PACAF, Allies Plan for More Complex, Large-Scale Exercises in the Indo-Pacific

Feb. 14, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

AURORA, Colo.—As part of its re-optimization effort, the Air Force is planning to implement more large-scale exercises to improve readiness. And that will start with a major one next year in the Indo-Pacific, leaders said at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

“We’re targeting fiscal year 2025 for the first sort of run at a large multi-combatant command supported [exercise] … and we’re looking to do that in conjunction with a single AOR targeted at INDOPACOM,” Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin said Feb. 12.

For the new commander of Pacific Air Forces, Gen. Kevin B. Schneider, it will be an especially major undertaking.

“I’m encouraged that the Department of the Air Force identified that, is committing resources to make that happen,” Schneider told reporters. “To do something with this scope, with this scale that we envision, it will take the weight of the Department of the Air Force and the resources.”

Such an exercise will be crucial in testing and preparing PACAF for the possibility of conflict with the likes of China, Schneider added.

“When I look at crisis, conflict, and contingencies … there’ll be a huge demand for INDOPACOM as the warfighter, and PACAF as the component,” Schneider said. “And the rest of the joint force will have tremendous demand back to our services for resources, equipment, personnel, capabilities.”

Gen. Kevin Schneider, Pacific Air Forces commander, renders the first salute to PACAF Airmen after taking command from Gen. Ken Wilsbach during a change of command ceremony on Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii, Feb. 9, 2024. U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Jimmie D. Pike

While such exercises are “not always inexpensive endeavors,” Schneider stressed their importance for deterrence. And his chief of staff Col. David Berkland later indicated in a panel discussion that the 2025 exercise will not be a one-off event.

“We’re going to start to build up to more complex, kind of high order of magnitude-type exercises,” Berkland said. “So, you might not be able to count as many happening throughout the year, but the ones that we do are going to be bigger, more intense, and more valuable, I think, for getting us to maintain that level of overmatch at the high end of combat.”

Larger exercises could also help foster broader multilateral alliances as commanders and troops spend longer periods working more closely together. In recent years, there has been a surge in interest from nations worldwide in contributing to these missions. The U.K.’s Royal Air Force joined a PACAF exercise in December, marking its first participation in that event. Canada has also unveiled its Indo-Pacific strategy, and other countries like Australia, Singapore, and France have likewise demonstrated a growing commitment by participating in multilateral exercises in the region recently.

South Korea and Japan have also played pivotal roles in these exercises. Following last year’s trilateral agreement at Camp David between Washington, Seoul, and Tokyo, the three nations have upped their collaboration through a series of multi-domain exercises.

“This kind of effort is vitally important for us,” said Col. Kimotoshi Sugiyama, commander of Space Operations Group for the Japan Air Self Defense Forces. “We’re headed in the right direction.”

The close cooperation comes in the face of increasing aggression from China. President Xi Jinping continues to say he will push to “unify” Taiwan and China, with many fearing conflict as a result. Meanwhile, Beijing has invested heavily in nuclear weapons, space, and other military technologies and at times curtailed military-to-military communications.

The People’s Liberation Army Air Force has also conducted more and more aggressive and unprofessional intercepts of U.S. and allied aircraft in the region.

“Our pilots and our air crews are going to continue to do what they’ve done all along, and that is to conduct themselves professionally, safely, and do everything we can to prevent a dangerous escalation from occurring over international airspace,” Berkland said.

On top of all that is the escalating threat of North Korea. Col. Jong-seo Park, the South Korean embassy’s air attaché, pointed to Pyongyang’s expanding nuclear and conventional capabilities and its deepening ties with Russia as causes for concern.

“Russia and North Korea, their ties are being strengthened,” Park said. “North Korea provided military support on ballistic missiles and the drones, and any kind of artillery shells and in return, Russia is providing the military and economic capabilities (to Pyongyang).”

However, Schneider said ties between China, Russia, and North Korea will never match the level of deepening and broadening partnerships the U.S. is fostering with its allies in the Pacific.

“Those relationships, alliances, and partnerships can only be envied in Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang and they could never replicate anything near that,” Schneider said. “Our ability to come together as teams, and work together as teams for a purpose, is an amazing strength and one that we continue to enjoy. That’s why my predecessors and I pay tremendous focus into maintaining the building and increasing the capability of our alliances and relationships at all levels.”

‘Hours Rather Than Days’: USSF Wants to Go Even Faster with Responsive Space

Feb. 13, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

AURORA, Colo.—Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman has rarely missed a chance in recent months to highlight the Space Force’s “Victus Nox” mission that procured and launched a satellite in record-breaking time. During his “State of the Space Force” keynote address at the AFA Warfare Symposium, he did so again, noting with pride that the satellite went from a warehouse to in orbit in just five days in September 2023.

Later Saltzman told reporters he wants to go even faster for the next mission, dubbed “Victus Haze,” which is planned for 2025.

“I still think we have margin in the schedule,” Saltzman said Feb. 13. “And so in Victus Haze, we’re going to set some standards that say nope, we’ve got to compress this more. Five days from warehouse to on-orbit operations is pretty fast. But in the grand scheme of things, when you’re moving at 17,500 miles per hour, five days is still a long time, and a lot can happen in five days. And so I’m going to be pressing the team to continue to reduce that critical path down to hours and hours and hours, rather than days.”

Finding ways to compress timelines for future launches is all part of the Space Force’s plans for what it calls “tactically responsive space.” And multiple Space Force leaders indicated they are eager to push forward after the success of Victus Nox and prepare for a future where the service can respond at a moment’s notice.

“This is a very cost-effective way and rapid reaction capability for us to be able to respond to the combat command,” Lt. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt, deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, said during a panel discussion.

It could also be a pivotal capability for the service as it goes through a yearslong pivot toward proliferation—launching hundreds of smaller satellites across different orbits—added Lt. Gen. Douglas A. Schiess, head of Space Forces-Space, the USSF’s component within U.S. Space Command.

“Say we’re not in a proliferated architecture yet, and something is taken out or we have a failure or something like that,” Schiess said. “This gives us the ability to go out, put something together and put it on orbit and maybe get a capability way back faster than we could.”

An image from video shows payload deployment as Firefly Aerospace successfully launched the U.S. Space Force’s VICTUS NOX mission with 24-hour notice, demonstrating a critical capability for the United States to rapidly respond to on-orbit needs during a conflict or in response to a national security threat. **Firefly Aerospace**

On top of that, Schiess noted, it would give commanders more options for responding to new developments and threats from adversaries.

“Here’s our capability to get after that and get something up there as fast as possible, not wait around until we find out what it is from other sources,” Schiess said.

Already, Schiess later told reporters, he has spoken with Lt. Gen. Philip A. Garrant, the new head of Space Systems Command, on the process for operationalizing tactically responsive space—what is likely to be a complex undertaking that will involve identifying specific needs and figuring out proper channels of communication and command and control.

The process is still in its early stages, Schiess said, but Victus Haze will provide valuable “reps and sets” for the Space Force to practice the concept after the initial success of Victus Nox. In particular, Saltzman and Burt stressed the importance of reviewing processes to eliminate downtime across the board.

“We learned lessons when the weather delayed the launch for a certain time, there was lightning in the area, it delayed the launch,” Saltzman said of Victus Nox. “What can we do in terms of serial processing to take advantage of that delay, so that we could more rapidly check out the system when it’s on orbit?”

The Space Force and its partner for Victus Haze, the Defense Innovation Unit, have yet to announce any contracts, but Saltzman said in his keynote address that he expects the launch to happen next year.

The concept of responsive space has been around for years, noted retired Gen. Kevin P. Chilton of the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. But it has gained momentum in recent years—highlighted by Victus Nox—in part because of the growth in launch providers and falling launch costs, making such missions more cost-effective.

It’s also a capability that China may seek to develop, warned Maj. Gen. Gregory Gagnon, deputy chief of space operations for intelligence.

“The conditions are right inside our U.S. industrial base in order to make this concept a reality today, and we kind of did act one and proved it. Let me give you all a moment of caution that conditions may be ripe for the Beijing environment to be able to do that as well,” said Gagnon, who noted that China has sought to capitalize on the collapse of Russia’s space launch market to build up its own capabilities.

All Options on the Table to Cover $35 Billion Gap on Sentinel ICBM

Feb. 13, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

AURORA, Colo.—The Air Force isn’t sure yet how it will fill the $35 billion gap between what the Sentinel intercontinental ballistic missile was supposed to cost and the recently revised estimate, but no approach is yet being ruled out, senior service leaders told reporters at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

“I can’t take anything off the table right now,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said of how to fund the overrun on Sentinel, which came to light in January when the Air Force notified Congress of a Nunn-McCurdy breach on the program. Under the Nunn-McCurdy Act, the Pentagon must inform lawmakers if a program incurs a cost or schedule overrun of more than 15 percent—Sentinel experienced both.

Kendall said he thinks the Air Force has a good handle on the amount of the overrun—37 percent over the $96 billion baseline cost of the program—and that the delay is likely to be about two years.

Asked where the Air Force will find the money—the $35 billion gap is comparable to the service’s entire procurement budget request for fiscal 2024—Kendall said it would not be funded from elsewhere in the strategic modernization portfolio.

“It’s a discussion we haven’t had,” but one which will have to happen soon, and outside the “normal deliberative process about formulating the overall budget for DOD,” Kendall said.

The tradeoffs may not be direct, he said, and if the Air Force has to fund it out of expected budgets, “that will limit the amount of money we have for everything else.” He said he hoped it could be found from the larger Pentagon pool of funds.

“It’s of strategic importance. And I think … it would be very difficult to pay for out of just the Air Force’s budget. So I think we’re going to take a look at the totality of the budget,” Kendall said.

When a Nunn-McCurdy breach occurs, the program can only continue if the Secretary of Defense certifies that it is critical and that no alternative exists. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III is expected to make such a certification.

Air Force officials have said privately the service may ask Congress for a special appropriation, given that the service bears the expense of two of the three legs of the nuclear triad and has had to trade off tactical programs in the past to cover nuclear expenses that the Army and Marine Corps do not have.

The military services have at times turned to cuts in readiness or personnel to pay for large programs that have gone over budget but were still deemed crucial.

There’s no alternative to the Sentinel or anything else in the Air Force’s nuclear modernization program, Kendall said. He specifically said there can be no cuts to the B-21, but he did not mention the nuclear Long Range Stand-Off missile, which will initially equip the B-52 and later the B-21.

“The primacy of the mission I think, says a lot,” Kendall said, adding the Sentinel is “essential.”

Kristyn Jones, acting Air Force undersecretary, said the “missile aspect of the program is not where we’re seeing a sizable amount of cost. It’s primarily in the civil works aspects of the program,” meaning the construction of new silos, launch control capsules, and rights-of-way for cabling and other ground elements.

Jones said the Sentinel civil engineering effort is larger even than the “Big Dig” in Boston; an infamous 16-year, $7.4 billion highway relocation in the downtown area involving large tunnels and massive re-routing of utilities.

Air Force acquisition executive Andre Hunter has noted that the service hasn’t attempted a project on the scale of the Sentinel in over 50 years—when the Minuteman ICBM was deployed—and the full scope of the project couldn’t be known until an assessment was made of the existing facilities.

The Sentinel program replaces much of the Minuteman ground infrastructure as well as the nuclear command and control system, which is still based on analog circuitry.

Jones noted that in initial program estimates, it was assumed that some elements of the Minuteman infrastructure could be re-used for Sentinel, “but now it looks like they can’t.” Inflation, supply chain issues, and labor costs have also contributed to the Sentinel overrun, Jones said.

The Pentagon is conducting an assessment of the Sentinel program to nail down the root causes of the overages, as required by law.

Kendall, having performed work for Sentinel prime contractor Northrop Grumman, is recused from making programmatic decisions about Northrop programs like Sentinel or B-21. Those decisions will fall to the undersecretary or Hunter, but Kendall will still be in charge of deciding where to find budget offsets.

Air Force Is Hitting 2024 Monthly Recruiting Goals, But Threat of CR Looms Large

Feb. 13, 2024 | By David Roza

AURORA, Colo.—The head of the Air Force Recruiting Service remains “cautiously optimistic” about hitting his recruiting goals for fiscal 2024 year, armed with positive data from the first five months.

AFRS is at just over 100 percent of its requirement at this point for the Active-Duty force, close to it for the reserves, and at goal for the Space Force, with a sizable number of recruits in the delayed entry pool (DEP) who will enter service over the coming months.

“We are currently almost completed with bookings in February and March and we’re booking well into April,” Brig. Gen. Christopher Amrhein told reporters Feb. 13 at the AFA Warfare Symposium. “So right now, we’re not seeing the edge of the cliff.”

However, trouble could be on the horizon if Congress relies on continuing resolutions (CR) instead of passing a larger spending bill. Recruiting ads and outreach efforts cost money, Amrhein explained, and meeting requirements will be much more difficult if AFRS cannot sustain its presence on social media and television and in classrooms and community spaces.

“Bottom line, when a CR is in effect, our recruiting, outreach, and advertising mission suffers,” he said. “Additionally, a CR or, even worse, sequestration efforts would directly limit our ability to execute our recruiting operations.”

Under the Fiscal Responsibility Act passed in June 2023, if a CR is still in effect on April 30, the entire federal government will see funding slashed across the board to the tune of billions of dollars, according to the Congressional Research Service. The latest CR expires in early March, and Congress has been slow to agree on a larger budget.

If funding can be sustained, though, the future appears to be looking up for AFRS, which in fiscal 2023 missed its goal of 26,877 Air Force recruits by about 10 percent, the first time it missed its goal in 24 years. A heroic effort by recruiters in the summer of 2023 built up a strong delayed entry pool that AFRS continued to build on in the months since.

Efforts to widen the pool of eligible recruits—such as allowing small neck and hand tattoos; aligning body fat composition rules with Defense Department Standards; and giving qualified applicants a chance to retest if they test positive for marijuana use—have also helped. New incentives such as reinstating the enlisted college loan repayment program, streamlining the naturalization process for trainees to become citizens at the end of Basic Military Training, and increasing enlistment bonuses played a significant role too.

Just as important, Amrhein noted that recruiters are finally rebuilding the relationships with schools and communities, relationships which degraded during the years of isolation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.

air force recruiting — Airman Leadership School class members address recruits from the 338th Recruiting Squadron about what their future will look like in the Air Force and what to expect during the group’s visit to Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, Jan. 10, 2024 (U.S. Air Force photo by Senior Airman James Johnson)

But there is still one major impediment that could be turning away thousands of qualified recruits: the medical assessment process, where recruits often have to wait months to find out if they meet the military’s health requirements for accession.

“One otherwise healthy applicant had to wait an extra two months to enlist while she proved that a childhood wrist sprain was not a disqualifying medical condition,” Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s subcommittee on personnel, said at a Dec. 6 hearing where the heads of each military branch’s recruiting service testified.

“Now obviously we want a screening process that catches disqualifying medical conditions, but … [is it] creating unnecessary barriers to enrollment?” she asked.

Warren called on each service to track why applicants leave the accessions process before signing the dotted line, and AFRS appears to have initial data. At the AFA Warfare Symposium, Amrhein shared that 8,800 Air Force applicants walked away due to the long medical review process in fiscal 2023.

AFRS typically approves nearly 70 percent of overall requests for medical waivers, the general said, so that means it lost about 5,600 applicants who likely could have passed if the medical process were faster.

Last year, AFRS hired about 60 contractors to help with the medical paperwork, which should accelerate the process. But part of the problem is MHS Genesis, the medical records program which connects to most civilian health information exchange networks, giving the services a closer look at an applicant’s medical history.

The issue is that the history “is often incomplete or contains insufficient information to make a waiver determination,” the Department of Defense Inspector General found in May, which slows down the process as the services request extra documentation.

“We have to condense [the timeline] to get it back to where it used to be,” Amrhein said. “Prior to MHS Genesis onboarding, it was at least half, if not a third of the time to medically assess someone. If we can continue to work that piece, I think we can garner a great number of folks to join our Air and Space Forces.”

Space Force’s Japan Component Expected to Activate in 2024

Feb. 13, 2024 | By Unshin Lee Harpley

AURORA, Colo.—Top military space officials from Japan and the U.S. said at the AFA Warfare Symposium that they anticipate the U.S. Space Force will stand up its new component in Japan this year.

“I think we have everything in place,” U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific commander Brig. Gen. Anthony J. Mastalir said during a media roundtable. “It’s going through the staffing process right now. I want to have that component activated this year.”

The commander for the new U.S. Space Forces Japan has already been selected, and that individual will be “available this summer,” Mastalir said.

“Everything is green-lighted at this point, it’s just a matter of getting it through, getting everything approved, and selecting an activation date.” he added.

Col. Kimotoshi Sugiyama, commander of Space Operations Group for the Japan Air Self Defense Forces, also told Air & Space Forces Magazine that he is “expecting it very soon.”

The development comes after Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said last September while in Japan that a Japanese component was under consideration.

The establishment of a U.S. Space Forces Japan would mirror the activation of U.S. Space Forces Korea, which took place at Osan Air Force Base in December 2022. Both are components to subordinate combatant commands—U.S. Forces Japan and U.S. Forces Korea, respectively. U.S. Space Forces Indo-Pacific is a component under the unified combatant command of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command.

All these components are necessary for presenting space forces to combatant commanders in the Indo-Pacific “where the pacing threat is most acute,” Mastalir said. On top of China’s increasing investment in the space domain, North Korea claimed it successfully launched a surveillance satellite last year, and Russia remains a dangerous nuclear-armed threat.

“The current security situation surrounding Japan is really severe and complex,” Sugiyama said during a panel discussion.

“Our greatest concern in the space domain we recognize is an attack against a satellite,” he added. “It’s vital, not only communications, but navigations and so forth. Our society heavily relies on space capability, we have to ensure the safe usage of it. So, the attack against the satellites or interference is really a concern, we have to closely watch it.”

Col. Park Jong-seo, air attaché of the Embassy of the Republic of Korea pointed to the vulnerable Demilitarized Zone of South Korea as a key area for monitoring threats and provocations by North Korea—and stressed cooperation with U.S. Space Forces Korea to do so.

“We need to get close, real-time surveillance activities around the DMZ area,” Park said.

In December, the U.S., Japan, and South Korea established a real-time missile detection mechanism was established, following the trilateral agreement between President Joe Biden and his Japanese and Korean counterparts at Camp David, Md., in August.

Mastalir cited the importance of space in that mechanism.

“That’s another reason why I want to have a component in Japan,” Mastalir said. “Because that level of information sharing and data sharing is going to be very powerful, so that we’re all seeing the same picture when it comes to missile warning and missile defense.”

Sugiyama also highlighted the importance of continuing to share information in the space domain.

“There’s no border in space, so we share the same outer space and we are closely watching what’s going on in space,” Sugiyama said. “By doing that, it can lead to better deterrence, I believe.”

First Increment of CCA Contracts Coming in ‘Next Few Months’; Second Round Next Year

Feb. 13, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

AURORA, Colo.—The Air Force is hoping to award at least two and possibly three contracts for the first increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program by the middle of this year, followed by the second increment in 2025, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said Feb. 13

There are five contractors vying for Increment 1, which the Air Force plans to be its basic CCA: autonomous platforms intended to carry extra weapons for the fighters they escort, or perform electronic warfare, sensing or other missions. Those companies are Anduril, Boeing, General Atomics, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman.

“Within just the next few months, we’re going to go from the five contractors to a smaller number,” Kendall told reporters at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

“We’re going to at least two [competitors]; we’d like to have three. Three is going to be difficult, because of the level of funding we have in the budget.” But Kendall said carrying three into “development for production” could be done by sharing costs with industry.

“I think we could do three, and that would be our preference,” he said.

Kendall has frequently said the Air Force wants competition on CCA for as long as possible, to obtain better technical solutions and lower costs.

After the development phase, “we’ll be moving forward in a couple of years to downselect for production,” Kendall said. “How many we will be able to carry on into production is uncertain,” he added, suggesting the Air Force may opt to build two distinct designs if it can afford to do so.

Crewed and uncrewed aircraft attack targets in this conceptual illustration of DARPA’s LongShot Collaborative Combat Aircraft (CCA) operating in concert with conventional fighter jets. Acquiring CCA sooner, rather than later, could be crucial to deterring China from attempting to seize Taiwan. **General Atomics**

“We will definitely do one, but there’s a possibility that we could do more,” he said. “So we’re going to be working out some way to do that.”

The development contract for the second increment will be awarded in fiscal 2025, Kendall said. Similar to how the service selected five companies to develop plans for the first increment, the first contracts for Increment 2 “would be concept definition, preliminary design type of work.” Kendall added the U.S. could involve some international partners in that increment.

Maj. Gen. R. Scott Jobe, director of force design, integration and wargaming, told Air & Space Forces Magazine that the acquisition enterprise is no longer thinking about the first CCA increment as an “attritable” or “expendable” platform.

“We leave that up to the operational commander, whether he thinks that’s the best way to use that asset,” he said.

Jobe also described Increment 2 as still “a clean sheet of paper.” Although it has been notionally described as a more “exquisite” platform than Increment 1, possibly with a high degree of stealth or sensors, the Air Force is waiting to see what industry will put forward.

“There could be two versions,” he said; one that is a high-end platform, but with variants that are considerably less expensive, perhaps with a single-purpose mission.

Air Force acquisition executive Andrew Hunter added that Increment 2 could potentially have “very different set of requirements,” and the Air Force is still near the beginning of the process.

“We talk a lot to industry: what can you deliver?” Hunter said. The Air Force is looking at “the spectrum of industry feedback” to that question before narrowing its ideas about Increment 2, he said.

In a panel discussion on accelerating the fielding of new equipment, Hunter said there will be no need for a lengthy consideration about who should get the CCA Increment 1 contract or contracts because there is “daily” consultation with the five contractors working on it. They are using digital design methods, and the relative merits of each design are visible on a daily basis, he said, so it won’t take long to judge between them.

In a separate press conference, Hunter said that comments he’s made previously about CCA work—that those companies not selected for Increment 1 could have a later “on-ramp” to participate in the program—meant that those companies not selected for Increment 1 can “roll right into” competing for Increment 2. Other entrants will also be welcome, including some among America’s closest allies.

Those entries may constitute a “Increment 3,” Hunter said, and the Air Force is also comparing notes with the Navy and Marine Corps, which are working on their own CCAs. Those sister-service versions “may [have] their own Increments,” he said.

“I see it as a great opportunity for our partners and allies,” Hunter said, “and a lot of applicability in that space, as well.”

collaborative combat aircraft CCA air force — Uncrewed “Collaborative Combat Aircraft” (as depicted in this illustration) will soon be a major part of the Air Force fleet, but there’s a debate over how to introduce them. Lockheed Martin illustration.

Hunter said the hardest part of CCAs will be their autonomy, but he expressed “a high degree of confidence that we can deliver a useful degree of autonomy in Increment 1,” though perhaps not as much as originally thought.

Later iterations will likely have greater degrees of autonomy, Hunter said. But the focus for Increment 1 has been “speed to ramp,” meaning the quickest route to production.

Jobe noted that in the experimentation underway for CCAs, concerns that pilots in fighters would be task-saturated managing two CCA escorts have proved unfounded. Former pilots in F-22 simulators could comfortably manage up to six CCAs, he said.

Allvin: Drones, New Technology Driving ‘Reinvention’ of Airpower and USAF

Feb. 13, 2024 | By Chris Gordon

AURORA, Colo.—Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David W. Allvin told thousands of Airmen gathered here that the service is facing a hinge in history, less than 24 hours after unveiling the biggest changes to the Air Force in decades.

While the Air Force is introducing new commands, new ranks, and more, Allvin said a deeper, fundamental shift in airpower is occurring worldwide, as drones and other cheap weapons systems proliferate. In turn, the U.S. Air Force must assess how many bedrock concepts fit into modern conflict against China in the Pacific, militia groups in the Middle East, or elsewhere.

“The changing character of war is coming upon us,” Allvin said in his State of the Air Force address at the AFA Warfare Symposium on Feb. 13. “The theater of war is going to require us to fight different.”

Drones and human-machine teaming of unmanned systems will force a rethink of airpower, Allvin said.

“This will be part of the reinvention of our Air Force and airpower into the future,” he said.

The evolving use of unmanned systems is not new. But a conflict based heavily on denied airspace in which no side has air superiority has forced Ukraine into an ugly, artillery-heavy conflict in an attempt to ward off Russia’s full-scale invasion, which is about to enter its third year. The war in Ukraine has also led to new electronic warfare solutions developed on the fly to counter drones and even a new acoustic detection system. And it has been a wake-up call and proving ground for what modern conflict is—with pitfalls and opportunities.

“You’ll see this proliferate more and more, which makes the importance of coming up with a low-cost solution to taking these things down … so we’re not taking $700,000 missiles and shooting down a $5,000 drone,” Gen. James B. Hecker, the commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa and NATO Allied Air Command, told reporters Feb. 12. “But we want to inflict that cost maybe on our enemy should we be able to deter so I think you’ll see that we’ll be getting some of those capabilities as well.”

The Pentagon and the other parts of the force have taken notice as well—led by younger Airmen, Allvin said.

Airmen are “not ignoring what’s happening underneath our noses right now,” Allvin said. “Some of the changes are being played out in combat. Our Airmen are looking at that. And you can see it in pockets across our Air Force, whether it be in Spark Cells or within our components.”

The Air Force has its Collaborative Combat Aircraft program, meant to produce autonomous drones to pair with manned aircraft. But there are also smaller-scale, bottom-up efforts from Airmen through units such as Air Forces Central’s Task Force 99, which is adapting relatively cheap commercial, off-the-shelf, and 3D-printed drones into what the unit hopes is into useful and evolving operational capabilities.

“They’re looking at what’s happening: the crackling of life that’s happening in the electromagnetic spectrum that had been largely taken for granted; the asymmetric advantage that can happen with low-cost solutions that may not be enduring, but they’re enough to get you an advantage today,” Allvin said.

But rather than replacing airpower, new solutions can enhance the manned platforms the Air Force also has planned—especially as many young Airmen are familiar with rapidly adapting new technology into their existing lives.

“These Airmen are doing all of this,” Allvin said. “And this is why we should be so proud that they’re upholding the legacy of airpower, where we assuring that we will continue to reinvent ourselves into the future, to be the most dominant air force in the world. That’s what our Airmen are doing.”

CSO: Why the Space Force Won’t Be Introducing Warrant Officers

Feb. 13, 2024 | By Greg Hadley

AURORA, Colo.—The Space Force has no plans to follow the Air Force in introducing a warrant officer corps to its ranks, Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said Feb. 13.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin first announced Feb. 12 at the AFA Warfare Symposium that the service will be rolling out a warrant officer program for its cyber and IT career fields. Warrant officers fill top technical, rather than leadership, functions and can earn more than enlisted personnel.

The move was met with excitement among Airmen at the conference and on social media, raising questions as to whether the Space Force would follow suit or stand alone as the only service not to have warrant officers.

In a media roundtable, Saltzman said factors unique to the Space Force made the warrant officer idea a non-starter for now.

“We don’t see a need to have warrant officers at this point. Because of the way we were designed, all of our enlisted personnel have very technical paths,” Saltzman said. “And so we feel like there’s other avenues to provide them the compensation they need.

“And at some point, how small can a career field or a rank be before it’s too hard, it’s too onerous to manage administratively? So we’re not pursuing that right now.”

The Space Force has only a few career fields, all within space operations, intelligence, cyber, engineering, and acquisition, and relies on the Air Force for service support functions. It is also far smaller than any other service—Saltzman noted during his keynote address at the conference that the Space Force accounts for just one percent of the Department of Defense’s active-duty personnel, at fewer than 9,000 uniformed Guardians.

SCHRIEVER SPACE FORCE BASE, Colo. — Members of Space Delta 9 participated in a retreat ceremony at Schriever SFB, CO, in front of building 210 on November 29, 2023. (U.S. Space Force Photo by Dalton Prejeant)

Proponents of warrant officers say the option helps to retain service members with valuable experience and knowledge in technical fields who don’t want to deal with the traditional leadership functions of officers but could make substantially more in the private sector than they could in the enlisted ranks.

For example, the DOD’s 2024 pay scale offers $5,792 in basic pay per month to warrant officers in the W-2 grade with 10 years of service, compared to $4,886 for an E-7 with the same level of experience.

However, the Space Force is planning to expand certain bonus programs like retention bonuses and assignment incentive pay. According to fiscal 2024 budget documents, the Space Force plans on paying out $8.3 million in special pays for its enlisted corps this year, compared to $4 million in fiscal 2023.

But while the Space Force is spurning warrant officers for now, it is moving forward with a new personnel management system that will be unique within the military in allowing Guardians to shift between full-time and part-time status.

“The ability, over the course of your career, to move between full-time and part-time work is there, and we want to pursue those kinds of flexible career paths options,” Saltzman said.

Such an arrangement could offer Guardians the ability to have jobs outside the military where they can put their specialized skills and knowledge to use. But it will take several years to finalize the administrative policies and systems necessary to make the new personnel management system work, Saltzman said.

“We have to be able to pull them over, put them in part-time status, and make sure we are giving them credit for part time work, accumulating towards retirement,” he said. “We need to understand how to pay part time people with what their pay structure looks like. Is this how many hours a week, or is it by position, etc.?”

In the meantime, Saltzman indicated he wants to aggressively pursue ideas for getting Guardians out into the private sector to stay abreast of the latest technological developments, whether it be through academic fellowships, job exchanges, or some other mechanism. Such moves, he said, will increase job satisfaction while ensuring service members don’t feel that they are falling behind their peers in technical knowledge.

How Tension Between New Integrated Capabilities Command and Office May Benefit Air Force

Feb. 13, 2024 | By John A. Tirpak

AURORA, Colo.—The Department of the Air Force leadership expects its new Integrated Capabilities Command and Integrated Capabilities Office to offer competing approaches to answer emerging service needs, senior Department officials said Feb. 12 in rolling out new service organizations at the AFA Warfare Symposium.

The new Integrated Capabilities Command will be similar to other Major Commands like Air Combat Command and Air Mobility Command in that it will be led by a three-star general who reports directly to the Secretary of the Air Force and Chief of Staff. While those MAJCOMS provide forces, there are also “institutional” commands like Air Education and Training Command that carry out development, and Integrated Capabilities Command will be created in that model, Chief of Staff Gen. David C. Allvin said.

MAJCOMs like ACC will continue to provide forces—already a “big job,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said—and will now offload much of the requirements process to the new Integrated Capabilities Command. This will ensure that good ideas are have a chance to rise to the attention of top-level Department leaders and are not stymied at a lower level.

There will also be an Integrated Capabilities Office, headed by Tim Grayson, special assistant to Kendall, who led the effort to organize Kendall’s Operational Imperatives, the seven capabilities areas the Air Force needs to be competitive with China. The Integrated Capabilities Office, about a 10-person shop, will have the job of finding the synergies and connective tissue between systems like the F-35 and KC-46, for example.

Asked if the two Integrated Capabilities organizations won’t butt heads, Kendall told Air & Space Forces Magazine, “They will. That’s intentional. That’s how you identify the biggest issues and bring them directly up to the top leadership for resolution.”

Acting Air Force undersecretary Kristyn E. Jones, in a keynote panel to open the conference, said these and other changes are part of what the DAF needs for Great Power Competition, and specifically, to deter China.

After analyzing “our processes, our systems, our structure and so on, against the outcomes needed, we identified several areas for improvement,” she said.

“We realized that we needed more enterprise solutions, deliberate integration,” and to “prioritize mission success over function. … And to make sure we were doing that for one Department with two services.”

The Operational Imperatives “are not going away,” Jones said. “We’re building on those efforts, but in establishing the Operational Imperatives, the need for integration was clear … across programs, across [program executive offices], across major commands, across our services.”

While separating the MAJCOMs from the top requirements-setting job, there won’t be a separation of operators from requirements, Allvin told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

“That’s the integration. That’s where that comes in,” he said, and the new organizations will also have a heightened participation from technologists and industry.

“We needed to pair operators with technical professionals,” Jones said in her keynote.

“When the Secretary wanted to focus on closing the gaps for these Operational Imperatives, there was no organization that existed.” she said. “We created a pickup team in order to move forward in these initiatives. And we’ve had great success,” but the new organizations promise to build further on the “huge leaps” the Air Force has made in communicating requirements to the Pentagon leadership and Capitol Hill.

The Integrated Capabilities Office will “be looking at capabilities across our services, not in stovepipes, enabling end-to-end creation of effects. This organization will help us to prioritize our investments and will be responsible for working with us to determine the next iteration of Operational Imperatives,” Jones said.

Another new outfit will be the Integration Development Office, which will look at capabilities put forth by industry to assess how they could be inserted into existing or emerging systems. That office will be located under Air Force Materiel Command.

Yet another new organization will be the Office of Competing Activities, which will specifically look at ways to “increase our competitive advantage” versus China and other threats, “and align our efforts with the rest of DOD,” Jones said.

It will be a “single organization focused on maintaining competitive advantage across the continuum of operations,” she added.

The Air Force also plans to share what these organizations learn with partners and allies, to aid deterrence but still protect sensitive information.

The budgetary priorities of the Air and Space Forces will also be harmonized by a new Office of Program Analysis and Evaluation, Jones said.

“We need to be able to better integrate and prioritize across two services and have one departmental narrative,” she said.

“We need to consistently improve our ability to resource our strategy through improving our programming and our budget process. We need to be able to better integrate and prioritize across two services and have one departmental narrative,” she said, and the new PA&E Shop will do that.

“The goal of this office is to enable us to better see ourselves, using analytically-based approaches. … We need to fully define the full burden cost of our capabilities,” she said; not just the platforms or acquisition programs, “but everything that’s needed to provide those capabilities across the entire spectrum,” Jones explained.

The Life Cycle Management Center, under AFMC, will shift to become the Air Dominance Systems Center. More on that transition is expected to be explained in Feb. 13 sessions.

Collectively, these changes will “lay out the next set of steps we need to do that are focused on the current force,” Kendall said in answering questions after his keynote.

“These are things we’re going to do quickly. They’re going to reorient us towards better preparation, if you will, for a conflict that just might happen, and we need to be ready for. We owe it to our men and women in uniform to get them as ready as possible in case a conflict happens.”