to retire any RQ-4 Global Hawk drones or KC-135 Stratotanker aerial refuelers. Lawmakers also want increased oversight of the new and secretive Next Generation Air Dominance fighter and Collaborative Combat Aircraft programs.

Crucially, the bill leaves in place a decision in last year’s NDAA that prohibited the Air Force from retiring non-combat-rated F-22 Raptors. Air Force officials say their 32 Block 20 F-22s are among the most expensive planes to keep in the inventory, are too expensive to upgrade, and will never be used in combat. They have twice tried to retire the older F-22s. But lawmakers, backed by AFA and analysts, say giving up those airplanes will move combat-coded F-22s into training roles, effectively shortening the lifespans of those remaining F-22s and making fewer fifth-generation aircraft available for combat.

Space Force

For the Space Force, the bill mandates a single personnel management system, essentially doing away with “Regular” and “Reserve” members in favor of a system that allows for both full-time and part-time Guardians. Space Force leaders wanted the change in order to provide more flexibility to hire highly-skilled Guardians who might otherwise leave the service. In this scenario, Guardians might move from full-time to part-time, creating an entirely new approach to managing careers and the force as a whole.

The NDAA punted, however, on whether to establish a Space National Guard. Instead, it requires a study on the feasibility of a Space Guard and three courses of action:

Leave the Air National Guard’s space-focused units in place

Transfer those units to the Space Force

Transfer them to a new Space National Guard

The study must include a cost-benefit analysis and assessment of risks and benefits to the mission. Results are due by March 1, 2024.

Congress previously asked in the 2022 and 2021 NDAAs for studies examining a space-focused reserve component and cost estimates for setting up a Space National Guard.

Proponents of a Space Guard, including AFA, say the costs of establishing such a force are reasonable and that ANG units with space missions will remain “orphaned” until the issue is resolved. They argue also that Guardsmen are attracted by the Guard’s unique state-level missions, such as humanitarian and disaster relief, and that they might not opt to stay if those were lost, creating a readiness shortfall. But critics of forming a Space National Guard argue it would be too small to be worth the extra bureaucracy and costs it would impose and that its inherently federal missions leave those units ill-suited to local disaster response requirements.

Missile Defense

Also included in the final bill are requirements for studies on integrated air and missile defenses in the Indo-Pacific and European regions. Growing concerns about new hypersonic and ballistic missile threats from China and Russia have prompted AFA and others to advocate for more planning.

Lawmakers are directing U.S. Indo-Pacific Command to craft a “comprehensive strategy for developing, acquiring, and operationally establishing an integrated air and missile defense architecture.” On top of that, the bill requires a report from the Secretary of Defense on “potential enhancements to U.S. and allied air and missile defense capabilities” for NATO.

Air Force ‘Cautiously Optimistic’ It Will Meet 2024 Recruiting Goals

Dec. 14, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Department of the Air Force is targeting a larger group of Americans as it tries to improve its recruiting, the DAF’s top civilian in charge of personnel said Dec. 13—and the Air Force thinks it may be on track to meet its target next year.

“I can say we are cautiously optimistic that we will achieve Active-Duty Air Force and Space Force enlisted accession goals” in fiscal 2024, assistant secretary of the Air Force for manpower and reserve affairs Alex Wagner said during a Dec. 13 Congressional hearing.

Military recruiting has been lagging over the past few years, a widely acknowledged and persistent issue—only the Marine Corps and Space Force met their fiscal 2023 goals. In written testimony to the House Armed Services subcommittee on personnel, Wagner said the regular Air Force missed its recruiting goal by just under 11 percent for fiscal 2023.

“Our recruiting is trying to reach the broadest swath of the American people possible,” said Wagner. Testifying alongside Pentagon and fellow service personnel chiefs, he pushed back against some lawmakers’ assertions that today’s military is overly political.

Such concerns were highlighted during Sen. Tommy Tuberville’s recent hold on the nominations of hundreds of military officers, in protest of the DOD’s reproductive health policies. The standoff, which ended earlier this month, led to bitter recriminations from both sides of the aisle, and some Republican members of the subcommittee argued during the hearing that the military is too focused on social issues, scaring off potential recruits.

Wagner and other officials, on the other hand, cited a lack of familiarity with the U.S. military as the most pressing recruiting issue and one that can lead to possibly inaccurate perceptions of military service and, therefore, a deceased propensity to serve.

“This, combined with historically low unemployment, strong private sector wage growth, concerns about the risks of military service, COVID’s impact on school access all has turned into a perfect storm—creating the most challenging recruiting environment for our high-tech service since the height of the dot-com boom, nearly a quarter of a century ago,” Wagner argued.

Air Force Recruiting Service boss Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein previously noted several statistics at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September showing that lack of familiarity:

Nine out of 10 American adults cannot name all five branches of the military nowadays

Only 23 percent of American youth are eligible for enlistment in the military, and less than half of the pool express interest in joining

Among the approximately 20 million Americans aged 17 to 21, only about 370,000 meet the eligibility criteria, possess the academic qualifications, and show interest in pursuing a career in the Air or Space Force.

“Lack of familiarity is the most important thing,” Wagner said. “What’s important to realize is that once people become familiar, they want to join, they understand the benefits of service, they understand the opportunities—whether they be educational, financial—they understand the community, being part of a team.”

The service has made a number of reforms as the Barriers to Service Cross-Functional Team, led by then-Vice Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin, set out to “look under the hood.” The service no longer permanently prohibits recruits who test positive for THC, changed body composition standards, relaxed hand and neck tattoo policies, slightly raised the age limit for recruits, and is working on preventing recruits from losing interest in joining up as they await adjudication of medical waivers—reforms that added some 2,900 recruits that would otherwise have been turned away, Wagner stated.

For example, the new body composition standards resulted in more than 1,400 accessions across the DAF among individuals who previously may not have been allowed in, while only one of those newly eligible recruits failed to pass their physical fitness test, Wagner said in his written testimony.

“What we have done is simply expand the opportunity for qualified individuals to join our ranks,” Wagner said.

Wagner and other Air Force officials have stressed they are not lowering standards to improve recruiting, but rather removing barriers to service that no longer made practical sense, given today’s low unemployment rate and general reluctance to join the military.

Low unemployment and private sector wage growth over the past three years correlated with a decreased propensity to serve, Wagner noted in his testimony. Private sector employment has also become more flexible during the COVID-19 pandemic. Ultimately, as Wagner and other officials noted, while uniformed service is unique, it is not immune to trends in the labor market.

“Today’s youth must view us as an employer of choice,” Wagner said. To that end, the DAF is expanding recruiting advertising on streaming services and gaming platforms that younger people use, he said.

Airmen Honor Osprey Crew with Special Operation Christmas Drop Bundle

Dec. 13, 2023 | By David Roza

Airmen at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam, and Yokota Air Base, Japan, paid tribute to the eight Airmen who died in a CV-22 Osprey crash last month during Operation Christmas Drop, the Air Force’s famed annual humanitarian mission.

Among the hundreds of bundles containing food, toys, and supplies dropped from C-130Js over 57 islands in the western Pacific Ocean was a special box of gifts.

The bundles, which also contain clothes, medical supplies, school books, and fishing gear, are projected to reach more than 20,000 people across the Federated state of Micronesia and Palau. This year marks the 72nd edition of Operation Christmas Drop (OCD), but recent events gave the mission special significance. On Nov. 29, an Osprey assigned to the 21st Special Operations Squadron was flying a training mission out of Yokota when the tiltrotor aircraft caught fire and crashed, the deadliest Air Force aviation mishap since 2018.

gundam 22 3 — U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Tanner Huff and Senior Airman Ryan Langdon, 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron C-130J Super Hercules loadmasters, push bundles, including a ‘Gundam 22’ tribute bundle, from a U.S. Air Force C-130J over Angaur, Republic of Palau, Dec. 7, 2023, during Operation Christmas Drop 2023 (OCD 23). (U.S. Air Force photo by Yasuo Osakabe)

The OCD 23 Airmen wanted to pay tribute to the tragedy and remember their fallen comrades, who flew under the callsign ‘Gundam 22.’

“One of the core tenets of the Operation Christmas Drop mission is bringing people together. Because of that, the crew of Gundam 22 has never left our minds since the OCD teams arrived,” Maj. Zach Overbey, OCD 23 mission commander and pilot, said in a press release. “To help ease the pain of uncertainty and loss, we wanted to pay tribute to their lives, their service, their families, and their communities during this heartbreaking time.”

Volunteers decorated a box full of toys with an image of an Osprey mid-flight, the date of the Gundam 22 crash, and a spiral with devil horns similar to the mascot of the 21st Special Operations Squadron. Some of the Airmen signed their names and wrote ‘Merry Christmas.’ The illustrations join earlier efforts by the OCD 23 crew to spruce up the brown cardboard boxes with Christmas trees, snowmen, and other symbols of holiday cheer.

The Gundam 22 bundle was loaded onto a C-130J from the 36th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron bound for the Palau island of Angaur, which about 100 people call home. A public affairs Airman from the 374th Airlift Wing, Staff Sgt. Spencer Tobler, shot a video of children diving into the bundle for the gifts within. The special tribute to Gundam 22 did not go unnoticed.

“We love Operation Christmas Drop, it really makes the students and the people on this island happy, it’s an event that we all look forward to every year,” Tiffany Kasiano, principal of Angaur Elementary School, said in the press release. “Before we opened the box, I told the students it was a tribute to servicemen and about the tragedy that happened. I feel honored to be a part of it.”

Overbey hopes the bundle full of gifts is also a small kind of gift to those who knew the fallen Airmen.

“While it’s a small degree of comfort, we hope that this box of aid, given to those who need it most, will bring some degree of solace to the family and friends of the crew members of Gundam 22,” he said. “As we continue to execute our Operation Christmas Drop mission, we’re thinking about y’all, we love you all, and know that you are always on our minds and in our hearts.”

Air Force Eyes Big Changes for Major Commands

Dec. 13, 2023 | By Greg Hadley and Chris Gordon

ORLANDO, Fla.—As the Department of the Air Force’s sweeping re-optimization review nears its January deadline, service leaders are contemplating fundamental changes to USAF’s nine major commands.

“We’re going to transform the entire Department of the Air Force organizationally to prepare for great power competition within the next quarter,” Space Force Lt. Gen. Michael A. Guetlein said at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference Dec. 13.

Guetlein, whose nomination to become Vice Chief of Space Operations is among several Air Force four-start appointments currently on hold, said in his keynote address that “the Air Force is going to get rid of the major commands structure.” But appearing again soon after, Guetlein suggested he had overstated the changes.

“I made it sound like decisions have been made,” he told reporters. “There have been no decisions made in this realm. [Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall] has not even been briefed on this yet. It’ll be several months until that happens, and when he’s ready, he’ll roll out those changes.”

The Air Force has tweaked its MAJCOM structure in the past, most recently with the elimination of the former Air Force Space Command after the Space Force was established. Before that, the establishment of Air Force Global Strike Command was the most recent change. But as recently as 2020 the service’s top leadership has considered concepts for radically overhauling the entire structure, according to former Air Force officers familiar with those plans.

Guetlein told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a brief interview that “there are no sacred cows” when it comes to changes that could result from the re-optimization review, which Kendall first announced in September at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“We’re looking at the entire structure of the Department of the Air Force in [terms of] how do we better posture us for great power competition,” Guetlein said. “And the way we’ve always done business in the past is not the way we’re going to do business in the future.”

An Air Force spokesperson later added that the teams conducting the re-optimization review “continue to generate and carefully refine a list of notional solutions.” It’s unclear if Guetlein’s comments reflect one or more of those options.

Kendall has the department on a sprint, with the stated goal of completing the re-optimization review and initial implementation plans by January 2024. “The Air Force and Space Force are incredibly capable, but we need to reoptimize the department for greater power projection and for great power competition,” Kendall said in September.

The reason for the rush may be to get ahead of any changes that might need congressional approval in the next legislative cycle, or it could simply be something else. At 74, Kendall is widely anticipated to be committed to his role through the current administration, but may not extend past the next presidential inauguration.

Managing the Force

Optimizing the structure of the major commands ties directly to another initiative still in the work: implementing USAF’s new Force Generation Model. Known as AFFORGEN, it is designed to help the service better understand and communicate near- and long-term risks when responding to requests to deploy forces to the nation’s warfighting combatant commands. AFFORGEN establishes a four-phase, two-year cycle for deployable units. The four six-month phases take the units from “reset,” to train, maintain readiness, and deploy, before returning to reset.

In September, the Air Force introduced the concept of Air Task Forces to better identify the kinds of units that are needed to deploy because the service no longer deploys squadrons and wings as they once did. Lt. Gen. James C. “Jim” Slife, deputy chief of staff for operations and nominated to become the Air Force’s Vice Chief of Staff, said the disconnect between the way the service deploys forces and the way they are organized at home has grown over the past three decades.

“We organized our Air Force to be as flexible as possible, break it up into as many small little things as we can, and deploy,” he told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a recent interview. “We’re in a different strategic environment now.”

The Air Task Forces, which will begin reset cycles next year, provide units with which the service can experiment as leaders try to develop units that can train, deploy, and fight together, rather than assembling teams on the fly once they arrive at overseas locations.

“We’re looking at a set of attributes that include things like prizing mission over function,” Slife said. “It gives us a better ability to articulate capacity, risk, and readiness to the joint force.”

AFFORGEN and the Air Task Forces contribute to the larger re-optimization effort, and Slife said he does not anticipate a one-size-fits-all endeavor. AFFORGEN will not necessarily apply to units at regional commands, such as those in U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFA) or Pacific Air Forces (PACAF), in the same way as they might for units in Air Combat Command or Air Mobility Command.

“The Secretary uses the term reoptimize,” said Slife. “A portion of that may be organization. But that’s not the main point. The point is that every change in the strategic environment privileges different attributes, and we [must] adapt our Air Force to optimize for whatever the attributes are that are relevant, that are privileged, for that environment.”

Saltzman: ‘Probably No Coincidence’ X-37 and Chinese Space Plane Will Launch Near Each Other

Dec. 13, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

ORLANDO, Fla.—Multiple delays and scrubbed launches have kept the Space Force’s X-37B from returning to orbit this week.

But after suggesting several years ago the secretive space plane may be on its way out, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman indicated its future is brighter than ever thanks to Pentagon’s competition with China.

In fact, Saltzman told reporters at the Space Force Association’s Spacepower Conference it’s “probably no coincidence” that China’s own space plane may launch around the same time as the X-37B.

First launched in 2010, X-37B has shattered records for its long missions in space. Its sixth and most recent flight started May 17, 2020 and ended 908 days later, on Nov. 12, 2022. Its payloads are often shrouded in secrecy, though officials have disclosed some and say the space plane is useful for testing new technologies and the effects of long-term space exposure.

In early November, the Space Force announced X-37B would launch aboard a SpaceX Falcon Heavy rocket on Dec. 7 at Kennedy Space Station, Fla. A few weeks later, the launch date was pushed to Dec. 10 due to launch delays and pad availability.

On Dec. 10, SpaceX announced the launch would be delayed a day due to weather. On Dec. 11, the company scrubbed the launch due to “a ground side issue” and said it was targeting Dec. 12, then pushed that back another day before finally posting on social media that it was standing down once more, with no new launch date confirmed.

We are standing down from tomorrow’s Falcon Heavy launch of USSF-52 to perform additional system checkouts. The payload remains healthy while teams work toward the next best launch opportunity. We’re also keeping an eye on the weather and will announce a new launch date once… pic.twitter.com/xo6TwkqatD
— SpaceX (@SpaceX) December 13, 2023

Despite all this, Saltzman projected confidence in X-37B’s mission and confirmed previous Space Force releases that hinted the space plane would operate at a higher orbit than ever before—it has operated in low-Earth orbit in the past, some 110-500 miles above the ground, but Falcon Heavy can deliver payloads of 58,860 pounds—far more than the X-37B—to geosynchronous orbit, more than 22,000 miles up.

“We are going to expand the envelope,” Saltzman said. “There are some good experiments and tests and that’s the primary goal of that, testing technologies. There are some experiments being run and we’ll pull data back. The beauty of it is that you can put something in the space environment and then bring it home and look at it. That’s the beauty of a space place concept.”

In 2020, when Saltzman was still a lieutenant general, he hinted that X-37B might be nearing the end of its service life. The spacecraft, he said then, might exemplify “technology that has served its purpose and [maybe] it’s time to start looking at the next available capability.”

Now, however, competition with China has heated up and another potential space plane that the Pentagon has expressed interest in—Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser—has been delayed multiple times.

Against that backdrop, Saltzman was asked by reporters about his previous comments and whether X-37B’s upcoming flight would be its “last stand.”

“I was over talking to the program manager. I don’t think that’s the best way to characterize it,” Saltzman replied.

While declining to offer specific details, Saltzman did say “this great power competition has really worked to our advantage on some areas, and if we have a capability, the idea of creating a gap in that capability is a concern with congressional members. At least that’s the way they’ve voiced it to me. Once we have a capability, they never want to back out of it.”

With that in mind, Saltzman expressed confidence that the program would receive the necessary funding to keep it going.

While X-37 may keep going for years to come, it will have to go head-to-head with China’s Shenlong space plane, which has completed two flights and may launch again soon, according to unconfirmed reports. Asked about the Chinese spacecraft’s launch, Saltzman tied it back to the competition between the two countries.

“It’s no surprise that the Chinese are extremely interested in our space plane. We’re extremely interested in theirs,” he said. “Because it is a capability; the ability to put something in orbit, do some things, and bring it home and take a look at the results is powerful. And so these are two of the most watched objects on orbit while they’re on orbit. It’s probably no coincidence that they’re trying to match us in timing and sequence of this.”