‘The Best of Us’: AFSOC, Families, Friends Pay Tribute to 8 Airmen Killed in CV-22 Crash

Dec. 11, 2023 | By David Roza

Air Force Special Operations Command paid tribute to the eight Airmen killed in a CV-22 Osprey crash off the coast of Japan last month, as the command posted a brief biography of each Airman on its Facebook page on Dec. 7—the latest in a line of tributes shared by friends and family members of the fallen in local news reports and on social media.

The crew of the Osprey, callsign ‘Gundam 22,’ were on a training mission out of Yokota Air Base on Nov. 29 when the tiltrotor aircraft caught fire and crashed. It was the deadliest Air Force aviation mishap since 2018, when nine Air Guardsmen were killed in a WC-130 crash in Georgia. American and Japanese military and civilian search teams found the wreckage off the southern coast of Japan on Dec. 4. As of Dec. 11, the remains of seven out of the eight Airmen aboard had been recovered.

“In times like these, where service to our nation is not just a personal commitment but also a legacy woven into the fabric of our families, the depth of sorrow is immeasurable,” Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind, AFSOC commander, said in a Dec. 5 statement.

The Airmen aboard Gundam 22 were assigned to the 353rd Special Operations Wing, and several had deployments to the Middle East and Afghanistan under their belts. The oldest, Maj. Eric Spendlove, 36, of St. George, Utah, was a special operations flight surgeon and medical operations flight commander who led his medical team to improve readiness at the 1st Special Operations Squadron by 94 percent and at the wing by 25 percent, according to his AFSOC biography.

“When he had the opportunity to join a special operations group, he was all over that,” Spendlove’s older sister, Monica Murset, told news station FOX 13 Salt Lake City. “It gave him access to traveling the world alongside some true heroes, and he absolutely loved serving his country.”

Capt. Terrell Brayman, 32, of Pittsford, N.Y., felt a similar dedication to his job. The former U-28A Draco pilot became a CV-22 pilot in 2020 and was “a naturally talented pilot and officer,” Lt. Col. Tyler Oldham, head of the 21st Special Operations Squadron, said in Brayman’s biography. Daniel Bobry, a friend of Brayman, was impressed by his work ethic at Ohio State University, where Brayman studied astronautical engineering.

“He was up at 3:30, 4 o’clock every day at ROTC, always smiling, never complained,” Bobry told New York news station WHAM-Rochester. “He just did his job and did it well and always had a smile on his face.”

A fellow CV-22 pilot, Maj. Luke Unrath, 34, hailed from Riverside, Calif., where the triplet left a mark on his parents and siblings.

“It would be impossible for us to express in a few words what an amazing son Luke was,” Unrath’s parents told southern California newspaper The Press-Enterprise. “Even though we raised him in faith, he taught us so much, what it is to live a Christ-centered life. He chose this path and career because he wanted to help people.”

Oldham was also impressed by the pilot, who started his career as an engineer before cross-training into aviation in 2019.

“People gravitated toward him and would follow him due to his cool, calm demeanor and high standards,” the squadron boss wrote.

The third pilot aboard ‘Gundam 22’ was Maj. Jeffrey Hoernemann, 32, of Andover, Minn. A Weapons Instructor Course graduate, Hoernemann was an instructor pilot and chief of weapons and tactics at the 21st Special Operations Squadron, where “his character was the benchmark of officership in the United States Air Force,” Oldham wrote.

“Jeff was the best of us,” he added. “His selflessness and leadership through example have left enduring marks upon the culture and values of the members of Air Force Special Operations Command.”

In a statement published by CBS Minnesota, Hoernemann’s family said the major “was proud to have been chosen to fly the CV-22B Osprey. He loved to fly the hybrid aircraft and was never afraid of it.”

Despite being the youngest Airmen aboard, Staff Sgt. Jacob Galliher, 24, of Pittsfield, Mass., made a lasting impression on those around him.

“I looked up to Jake in more ways than one,” Galliher’s best friend, Air Force Staff Sgt. Edward Dobransky, told The Berkshire Eagle, a Massachusetts newspaper. “We lost a superhuman when we lost Jake.”

An airborne linguist specializing in Mandarin, Galliher was an honor graduate or distinguished graduate of several Air Force schools, and his commander said he was just as distinguished as a teammate.

“With a ready smile, Jake brought the unit together on and off-duty through humor and an inexhaustible supply of energy,” Maj. Gilbert Summers, head of the 43rd Intelligence Squadron, Detachment 1, said in a statement. “Everywhere he went, and everyone he met, was made better for him being there.”

Staff Sgt. Jake Turnage, 25, of Kennesaw, Ga., was a special missions aviator and served as lead flight engineer and noncommissioned officer in charge of training at the 21st Special Operations Squadron. He had a lot of responsibility: alongside his normal duties as flight engineer, loadmaster, and aerial gunner, he also managed the combat arms, survival evasion, resistance, and escape, and chemical, biological, radiological, and nuclear training requirements for the squadron. But he seemed to bear it well, according to Oldham.

“Jake’s humor and zeal were contagious,” the commander said. “His magnetic personality was always uplifting and lightened the load of his squadron mates.”

Turnage’s fellow special missions aviator aboard the Osprey was Senior Airman Brian Johnson, 32, of Cincinnati, Ohio. In a statement published by Ohio news station Dayton 24/7 Now, Johnson’s family described him as “an amazing and caring son, brother, uncle and friend to all.” Oldham praised his “tireless work ethic … his knowledge, skill, and attention to detail inspired competence and trust amongst his fellow aircrew.”

The eighth Airman aboard ‘Gundam 22’ was Tech Sgt. Zachary Lavoy, 33, of Oviedo, Fla. A medical operations flight chief, Lavoy picked up a number of honors in training, and contributed to multiple unit awards such as the 2019 Air Force Medical Service Medic Rodeo Team of the Year. His commander, Lt. Col. Christopher Pellegrino, head of the 1st Special Operations Squadron, described him as “a compassionate medic with a steadfast devotion to supporting the needs of those around him.”

Lavoy’s mother, Gabriela, could not believe her son was gone when she spoke with Florida news station FOX 35 Orlando on Dec. 6.

“I didn’t think anything could hurt my son,” she said. “You think your kids are invincible. I didn’t think anything could happen to him. I always thought he would be found alive.”

The Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy announced on Dec. 6 that they were standing down all Osprey operations as the Air Force investigates the cause of the crash.

The Air Force said initial findings suggested there was a “material failure” with the Osprey, indicating pilot error was likely not the primary cause and there was an issue with the aircraft itself.

“The standdown will provide time and space for a thorough investigation to determine causal factors and recommendations to ensure the Air Force CV-22 fleet returns to flight operations,” AFSOC boss Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind said in a statement at the time.

New CMSAF: David Flosi Selected as Top Enlisted Airman

Dec. 11, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin selected the service’s next senior enlisted leader Dec. 11, the service announced—Chief Master Sgt. David A. Flosi will become the 20th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force when current CMSAF JoAnne Bass departs.

“Our Airmen deserve the best leaders possible—and that’s Chief Flosi,” Allvin said in a statement.

Flosi is the current Command Chief Master Sergeant of Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. In that role, he advises the AFMC commander on issues affecting roughly 89,000 Airmen. In a statement, the Air Force said Flosi was the “clear choice” out of a group of command chief master sergeants from across the service to become the Air Force’s senior-most enlisted member.

Enlisted Airmen make up roughly 80 percent of the Active-Duty Air Force, and Flosi will be charged with advocating for their interests.

“He is a phenomenal leader and wingman who will empower our total force,” Allvin said. “His unique experiences, attitude, and commitment will prove essential as we re-optimize our force for great power competition.”

The Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force serves as an advisor to the Chief of Staff of the Air Force and Department of the Air Force leaders on personnel matters, such as welfare, morale, quality of life, and other issues that affect Airmen. The CMSAF also serves as the public face of the force to Congressional leaders and other levels of government.

“We are serving at a time of great consequence where success hinges on our ability to optimize this team toward the changing character of war,” Flosi said in a statement.

Flosi’s career began in 1996 as a nuclear weapons specialist, and he has held various leadership duties in conventional and nuclear munitions as well as missile operations, program management, and test and contingency operations, the Air Force said. He deployed in support of Operations Southern Watch, Iraqi Freedom, Inherent Resolve, and Freedom’s Sentinel. Flosi has served in his current role since October 2021.

“The Department of the Air Force relies on our Senior Enlisted Advisors to represent the needs and perspectives of all our enlisted Airmen and Guardians, the majority of our force,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said in the statement. “I have high confidence that Chief Flosi will build upon the great example provided by his predecessors and serve with distinction as our 20th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force.”

Bass will soon close out her tenure. The first woman to serve as CMSAF, she has been the Air Force’s highest-ranking noncommissioned leader since August 2020.

“Chief Flosi is an incredibly strong leader who has proven himself in every role at every level,” Bass said. “I have no doubt he will continue building and developing our Air Force to be the future force our nation needs to compete, deter, and win in any domain.”

USAF F-16 Crashes in Korea For Second Time This Year, Pilot OK

Dec. 11, 2023 | By David Roza

A U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter crashed off the coast of South Korea on Dec. 11, according to local media reports and a statement from the 8th Fighter Wing at Kunsan Air Base. The pilot ejected from the aircraft and is in stable condition.

This marks the second USAF aircraft crash in the region recently—two weeks ago, an Air Force CV-22 Osprey caught fire and crashed off the southern Japanese coast on Nov. 29, killing all eight Airmen aboard. The Air Force, Marine Corps, and Navy are all standing down operations for the tiltrotor aircraft as the Air Force investigates the cause of the crash.

This is also the second crash of an F-16 assigned to Kunsan this year. On May 6, a jet was flying a routine daytime training sortie when something went wrong and the pilot ejected near Osan Air Base, about 80 miles north of Kunsan. The fighter made a fiery impact in a local field, captured by local cameras.

The Air Force has yet to release an accident investigation report into what caused the May crash.

This latest incident took place over the Yellow Sea, which borders the west side of the Korean Peninsula and separates it from China. According to the 8th Fighter Wing, the jet suffered an in-flight emergency at about 8:43 a.m. local time. Yonhap News Agency reported that the jet had taken off from Kunsan.

The pilot ejected and was recovered by Republic of Korea Maritime Forces “awake and in stable condition,” the statement said. The pilot was then returned to Kunsan for further evaluation.

The base withheld the name of the pilot and additional details on his current condition.

“We are grateful for the safe recovery of our Airman by our ROK Allies and that the pilot is in good condition,” 8th Fighter Wing commander Col. Matthew C. Gaetke said in a statement.

The cause of the in-flight emergency is under investigation.

Now Enlisted Airmen Can Stay in Uniform Longer

Dec. 8, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

Faced with a recruiting shortfall, the Air Force is loosening its “up or out” rules, adding two years to the maximum time in service at every enlisted grade up to E-8.

The new High Year of Tenure (HYT) limits go into effect immediately, although Airmen have been able to ask for extensions for the past year. The Air Force confirmed the changes, which were detailed in a memo leaked to Reddit this week. The new rates:

GRADE	RANK	Old High Year of Tenure	New High Year of Tenure
E-1	Airman Basic	8	10
E-2	Airman	8	10
E-3	Airman 1st Class	8	10
E-4	Senior Airman	10	12
E-5	Staff Sergeant	20	22
E-6	Technical Sergeant	22	24
E-7	Master Sergeant	24	26
E-8	Senior Master Sergeant	26	28

The added time gives Airmen the option to stay and continue to compete for promotion, rather than face a deadline to leave. To opt out of the extension, Airmen facing HYT limits between Dec. 8, 2023 and Sept. 30, 2024 must ask for and receive approval prior to their original HYT date of separation or by Feb. 16, 2024, whichever comes first.

Airmen already approved for separation or retirement under the original HYT rule will automatically have their HYT extended.

“The Air Force is taking proactive action to fully leverage our Congressionally authorized end strength and HYT extensions maximizes the retention of experienced talent to enhance mission effectiveness,” an Air Force spokesperson said.

Enlisted retention remains strong at around 89 percent in fiscal 2023, down only slightly from the highs of the COVID-19 pandemic and largely in line with historical trends. But the Air Force finished fiscal 2023 about 10 percent short of its Active-Duty recruiting goal, and the lingering effects of record-high retention have slowed promotion rates in the noncommissioned officer ranks. That’s pushed more Airmen up against their HYT limits.

Air Force officials say they need to rebalance the force to ensure the force is sized for effectiveness and that Airmen gain the experience needed to take on leadership positions. Extending HYT will give more Airmen another shot at promotion and the Air Force time more flexibility to keep the experienced Airmen already in the force.

‘Presence Matters’: Space Force Activates New Component for Europe and Africa

Dec. 8, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. Space Force, U.S. European Command, and U.S. Africa Command activated their newest service component on Dec. 8, in an expansion of USSF’s growing reach into combatant commands.

“This is an important day in the history of the Space Force as we mature our organization and our partnerships to take on the challenges of the space domain,” Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said in remarks at a ceremony held at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, where the component will be headquartered.

U.S. Space Forces Europe and Africa (SPACEFOREUR-AF), under the command of Space Force Col. Max Lantz, gives the USSF into its own organization in the vast combined area of U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command.

“We are activating the component because presence matters,” Lantz said.

Previously, U.S. military space capabilities in Europe and Africa, which Lantz already headed, were part of the air component, U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa (USAFE-AFAFRICA), in a model that predated the Space Force as an independent service. Inside combatant commands, services provide their own components that the command can draw on. Now, the Space Force has its own organization.

The activation of Space Forces Europe and Africa is a “critical step” in USSF’s growth as its own service with its own voice in operations, Saltzman said.

“Space has become more and more central to joint operations,” he added. “We are better connected, more informed, more precise, and more lethal thanks to space.”

The official party for the U.S. Space Forces Europe & Africa activation ceremony stand at attention during the USSPACEFOREUR-AF activation and assumption of command, at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Dec. 8, 2023. USSPACEFOREUR-AF will provide U.S. European Command and U.S. Africa Command a cadre of space experts who collaborate with NATO allies and partners to integrate space efforts into shared operations, activities and investments. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Edgar Grimaldo

SPACEFOREUR-AF is now the fourth service component embedded in one of the U.S. military’s regional commands, joining U.S. Central Command, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, and U.S. Forces Korea. Joint combatant commanders and Space Force leaders say the new organizations help better articulate what space capabilities are available and ensure they are taken into account and put to use.

“The joint force’s missions increasingly rely on space and the Space Force is committed to ensuring that the force has the space resources it needs to succeed,” Saltzman said. “That is particularly important here in the European and African theaters of operation. The Space Force is already very actively involved in supporting efforts in the region, with our support to Ukraine being most visible.”

The USSF is considering establishing components in other commands, possibly including U.S. Cyber Command, U.S. Special Operations Command, and U.S. Forces Japan.

“Space operations is our daily lives, our operations, our activities, and our investments,” Marine Corps Gen. Michael E. Langley, the head of U.S. Africa Command, said during the ceremony. “All the space-based assets [are] ensuring the joint force has the right information at the right time to fight and to win. SPACEFOREUR-AF will work with all other components to ensure that space planning and support is embedding in all of our operations.”

Like the rest of the Space Force, SPACEFOREUR-AF is a small organization. But throughout 2023, after the plans for SPACEFOREUR-AF were announced, senior U.S. military space leaders visited Europe to strengthen the U.S. military space alliances. On Dec. 1, the U.K. agreed to host a new advanced space tracking radar system along with Australia and the U.S.

The activation will “finally normalize how space forces are presented to the theaters—sound, structural changes,” Lantz said. “The component we’re standing up today will never be as small, under-ranked, or less resourced than at this very moment. Starting tomorrow, we will gain in strength, understanding, and resources in order to add value to EUCOM and AFRICOM. Every day we will get better.”

The new U.S. Space Forces in Europe-Space Forces Africa patch is displayed at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, Dec. 6, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Jared Lovett

Here Is How Congress Plans to Keep Tight Oversight of New Fighters and CCAs

Dec. 8, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

House and Senate lawmakers, in their recently unveiled compromise 2024 National Defense Authorization Act, are seeking tight oversight of both the Air Force and the Navy on their respective versions of the new and highly secret Next Generation Air Dominance fighter and the Collaborative Combat Aircraft programs

Specifically, lawmakers are demanding briefs every six months on virtually all metrics of the projects.

NGAD is a term used by both the Air Force and Navy to describe their future crewed stealthy air dominance aircraft; in the Air Force, the NGAD will succeed the F-22 and is described as a “family of systems” to include offboard sensors and accompanying aircraft. CCAs are uncrewed, autonomous aircraft that will accompany and fight alongside crewed aircraft, performing missions such as electronic warfare, defense suppression, or as carriers of additional weapons.

Though similarly named, the Air Force and Navy/Marine Corps NGADs and CCAs are not joint programs like the F-35, although program officials have said they are sharing information and coordinating as the projects develop.

In reporting language attached to the NDAA, conferees said their provisions are aimed at program “accountability” for NGAD and CCAs. First, they want a baseline for the programs, and then “a matrix that identifies, in six-month increments, key milestones, development and testing events, and specific performance goals for the engineering manufacturing and development [EMD] phase … of the programs.”

The matrix would give the Technology Readiness Levels “of major components and subsystems” as well as “key demonstration and testing events.” A TRL identifies where a particular technology is on a scale of 1-9, with 1 being highly experimental and 9 being mission-proven in the field. In recent years, the Pentagon has demanded a TRL of 6 for most new capabilities to proceed to engineering manufacturing and development.

“Key demonstration and testing events” is likely a reference to milestones such as first major aircraft joins; first systems power-ons, first flights, etc.

Lawmakers also want regular updates on design and software maturity; subsystem and system-level integration maturity; manufacturing readiness levels for critical items; the status of manufacturing; “system verification, validation and key flight test events;” reliability; availability for flight operations, and maintainability.

Possibly more problematic for the services, the lawmakers specified a long list of items for which they want detailed, itemized costs. For some programs in recent years, Congress has directed the Pentagon to identify costs over the program’s entire service life—which could be more than 50 years. Such estimates are challenging, small variations can become quite large over times, and inflation estimates are scarcely more than a guess.

Nonetheless, every six months lawmakers want the service Secretaries to give their “cost position … on the total cost for … the EMD phase and low initial rate of production lots of the programs” and a matrix “expressing the total cost for the prime contractor’s estimate for such EMD phase and production lots, both of which shall be phased over the entire EMD period.”

Specific costs must be provided for:

the air vehicle

propulsion

mission systems

vehicle subsystems

air vehicle software

systems engineering

program management

system test and evaluation

support and training systems

contract fees

engineering changes

direct mission support

government testing

ancillary aircraft equipment

initial spares

contractor support

modifications

The first update will be required six months after the Secretaries provide their initial reports, and these will represent the program baseline for EMD as well as low-rate initial production. Each update will have to explain progress made on the specific category, cost changes incurred, and the Pentagon Comptroller will have to sign off on these reports as accurate, with their assessment of cost, performance, and schedule “trends.”

Moreover, each Secretary is to define Key Performance Parameters (KPPs) for the NGAD and CCA for the “threshold and objective costs.” These KPPs are also to be stated for “each cost category” outlined in the language.

The services are also told to identify “the highest acceptable cost for that category” as well as “an objective value indicating the lowest cost expected to be achieved by that category.” Those costs are to be stated in various ways, including:

Unit recurring flyaway cost

Average procurement unit cost

Gross/weapon system unit cost

Aircraft cost-per-tail-per-year

Aircraft cost-per-flight-hour

Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall announced in May that solicitations for NGAD have gone out, and that a single offeror will be selected in 2024 to build it. Operational capability is expected circa 2030. Kendall has voiced a somewhat shorter timeline for the initial version of CCAs to be in service, saying the first ones could be flying in 2028.

The Senate is expected to action on the NDAA in the next few days, and the House could pass it shortly thereafter, putting the defense policy bill on track to become law before January.

Air Force to Start Tracking Why Some Recruits Back Out Before Joining Up

Dec. 8, 2023 | By David Roza

Starting in January, the Air Force Recruiting Service will track why applicants leave the accessions process before signing the dotted line. The goal is to understand what makes people who are interested in serving decide to leave, and if there is something the Air Force can do to improve its processes.

“We currently have only anecdotal data that says why someone leaves the process,” an AFRS spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine. “This will require the recruiter to go in and annotate a specific reason why someone is stopping the process.”

One person keen to see the resulting data is Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on personnel. Warren grilled the heads of the services’ recruiting commands, including AFRS boss Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein, at a Dec. 6 hearing, saying that many healthy candidates are held up in a lengthy medical accessions review process due to conditions as minor as a childhood wrist sprain.

The senator cited military data showing that one out of every six recruits needed a medical waiver in fiscal 2022. Getting through a review could add 70 or more days to the applications process for Army recruits, she said.

“Now obviously we want a screening process that catches disqualifying medical conditions, but do each of you agree that it is a problem if our process is creating unnecessary barriers to enrollment?” she asked. “It is an even bigger problem if all of that red tape is causing some healthy applicants to drop out of the recruitment process altogether.”

air force recruiting — U.S. Air Force recruits tour a KC-135 Stratotanker at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, June 14, 2023. (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Lauren Cobin)

The Department of Defense Inspector General reached a similar conclusion in a May 17 report, when the watchdog office wrote that the length of time it takes military entrance processing command and the services to review medical information and other process requirements “affect whether an applicant remains in the accession pipeline. Understanding these barriers to entering military service is integral to inclusion.”

Part of the problem is Military Health System Genesis, a new electronic health record system that provides a single health record for service members. The system connects to most civilian health information exchange networks, giving the services and U.S. Military Entrance Processing Command (USMEPCOM) access to an applicant’s medical history. But that history “is often incomplete or contains insufficient information to make a waiver determination,” DODIG noted, which slows the process down because the services then have to request extra documentation. Genesis is often difficult to use, further slowing down the process.

Time is of the essence of the services, all but two of which, the Space Force and the Marine Corps, failed to meet recruiting goals in fiscal 2023. The DODIG recommended that each of the services establish tracking mechanisms to capture data on applicants medically disqualified by USMEPCOM, make sure each potentially eligible applicant is provided a choice of whether to proceed with a waiver request, and document the reason a waiver was not requested to inform change in each service’s recruiting process.

Each of the services agreed, and at the Dec. 6 hearing, Warren demanded to know when such mechanisms would be in place. Amrhein said a system will be in place in January that will record “why a member specifically disengaged from the recruiting process.”

It may take time to capture long-term trends in the data, since the new system will track data from January onwards and not from past years.

“We have no way of collecting data from the past from this since the applicant would have to tell us,” the AFRS spokesperson said.

The hope is that better information will help AFRS get more applicants into uniform and help ease its long-term recruiting challenges.

“We cannot afford to lose people who have already demonstrated a willingness to serve,” Warren said. “These are the people who say ‘I want to do this.’ Especially if the only barrier is something that would be quickly dismissed by a medical review.”

US, UK, Australia Agree to New Space Tracking System: What It Means, When It’s Coming

Dec. 8, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

SIMI VALLEY, Calif.—The U.S., U.K., and Australia have agreed to place advanced space tracking radar sites in their countries in a major new initiative that will expand the AUKUS agreement.

The three countries will host and operate the Deep Space Advanced Radar Capability (DARC), a state-of-the-art ground-based radar system, by the end of the decade.

“It is all in process, it is in motion, and it is real,” Dr. Mara Karlin, the Department of Defense’s number two policy official, told Air & Space Forces Magazine in an interview at the Reagan National Defense Forum on Dec. 2, a day after the new AUKUS agreements were reached. “We put some real meat on the bones.”

Though it was initially conceived as a pact to provide Australia with nuclear-powered submarines, the AUKUS agreement now stretches from undersea to outer space. The acronym stands for the collaboration between Australia, the United Kingdom, and the United States and was formalized in March 2023.

The DARC initiative and other cooperation between the three countries received a boost when their defense chiefs—Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III, Britain’s Defense Secretary Grant Shapps, and Australia’s Defense Minister Richard Marles—gathered together at the headquarters of the Defense Innovation Unit in Silicon Valley on Dec. 1 to formalize an array of new agreements as part of so-called Pillar II of the AUKUS agreement, which focuses on developing advanced military technologies

“Many AUKUS-related advanced capability activities remain classified,” the ministers noted in a Dec. 1 joint statement after the meeting.

The DARC initiative, however, is not a secret. The first site will be in Western Australia and is expected to be operational in 2026. Two more sites, one in the U.K. and one in the U.S., are to follow by the end of the decade.

“It goes beyond talking in generalities,” said Charles Galbreath, a retired Space Force colonel and senior fellow for space studies at the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. The DARC sites will be linked together and will boost all three nations’ ability to gather and share data.

Most of the U.S.’s ground-based space domain awareness capabilities consist of Cold War-era missile tracking radars or decade-old optical sensors that were not designed for the current space environment. DARC provides a way to strengthen the Space Force’s domain awareness, which officials said must be improved as the number of satellites and the amount of debris in orbit increase.

“DARC offers higher sensitivity, better accuracy, increased capacity, and more agile tracking than current radars capable of tracking objects in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit,” according to the Space Force. “Its ability to provide global monitoring extends beyond inclement weather and daylight, which are limitations of current ground-based optical systems.”

In a Dec. 2 news release, assistant secretary of defense for space policy Dr. John Plumb cited the ability to “leverage the geography” of the three countries. That point was echoed by Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman and top military space officers from the U.K. and Australia.

“Shared domain awareness is going to become increasingly important, not just for us to track objects and avoid collisions, but also to monitor activities, identify threats, and then make informed decisions about how best to respond,” Galbreath said. “That’s going to be important for the United States and our allies in a potential future conflict.”

The locations of the countries are “optimally positioned” for the DARC system, which will be built by Northrop Grumman, particularly for tracking objects in Geosynchronous Earth Orbit (GEO), according to the Space Force.

“You have to have sites scattered around the world,” said Brian Weeden, a former Air Force space operations officer at the Secure World Foundation. “By geographically spacing around all these radars and telescopes, linking them all together, sharing data between them, you get a much better network than what any one country can do by itself.”

Though much of the work under Pillar II remains under wraps, the collaboration covers agreements in artificial intelligence, quantum computing, and domain awareness, including DARC. The focus is “making sure that U.S, U.K., and Australian warfighters are able to see what’s happening, understand what’s happening, make decisions, and then act with decisive advantage,” Karlin said. “That’s an important frame as we’re trying to further build it out.”

DARC is a real-world example of how the U.S. is increasingly relying on partners who, just a few years ago, were not involved in military space operations, she noted.

“The National Defense Strategy talked about how we need a resilient space architecture,” Karlin said. “What a fantastic case study of helping to make that a reality by working with our allies.”

Britain’s Cameron Urges More Aid for Ukraine: ‘Good Investment’ for Degrading Russia

Dec. 7, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

Urging support for Ukraine, British foreign secretary and former prime minister David Cameron argued aid rendered so far has provided a huge return on investment for the U.S. and the West, not only preventing Russian President Vladimir Putin from chalking up a “win”—which would encourage him toward more aggression—but sending a message of unity to China and reassuring U.S. allies.

Speaking at the Aspen Institute on Dec. 7, Cameron said America has spent about 10 percent of one year’s defense budget aiding and arming Ukraine since Russia’s invasion in early 2022. With that, Ukraine “has destroyed half of Russia’s pre-war military assets.”

“Now, if that isn’t a good investment, I don’t know what is,” Cameron said.

“Ukraine doesn’t even really have a navy, but they have managed to sink about a fifth of the Russian Black Sea Fleet. … I’m sure the Pentagon is excited by the value for money on offer, there. I mean, it’s a remarkable thing,” he added.

Amid uncertainty over whether Congress will approve more aid for Ukraine, Cameron argued for more support and patience, saying the ultimate outcome in Ukraine “takes time … and is worth investing in.”

It’s an investment being shared across the world, Cameron said—European military, civilian, economic, and humanitarian aid is roughly $160 billion, and the U.K. is the second largest donor after the U.S. at $44 billion

Ukraine aid has also helped reinvigorate the U.S. industrial base, Cameron noted, pointing to recent analyses that found almost 90 percent of the money spent on Ukraine stays in America to manufacture weaponry and materiel.

That production is key, he added, because the Russian invasion has been “a tremendous wake-up call to the West” to resume building up war stocks.

“All of that work that’s taking place is very important. And I think we’re at a point where we’ve got to stop thinking about how we’re running down our existing stocks to supply Ukraine,” Cameron said. “We need to think much more about how we build up our stocks. And I think in [a] more dangerous and insecure world … supply chains, stocks, defense commitments, these things have become more important.”

Given the positives, it is critical Congress approve more aid to encourage other allies around the globe to keep supporting Ukraine, he said.

“You’ll be able to go to all the other European countries and say, ‘right, you’ve seen what the US have done. Now [you] will need to join in,’” Cameron said.

Failure to support Ukraine, on the other hand, would be “a victory for Putin … and if it is, it won’t be the end of this,” Cameron predicted.

“If we let him win in Ukraine, it will be somewhere else next. And it won’t just be American money that’s at risk. It might be a NATO country [that is attacked], so it could be American lives,” he said. Avoiding all this is worth “10 percent of your defense budget.”

Addressing criticism of corruption in Ukraine, Cameron said “Ukraine isn’t perfect” but is focused on fighting potential corruption to head off just such charges.

He also countered critics who say sanctions against Russian assets outside Russia haven’t worked. “That’s $400 billion” that Russia doesn’t have “for its war machine,” he said.

“I think there’s a very strong argument for saying, let’s, instead of just freezing that money, let’s take that money. Spend it on rebuilding Ukraine … if you like, a down payment on the reparations that Russia will one day have to pay for the illegal invasion that they’ve undertaken,” Cameron said, suggesting it is one of the topics he will take up in meetings with U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken this week.

Cameron confessed to sometimes hoping for a return to better days like the late 1980s and early 1990s, —when “the Berlin Wall was falling, the Soviet Union was breaking up. Russia was becoming a friend, China was joining the World Trade Organization. Democracy was spreading across Europe and in many ways across the world, more and more countries, were adopting market-based economics,” he said.

But the West has to accept that those days are not coming back anytime soon, Cameron warned, calling Ukraine “the great test for our generation, the great challenge for our generation: are we going to defend this democracy? And are we going to recognize that European security is also American security, and we should stay united on this?”

Making a final pitch for more U.S. aid to Ukraine, Cameron warned that “if that money doesn’t get voted through, there are only two people that will be smiling. One of them is Vladimir Putin in Russia. The other one is Xi Jinping in Beijing. And I don’t know about you, but I want to I don’t want to give either of those people a Christmas present.”