B-52 Flies with Philippine Fighters over the South China Sea

B-52 Flies with Philippine Fighters over the South China Sea

Feb. 21, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

A U.S. Air Force B-52 bomber flew alongside three Philippine FA-50 fighters during a patrol over the South China Sea in the Philippines’ Exclusive Economic Zone (EEZ) on Feb. 19.

The Philippine Air Force announced the patrol as part of an ongoing Maritime Cooperative Activity between the Philippines and the U.S. The U.S. Navy previously announced its participation in the activity, but the Air Force has not publicly noted the B-52’s involvement.

The South China Sea is a heavily-trafficked, heavily-contested area. International law states that the EEZ grants the Philippines exclusive rights to exploit natural resources within the 200-nautical-mile zone. China, however, claims sovereignty over much of the waters, including areas claimed by Vietnam, the Philippines, Malaysia, Brunei and Indonesia. 

The People’s Liberation Army Southern Theater Command released a statement following the bomber patrol, accusing the Philippines of collaborating with outside countries “to stir up trouble in the South China Sea.”

The statement added that the PLA’s Southern Theater Command dispatched its frontline air and naval forces to closely monitor the region, emphasizing that the troops remain on high alert.

However, PAF spokesperson Col. Ma. Consuelo Castillo said in a statement that the patrol “is in no way directed towards any country and the activity is in accordance with the international rules-based order, as we were operating within our territory and within the Philippines’ EEZ,” according to local media reports.

Armed Force of the Philippines’ spokesman Col. Xerxes Trinidad added that the aerial patrol “demonstrates the commitment of both Armed Forces to enhancing interoperability and advancing regional peace and security in the Indo-Pacific.”

The B-52 that led the patrol with Philippine fighters was from the 5th Bomb Wing of Minot Air Force Base, N.D., which deployed to Anderson Air Force Base, Guam, in late January. A total of four Stratofortresses arrived in the region, in part to support Cope North 24, a multilateral air exercise involving Japan, Australia, France, South Korea, and Canada. The three-week exercise extends to the islands of Tinian and Saipan, about 120 miles north of Guam, and is set to conclude on Feb. 23.

The nuclear-capable bombers have kept a low profile in the contested South China Sea in recent years, but back in October, U.S. Indo-Pacific Command disclosed that Chinese fighter jet closed within 10 feet of a B-52 in a nighttime intercept in the region, deeming the incident “unsafe and unprofessional.”

INDOPACOM has also noted B-52 flights over the South China Sea in 2020, 2019 and 2018.

More broadly, the U.S. continues to operate in the region—earlier this month, the USS Gabrielle Giffords (LCS 10) and an MH-60S Sea Hawk from the U.S. exercised in the region with the Philippine Navy, according to INDOPACOM.

This comes even as Chinese vessels and aircraft increase their “dangerous” and “unlawful” behavior, Pentagon officials have said. U.S. President Joe Biden has stressed that Washington’s defense commitment to the Philippines is “ironclad,” and any attack on Filipino aircraft, vessels, or armed forces will invoke the Mutual Defense Treaty with the Philippines.

The Philippines’ FA-50 fighter is an upgraded version of South Korea’s supersonic T-50 trainer jet, manufactured by Korea Aerospace Industries with development support from Lockheed Martin.

‘Connectivity Is the Only Way’: In Final Months at AMC, Minihan Presses to Modernize

‘Connectivity Is the Only Way’: In Final Months at AMC, Minihan Presses to Modernize

Feb. 21, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

AURORA, Colo.—Gen. Mike Minihan has had an eventful tour as head of Air Mobility Command. Taking over in the fall of 2021, soon after over 250 AMC aircraft and 500 crews were pressed into service to evacuate Afghans and others from Kabul as part of Operation Allies Refuge, the former deputy commander of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command turned his attention to China and the ancient state of America’s cargo and refueling fleet, sometimes making waves with his blunt language.

Now, as he closes out his term, Minihan is laser-focused on the connectivity of his aircraft.

During his first “Mobility Manifesto,” released during the AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September 2022, Minihan declared that the U.S. was unprepared to fight and win inside the first island chain, American military jargon for the string of islands closest to mainland China. That has changed, he says.

“I say we absolutely are ready,” Minihan said in a recent interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine at the AFA Warfare Symposium. However, there are caveats, he noted in grading his work.

“Where we were to where we are: an A-plus; where we are to where we need to be: C-minus,” Minihan said.

Air Mobility Command hasn’t been able to take it easy after the evacuation from Afghanistan. A few months later, after Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, AMC began transporting millions of dollars worth of military aid to Kyiv. Over the summer, AMC conducted its massive Mobility Guardian 23 exercise. And since Oct. 7, the Air Force has airlifted humanitarian assistance to Gaza and helped beef up the U.S. air defense posture in the Middle East as U.S. troops have come under attack. At one point in early November, AMC had more C-17s tasked globally on a single day than at any point during the Afghanistan evacuation, according to a spokesperson for the command.

U.S. Airmen and Soldiers work together to unload Avenger Air Defense Systems from a C-17 III Globemaster at an undisclosed location Oct. 28, 2023. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman Lauren Jacoby

“I’ll be the first to admit that those things on the scale of what would happen in the Pacific are fractional,” Minihan said of a potential conflict. “I’m always worried about capacity and reliability.”

The fleet size is only so big, and there is no plan to grow it significantly. So AMC is making the most of what it has, at least while Minihan is still in charge. His major initiative coming out of Mobility Guardian was the so-called 25 by 25 plan—to have 25 percent of the fleet connected by 2025, aimed at tackling the problem of situational awareness for his crews, a key issue highlighted by the exercise and a real-world concern among Airmen.

“The solution right now is we operate the airplane in the same way our grandparents did,” Minihan said. “Those are highly integrated plans, and everybody knows what everybody else is going to do. But it’s not the most efficient use of airpower. And it’s not the type of thing that you can sustain over long lines of communication and have the effects that this nation needs.”

A better-connected fleet—between ground crews, other aircraft, and AMC’s Air Operations Center—will be crucial to integration with the joint force and allies in the future, he said, and serve as a relay and provider of information, something Minihan refers to as “maneuver battle management.”

“I can have situational awareness of where the good guys and the bad guys are,” Minihan said. “I can just look at a tablet or a screen and I can see it. … I can know which airfields have been bombed or damaged. Then I don’t have to just show up, look at the runway, and say that one’s not for me today. These things are all essential. This is what’s getting after this maneuver battle management: how do I do the 1,000 decisions so that I can put the Stryker team in a position where they can go be lethal? You know, how can I do that? Connectivity is the only way.”

Utah Air National Guard real-time information in the cockpit (RTIC) of a modified KC-135 showing fused data from multiple air and ground sources over Tactical Targeting Networked Technology (TTNT) at different simulated classification levels. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Colton Elliott

The benefits of better connectivity are more efficient operations, which save blood and treasure, Minihan said. And for a cost cost-conscious service, which still operates many planes from the 1950s—such as the KC-135 Stratotanker—an upgraded but still old fleet that plugs into better technology would help bridge the gap between the KC-135 and the troubled KC-46 Pegasus while the USAF waits for the stealthy Next-Generation Aerial Refueling System (NGAS) concept to mature.

“The bottom line is line of sight, beyond line of sight, secure communication in the unclassified and unclassified arena—this is stuff that exists now,” Minihan said. “They have an enormous return on investment for a very modest amount of money. So we’re not talking billions here.”

Minihan routinely reiterates how proud he is of Airmen who find a way to execute their mission even when conditions are not ideal and they have to make decisions on the fly. But the ability of AMC to do its job may mask some of the pitfalls it would face in a near-peer conflict—or in the large-scale exercises the Air Force wants to introduce in the near future.

“I won’t be satisfied until the resourcing follows that understanding,” Minihan said. “I’m not looking for pats on the back here. I’m trying to be a good steward of the mission that this command has been given. It has to be the most relied-upon force in the history of warfare.”

Houthis Shoot Down Second Air Force MQ-9 in Three Months

Houthis Shoot Down Second Air Force MQ-9 in Three Months

Feb. 20, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper was shot down off the coast of Yemen by Houthi fighters, defense officials said Feb. 20.

“Initial indications are that it was shot down by a Houthi surface-to-air missile,” Deputy Pentagon Press Secretary Sabrina Singh told reporters. 

The U.S. military believes the drone crashed into the Red Sea in the early morning hours of Feb. 19 local time. Footage circulating on social media shows the wreckage of a drone that was recovered by the Houthis, as well as video of the purported engagement released by the group.

It was the second time that an Air Force MQ-9 was downed by the Houthis since November as the Iranian-backed Houthis pursue a months-long campaign against commercial shipping and naval vessels in the region with drones, cruise missiles, and anti-ship ballistic missiles. Reapers cost roughly $30 million apiece.

Forces under U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) have been taking out Houthi targets in Yemen since mid-January as the U.S. and its allies seek to deter attacks on shipping in the Red Sea and Gulf of Aden. Singh said that she did not know if the MQ-9 that was shot down earlier this week was armed. 

“These are multimillion-dollar platforms,” said Singh. “The commander’s using them to keep commercial mariners safe, to keep our U.S. service members safe in the Red Sea and the Gulf of Aden. So, of course, there’s a risk incurred, but it’s something that we’re going to continue to do to ensure that freedom of navigation can continue to be upheld, the rule of law can be upheld, and that commercial shipping can continue, whether it be in the Red Sea or the Gulf of Aden.”

Following the shoot-down of the MQ-9 on the morning of Feb. 19, a surface-to-air missile launcher was located and destroyed by U.S. forces in Houthi-controlled areas of Yemen at approximately 5 p.m., CENTCOM said in a Feb. 20 statement. CENTCOM did not say if that strike was related to the downing of the MQ-9.

In addition to the drone shot down near Yemen in November 2023, the Houthis have also shot down U.S. drones in 2019 and 2017. The U.S. has lost two more MQ-9s in the past year when one was shot down over Iraq in January, and another was forced to crash into the Black Sea after being run into by a Russian fighter in March 2023.

Despite daily strikes by U.S. forces, the Houthis appear determined to keep up their attacks. 

“We know that Iran is continuing to supply them with what they are continuing to launch at U.S. vessels and commercial mariners,” Singh said. “Every single day, I think our dynamic strikes or coalition strikes absolutely have an impact. But we at no point said that we’re wiping all of their capabilities off the map. We know that they have a large inventory, a large warehouse, and they’re going to continue to use it.”

Cybersecurity, Other USAF Needs Challenging E-7 Price Talks

Cybersecurity, Other USAF Needs Challenging E-7 Price Talks

Feb. 20, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

Agreements on cybersecurity and other capabilities unique to the U.S. Air Force version of the E-7 Wedgetail aircraft are holding up negotiations on the program, according to Air Force officials and industry sources.

Cyber requirements have grown more stringent in the last seven months, service officials said, based on new assessments of China’s attempts to electronically penetrate and potentially either control or fool U.S. air systems.

“We are looking … at the same kinds of concerns” across Air Force systems, an official said. Given the centrality of the E-7 to battle management, “we have to get this right,” he said.

In a Feb. 12 press conference at the AFA Warfare Symposium in Aurora, Colo., Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said the service is “having a hard time … getting a price agreement with Boeing” on the first two rapid prototype/demonstration examples of the E-7, which will succeed the E-3 Sentry as the service’s airborne battle management and serve as a bridge to a space-based air and ground moving target indication system. “We’re still in negotiations,” he said.

While no service officials suggested that the slowdown in talks could unravel the program, “other options are out there,” said one, “and you have to keep in mind that this is not the ultimate end-state we’re looking for, and it’s possible we could migrate to [a space-based] system sooner than we expect.” Another airborne system—like the Northrop Grumman E-2D Hawkeye—was evaluated by USAF and is not a likely alternative, he said.

Kendall told reporters the Air Force has had to rethink some of its strategies because of China’s development of stealth aircraft and long-range missiles that can target critical nodes like tankers and airborne battle management/command and control aircraft.

A year ago, Boeing received a sole-source undefinitized contract for up to $1.2 billion to develop the E-7 for the Air Force, with the ultimate goal of delivering 26 aircraft between fiscal year 2027 and 2032. Senior service officials have since said that the E-7 will be similar to those operated by Australia and the U.K., but with significant differences unique to what the Air Force needs the aircraft to do. An Air Force official told Air & Space Forces Magazine that “the trick is to add the specific capabilities we need without disturbing … interoperability” with allied operators.

Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter told reporters at the symposium last week that “it’s not surprising” that Boeing is being extra careful in what it agrees to, since “they’ve gotten into some contracts in the past [where] it’s apparent that as they were bidding those, there was key information they were lacking.”

Boeing has absorbed more than $7 billion in losses on the fixed-price KC-46 tanker and T-7 trainer contracts, and company president and chief executive officer David Calhoun has said in earnings calls over the last year that Boeing will be far more disciplined and less aggressive in its future bidding strategies.

“They’re trying to do their homework and not bid” if they don’t “understand the full scope of the work that they’re going to be expected to perform,” Hunter said of Boeing.

He emphasized that the negotiations underway affect “the prototype aircraft,” which the Air Force would like to “seamlessly transition into a production program under the major capability acquisition pathway.”

The negotiation challenges stem from “optimizing [the E-7] for the Air Force mission set,” Hunter said.

“A lot of it was the need for some non-recurring engineering, or the development work that was above and beyond what we anticipated, when we scoped the E-7 program,” he explained. “And so the big surprise there was the unexpected amount and degree of non-recurring engineering,” even though the Air Force version “was very, very close to what the U.K. is currently [buying]  from Boeing.”

Air Force officials said the “big surprise” Hunter referred to was a near-doubling of the non-recurring engineering element of the contract, and service officials said later this unexpected increase is the crux of the extended negotiations.

Hunter added that “we’re trying to get them to…understand the specificity of what’s kind of implied on the Boeing proposal.” The discussions also focus on what is “truly essential,” and whether all the desired capability is needed at the outset or could be deferred, Hunter said.

“We’ve narrowed [it] … down to a smaller, discrete set of issues to go work with Boeing on,” he said.

An award for the second prototype was expected early this year, and a program go-ahead was anticipated by the end of 2024.  

“It would be nice to be able to turn the wheel a little faster when it comes to the bid proposal process,” Hunter said. “If we can turn the crank a little faster, I think we can actually help them do a better job with their proposals.”

The Air Force has characterized the E-7 acquisition as “urgent,” given that its 1970s-vintage E-3s are suffering from technological obsolescence, “vanishing vendor” syndrome, and extremely low mission capable rates. As few as one in five E-3s have been ready for action in recent years.  

The E-7 is built by Boeing in its facilities around Seattle, Wash., and is based on a modernized 737 airframe. Northrop Grumman builds the “Wedgetail” radar itself, at its plant in Linthicum, Md. The Wedgetail itself is an electronically-scanned array radar with greater range, sensitivity and reliability than the analog “rotodomes” on E-3s.

How DOD’s Overhaul of Space Classification Will Help Operations, Industry, Allies

How DOD’s Overhaul of Space Classification Will Help Operations, Industry, Allies

Feb. 20, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

AURORA, Colo.—In January, Deputy Secretary of Defense Kathleen Hicks signed off on a new space classification policy—one that “completely rewrites” the Space Force’s approach to secret programs and could boost cooperation with commercial industry and international allies, officials say.

In a briefing with reporters, assistant secretary of Defense for space policy John Plumb said it would help provide “massive value to the warfighter.” Speaking at the AFA Warfare Symposium, Chief of Space Operation Gen. B. Chance Saltzman proclaimed the memo from Hicks to be “the most significant change in space classification policy in 20 years.

“It will help us to share more information, more quickly, with more stakeholders to better address the challenges in today’s competitive space environment,” Saltzman added.

Concerns about over-classification of military space have persisted for years now. In 2022, lawmakers urged the Pentagon to explore the possibility of declassifying additional space programs. Defense leaders, including former Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett and former Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. John E. Hyten, have also backed such moves.

Within the Department of Defense and the military, classification hinders integration efforts, said Brig. Gen. Davin Pepper, vice commander of Space Operations Command

“Space has been over-classified for years,” Pepper said at the AFA Warfare Symposium. “From an operator’s perspective, the lower the classification level, the better I can integrate into a fight.”

In particular, Pepper stressed the importance of early integration of capabilities into operations, compared to waiting until the last minute. Classification, particularly the Special Access Program level that restricts access beyond top secret clearances, frustrates that.

“We have got to integrate these capabilities early on into the campaign, and certainly de-SAPing a lot of the ops capability is going to allow us to do that,” Pepper said.

Plumb highlighted the importance of such changes during his briefing as well.

“Special access programs have additional controls, which makes it very difficult to talk back and forth, even between components,” Plumb said. “And so anything we can bring from a SAP level to a top secret level, for example, massive value to the warfighter, massive value to the department.”

At the same time, Plumb indicated the goal is still to protect sensitive information.

“Inside the Beltway, people always ask me about how can I make things unclassified, and that is not actually a thing I’m all that concerned about,” Plumb said. “I’m concerned about … reducing the classification of things where they are over-classified to the point that it hampers our ability to get work done or hamper the ability of the warfighter to do their mission.”

Col. Richard A. Kniseley, senior materiel leader for the Commercial Space Office, noted that his work engaging with private industry can be significantly harder based on classification issues.

Scott Forney, president of General Atomics Electromagnetic Systems, acknowledged the importance of keeping certain operations confidential but argued that transparency and communication are key for the Pentagon’s relationship with industry, especially emerging companies.

“When you’re in the club, you get to hear the right thing, so you’re working on the right things. If you’re not in the club, it’s a very difficult place to be,” Forney said. “The downside is that you got to get the systems installed. And ever since the COVID pandemic, it’s been really, quite slow at getting the necessary communication and network systems in. It’s been quite slow to get the certifications on SCIFs or SAP facilities, and that we need some help on.”

Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton, deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs, and requirements, agreed and said the service is starting to make that shift with the help of these new policies.

“We’re transitioning something from an idea to part of the objective force that the Space Force needs to field to compete and win,” Bratton said. “But we have got to communicate, and we have got to be really open with industry, one, to partner with them, but also to make it clear on ‘hey, these are capabilities we need and these are capabilities that still we’re not sure about.’”

With the new policy in place, Plumb said in January that the Pentagon is starting by assigning minimum classification to some things, which “will then allow services to examine their own programs and determine” whether it should be under SAP anymore. The department is also working with the U.S. Space Command to improve information sharing with global allies and partners.

“My hope is, over time, it will also allow us to share more information with allies and partners that they might not currently have—be able to share that information at the SAP level,” Plumb said. “The more things that can be shared with allies and partners, I think, the deeper that relationship could be, and that’s not going to happen overnight, but that is the path that hopefully, we have set ourselves on.”

AFSOC Knows What Failed in Deadly CV-22 Crash, Still Investigating Why

AFSOC Knows What Failed in Deadly CV-22 Crash, Still Investigating Why

Feb. 20, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

Air Force Special Operations Command has determined what part failed in the CV-22 Osprey crash that killed eight Airmen in November—but is still determining why that failure occurred. 

AFSOC announced the update to its review process on Feb. 20 after NBC News reported that investigators were looking into the possibility of a mishap with its propeller rotor gearbox that caused the deadly crash off the coast of Japan. 

“At this time, the material failure that occurred is known but the cause of the failure has not been determined,” AFSOC’s statement read. “Engineering testing and analysis is ongoing to understand the cause of the material failure, a critical part of the investigation. Any disclosure of findings prior to investigations being finalized is premature and presumptive.” 

AFSOC has previously said initial findings suggested a material failure, indicating pilot error was likely not the primary cause and there was an issue with the aircraft itself.

An AFSOC spokesperson declined to identify the material failure to Air & Space Forces Magazine. 

AFSOC and Pentagon officials explained past incidents of “hard clutch engagement” with the Osprey, when the clutch slips and causes a fail-safe feature in the system to transfer power from one engine to the other, only for the clutch to then re-engage, generating enormous spikes in torque. The Air Force briefly grounded its fleet in 2022 because of such incidents, and the V-22 Joint Program Office said in February 2023 that it was imposing flight-hour limits on V-22 input quill assemblies.

The V-22 has been grounded across the Air Force, Navy, and Marine Corps for more than two months as numerous safety reviews and investigations play out. AFSOC alone is amid three different reviews related to the CV-22, commander Lt. Gen. Tony Bauernfeind said last week at the AFA Warfare Symposium:  

  • A Safety Investigation Board that will investigate the crash and provide findings to prevent future mishaps 
  • An Accident Investigation Board that will determine the causes of the crash and be released publicly 
  • A broader review centered on the question, “Is the CV-22 force appropriately organized, trained, and equipped for safe, effective, and efficient special operations?” Bauernfeind said. 
Lt. Gen. Tony D. Bauernfeind, Commander, Air Force Special Operations Command at the Air, Space & Cyber Conference on Sept. 13, 2023, at National Harbor, Maryland. Photo by Mike Tsukamoto/Air & Space Forces Magazine

NBC News reported that military officials expect the V-22 to possibly return to flight operations within the next few weeks. Still, while Bauernfeind acknowledged that “there is a strong desire to return to fly because this is a capability we want to have,” he also said the Air Force will be deliberate in its approach. 

“When we make that decision to return to fly, it will be with me having full confidence not only in our training but our crews, as well as the platform and new mitigation measures that we have in place to ensure that we can react appropriately if another situation develops,” he said. 

Referencing weekly discussions with top Navy and Marine aviation leaders, Bauernfeind indicated that the necessary mitigation measures are still being developed. 

“What is the information we need to now put the appropriate risk mitigations in place as we go forward?” he said. “But just because we’re having those conversations does not mean that you have the information you need yet.” 

In the meantime, “we have conversations with the operational commanders about the way forward and they have leveraged other joint force capabilities to meet their requirements,” Bauernfeind said. However, he declined to identify what platforms those were. 

Naval Air Forces commander Vice Adm. Daniel Cheever acknowledged at least one aircraft that has been used to cover the operational gap left by the V-22: “Lucky for the Navy, the C-2 Greyhound is still available,” he said Feb. 13 at the WEST 2024 conference, according to USNI News. The Marine Corps Times reported in December that the service was using UH-1Y Venom and CH-53E Super Stallion helicopters, as well as KC-130J Hercules transport planes. 

The Air Force has HH-60 helicopters, as well as multiple types of C-130 aircraft used for different special operations missions. 

The CV-22 offers unique capabilities—with its distinctive tiltrotor, it can take off and land vertically like a helicopter but pivot and fly faster like an airplane once in the air. But Bauernfeind said through the course of the recent safety reviews, “there is an acknowledgment that the V-22 is 1980s technology.” 

“There’s been upgrades to this technology that was basically developed in the 1980s,” he added. “And as we move forward, what are the future capabilities that will eventually provide the next generation of capability?” 

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) and U.S. Special Operations Command are working on a project called Speed and Runway Independent Technologies, meant to design, build, and fly an X-plane that would refine the next generation of technology needed for a V-22 successor. Bauernfeind noted, though, that it can take years for a DARPA project to transition into meaningful production. 

The Army is also developing a tiltrotor aircraft for its Future Long Range Assault Aircraft program. Service leaders selected Bell’s V-280 Valor design in late 2022. Bell also produces the V-22. 

First USAF Warrant Officers to Include Air National Guardsmen

First USAF Warrant Officers to Include Air National Guardsmen

Feb. 20, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

AURORA, Colo.—The Air National Guard will play a vital role in the Air Force’s new warrant officer track, the ANG’s boss said at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

“In the first class of warrant officers, we are going to bring National Guard professionals into that warrant officer corps,” director of the Air National Guard Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh said in an interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine.

With its warrant officer program, the Air Force hopes to retain cyber and IT talent that would otherwise leave the service.

“In the last few years, we’ve had about 100 people leave the Air Force to go be warrant officers in another service in those areas,” Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall explained Feb. 14. “The things that warrant officers can provide you with is people who are very technically proficient and stay current all the time. That’s all they’re going to do.”

That leaves the Air National Guard naturally positioned to take on the warrant officers, as cyber operations are one of the ANG’s primary missions, Loh said.

“The folks that bring the predominant force structure from a cyber, IT perspective is the National Guard; over two-thirds of the Air Force capability resides in the National Guard,” Loh said.

The Air Force is starting small with a “cautious” effort, according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin. Previously, the Air Force and the Space Force were the only services not to have warrant officers, who fill technical rather than leadership functions. Forty-five years after the last Air Force warrant officer retired in 1980, the Air Force will now reintroduce warrant officers for technical tracks in IT and cyber. Due to its small size, the Space Force is putting off the change.

The Air Force, on the other hand, has a sizable corps of cyber and IT specialists to draw upon for warrant officers—the Air Force Specialty Code for Defensive Cyber Operations alone boasts over 30,000 Airmen, according to 2022 figures.

“We need continuity in some of these people,” Kendall said of the cyber and IT fields.

Continuity is already a selling point for the Air National Guard, with units primarily deployed in place, especially in cyber and IT, allowing them to become experts at their particular mission.

“We have that talent base in the Guard,” Loh said. “When we look at technical expertise, long term, we need some technical expertise in the Active component that we tend to lose.”

Last year, the Air Force Reserve launched a program to directly commission cyber professionals to bolster its ranks. The Air National Guard set up its first dedicated Cyberspace Wing last September.

The Guard and Reserve also have “some unique attributes because of the civilian skill sets that you bring to the fight” that helped shape the broader Department of the Air Force re-optimization efforts, such as moves to reform training, Loh said.

Loh said he was able to help inform Kendall, Allvin, and Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman about warrant officers because of his previous role as Adjutant General of Colorado, in which he oversaw warrant officers in his role managing Colorado’s Total Force across the services.

“Being from the Guard, and especially in my former job as an Adjutant General, I actually managed warrant officers,” Loh said. “I was in the Secretary’s ear, ‘Hey, if you’re going to bring warrant officers back, just realize, here’s what that means.’ He took a deliberate approach.”

Now that the Air Force, including the Air National Guard, will have warrant officers, Loh’s next task is identifying those Airmen.

“I’m going out to the states right now to look at our big cyber states and go out there and look at that,” Loh said. “We were actually integrated from the start, like any other major change. This is a major shift and a major change in our Department of the Air Force. It was good to be at that ground level.”

Ohio, California, Washington, Kansas, Virginia, Michigan, New Jersey, Tennessee, and Maryland all have Guard cyber units.

Air Task Forces, Combat Wings, and You: The Future of Deployments Starts Now 

Air Task Forces, Combat Wings, and You: The Future of Deployments Starts Now 

Feb. 17, 2024 | By Tobias Naegele

AURORA, Colo.—When three Air Task Force elements begin taking shape this summer, they will be laying the groundwork for the new Combat Wings now seen as the Air Force’s deployable “units of action” for future operations—a multi-year process to realign the way the service presents forces to the Department of Defense’s 11 combatant commands. 

The aim is to create predictable workup schedules and unit cohesion for Airmen while enhancing the service’s ability to define risk and resourcing requirements to the Joint Staff and Secretary of Defense.  

The three Air Task Forces forming this summer are the first of at least six planned task forces that will form, go through workups together, and eventually deploy as units in fiscal 2026. Each task force will consist of a Command Element and staff, an Expeditionary Air Base Squadron for base operating support, a Mission Generation Force Element to project air power, and a Mission Sustainment Team to enable remote operations under the Agile Combat Employment concept of operations.  

“The Air Task Forces that we put together really spoke to an evolution of rotational forces,” deputy chief of staff for operations Lt. Gen. Adrian Spain said at the AFA Warfare Symposium Feb. 14. “But it is also applicable to standing forces and theater forces. Combat Air Wings speak to the remainder of the force. … What we’re trying to do is build warfighting effectiveness over time with coherent teams.”  

Like the ATFs, the Combat Wings will be led by a command element with an air staff to execute command and control; a mission element, such as a fighter, bomber, or airlift squadron, for example; and a combat service support element to run the air base and air field and care for the needs of wing personnel.  

Brig. Gen. David Epperson, director of current operations at Headquarters U.S. Air Force, said the task force command elements will stand up this summer, while sustaining elements will come together in teams of 100-150 personnel at two to three base locations. These will come together for exercises and when it’s time to deploy. That way, when the task forces deploy as a unit, personnel will already have experience working together during the work-up phase.  

In the longer term, combat wings will come in three variants:  

  • Deployable Combat Wings (DCW): Complete units that can deploy together, with their own native command-and-control, mission, and support elements. Citing the 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home Air Force Base, Idaho, as one potential example, Spain said such units must be able “pick up and go in their entirety as a unit of action” and would be resourced to do so, leaving behind only those capabilities necessary to maintain the base in their absence.  
  • In-Place Combat Wings (ICW): Complete units with command, mission, and support elements that fight from home station, such as the 341st Missile Wing at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont. Missileers fight from their home station and while some elements of a wing might deploy elsewhere, the unit must be able to conduct its mission activities around the clock, regardless.  
  • Combat-Generation Wings (CGW): The third wing element are units that provide force elements to others, whether those elements entail command and control; mission elements, such as fighter, mobility, or intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance squadrons; or service support elements that could be “bolted on” to a deployable combat wing. “A combat-generation wing is a little different,” Spain said. “You have elements that would deploy, but the whole wing isn’t going to deploy and it won’t be resourced to do that.”  
Lt. Gen. Adrian L. Spain, Deputy Chief of Staff for Operations, Headquarters Air Force and Brig. Gen. David C. Epperson, Director of Current Operations, speak with Tobias Naegele, Editor-in-Chief, Air & Space Forces Magazine Mike Tsukamoto/Air & Space Forces Magazine

Building to the New Model 

All this will take time to build. The expeditionary air base now in CENTCOM and the new Air Task Forces are just the beginning.  

“This is a kind of spiral development,” Epperson said.  

The first phase began in October, when the Air Force deployed its first Expeditionary Air Base (EAB) team to the Middle East—the first deployment rotation under the new Air Force Force Generation model, known as AFFORGEN. That unit arrived in the region about a week after Iran-backed Hamas militants attacked Israel on Oct. 7, setting off an Israeli invasion of Gaza. That air base element, drawn largely from the South Carolina Air National Guard, included a core nucleus that trained together beforehand, plus additional personnel that joined in theater.  

“They were able to operate at the speed of trust from the second they got on the ground,” Epperson said. “And that’s really what we’re trying to do with Air Task Forces.” 

ATFs will go a step further, with teams of 100-250 Airmen coming together during the “prepare” phase of the AFFORGEN cycle, a full year before they’re available to deploy. “They will train together at that unit,” Epperson said. “They’ll develop those Mission Ready Airmen skills, they’ll learn the different tasks that their entire team is working on. And they will be—instead of functionally aligned—they’ll start to become mission-aligned and mission-focused.” 

U.S. Airmen assigned to the 4th Fighter Wing stand in line to board a C-130H Hercules, assigned to the 152nd Airlift Wing, on the flight line at March Air Reserve Base, California, Jan. 30, 2024, during exercise AGILE FLAG 24-1. By providing the Expeditionary Air Base, or XAB, Force Elements, the 4 FW has been tailored to integrate with the existing Combatant Command command and control structures to support Joint Force Air Component Commander mission priorities. U.S. Air National Guard photo by Mass Communication Specialist Tech. Sgt. Mary McKnight

Deployable Combat Wings  

The goal for Deployable Combat Wings is to take that Air Task Force concept one step further. DCWs will position the entire deployable team in a single location; living, working, and training together throughout the AFFORGEN cycle. “So they know how to work together, the command and control [element] knows and understands all the elements, and they really can hit the ground running” when they land in theater, whether that’s in the Indo-Pacific, Europe, Africa, or the Middle East, Epperson said.  

DCWs will hone their skills, including developing those needed for agile combat employment. “The intent is to fully resource that deployable combat wing to enable all of its warfighting missions and functions and responsibilities, to include agile combat employment,” Spain said.  

“It’s designed to fit into any C2 structure and fall in on the prevailing command and control apparatus of the combatant commander, and … it has the elements required to both take orders and to give orders and operate off of mission command and commander’s intent if disconnected.”  

Finding Gaps, Defining Risk 

By design, each DCW and ICW must be sufficiently manned to deploy without leaving a dysfunctional base in its wake that can’t maintain security or keep up facilities needed by those left behind. Each operational wing will be evaluated and identified as one of the three types, with manning requirements adjusted to support those requirements.

Epperson said this will take time. “We’ll try to do things as efficiently as we can, but realize that it’s not going to be perfect from from the get go,” he said. “It’s going to take some evolution as we move through this process to make sure we know where all the right resources are, and how much they need.” 

Spain said that process will expose areas in need of growth and potentially areas that could be overmanned. A generation ago, wings were constructed to be able to pick up and go fight; over the past 30 years or so, however, wing and base operations were consolidated for efficiency, which was considered prudent given global threats. Now, as the Air Force re-postures and re-optimizes for great power competition with China, Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin says a different kind of structure is necessary.

“We need to ensure that our combat wings are coherent units of action that have everything they need to be able to execute their wartime tasks,” Allvin said.

At the same time, Air Force fighters, bombers, C4ISR, mobility, and cyber forces have been in continuous high demand. And while crowd-sourcing to fulfill that demand has worked, it’s left the Air Force unable to explain to the Joint Force how fulfilling demand today could impact readiness tomorrow. Unlike the Army’s Brigade Combat Teams, the Navy’s Carrier Strike Groups, and the Marine Corps’ Marine Expeditionary Units, the Air Force hasn’t been able to define operational units of action in such a way as to explain that deploying this unit now will make it impossible to deploy some other unit later.  

“We can articulate it more effectively and advocate for a particular method or means” to answer a requirement with this structure, Spain said, and to lay out how that could impact the ability for a given unit to be able to deploy for some other contingency in the future. 

But explaining risk and resourcing more effectively are ancillary benefits, not the primary focus of the changing deployment model.  

“This is about warfighting effectiveness,” Spain said. “The next fight is not going to be the same fight as the one that we’ve executed for the past 30 years.” 

US Planning to Train 12 Ukrainian F-16 Pilots This Fiscal Year, as ANG Provides New Details

US Planning to Train 12 Ukrainian F-16 Pilots This Fiscal Year, as ANG Provides New Details

Feb. 16, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

The U.S. plans to train 12 Ukrainian pilots to fly F-16s this fiscal year, said a National Guard official, providing new details about the high-profile program. 

Eight of those pilots are currently undergoing training, Air National Guard officials say. Four more are also set to be trained before the end of fiscal 2024, Capt. Erin Hannigan of the Arizona National Guard added.

Ukraine has long appealed for F-16s to augment its small fleet of Soviet-era planes as it strives to hold the line against Russian forces in what has become a bloody war of attrition. The U.S.-made planes would be superior to the aircraft the Ukrainians have been flying and would also enable Ukraine’s air force to employ Western-supplied munitions more efficiently, U.S. officials say. 

Last year, the U.S. and western European nations began parallel programs to train pilots and maintainers, which is being coordinated by an air force capability coalition that Denmark, the Netherlands, and the United States are co-chairing.

“It is very much a standardized training program that multiple countries are participating in to include the United States with training here in the United States, and English language training that precedes the tactical training,” a senior defense official said Feb. 16. 

The U.S. and its European allies have yet to spell out when all of the planes would be deployed in Ukraine and the total number of pilots that will be trained. The U.S. and its allies also have not provided plans on what munitions the F-16s would employ.

The 162nd Wing of the Arizona Air National Guard is providing the pilot training in the U.S.

“The training is going great,” Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Michael A. Loh told Air & Space Forces Magazine in an interview at the AFA Warfare Symposium. “They’re flying F-16s solo every day.”

At first, four Ukrainian pilots were being trained. But then a new batch of four pilots arrived in late January. Funding to train up to 12 pilots remains despite a $95 billion defense supplemental bill with funds for military aid to Ukraine that remains stalled in Congress, Hannigan said, as the money for the tuition-based F-16 training was already allocated.

The pilot training is expected to be completed between May and August, Hannigan said. That is longer timeframe than the Pentagon and the Air National Guard initially suggested in the fall when the first pilots began training in October.

“We have to provide a fully capable combat operator,” Loh explained in a media roundtable. “We’re thinking more long term, so some of the requirements on them has shifted, and so that has necessitated a little bit longer [timeframe]. They’re all going through right now, and everything’s good on that point.”

The U.S. is also training dozens of maintainers, but they are still going through English language training in San Antonio, Texas. “Maintenance training location is still being determined but will not occur at the 162nd Wing,” Hannigan said.

The U.S. has the potential to train still more pilots and trainers if the Biden administration decides to expand the effort.

“Obviously, if that’s going to grow, or we’re going to continue that we’ll need to make sure that we have the resources to support that,” Chief of the National Guard Bureau Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson told Air & Space Forces Magazine in a Feb. 15 interview.