Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Feb. 21, 2020

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Edited by Amy McCullough with Rachel S. Cohen and Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

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Space Force Boss Signs ‘Fighting SATCOM’ Strategy
By Rachel S. Cohen

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Jay Raymond has signed into effect a new strategy
for making satellite communications more resilient and effective as U.S.
adversaries try to chip away at those capabilities. “Despite the global,
instantaneous reach of our SATCOM capabilities, which includes both military and
commercial capabilities, the enterprise needs to improve its resiliency,
robustness, flexibility, and manageability,” according to the strategy paper
released Feb. 19. “We must prepare now to fight SATCOM as a single enterprise
through a contested, degraded, and operationally limited environment, prevent or
withstand loss, and continue to deliver effects to warfighters.”

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SECAF Visits Incirlik Amid U.S.-Turkey Tensions Over F-35, Sanctions
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett visited Airmen at Incirlik Air Base, Turkey,
Feb. 15 amid continuing tensions over Turkey's ouster from the F-35 program and
a December threat by President Recep Tayyip Erdogan to shutter the base over
political censure from Washington. While her visit was Airman-focused, and
included meetings with members of the 39th Air Base Wing and resilience-related
conversations with its Airmen, Barrett stressed the urgency of USAF’s
continued operations in the country, calling the service's presence there "the
bedrock of our ability to assure our partnership" and to "respond to threats as
required."

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Empowering Disaster Response and Recovery From Space
When a natural disaster or emergency occur, an immediate and seamless response is necessary to
save lives. Operational and situational awareness becomes increasingly important to responders.
If critical infrastructure is down in the disaster zone, then the systems and networks required for
powering the relief efforts are compromised. Ground operations must look to space to solve their
communication needs. Read the full story.
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DARPA to Design Two Unique New Missiles for USAF
By Rachel S. Cohen

DARPA wants to bring a gun to a missile fight. The Defense Advanced Research
Projects Agency is developing “Gunslinger,” a new air-launched missile
equipped with a gun, for Air Force and Navy missions ranging from
counterterrorism to dogfights with other aircraft, according to the fiscal 2021
budget request. The Air Force and Navy are also potential customers for
DARPA’s LongShot program, which would use “multi-mode propulsion” to
significantly boost its range and effectiveness against multiple airborne
threats at once.

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New Missile Prepares for F-35 Tests
By Rachel S. Cohen

The Air Force is moving forward with its Stand-In Attack Weapon, preparing to
check how it fits inside the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter this summer. Though the
service previously said the missile would fly on the B-21 as well, Air Force
spokeswoman Ilka Cole said the F-35 is now the only USAF aircraft under
consideration. Fit checks will entail wind tunnel testing and ground tests. The
weapon is based on the extended-range version of the Navy’s Advanced
Anti-Radiation Guided Missile in development at Northrop Grumman. Cole said
missile design specifications like its range are classified.

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ACC Launches Digital Clearinghouse for Resilience, Diversity Resources
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Air Combat Command on Feb. 18 launched a new website that looks to connect ACC
Airmen with resources related to resilience, suicide and violence prevention,
and diversity. "The Bridge" was borne out of feedback from conversations that
occurred during the service-wide resilience tactical pause that Chief of Staff
Gen. David Goldfein ordered last summer in response to a rising suicide rate
among USAF Airmen.

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Radar Sweep

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Pentagon Chief Visits Nuke Base to Highlight Weapon Spending

Defense Secretary Mark Esper used his first-ever visit to a nuclear missile
field in frigid North Dakota to tout the Trump administration's
multibillion-dollar plan for a top-to-bottom modernization of the nuclear
arsenal. The costly project is necessary, he said, to keep up with Russia and
outpace China.

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Secret Drone Crash, B-1 Engine Malfunction Among Major 2019 Air Force Mishaps

The calamities were just two of 28 Class A aviation-related mishaps, or
accidents that involve fatalities, severe damage totaling $2 million or more or
a complete loss of the aircraft, that the Air Force sustained in fiscal 2019,
according to data recently provided exclusively to Military.com.

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Air Force Academy to Commission Space Force Officers

Graduates from the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado are expected to
cross-commission into the Space Force this spring, military officials said.
About 60 cadets would be commissioned into the new armed service branch, which
formed in December. “They’re doing Air Force Academy curriculum, and
they’ll just be directly commissioned into the Space Force,” academy Vice
Superintendent Col. Houston Cantwell said.

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Defense Digital Service Builds Counter-Drone SWAT Team, ASAP

Sometimes, when lives are at stake, even Silicon Valley can’t innovate fast
enough. That’s why the director of the Defense Digital Service, Brett
Goldstein, has started forming rapid-response “SWAT teams” drawing on the
Defense Department’s in-house talent. The first such team that Goldstein has
created—pulling together both existing DDS personnel and a Defense Innovation
Unit project called Rogue Squadron—is aimed at countering small drones.

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Top U.S. Air Force General Hopes for Major KC-46 Fix by March

After more than a year of deliberations, the U.S. Air Force is hoping to have a
fix in hand for the KC-46 tanker’s most critical technical problem by the end
of March, the service’s top general told Defense News in an exclusive
interview. The hope is for the Air Force and Boeing to sign off next month on a
finalized design for the KC-46’s Remote Vision System, or RVS—a series of
cameras and sensors that allow its users to steer the aircraft’s boom into a
plane for aerial refueling.

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'Hit With a Truck'—How Iran's Missiles Inflicted Brain Injury on U.S. Troops

Reuters interviewed more than a dozen officials and soldiers and spoke with
brain-injury specialists to assemble the most comprehensive account so far of
the nature of the soldiers’ injuries and how they sustained them. The slowly
rising casualty count underscores the difficulty in detecting and treating what
has become one of the most common injuries in the U.S. military during two
decades of war in Afghanistan and Iraq, where U.S. troops face roadside bombs,
rockets and mortars.

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The U.S. Navy Just Got Its Hands on a New Kind of Iranian Missile

U.S. weapons experts have gotten their first look at a new "uniquely
Iranian-designed missile," Navy Capt. William Urban, a U.S. Central Command
spokesman, told reporters on Feb. 19. Sailors aboard the destroyer Forrest
Sherman and cruiser Normandy confiscated eight of the new 358-missiles during
separate weapons seizures in the Middle East.

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Pentagon’s PFAS Burning Practices Are Unsafe, Lawsuit Claims

Environmental groups, led by the nonprofit legal firm Earthjustice, allege the
Defense Department violated the National Defense Authorization Act of 2019,
which spelled out guidelines for safely incinerating firefighting foam
containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known as PFAS.
The groups allege DOD entered into three contracts between November 2018 and May
2019 to incinerate more than 2 million gallons of stockpiled waste despite
having concerns about the disposal process.

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Pentagon's Tech Agency Reveals Potential Breach Involving Personal Data

The agency that secures the U.S. military’s information technology
infrastructure across the globe says sensitive personal data, including Social
Security numbers, hosted on its network may have been compromised in a breach
between May and July 2019. The Defense Information Systems Agency notified
potential victims of the breach in a letter this month, saying it had tightened
protocols for protecting personally identifiable information because of the
incident.

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Air Force Touts Digital U Tech Reskilling Effort

The Air Force is taking a servicewide approach to reskilling with its "Digital
U" program. Air Force Deputy Chief Information Officer Bill Marion said that
initiatives like Digital U were part of the service's push to train all
personnel in cyber capabilities, unlike other government programs like the
Federal Cyber Reskilling Academy that targeted reskilling individuals who
displayed technical aptitude.

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Faster Acquisition

The Air Force is leveraging emerging technologies and new legislation to
accelerate acquisition decisions and streamline sustainment. Read more here.

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One More Thing...
Three Downed Aircraft, Associated with 7 MIAs from Famous WWII Battle, Located in Pacific Ocean

In February 1944, the U.S. military launched Operation Hailstone, a massive
military assault on Japanese fortified positions in the Pacific. On Feb. 17—76
years later—researchers announced the discovery of three U.S. aircraft remains
associated with seven service members missing in action.

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