Accelerating The Budget Pass-Through 41| RAF-USAF Integration 52 | PACAF's Top Range 44 Hypersonics 28 Chosen for Chief A Pre-Nomination Interview with Gen. C.Q. Brown | 8 April 2020 $8 Published by the Air Force Association WHEN INNOVATION STRIKES, THE MISSION SUCCEEDS. JOINT STRIKE MISSILE Powered by 5th-generation technology, Joint Strike Missile (JSM) delivers proven performance and precision against today’s evolving threats. JSM’s stand-off range of up to 350 miles keeps pilots out of harm’s way, accurately engaging adversaries and enabling the mission. RAYTHEON.COM/JSM © 2020 Raytheon Company. All rights reserved. 20RMS598_Raytheon_JSM_AFMag_041320.indd 1 2/26/20 3:16 PM STAFF Publisher April 2020. Vol. 103, No. 4 Bruce A. Wright Editor in Chief Tobias Naegele Managing Editor Juliette Kelsey Chagnon Editorial Director John A. Tirpak News Editor Amy McCullough Photo: Senior Airman Mya Crosby Mya Senior Photo: Airman Assistant DEPARTMENTS FEATURES U.S. Air Force Managing Editor Master Sgt. Chequita Wood 2 Editorial: 8 Q&A: What’s on the Mind of Gen. C.Q. Brown Competition and Ricardo Sepul- Senior Designer veda finishes a COVID-19 An exclusive interview with the PACAF Commander Dashton Parham quality check on By Tobias Naegele days before his nomination to be the next Air Force Pentagon Editor a GBU-31 Joint Brian W. Everstine 3 Index to Chief of Staff. Direct Attack Advertisers Munition during Digital Platforms 28 The Hypersonics Push the third annual Editor 3 Letters By John A. Tirpak Air Force Com- Jennifer-Leigh 5 Verbatim bat Operations Oprihory Pentagon leaders provide a first look at plans for Competition at Senior Editor 10 Airframes testing and producing future hypersonic weapons. Davis-Monthan Rachel S. Cohen Air Force Base, 16 Strategy & Policy: 32 The Tanker Gap Production Putin’s Five New Ariz., Jan. 24. By Brian W. Everstine Manager Nukes Eric Chang Lee 18 World: The USAF’s budget seeks to swap capacity now for Photo Editor Munitions Push; capability in the future, but TRANSCOM is leery. Mike Tsukamoto Piloted Aircraft 36 Missile Testing in the GBSD Era Future; AFRICOM; and more ... By Rachel Cohen Contributors 27 Faces of the Force A new era in land-based nuclear weapons could usher John T. Correll, 61 Airman for Life in changes to the Air Force’s missile test regime. Robert S. Dudney, Chapter News; 41 The Budget and the Truth Jennifer Hlad, Air Pitsenbarger film; Chief Marshall Field Contacts ... By Amy McCullough Mike Wigston 64 Namesakes: Hill Pass-through funds inflate USAF spending by almost 25 percent, hiding the truth from friends and foes alike. Is this the year it finally ends? 44 Range Roving By Jennifer Hlad Japan’s Draughon Range is now among the most ADVERTISING: sophisticated training areas in the world. Kirk Brown ON THE COVER Director, Media 48 Survivors of the Storm Solutions By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory 703.247.5829 [email protected] In the face of repeated natural disasters, Puerto Rico’s Air Guard proves resilient. SUBSCRIBE & SAVE 52 The Future of RAF-USAF Integration Subscribe to By Air Chief Marshal Mike Wigston Air Force Magazine Constant competition and confrontation with rivals and save big off demand evermore cooperation among allies. Caitlin Class Russell 1st Airman Photo: the cover price, Gen. Charles Q. plus get a free 56 The Difference in Korea Brown Jr. See membership “Q&A: What’s on By John T. Correll the Mind of Gen. to the Air Force C.Q. Brown,” p. 8. Association. Without U.S. air power, United Nations forces would 1-800-727-3337 have lost Korea in 1950. Air Force Magazine (ISSN 0730-6784) April 2020 (Vol. 103, No. 4) is published monthly, except for two double issues in January/February and July/August, by the Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Phone (703) 247-5800. Periodical postage paid at Arlington, Va., and additional mailing offices. Membership Rate: $50 per year; $35 e-Membership; $125 for three-year membership. Subscription Rate: $50 per year; $29 per year additional for postage to foreign addresses (except Canada and Mexico, which are $10 per year additional). Regular issues $8 each. USAF Almanac issue $18 each. Change of address requires four weeks’ notice. Please include mail- ing label. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Trademark registered by Air Force Association. Copyright 2020 by Air Force Association. APRIL 2020 AIRFORCEMAG.COM 1 EDITORIAL By Tobias Naegele Competition and COVID-19 his is the era of great power competition, and the means responses to the pandemic, each nation—indeed, each state—is of competition are growing increasingly clear and diverse. likewise competing, showing its people and its neighbors how T We are building a Space Force because competition and leaders believe the crisis should be handled. Is our country getting risk is growing in space. The Air Force sent a B-52 bomber to Africa it right? Is there a better way ahead? in February, not to drop bombs, but to demonstrate U.S. military Competition for superiority applies to every aspect of every power and strength and communicate American resolve and com- system, including diplomacy, commerce, and emergency response. mitment. The message was for allies and enemies in Africa—and Meanwhile, the business of government goes on. Even as for China, which is competing for those allies’ allegiance. So, it is Congress and the administration shift their focus to the crisis no accident when President Donald Trump calls the coronavirus before them, the legislative sausage-making—that is, the budget that cased the COVID-19 pandemic “the Chinese Virus.” This, too, process—continues. Here, we can see a dierent kind of intense is competition. competition, as the military services grapple for relevance and It works both ways. funding at the end of an era of plenty. The virus originated in China’s Hubei province, and was initially Budgets will be flat at best for the foreseeable future. Indeed, in called, even by the Chinese, the Wuhan virus, after the city where it the aftermath of the pandemic-fueled financial crisis, that may be began. Now, fearful of a potential international backlash and eager overly optimistic. At the same time, each of the military services is to leverage its wealth, China is oering aid in the form of masks, busy reinventing itself with an eye toward being capable of wag- medical advice, and other equipment to eager recipients around ing war with China a decade from now. The Air Force is giving up the globe. This is the kind of generous aid for which the U.S. has near-term capacity in tanker, fighter, and close-air-support aircraft long been known. Indeed, during many past crises, to develop future capabilities, including hypersonic the U.S. was the only nation large and rich enough to This is the era missiles and a combat-cloud-like connectivity that will provide significant emergency relief. enable everyone in the battlespace to exchange target- No more. of great power ing, location, and other data in real time. If successful, it China’s global charm oensive is competition of competition, will revolutionize warfare by presenting enemies with another sort. Like its claim that it never “engaged in and the means an overwhelming, complex, and perpetually changing any form of cyber theft” (see “Verbatim,” p. 5), China’s of competition threat picture. declarations in mid-March that it had registered no new Similarly, each of the services is trying to invent a confirmed cases of the coronavirus are what President are growing in- new future in which its branch of the military is central Trump might call “fake news” and former Vice President creasingly clear to a future contest with China. The Army is imagining Joe Biden would dub “malarkey.” When China amended and diverse. long-range artillery with a range of 1,000 miles or that claim a few days later, saying the only new cases more—taking aim at target sets traditionally left to the it registered were individuals arriving in China from someplace Air Force or Navy. The Navy is rethinking its aircraft carrier battle else, China was competing. Its message: China had overcome the groups for an age when maneuverable hypersonic weapons could crisis, while Western nations were shutting down under pressure. turn those 4.5 acres of floating, sovereign U.S. territory into big, Was China lying? Not necessarily. China may well have stopped slow targets—or worse, vast, mass graves at the bottom of the sea. testing its citizens at home; doing so is only useful in tracking the The Marine Corps’ plan is to cut back battalions, helicopters, and spread of the disease, and once it has spread, further testing is jump-jets—and dispense with tanks—in favor of new, unmanned essentially pointless. Without a cure, only symptoms can be treated, aircraft and long-range cruise missile batteries it can deploy from and treatments are the same whether one tests positive or not. high-speed landing craft. Projecting to the world that China is the good Samaritan, acting Logic must prevail. Not every service will be relevant to every as a kindly neighbor to its brother nations, is not altruism. It is fight. Investment must be prioritized to fund capabilities and strat- competition. Unburdened by the ugly business of democracy and egies that will best deliver the needed eects. America will never debate, China was able to present omniscient competence to a fight a land war in China; it could not possibly win.