USAF Has Too Many Missions and Not Enough Airmen

INSIDE: The F-22 and F-35 Feed Each Other p. 15 | China Corners the Market on Rare Elements p. 52

USAF has too many missions and not enough airmen

SOMETHING’SSOMETHING’S GOTTAGOTTA GIVEGIVE p.21

February 2018 $8

Published by the Air Force Association

February 2018. Vol. 101, No. 2 FEATURES STAFF

Publisher Larry O. Spencer Editor in Chief Adam J. Hebert

21 Managing Editor Juliette Kelsey Chagnon Editorial Director John A. Tirpak News Editor Amy McCullough Assistant Managing Editor Chequita Wood Senior Designer 15 56 Dashton Parham Pentagon Editor 15 Lightning and Thunder 34 Compass Call and 52 Rare-Earth Uncertainty Brian W. Everstine By John A. Tirpak Response By Peter Grier Senior Editor The F-35 and F-22 are By Brian W. Everstine A long list of obscure Wilson Brissett teaching each other new Electronic warfare isn’t going elements are vital for Digital Platforms Editor tricks. away—but EC-130Hs will. advanced electronics and Gideon Grudo military systems. China has 21 Growing Pains 40 Life on the Line Production Manager cornered the market. By Amy McCullough by Brian W. Everstine Eric Chang Lee Something’s gotta give. USAF is probably buying 56 In Pursuit of the Bismarck Photo Editor fewer aircraft than you think. By John T. Correll Mike Tsukamoto 27 Replacing Minuteman Here’s a look at what’s Swordfish torpedo bombers By Wilson Brissett actually on the production crippled the German The Air Force is finally moving Contributors line. battleship. British battleships John T. Correll, Robert S. forward with a program to cruised in to finish the job. Dudney, Peter Grier, Jennifer develop a next generation Hlad ICBM. ADVERTISING: DEPARTMENTS Arthur Bartholomew 213.596.7239 Tom Buttrick 917.421.9051 2 Editorial: Beg, Borrow, 8 Aperture 50 Infographic: Show James G. Elliott Co., Inc. Steal; The Race for Tech By John A. Tirpak Me the Money [email protected] By Adam J. Hebert By Gideon Grudo 10 Air Force World USAF is developing the next 62 Wingman: AFA National SUBSCRIBE generation of revolutionary 14 Forward Deployed Leaders capablities. Can it field them By Jennifer Hlad & SAVE first? 64 Namesakes: Tinker Subscribe to Air Force 20 Verbatim Magazine and save big o 4 Letters 32 Screenshot the cover price, plus get a 7 Index to Advertisers free membership to the Air Force Association. Call 1-800-727-3337 FOLLOW US GET THE ON THE COVER See “Growing Pains,,” p. 21. ANG photo by Capt. Holli Nelson. facebook.com/ twitter.com/ instagram.com/ airforcemag airforcemag airforcemag

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FEBRUARY ★ AIRFORCEMAG.COM Editorial By Adam J. Hebert, Editor in Chief

Develop, Borrow, Steal: The Race for Tech

WRIGHT-PATTERSON AFB, OHIO—

One of the United States’ undeniable advantages lies in its recurring ability to turn science fiction into reality. American innovators have repeatedly transformed the world with both revolutionary consumer goods and unmatched government-sponsored capabilities. Much of the technology the Air Force has sponsored has underpinned national security for decades. During the Cold War, the US turned to technology as a way to offset the Soviet Union’s enormous numerical advantages. It was a strategy that paid off handsomely. Today, the nation is reaping the benefits of many technologies USAF was present for from the beginning. Unmatched stealth

USAF is developing the next generation of revolutionary China’s J-31 (top) is an F-35 knocko, and DOD admits it. capabilities. Can it field them first? scratch if you can steal major portions of the plans? ■ In 2014, the Justice Department indicted five members of aircraft like the F-22 Raptor, the now-ubiquitous Global Posi - China’s Peoples Liberation Army for “economic offenses directed tioning System, ever-evolving precision weapons, and remotely at … the US nuclear power, metals, and solar products industries,” piloted aircraft like the MQ-9 Reaper all owe their existence in according to a DOJ release. This was formal acknowledgement large measure to Air Force-inspired American ingenuity. China had military hackers targeting the US. Maj. Gen. William T. Cooley, a mechanical engineer by educa - The bottom line is that, in addition to protecting advantages tion and now commander of the Air Force Research Laboratory the Air Force already has, USAF must keep the pedal to the metal. (AFRL) here, has watched USAF’s science and technology suc - Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson has asked AFRL to “clean cesses and struggles for nearly three decades. New technologies the whiteboard,” and take a fresh look at the Air Force’s entire progress too slowly and emergent capabilities frequently stall science and technology enterprise, said Cooley. The compre - when it comes time to transition to operational use. These are hensive S&T review will run the duration of 2018. “enduring problems,” Cooley said in an interview. Overall, AFRL is staffed by outstanding scientists and engi - But what happens when an enemy—whether by watching neers with “a lot going very well,” he said, but AFRL cannot rest the US publicly wage its wars for the past 27 years, or by taking on its laurels. advantage of rapidly advancing commercial technologies, or “Organizations can sometimes get in a rut and not necessarily through a surreptitious hacking campaign—is able copy, steal, pay attention to emerging things. Every so often you need to or just avoid America’s technological advantages? This is a view with new eyes the state of the environment,” Cooley said. growing problem. “To be agile enough to maintain our advantage, the Air Force Many enemies, large and small, have effectively “gone to must reach for … game-changing technologies,” stated USAF’s school” on modern war by carefully observing US operations 30-year “A Call to the Future” strategy paper in 2014. Some since 1990. Regarding commercial capabilities, Cooley notes of the more promising technologies cited were hypersonic that industrial research and development funding first surpassed speed, nanotechnology (to create lighter and stronger struc - government R&D in the 1990s, and the private sector now out - tures), directed energy, and unmanned systems. Three years spends the government by two-and-a-half times. on, Cooley says AFRL is “continuing to push those [and] make Quickly developing the next generation of game-changing them militarily useful.” capabilities and successfully transitioning them into operational It is ever harder to stay in first place technologically, but with use is more important than ever. It is increasingly difficult to keep consistent support from DOD and Congress the Air Force is well the nation’s technological advantages. Some recent examples: positioned to do just that. This is never a given, however. As ■ Images of China’s J-20 stealth fighter first surfaced in 2010, Cooley noted, when funds are tight, programmers will inevitably when then-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates was visiting the raid the future to pay for current needs. communist state. Gates had previously predicted that Chinese Whether it is hypersonic weapons, scalable laser weapons stealth fighters would not appear until 2020. that almost never run out of ammo, autonomous programs that ■ Two years later, China’s J-31 flew for the first time. Top take much of the toil out of intelligence processing (or capa - Defense officials say China’s J-20 and J-31 stealth fighters were bilities too secret to be discussed yet), the race to develop the greatly aided by espionage. Indeed, head-on, a J-31 is almost next generation of war winning capabilities is on—and it has indistinguishable from a Lockheed Martin F-35. Why start from no finish line. Photos: ifuun.com; USAF

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Innovation: The Warfighter's Edge

February 21-23, 2018 | Orlando, FL | AFA.org

i Letters

Joint Punishment higher echelon when a defense agency vious assignment had been in the F-15 Your editorial on joint assignments director is a two-star oicer or lower, or Eagle. However, I remained true to my [“Giving Joint Assignments Their Due,” when the senior general oicer billet is “calling” to serve in a joint assignment, December, p. 2] provided a good analy- vacant. I say automatically because Air as the “importance of joint work” was sis of the dilemma of serving in joint Force element commanders or person- the propaganda of the times. assignments. I agree that the Air Force nel oicers should not screen personnel I was assigned as the only fighter needs to “train, educate, develop, and of the same rank as themselves. pilot in the Intelligence Center Pacific reward folks” for joint assignments. In my Lt. Col. Russel A. Noguchi, (IPAC) and was first recognized for my 20-year Air Force career I had three joint USAF (Ret.) analysis of the KAL 007 shoot down by assignments and one joint school for a to- Pearl City, Hawaii the Soviets on Sept. 1, 1983. I was then tal of seven years. After a defense agency chosen to be the executive oicer for assignment as a detachment commander It was great to see “Giving Joint As- the J2, a one-star Air Force general in and a one-year defense school, I was pro- signments Their Due,” regarding Air charge of intelligence for the Pacific moted to major, one year below the zone. Force eorts concerning joint operations, Command (PACOM). Shortly thereafter, After completing ACSC in residence and especially joint task force command po- I was selected to be the deputy exec- during a follow-on U&S command tour, sitions, and to bring more purple into utive oicer and speechwriter to Adm. I was passed over twice in the primary the force through better training. I was [William J.] Crowe Jr., the commander in zone to lieutenant colonel. Several senior assigned to US Forces Korea as a senior chief (CINC) of PACOM. I served in that oicers advised that promotion boards major, and I am sure the fact that I was capacity until Crowe was chosen to be may have thought I had too many joint out of my normal supported command the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Sta assignments. I was lucky to have been (what was then Air Intelligence Agency) (CJCS), at which time it was important recruited by the subordinate Air Force and in a joint position contributed to my for me to return to the cockpit. component command (Majcom), which not being selected. As was stated in the During my time as one of the only rated got me promoted a year above the zone. article, some see the joint world as a USAF oicers in IPAC, an exec to the J2, Despite such a tumultuous career, I be- parallel universe and unfortunately that and the assistant exec and speechwriter lieve Air Force personnel are needed in includes some members of promotion to CINCPACOM, I received “firewalled” joint commands and agencies to provide boards. I hope Air Force eorts have the oicer eiciency reports (OERs). My last the Air Force expertise, capabilities, intended aect and joint assignments two were endorsed by the Secretary of and points of view to enhance both become less of a stigma for company Defense (SecDef) and every OER stated, accomplishing the joint organization’s and field grade oicers. “promote ahead of contemporaries.” I and the Air Force’s missions. This mes- Maj. Douglas W. McGuire, fully hoped, based on my career and sage should be taught to all Air Force USAF (Ret.) hard work, that I might make 0-6 one personnel from Day 1 and reinforced by Fredericksburg, Va. or two years early. all selection and promotion boards. Joint But, when returning to an Air Force assignments should not be detrimental “Giving Joint Assignments Their Due” unit, though serving in key positions to a career. My last assignment was at a certainly caught my attention. I found the and continuing to get firewalled OERs, defense agency whose two-star Air Force position of Gen. [David] Goldfein, Chief my report—a year ahead of the colo- director was “fired” for security reasons, of Sta, who purports to “strengthening nel’s board—was sent to a three-star so my last OER was signed and endorsed joint leaders and teams” something I had for endorsement (the wing commander by two Air Force colonels. No oense to heard during my career. The editorial wanted to “save” OERs for four-star the colonels, but I saw the handwriting on reports that USAF considers some joint endorsements, as he thought I didn’t the wall, so I retired. I suggest all oicer assignments will even be “considered need it—that I was sure to get the early ratings be “automatically” forwarded to a equivalent to command positions at promotion). The Air Force promotion promotion time.” Goldfein says he will board cared less if I performed well in WRITE TO US ensure that folks get “rewarded” for a joint assignment for a Navy four-star serving in joint assignments. and was endorsed by SecDef. No early Do you have a comment about a current I bought that same mantra, popular promotion. article in the magazine? Write to “Letters,” in the ’80s. I volunteered for and at- Then, the Air Force had the gall to ask Air Force Magazine, 1501 Lee Highway, tended the Armed Forces Sta College me to serve in another joint assignment, Arlington, VA 22209-1198 or email us at (AFSC), Norfolk, Va., and spent months one that would have required me to [email protected]. Letters should be concise being trained to work in a “purple” as- quit flying early (and lose thousands and timely. We cannot acknowledge receipt signment. My major thesis was graded of dollars in flight pay), sell my home, of letters. We reserve the right to condense “distinguished” and used in a future put my son in a boarding school (there letters. Letters without name and city/base course curriculum. Some AFSC students were no DOD schools where I was to and state are not acceptable. Photographs chose not to take a joint assignment, but be assigned), and more. I had already cannot be used or returned. worked the system so as to return to an served commendably in three joint jobs, —The Editors Air Force cockpit, something I would but was not “rewarded” for such, as have loved to have done, since my pre- Goldfein (and Major General Killough,

FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM the head of Goldfein’s joint leaders task The phrase used by the Soviet Union, Army Air Service grew from just one aero force) purport in the article. and certain Western media personnel squadron in 1916 to 185 aero squadrons I had a great USAF career and enjoyed and politicians, that the ERW is “the by the end of World War I, of which 45 my “joint” time, but if we really think that capitalist bomb” built to “kill people and deployed to the European conflict. we need more officers and airmen to preserve property,” is (intentionally?) However, I noted one omission from serve in “purple” jobs, then we need to deceptive. If one states instead that an the array of squadrons that are currently stand behind the statement that doing ERW bomb is built to “kill the aggressor’s active and that can trace their ancestry so will be “rewarding.” invading troops and decrease destruc- to 1917—the 141st Air Refueling Squadron, Lt. Col. Bob Russell, tion of the defender’s homeland,” a a component of the 108th Wing, New USAF (Ret.) different impression is created. This was Jersey Air National Guard. Although it Lancaster, Calif. in fact why the ERW was constructed, to did not receive the official designation defend the West against Warsaw Pact as the 141st Aero Squadron until Jan. 2. Namesake: Dyess invasion through the Fulda Gap. 1918, as it was enroute to the European I learned of [Lt. Col. Edwin] Dyess Col. Glen I. Reeves, conflict, it was effectively organized and the other Davao prisoners, McCoy USAF (Ret.) on Oct. 8, 1917, at Rockwell Field, San and Mellnik, in the book Jersey Brothers Weiser, Idaho Diego (today’s North Island Naval Air (December, p. 64). Of the three Navy Station). brothers, the youngest, Barton, was I appreciated learning about the As an undesignated provisional unit, it assigned to the Philippines arriving strategy, politics, and presidential deci- drew men from other units and trained days before the Japanese struck. He was sion-making surrounding the “neutron on the ubiquitous Curtiss Jenny at Rock- wounded and endured life as a prisoner bomb” from John Correll’s article in the well until they began their eastward trek of the Japanese but was not one of the December 2017 issue of Air Force Mag- across the country and then the Atlantic 12 who escaped the prison camp. Dyess azine. I’m looking forward to reading a Ocean. After receiving further training was admonished not to speak of the timely sequel on nuclear weapons plans in England and France, the 141st Aero conditions in the prison camps. However, and policy for the Korean Peninsula. Squadron (Pursuit) finally arrived at after President [Theodore] Roosevelt Col. J. Randall Johnson, Gengault (Toul) Aerodrome on Oct. 19, finally gave approval, the account of the USAF (Ret.) 1918, and immediately entered combat Japanese atrocities was made public Batavia, Ill. as part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. and published. Commanded by Capt. Hobart Amory Lt. Col. Robert Rogers, Century Skepticism Hare (Hobey) Baker and equipped with USAF (Ret.) As a lifetime member of AFA, and SPAD S.XIIIs, the unit led the 4th Pursuit Sudbury, Mass. an avid reader of Air Force Magazine, I Group in the number of combat sorties wanted to make you aware of an error flown, aerial engagements and German Non Neutral on Neutron Bomb in December’s article entitled “Com- aircraft downed. About a month after the I really enjoyed John Correll’s article memorating USAF’s 100-Year Units” armistice, on Dec. 21, 1918, Captain Baker on “The Neutron Bomb” and his ac- [p. 31]. The author of the article left out was tragically killed while post-main- count of the physics and politics behind one squadron that is still supporting the tenance testing a SPAD the day of his its history of development, production, USAF’s global operation by flying the intended return to the United States. and proposed, but never implemented, MQ-9 Reaper, the 111th Attack Squadron, The squadron stayed in Europe a bit deployment (December, p. 58). As a Texas ANG. As a former member, I can longer, forming part of the Third Army Air physician I have been interested in the assure you that the 111th started life at Service’s 5th Pursuit Group’s occupation differences between the medical effects Kelly Field, Texas, in 1917, as the 111th force, until demobilization in June 1919. of fission versus enhanced radiation Aero Squadron. The unit was transferred Significantly, on Sept. 8, 1973, the weapons (ERW) of similar yields. As to the Texas National Guard in 1924 as Secretary of the Air Force ordered the Correll pointed out, the prompt radia- the 111th Observation Squadron/36th reconstitution of the 141st Aero Squadron tion-to-blast ratio in an ERW is much Division. Over the many decades the and allotment to the New Jersey ANG, greater than that of a fission device. 111th has seen action in the MTO, ETO, and consolidation with the then-existent He did not mention that the biological Korea, (first Air Guard unit to see action 141st Tactical Fighter Squadron. The effects of neutron radiation (and hence in Korea), Air Defense, Operation Noble consolidated unit was also bestowed mixed field radiation) differ from those Eagle, and Operation Enduring Freedom. the lineage, history, honors, and colors of the primarily gamma radiation pro- The unit celebrated its 100th anniversary of the 141st Aero Squadron. After flying duced by a fission device. Mixed field on August 12. Please add a correction in high-performance fighter aircraft for its radiation injuries have shorter survival the next issue. entire existence, the unit converted to times, a shorter latency period (time Capt. Randall Smith, the tanker mission in October 1991, be- between exposure and manifestation USAF (Ret.) coming the 141st Air Refueling Squadron. of symptoms), increased mortality, and Katy, Texas Rick Porcelli, increased delayed healing times for Barnetgat, N. J. concurrent blast and/or thermal injuries. The “Commemorating USAF’s 100- For survivors, the risk of carcinogenesis Year Units” article in December’s Air To my amazement, I found multiple from mixed field radiation is considerably Force Magazine is a valuable testament units listed as having roots back over 100 elevated as well. The only good news is to the rich heritage of the service. The years very hard to believe. For example, that the fission product fallout from an number of units that can trace their his- there are five (yes, five) air refueling units ERW is half that of a fission device of tory back to that period of time should shown. Unfortunately, your article on air similar yield. not be surprising, however, since the refueling on p. 45 indicates the first mil-

FEBRUARY 2018 H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM 5 [email protected]

itary air refueling occurred in June 1923. I’m Not Crying, You’re Crying There is one “cyberspace” squadron I just finished reading the incredible shown. One space range squadron and story about “DT” [Israel Del Toro] “Like finally, the USAF Thunderbirds, which a Phoenix,” December, p. 26. Shortly after only was founded in 1953, per their own starting the story I was crying like a baby. Air Force Association web site. Just to say I served in the same uniform 1501 Lee Highway • Arlington, VA 22209-1198 Me thinks there was considerable humbles me. As a former fighter pilot, afa.org “stretching” of the histories. my combat experience (in an air condi- Telephone: 703.247.5800 Col. Michael LaBeau, tioned climate-controlled environment) Toll-free: 800.727.3337 USAF (Ret.) pales in comparison to what he and so Fax: 703.247.5853 Fort Worth, Texas many others have done to defend our great nation. AFA’s Mission As noted in the introduction, the 100 years Lt. Col Dennis L. Lombard, is based on o icial Air Force lineage for cur- USAF (Ret.) Our mission is to promote a dominant United States Air Force and a strong rently active units. Most units have changed Tucson, Ariz. national defense and to honor airmen and equipment, location, and mission several our Air Force heritage. times, and may have been activated and Special Tactics inactivated more than once.—THE EDITORS I appreciated the article on AFSOC’s special tactics (ST) and its impressive To accomplish this, we: I enjoyed perusing and researching combat record [“The Rise of AFSOC’s ■ Educate the public on the critical need your USAF 100-Year Units patch display Special Tactics,” December, p. 40]. ST’s for unmatched aerospace power and a in your December 2017 edition. I was rapid, flexible, and lethal force gives spe- technically superior workforce to ensure impressed with the originality, creativity, cial operations planners many innovative US national security. and artistic skill that went in to creating force options. I was, however, surprised ■ Advocate for aerospace power these impressive historical images. Back and disappointed that the AFSOC spe- and STEM education. in the “good old days” free spirits were cial tactics history missed some major allowed to be as expressive as they historical events in the evolution of this ■ Support the Total Air Force family and wanted. force. Specifically, the seminal event to promote aerospace education. I did some head scratching at some develop a standing national hostage of the units I saw highlighted. A little Contacts rescue task force was the brilliant Israeli internet surfing confirmed that each and July 4, 1976, Operation Thunderbolt (aka CyberPatriot .... [email protected] every one had a story that started over Jonathan) rescuing the hijacked pas- Field Services ...... [email protected] a century or more ago and extends right sengers of an Air France airliner at the Government Relations ...... [email protected] up to today’s Air Force. Entebbe Airport, Uganda. For various Insurance ...... [email protected] All these units have long and illustrious reasons that require longer elaboration Membership...... [email protected] lineage. Many traveled around more than (but not in this space), Military Airlift News [email protected] FedEx trucks on Christmas Eve. For ex- Command (MAC) developed a capability ample, the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron to support those rapid reaction missions. Magazine has the distinction of being our military’s This resulted in the prototype special [email protected] oldest flying unit, established in March tactics unit unoicially known as Brand X Editorial Oices ...... [email protected] 1913. That unit has been re-designated in late 1976. As a member of that unit we Letters to Editor [email protected] 16 times and called 26 locations “home” stood on the shoulders of combat control Wingman ...... [email protected] while earning 12 campaign streamers. team (CCT) experiences from Southeast It’s good that today’s “PC police” ha- Asia where CCTs performed front line Change of Address/Email ven’t imposed any social cleansing on combat missions. Brand X supported the In an eort to stay connected with AFA and your local chapter, please update your any of these unit logos. Surely in today’s competing Army capabilities (Blue Light mailing and email addresses. Change of patch approval process, mascots like and Delta Force) culminating in the 1980 address requires four weeks’ notice. Indian outlaws, hatchet men, red devils, Eagle Claw “Desert One” failed hostage Mohawk warriors, bomber barons, dice rescue attempt in Iran. The follow-on To update your contact information: men, flying fiends, or Mr. Jiggs might get 1981 organization of the Joint Special ■ Email: [email protected] more bureaucratic scrutiny than they Operations Command (JSOC) and the could survive. Likewise, slogans like 1987 stand-up of US Special Operations ■ Visit: The Members Only area “kickin’ ass,” “resistance is futile,” and Command provided strength to build of our website, afa.org “hat in the ring gang” might be judged and reinforce the current robust organi- ■ Call: Our Membership Department as oensive by some. zation. Leaving out mention of the “Fa- at 1-800-727-3337 Back in those early days we had im- ther” of special tactics Col. John Carney portant things to focus on like a world is a glaring error. Carney, with the cover ■ Mail your magazine label, including your war and no time for a lot of Trumped up and support of MAC Gen. Duane Cassi- first and last name, to our Membership things like today. dy, took on the military bureaucracy and Department at 1501 Lee Highway, Col. Bill Malec, corrected the structural organization. Arlington, VA 22209-1198. USAF (Ret.) He provided for realistic training, added O’Fallon, Ill. pararescue and other key operational

FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM support, and developed an oicer path Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath with might require it—but most do not. I was that is enjoyed today with many senior the F-111F). While the F-111s, with a large a reconnaissance systems oicer in the special tactics oicers in key special internal fuel capacity added to the wing SR-71. Flew with several pilots wearing operations forces (SOF) positions. This tanks, could fly much longer distances eyeglasses. If we recall pilots, I am sure also opened up senior NCO positions in than the other aircraft listed in the arti- that we will see eyeglasses! key service and joint commands. Brand cle, flight to target distances increased Lt. Col. G. T. Morgan, X veterans look proudly on the modern accordingly resulting in many missions, USAF (Ret.) day inclusion of combat weather, TACP, in essence, being one-way missions. Hoodsport, Wash. and forward surgical care that were long During my two tours at RAF Upper overdue, making today’s special tactics Heyford, crews “pulled alert duty” ei- Flying the Fishhook a unique and powerful Air Force and ther Monday through Friday or Friday I thoroughly enjoyed reading another SOF capability. until Monday. The crews lived at the one of John T. Correll’s historical arti- Maj. John A. Koren, alert facility during that time but could cles—my favorite section in the maga- USAF (Ret.), “expand” to other parts of the base, zine. There was included a great deal of Euless, Texas using specially marked “alert vehicles” behind the scenes activity leading up which allowed them to return to the alert to the Cambodian bombings that I’d not Fill ’Em Up—Worldwide facility rapidly. I left many dinners half run across before [“The Shadow War in I was pleased to read the story [“Global eaten at the oicers club when we’d be Cambodia,” January, p. 54]. Reach, Through Tankers,” December, p. “scrambled” and have to return to the I would add a few minor clarifications. 44]. My first Active Duty assignment was facility and our aircraft. I was a B-52 navigator who participated with the 431st Air Refueling Squadron at As indicated in the article, by that in these early Cambodian raids. Accord- Biggs Air Force Base in El Paso, Texas, time, we had gone to strict “two-man” ing to my private records, on Feb. 28, 1962 to 1965, when the squadron was control procedures with the two-man 1969, we made a 60-ship gaggle raid deactivated, retiring the KB-50J from crew or a crew member and the crew over four hours (the largest conducted service. To find a picture of one of our chief making up the two-man team al- before the Linebacker campaigns) in the KB-50J’s refueling the Thunderbirds lowed to enter the aircraft shelter area. Fishhook region just short of the Cam- brought back many fond memories. Only assigned aircraft commanders and bodian border and technically (barely) The KB-50 was an old workhorse, but it weapon system oicers could enter the within South Vietnam. My post-mission always got o the ground. That probably cockpit and that had to be accomplished private notes say approximately 350,000 had something to do with it’s four R4360 simultaneously. pounds of bombs were dropped. It was a engines teamed up with two J47 jets. The 20th TFW squadrons (55th, 77th, tremendous success, with great damage The squadron motto was “Anywhere, and 79th) are still in the same wing, to the enemy. This obviously whetted Anytime,” and I still have my original however, they are now located at Shaw the leadership’s appetite for more of the flying red horse patch as seen on the tail AFB, S.C. As a side note, the squadrons same, which we all presumed led direct- of the two planes in the picture. celebrated their 100th anniversary this ly to the more aggressive first secret Our flight line always looked like World year having been formed in 1917. over-the-border attack on March 17-18, War II due to the resemblance to the Lt. Col. Darrel DeLong, 1969, as stated by Correll. I was in that B-29, but it was a SAC base and includ- USAF (Ret.) second attack as well, which my notes ed B-52s and KC-135s. It’s interesting Austin, Texas say was another 60-ship gaggle (not 48 to note that the KB-50J squadron was as stated). Also, Correll reports that at part of Tactical Air Command rather than I Can See Clearly Now Andersen AFB, Guam, only “the B-52 SAC. Even with the added jet engines the Quit complaining about pilot shortages pilots and navigators” got the premission KB-50J was slow, and it was sometimes and begin thinking about how we solved briefing. At U-Tapao, all six basic crew- diicult for modern jet fighters to slow that problem during the Vietnam era [“Air men were included in the brief. Air police down enough to refuel behind them. I Force Association’s Top Issues—2018,” oicers and men rather pointedly cleared noted it appears that the F-100s seem to 2017 Air, Space & Cyber Conference the room of all extra crewmen and sta. have flaps down and spoilers extended. Special Edition]. We strengthened the The U-T wing commander personally Thank you for this trip back in time. pilot-navigator aviation cadet program. presided over the ceremonies. Only the MSgt. Ted Brown, This program did not require just a basic crews (in B-52C and D models USAF (Ret.) college degree to enter either of the only) were allowed to fly the March Jacksonville, Ore. training programs. It took more than 17-18 mission. that. It required someone that had to Robert O. Harder prove themselves qualified to enter the Chicago More about One-Way Nukes programs. The October/November Air Force Many airmen that had jobs as aircraft INDEX TO ADVERTIZERS Magazine article, [“The One-Way Nu- crew members, mechanics, and other clear Mission, p. 104,”] covered much of a technical positions turned out graduat- Bradford ...... 39, 61 little-known Cold War mission, however, ing a greater percentage of pilots than Mercer ...... 26 there was a rather large omission when any other program. Northrop Grumman ...... Cover II talking about aircraft employed. From And, having been an aviation cadet, I Rolls Royce ...... Cover IV 1970 until 1991, the 20th Tactical Fighter have learned that a larger percentage of USAA ...... Cover III Wing, flying the F-111E pulled Victor us remain in the USAF than not. Alert at RAF Upper Heyford (with similar Drop the 20/20-eyesight requirement! Air Warfare Symposium ...... 3 missions supported by the 48th Tactical Maybe some high-performance aircraft USAF Charity Ball ...... 63

FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM Aperture By John A. Tirpak, Editorial Director

DEC. , WASHINGTON, D.C.

A PEEK AT THE NEW WORLD ORDER

A new era of “great power competition” is underway, and the US will have to come to terms with the fact that it’s no longer the world’s sole superpower, but one of several. Accommodat - ing that reality—and the likelihood of only modest increases in defense spending—means the US should fully train and equip the military it has and focus tightly on being able to “win our nation’s wars” without any warning time. This assessment, delivered by former Deputy Defense Secre - tary Robert O. Work at the US Naval Institute in December, may be as close as the public gets to a glimpse of the new National Military Strategy, reportedly in its final stages of coordination in December. Work served as the No. 2 man at the Pentagon from April 2014 to July 2017, under both the Obama and Trump administrations. He directed all the Pentagon’s strategy reviews and weapons programs and was privy to the most classified assessments of US and adversary capabilities. More than per - haps anyone else, he knows how the US stacks up against its competition. Work said the US will have to “unlearn the lessons” of the last 26 years when the post-Cold War world offered no existential military challenges to the US. This was a “period so strategically favorable to the US,” which had “uncontested ... supremacy” in all things military, leading to complacency in many areas. The Waverider hypersonic Scramjet just before its second That era ended in 2014 when China felt confident enough test flight, in June 2011. in its power—both “soft” economic and diplomatic power and “hard” military power—to embark on its South China Sea is - CHINA HAS THE LEAD land-building campaign, directly challenging the US. Russia, in the same year, invaded Ukraine and annexed Crimea, apparently In recent defense white papers, China has boldly declared unconcerned about a US response. that it will pull even with the West in automation and AI by These events were a clear sign of great powers trying to 2020, be better than anyone else in those disciplines by 2025, “secure their near-abroads” and challenge the US for power and be dominant in such technologies by 2030. China’s rapid and influence, Work observed. The era might even have ended rise in other technology pursuits suggests these aren’t idle sooner, in 2008, when Russia threatened military consequences boasts, Work added. if NATO continued expanding, he allowed. China is pursuing asymmetric strategies to counter US ad - Today, US “hard power is declining ... with a vengeance” vantages and one of those is to exploit “near-space,” by taking relative to its challengers, Work asserted. a lead in hypersonics. “Don’t rule out the ideological component, either,” he added. “China has said, ‘We’re going to compete and dominate in While the US has not been as aggressive recently in its campaign hypersonics,’” Work pointed out—flatly acknowledging that to spread democracy, its challengers are vigorously trying to China is already the world leader in this area. “Our geo-strategic “make the world safe for authoritarianism.” Accompanying that rivals ... are competing with us, hard.” is a “general intensification of world disorder,” with political Work offered a checklist of challenges that must be ad - and technological disruptions and a “pronounced uncertainty dressed if the US is to remain militarily competitive in the about the willingness and staying power of Western democracy.” coming decades; a period in which technological advantage For at least the next 25 years, the world will be in a “very, very will again seesaw between the great powers and in which there chaotic period,” Work assessed. will be more of them. During this era, the most important technologies will be in First, the US must somehow both “compete with the other automation and artificial intelligence (AI), he predicted. These great powers while avoiding great power war,” he said. Second, will enable militaries to function much faster, from the strategic this will require the ability to deter and respond to “old and and operational levels down to the tactical, and that will be the new means of strategic attack,” including nuclear as well as key to victory. For example, great strides are being made in cyber warfare. The latter can be practically as devastating as “cognitive” electronic warfare, in which machine intelligence a nuclear attack if an enemy chose, for example, to crash the figures out what the enemy is doing, second by second, and US electrical grid. counters it. The third challenge will be to manage the “destabilization,

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM disintegration, and re-integration” of various alliances, nations, ing “all the margin is gone.” Every new nuclear program—from and regions of the world, Work said, specifically urging a focus the Ohio-class ballistic submarine, to new B-21 bombers and on the potential rearrangement of alliances in the Middle East. missiles for the Air Force, to land-based ICBMs—has to be Fourth, the US needs to develop a new and credible concept replaced, he insisted. for deterring and dealing with “nuclear-armed minor powers” “About three percent” of the defense budget goes to nuclear such as North Korea and potentially Iran. forces, Work said, and modernization will double that figure Fifth will be a push to “restore conventional overmatch” with to six percent. It’s unlikely there will be “any extra money to competitors. Work said the US no longer enjoys a lopsided do it,” so that additional three percent will be “a decrement conventional advantage. “We are at parity now,” he warned. to the conventional forces;” another reason to resist trying to Rather than try to build more Air Force fighter squadrons, build a larger military. Army brigades, or Navy ships, Work said it will be more effective to “hone the force we have” and make sure the existing force structure is thoroughly manned, trained, and equipped. The US DUMPING JSTARS? is, and will remain, “very, very good” militarily, and if it is well prepared—Work specifically urged that forces be “over-provi- Once touted as the Air Force’s fourth-highest modernization sioned” and weapons inventories more than fully stocked—it priority—after the F-35 strike fighter, the KC-46 tanker, and will present a formidable deterrent to any adversary. B-21 bomber—a replacement of the E-8 JSTARS ground moving Organizationally, Work said the US has overindulged in target radar platform seemed headed toward cancellation in training deployments. American power has been dissipated December. by sending an endless stream of ships, aircraft, and troops to Senior Air Force leaders acknowledged in September they war games around the world, pulling them away from other were reconsidering the JSTARS Recap program, worried that missions. Better to send “training teams” that can observe and a big intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance platform offer guidance, Work said, because these deployments actually would be too lucrative a target for enemies in a future war. degrade readiness. USAF Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein and Secretary Heather Work also urged a reorientation of assets toward more Wilson told reporters at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference existential conflicts and competitions. He related that former they were thinking instead about a disaggregated network of NSA chief, USAF Gen. Michael V. Hayden, complained that sensors on platforms already in the battlespace, which would when Russia invaded Ukraine, the US was practically blind in be hard to knock out. that area because “everything was tuned to ... low-frequency Air Combat Command chief Gen. James “Mike” Holmes told radio” transmissions in Afghanistan. an AFA Mitchell Institute gathering in late November that, as envisioned, JSTARS Recap can’t do the job originally anticipated. “We don’t think that a JSTARS Recap will give us the capa- STICK WITH “THIRD OFFSET” bility we need” in contested airspace, he said. At the time, the Air Force had not yet decided whether to simply dump the Work pushed the “Third Offset” initiative he championed program—on the eve of selecting a contractor to build it—or while in office, insisting the US must press hard to achieve go ahead, but with the proviso that it would only be used in leap-ahead technology advances just to keep up with its more benign environments. In either case, USAF will need “a competition. As part of this, the US must move deliberately global capability that could do that [mission] on any battlefield,” to be able to fight in space and have the resilience to “fight Holmes said. The service is reviewing with sister services and through” losses of satellite systems. allies other ways it could do the less-demanding mission. Two The Budget Control Act will persist until 2021, and he sees alternatives might be the RQ-4 Global Hawk remotely piloted little sign of it being repealed, meaning a probable series of aircraft or the Navy’s P-8 Poseidon patrol aircraft, Holmes said. continuing resolutions or two-year budget deals. What the As originally envisioned, JSTARS reveals large enemy vehicle military urgently needs is a five-year assured plan to function formations and their movements, but there are other ways of properly, he asserted. defining that information now, Holmes said. In recent years, One option—and the one which Congress has resorted to JSTARS has been used increasingly to watch individual vehicles for several years—is to fund essential needs with the Overseas and “dismounted” people and is “frankly ... too expensive” to Contingency Operations [OCO] account. One of Work’s slides be used in such a way, he asserted. listed this option as “OCO the s#!t out of it.” In late November, the Air Force picked Northrop Grumman Under the defense budget proposed a year ago, Work said over Raytheon to develop the large radar that would be the core it’s likely the services will wind up, practically, with about $30 JSTARS sensor; a contract separate from that of outfitting and billion more in usable funds. That’s far from what’s needed, integrating a small fleet of airplanes for the mission. Raytheon, but, “You can do a lot—a lot—with $30 billion” to fix readiness in a brief statement, said it believed “the evaluation process problems. had significant flaws, and we have filed a protest accordingly.” Rather than attempt to grow the military, the Pentagon Typically, the Government Accountability Office is required to should fill empty billets and “empty missile holes,” Work said. investigate and report back within 60 days as to whether an Any adversary must look at well-stocked, well-trained US forces award was improperly made. and conclude that “if they go after [us], it will be the worst day Three companies were in the running for the JSTARS contract, of their lives.” US forces will be far more credible if they are expected to be awarded in the spring of 2018: Boeing, with a viewed as having the capability to fight all-out without notice. version of its 737, in a configuration similar to that of the P-8; Lock- Work said it’s unfortunate the entire nuclear enterprise has heed Martin, with a solution hosted on a Global Express business atrophied so much that every element of it must be modernized jet; and Northrop Grumman, offering a system mounted on a Gulf- all at once, but it must be done. stream G550 business jet. The new aircraft was to be in service

“We are way, way behind on recapitalization,” he said, add- by 2024. J BoeingPhoto:

FEBRUARY 2018 H AIRFORCEMAG.COM 9 Air Force World By Wilson Brissett, Senior Editor

■ Airman Killed in T-38 Crash A T-38 crashed at Laughlin AFB, Texas, on Nov. 20, killing Capt. Paul J. Barbour, 32. Barbour was the aircrew flight equipment flight commander with the 47th Operations Support Squadron and an instructor pilot (IP) with the 87th Flying Training Squadron. Capt. Joshua Hammervold, also an IP for the 87th FTS, was injured in the crash. “Tragic events like this are diicult for everyone—family, friends, coworkers, super - visors, and our entire Air Force,” said Col. Charlie Velino, 47th Flying Training Wing commander. “Every day our pilots take a risk as they step into the cockpit, and every day they operate with the utmost skill, professionalism, and dedication to train the next generation of flying airmen and to ensure the safety of this great nation.” Laughlin temporarily grounded its aircraft after the crash, which took place during a training flight near the Texas-Mexico border. The 47th Flying Training Wing is responsi - ble for undergraduate pilot training in the T-38, along with flying T-6s and T-1s. Flying Capt. Paul Barbour operations resumed at Laughlin on Nov. 27.

■ JBER Airman Dies During Deployment to South Korea A1C Darrick Jones, a JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, airman who was deployed to train Republic of Korea forces, collapsed and died on Nov. 6. Airmen attempted to resuscitate Jones, but were unable to revive him. “The grief felt as a result of the loss of Airman 1st Class Jones cannot be overstated,” said 673rd Air Base Wing Commander Col. George Dietrich. “On behalf of everyone at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, I oer our most sincere condolences to the family and friends.” Jones, 23, enlisted in the Air Force in September 2015 and had been stationed at JBER since August 2016. He served as a water and fuels systems apprentice with the 773rd Civil Engineering Squadron. At press time, his death remained under investigation.

A1C Darrick Jones

An F-35 from Hill AFB, Utah, taxis at Kadena AB, Japan.

■ F-35As Deploy to Japan security package. Two of the aircraft also “long-planned,” according to the Air Force, Twelve F-35As and about 300 airmen participated in a Seoul, South Korea, air and follows the deployment of US Marine touched down in Japan on Nov. 2 for the show in late October. Corps F-35Bs to MCAS Iwakuni, Japan. first Pacific deployment of the Air Force’s During the deployment, the F-35s The F-35 is “ideally suited” for the Pacific newest fighter. The jets, from the 388th will “integrate various forces into joint, and will be integrated both into training and 419th Fighter Wings at Hill AFB, Utah, coalition, and bilateral training across and “operations,” PACAF Commander deployed to Kadena AB, Japan. They were many dierent environments,” according Gen. Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy said in part of a US Pacific Command theater to Pacific Air Forces. The deployment is the release.

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Air Force World

■ T-6As Grounded at Vance after Physiological Incidents The 71st Flying Training Wing at Vance AFB, Okla., grounded all T-6A trainers flying on Nov. 15 after pilots reported four physiological incidents there since Nov. 1. In each incident, “the aircraft’s backup oxygen system operated as designed,” and the pilot landed safely, according to a Vance press release. T-6A flying operations were halted while the wing analyzed the data from the reported events. “Vance AFB is committed to ensuring aircrew safety is paramount, and [oicials] are conducting a full investigation of the reported cases,” said Col. Darrell Judy, 71st FTW commander, in the release. In the meantime, instructor pilots and students were briefed on the incidents to raise their awareness of the issue. Because all incidents T-6A Texans resumed flying operations Dec. 5. were limited to the T-6A, training operations with the T-1A and T-38 continued as usual.

Lt. Gen. Steven Kwast addresses First Command for the first time as the new head of AETC.

■ Kwast Leaves Air University, commander, Gen. Steven Kwast was the tantly, he exudes humility, credibility, Takes Charge at AETC obvious choice,” said Chief of Staff Gen. and approachability.” Lt. Gen. Steven L. Kwast assumed David L. Goldfein, who presided over Kwast served as commander and command of Air Education and Training the ceremony. “In Kwast, we have an president of Air University at Maxwell Command in a ceremony at JBSA-Ran - airman whose resume strikes a balance AFB, Ala., since November 2014. He dolph, Texas, on Nov. 16, 2017. “When between combat warrior, intellectual, succeeds Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, who

it was time to select the new AETC and leader. And perhaps most impor - had led AETC since July 2015. Photos: courtesy Barksdale AFB; USAF; A1C Greg Erwin; USAF; Sean Worrell/USAF

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Air Force World

■ ACC Removes Logistics Chief Air Combat Command’s one-star general in charge of engineering, logistics, and force protection was removed from command on Nov. 27 for not maintaining a “healthy command climate.” Brig. Gen. Carl Buhler was removed from command by ACC head Gen. James M. “Mike” Holmes fol- lowing an inspec- tor general investigation that found Brig. Gen. Carl Buhler misused the Buhler oicial time of his subordinates, violated travel regulations, and abused his USAF Thunderbirds Demonstration Squadron. authority by improperly reassigning sta duties, according to an ACC statement to ■ Thunderbirds Commander Thunderbird 1. Heard was previously an Air Force Magazine. Relieved of Duty F-15E expeditionary squadron commander Buhler, who is now working as a spe - The commander of the Air Force Thun- with more than 3,000 flight hours. cial assistant to Holmes, had served in derbirds was relieved of command follow- Brig. Gen. Jeannie M. Leavitt, com- the position since September 2015 and ing a loss of confidence in his “leadership mander of the 57th Wing at Nellis AFB, previously commanded the Ogden Air and risk management style,” Air Combat Nev., relieved Heard eective Nov. 20. Logistics Complex at Hill AFB, Utah. The Command announced. Leavitt determined a change was need- deputy director of logistics, Marc Novak, Lt. Col. Jason Heard was serving in his ed “to ensure the highest levels of pride, is serving in the position until a new first season as commander of the US Air precision, and professionalism within the director is appointed, according to ACC. Force Air Demonstration Squadron and team,” according to ACC.

■ Surge-Level Tempo Re- F-22 was publicly disclosed to have turns to Afghanistan as F-22 conducted a mission in Afghanistan. Debuts The F-22 Raptor “was used because US aircraft are striking targets in of its ability to deliver precision mu- Afghanistan at a pace not seen since nitions, in this case a 250-pound the peak of the surge seven years ago. bomb, small diameter, that causes the In October, US aircraft conducted 653 minimal amount of collateral damage,” strikes in Afghanistan. That tally is the said Army Gen. John W. Nicholson Jr., highest total since aircraft conducted commander of US Forces-Afghanistan. 866 air strikes in November 2010. This high operations tempo in Af- By the end of October, US aircraft ghanistan is possible because oper- had dropped 3,554 bombs in 2017—al- ations targeting ISIS in Iraq and Syria most double 2016’s final tally of 1,337. have eased recently. US eorts there The October total does not include “have gone well,” Nicholson said, “so the US and Afghan military’s new we’re beginning to see the eects of a oensive targeting of Taliban opium shift of resources, which will increase production. On Nov. 19, Operation over the course of the winter, going Jagged Knife took advantage of new into the spring, as the situation con- authorities to unleash a tidal wave of tinues to improve there.” airpower including B-52s, F-22s, and In October, US-led coalition aircraft A-29s targeting opium production in conducted 1,642 strikes as part of An F-22 Raptor being refueled the mountains of the country. Operation Inherent Resolve. That is for Operation Jagged Knife in The strikes marked the first time the the lowest total since November 2014. Afghanistan.

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Air Force World

■ Pilot Shortage Worsens The Air Force’s pilot shortage is getting worse, and service efforts to stem the exodus have not yet paid off, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson reported Nov. 9. At the end of Fiscal Year 2017, the Air Force was 1,926 pilots short, across all categories. That, she said, represents nearly 10 percent of a pilot requirement of 20,000. The previous year, the shortage was 1,500. The service is 1,300 fighter pilots short of require - ments, Air Force spokeswoman Erika Yepsen added. Yepsen also clarified that when Guard and Reserve pilots are included, the actual number is “approxi - mately 2,000 Total Force” pilots USAF was short at the end of Fiscal 2017. F-35 pilot 1st Lt. David Moore gets ready for flight.

■ Predator’s Left Tail Broke O , Causing 2015 Crash A mechanical failure of the left tail clamp on an MQ-1B Predator caused the remotely piloted aircraft to crash during a mission in an undisclosed area in the Middle East. On. Nov. 8, 2015, an MQ-1B assigned to the 432nd Wing at Creech AFB, Nev.,—operated by a deployed launch and recovery element from the 46th Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron—crashed as it approached landing. An Air Combat Command investigation found a left tail clamp or tail clamp bolt failure resulted in the air - borne loss of the left tail. This caused an “unrecoverable departure from controlled flight,” which happened as the pilot was conducting an arrival checklist. As the pilot alternated left and right inputs, mechanical and aerodynamic loads broke the weakened left tail clamp. The Predator was destroyed on impact, at a loss of An MQ-1 Predator’s left tail is important for flight. $5.3 million.

■ Air Force Picks Tyndall for New Reaper Wing ■ The War on Terrorism The Air Force has selected US Central Command Operations: Tyndall AFB, Fla., as the preferred Freedom’s Sentinel and Inherent Resolve location to host a new MQ-9 Reaper wing, including 24 air- Casualties craft. The new wing will include As of Dec. 13, a total of 46 Americans an operations group, mission had died in Operation Freedom’s Sen- control elements, a maintenance tinel in Afghanistan, and 50 Americans group, and launch and recovery had died in Operation Inherent Resolve, capability. The Air Force picked primarily in Iraq and Syria. Tyndall because the area has The total includes 92 troops and four fewer aircraft competing for air- Department of Defense civilians. Of these space, nearby training ranges, deaths, 43 were killed in action with good weather, and lower up- the enemy while 52 died in noncombat front costs, Air Force Secretary incidents. Heather Wilson said. There have been 239 troops wounded in action during OFS and 58 troops in OIR.

The new Block 5 MQ-9 Reaper. Photos: USAF; TSgt. Saldivar/USAF; Gregory Johnny Brook; A1C Greg Erwin; SMSgt. Cecilio Clausen Ricardo; Christian SrA.

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Forward Deployed By Jennifer Hlad

BLUE FLAG IN ISRAEL

UVDA AIR FORCE BASE, ISRAEL— US airmen in November had the chance to work with airmen from seven other nations during Blue Flag 2017, a multinational exercise in, and hosted by, Israel. e goal of the two-week exercise was “to simulate extreme combat scenarios and coalition ghts as realistically as possible,” according to the Israeli Air Force. Air forces from Poland, Italy, Greece, India, France, Germa- ny, Israel, and the US participated. Seven F-16Cs and about 200 airmen from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano AB, Italy, engaged in the live-y exercise. “Anytime we participate in a multinational exercise with many dierent partners and players, it builds our interop- erability. It builds our ability to communicate, it builds our common understanding of culture, and it builds our common understanding of capabilities and tactics,” said Brig. Gen. Lance Landrun, commander of the 31st FW. An Israeli pilot said the exercise was designed to nd common ground for each air force, so missions were planned and Then-A1C Cody Linholm (right, USAF) observes as German executed together, and everyone shared how they would ght air force crew chiefs prepare a Eurofighter Typoon. each mission. Some of the sorties involved ying against the Israeli Air in Yemen. It urged political solutions to the ongoing conict, Force’s “Flying Dragon” aggressor squadron. which intensied in early December after the death of the “ is is a signicant milestone in our relationship with the former Yemeni president, Ali Abdullah Saleh. international air forces, some of which are arriving in Israel to e resolution is nonbinding and does not attempt to end train for the rst time. is exercise will allow us to continue America’s participation in the war in Yemen. However, it ac- cooperating with these forces in the future as well,” said Lt. knowledged that Congress had not authorized participation Col. Nadav, commander of the 133rd Squadron, the Israeli and called for increased eorts to prevent civilian casualties squadron that led the exercise. and increase access to humanitarian assistance. At least 10,000 During Blue Flag 2017, four USAF crew chiefs participated Yemenis have been killed since the war began in 2015, accord- in a two-day exchange with air force crew chiefs from Germa- ing to the resolution, and the World Food Program warned the ny. SrA. Cody Linholm, a crew chief with the 510th Aircraft country was on the brink of “full-scale famine” in April 2017, Maintenance Unit (AMU), said he spent the rst day of the even before a Saudi blockade in early November. exchange explaining his routine to his German counterpart. US forces “routinely” y aerial refueling missions “in sup- “We showed them a step-by-step launch, the danger areas port of US and partner operations targeting terrorists in the of the jet, where to go if hydrazine was to spill on the jet, and region that the Royal Saudi Air Force can use for training and things like that,” he said. for operational missions,” US Air Forces Central Command e next day, US airmen shadowed the Germans as they got spokesman Lt. Col. Damien Pickart told Air Force Magazine. Euroghter Typhoons ready for a day of ying. US Central Command “has authorities to conduct a vari- “It was a great experience to go over and actually work with ety of missions in Yemen, all ultimately focused on bringing the Germans. While the US Air Force does not y or maintain stability to the region and halting the spread of terrorism,” he the Euroghter, it was still an opportunity to get out and expe- explained. “ e US does not provide targeting guidance or rience something dierent, especially for our young maintain- targeting intelligence to the Saudis in their ght with Yemeni ers,” said Capt. Jonathan Tolman, 510th AMU ocer in charge. rebels, and we don’t participate in Saudi missions that are outside the scope of specied authorities.” e US maintains a small train, advise, and assist presence YEMEN QUESTIONS in Saudi Arabia, and in a separate mission, monitors and tracks terrorist networks and activities “to ensure the US and Also in November, the House of Representatives passed a its partners have the most reliable intelligence to mitigate and resolution (HR 599) stating that American assistance to the target threats.” Saudi war against Iranian-backed Houthi rebels in Yemen e US has conducted more than 110 strikes in Yemen is not covered by the authorizations for use of military force against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula and against ISIS, covering operations Inherent Resolve and Freedom’s Sentinel. according to the spokesman. e resolution noted that the US “has participated in intelligence cooperation since 2015” with the Saudi-led coalition Jennifer Hlad is a freelance journalist based in the Middle East and and has refueled coalition planes ying bombing missions a former Air Force Magazine senior editor. J Abby L. SrA. Photo: Finkel

FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM Airmen prep an F-35 for a night flight at Luke AFB, Ariz. LIGHTNING AND THUNDER The F-35 and F-22 are teaching each other new tricks.

By John A. Tirpak, Editorial Director the F-35: Its formations and methods of advantage of newer, more advanced employment are a model for the junior technologies and processes. If we can t the outset of the F-35 fighter. In return, the small F-22 fleet apply the same advances to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter is gaining economy-of-scale benefits and F-22, we drive costs down and program, there were by getting in on parts buys with the pull schedules to the left on both high expectations that far larger—and growing—F-35 fleet. programs.” it would benefit from More advanced and hardier stealth The F-22 pioneered fifth generation lessons learned from features on the F-35 are working their tactics and those are being applied its elder stablemate, way back to the F-22, the two aircraft straight to the F-35, according to Col. the F-22 Raptor, also share radar features, and operational Paul “Max” Moga, commander of the made by Lockheed Martin. and manufacturing experience with 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB, Fla. ANow, a dozen years after the F-22’s the F-35 are helping define upgrades The 33rd trains new F-35 pilots, but operational debut and two years af- for the Raptor. Moga spent years in the F-22, as an ter the F-35 was declared ready for “The F-35 and F-22 were always instructor and demonstration pilot combat, the flow of lessons learned is meant to operate alongside one anoth- and later as a squadron commander, running both ways. The two fifth gen- er, so it makes a lot of sense to apply after starting out in F-15s. eration fighter programs are working that same logic to the programmatic Regarding employment techniques together to reduce costs and make both side of both platforms,” said Lockheed on the F-22 and F-35, “I would describe systems more effective. Martin F-35 program manager Jeff them as a direct transfer,” Moga said. The F-22 has been a pathfinder for A. Babione. “We’re constantly taking In the F-22, the key to employment

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM is “managing signature, sensor, and what we refer to as ‘flow,’” which he explained is how the plane and pilot sense the battlespace, steer between threats, and get into the optimum position to engage. That same concept applies to the F-35, he said. Though fourth generation aircraft pilots have to manage visual and infrared signatures, “it’s not until you get in the fifth gen world that you really concern yourselves with radar signature management. … That is a core competency of any fifth gen platform, and that is a direct transfer over from the F-22 to the F-35.” Pilots of both jets must “manage our signature as we employ the aircraft and optimize our survivability and lethality,” Moga said. The F-22 was a “generational leap” over fourth gen fighters such as the F-15 and F-16, and it took a conscious shift in culture to shed old tactics that were no longer relevant when the F-22 came online, he noted. In a fourth generation jet, a wingman must provide “mutual support” within visual range, “welded” to the An F-15 (top), two F-35s, and two F-22s fly in formation over the Nevada Test and flight lead just a few miles away. But Training Range. USAF is looking to field systems that will aid communications “pretty early on in Raptor tactics de- between fourth and fifth generation fighters. velopment, we realized that, based on the capabilities of the airplane, we didn’t need visual mutual support. We needed a mutual support by presence, which, for us, can be upward of 10, 15, 20 nautical miles away from one another,” said Moga. For a former fourth gen pilot who has always depended on someone close by having his back, “it takes a while to get used to that,” Moga said.

GROWING UP FAST Now, in the F-35 as well as the F-22, “we train our younger wingmen to operate outside the visual [support] environment, which means they have more responsibilities on their shoulders.” They have to grow up fast, Moga said. In both jets, “our young wingmen are making tactical decisions and ex- Airmen ready an F-22 for a Red Flag mission at Nellis AFB, Nev. ecuting accordingly at a level that historically, in our fourth gen eet, we would not expect out of them until Talking Past Each Other they were a seasoned ight lead, if not e biggest area of fth generation synergy that has yet to materialize is in a mission commander or instructor the area of communications. To be stealthy, F-22s talk to each other and share pilot,” he assessed. data via the Intra-Flight Data Link (IFDL), while F-35s transmit and receive Fifth gen pilots have to “get up to data among themselves via the Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL). speed a lot quicker because when Both systems are low probability of detection and intercept—meaning it’s hard they’re by themselves, the conse- for an enemy to listen in and triangulate the jets’ positions by their commu- quences can get dire if they make an nications trac—but the systems can’t talk to each other. e Air Force has improper or incorrect tactical deci- been scrambling to solve the problem. sion.” There’s no “safety net” of “some-

FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM electro-optical systems on the F-35, “most of the pilots flying [the F-22] would like … some version of a helmet” that displays data and allows the full use of more advanced weapons, Moga asserted. Both jets can carry the AIM- 9X short-range dogfight missile, for example, but only the F-35 can aim the missile far off-boresight (at a high angle off the nose of the airplane), because the missile can be cued by the pilot simply looking at the target and designating it. Lacking a targeting helmet, the F-22 can’t employ that tactic. The F-35 helmet is “a game-changer,” Moga asserted. Besides offering the off-boresight shooting capability, A technician works on an F-35 at Hill AFB, Utah. “there’s also other utilities they can use it for now that they have an air- body being two miles away from them to-ground-mapping SAR (synethetic that can clean somebody off their six aperture radar) … capability.” o’clock,” he noted. The helmet and cockpit displays This is all made possible by the ex- in the F-35 also offer “many more traordinary sensor capability in both options” for calling up and displaying aircraft that draws information from information. Though for an “old guy” both onboard and offboard sensors like him, the wealth of displays and and from the sensors of their wing- information can be “overwhelming,” men’s jets. “You no longer need four Moga said, young pilots take to it quite … or eight sets of eyeballs to scan the The new F-35 helmet oers a wealth naturally. horizon and look for threats and put of information—and options—to pilots. “When I watch their tapes in the together the tactical picture that you debrief and I see how quickly they’re need to execute. … The aircraft does dropping bombs or escorting packages changing their displays from this to all that for you,” he explained. In fact, of other aircraft, the F-22 has proved that and spending half a second to get it’s so much data that sometimes “it’s stellar in other ways, putting together just what they need and then flipping more than you need.” “the electronic order of battle, … the back … it’s pretty phenomenal.” The The airplanes’ missions are comple- airborne order of battle,” and then young pilots were reared on “Win- mentary. The F-22 is primarily an air conveying that information “back to dows and Playstation,” he noted. A superiority fighter with ground attack the platforms it may be more appli- new helmet is on the short list for F-22 capability, while the F-35 is optimized cable to.” upgrades. for attack, with dogfighting capability A lesson learned—and one certainly as well. By remaining unseen and un- being applied on the F-35—is “the im- STEALTH ARMOR detected, the F-35 can use the stealth portance of maintaining accurate and The stealth coatings transfer be- dogfight tactics already well-estab- up-to-date mission data files,” Moga tween the jets is “one of the larger suc- lished by the F-22, though perhaps noted. This is another area where cess stories” in the crossplay of the F-22 not to the same speeds and altitudes. exhaustive information on regional and F-35, Moga said. “The coatings and One mission not shared between threats is applicable to both airplanes. surfaces on the F-35 are a direct result the two is close air support. Moga The software facility that loads both of the lessons we learned with the … said CAS is a new one for him to learn. aircrafts’ mission data files is at Eglin. LO (low observability) management Though early on the F-22 units did try USAF and partner nations collaborate on the F-22.” to practice CAS, Moga admitted that to populate the databases with every The coatings on the F-22 were “very “we kind of got off track back in those threat known to intelligence. problematic” for a number of years years.” Since then, the F-22 operators “There’s a lot of work to be done, and because the F-22’s stealthy surfaces “got back in our lane and realized there it’s a fast-moving ball game, but we’re still require a degree of putty and were other platforms that were really making a lot of progress,” he said. Still, tape to smooth the surfaces. On the optimized for that mission far more “we’ve got a little ways to go before we F-35, though, the stealth treatments efficiently and effectively.” can raise the flag and say we’re where “are exponentially easier to maintain, The F-22 has been a success story we want to be,” Moga added. sustain, and restore,” he pointed out. in Operation Inherent Resolve, Moga The F-35 pilot wears a helmet that “It’s easier for the maintainers to fix asserted. Though its high-end dogfight shows practically all aircraft, environ- the aircraft, it’s quicker, and we have a capabilities have never been tested ment, and target data, but this capa- much more accurate tool” to assess the in combat, “I think the F-22 has per- bility came along after the F-22 was normal degradation of stealth surfaces formed tactically better than most designed. While it would be imprac- and its effect on signatures. Now, Lock- people thought it was going to in the- tical and expensive to backfit the F-22 heed is looking at ways that it can apply

ater.” When not “gainfully employed,” fleet with the “see through the floor” the F-35’s resilient stealth coatings to SSgt.Photos: Daryn A1C Caleb Worpel; Rick Llinares; Murphy; USAF

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM the F-22. If successful, it could sharply reduce maintenance man hours per flight hour and result in more jets being available for action at any given time; a significant benefit considering the smallness of the F-22 fleet, which numbers only 187 airplanes, including test and training birds. “We’re now making a more concert- ed effort to apply what we’ve learned on the F-35 to the Raptor,” Babione said, “as we continue to develop and upgrade both platforms.” The F-35’s stealth coatings have held up far better than those of the F-22 in the “salt spray, ocean environment, high humidity” conditions of the Florida coast, said Ken Merchant, Lockheed’s vice president for the F-22 program, in an interview with Air Force Magazine. “We’re looking at taking Jeff (Babi- SSgt. Anthony Ovechka inspects an AIM-9X missile on an F-22 at Hill AFB, Utah, one’s) topcoat from the F-35 and bring during a Combat Archer exercise in 2016. that over to the F-22,” he said. This would “add a bit of weight, because these [parts], plus spares,’ I get a price “The radar’s probably the big- it’s a little heavier material, but it’s tag that’s pretty high,” he said. “And gest win we’ve had so far,” Merchant spread evenly over the airplane so when Jeff goes to them and says, ‘Hey, said. The two jets using a common it doesn’t cause me a CG (center of I need 2,000 plus spares, the price waveform, but he could not go into gravity) issue.” Whether the Air Force comes down a lot.’” Combining or- detail except to say that they now will approve the change in materials ders for parts on things like “auxiliary share “some software and function- is still “pre-decisional,” Merchant said, power units, … environmental control ality” of the radars, particularly in but it offers a potential payoff in subsystems,” and many other basic util- ground-mapping mode. stantially reduced maintenance costs. ities can save big dollars, Merchant The two jets still have different Though the F-22 would still need asserted. electronic architectures, but “the stuff some caulking and taping, it’s already On every new order, he asks, “Is that’s pumping out of those TR (trans- benefitting from a new leading-edge there a way we can get a lift off each mit/receive) modules is very much the material. The old stuff “got real brittle other, here?” The opportunities to do same.” Electronic warfare capabilities over time,” Merchant said, but the new so are multiplying, he said, because of are similar and eventually could use material is “just more flexible and diminishing manufacturer syndrome: the same hardware as well. durable.” It goes by the name “max- An increasing number of cases where In self-protection, the aircraft can imum toughness boot.” It was partly the original vendor pulled out of the share common flares and magazines, developed at the F-35 program, “and business to pursue something more “common EW,” or electronic warfare they’ve got something very similar.” lucrative or just because technology systems, but mostly in the utilities, Lockheed has opened a “speed line” has moved on. In those cases, the two such as avionics, subsystems, hydrau- at its Marietta, Ga., facility to replace programs are looking for common lics, and interfaces for weapons. the old material with the new. replacements. Merchant also said a new helmet Getting the F-22 and F-35 sharing The benefit of adding the F-22’s will advance the F-22’s capabilities, technologies is “a drum I’ve been parts needs to those of the F-35 ap- and he’s looking to redo the cockpit beating since I got here,” said Mer- proaches “10 percent,” Merchant re- as part of an F-22 “midlife update.” chant, who retired from the Air Force ported. The flat panels in the F-22 cockpit as a major general in 2014. He worked Both programs are pursuing open were cutting-edge when they were on F-22 utilities development in the mission systems with sharing of parts built, but compared to modern flat mid-1990s and headed the Air Arma- in mind. “At some point,” he said, the screens, they are thick and bulky. Mer- ment Center at Eglin AFB, Fla., among aircraft may be able to swap circuit chant sees a chance to replace them many program management duties in cards and both use the software that with an F-35-like display thin enough his career. drives them. An upgrade to the soft- that the new processors could fit right He sees opportunities in common ware-based radio on one, for example, behind them, allowing easier service software—made possible by an open could, with little or no tweaking, work and freeing up space elsewhere on the systems architecture for both the F-35 on the other. Eventually, “everything’s airplane for growth mission hardware. and F-22—new common processors, plug-and-play, for the most part.” “It’s lighter, and I have a shorter the new radar waveform, and in econ- They will also be able to use com- wire run” to do the new displays, he omies-of-scale on parts. mercial cards, which will drastically said. “I have a team looking at what “When I got to Raptor, if I go to a reduce the cost, again, because of the the pilot interface would look like” in vendor and say, ‘Hey, I need 187 of economies of scale. an upgraded Raptor cockpit.

FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM an infrared search and track (IRST) system for the F-22 to help it better see Making the Whole Fleet Whole stealthy adversaries, Merchant said, e F-22s of the 325th Fighter Wing at Tyndall AFB, Fla., are used in ight “we really don’t have the real estate” in and mission training for F-22 pilots, but they aren’t up to the most advanced the same location on the F-22. “We’re conguration of the Raptor. ere’s good reason to bring them up to par, looking at other options.” He was un- Lockheed Martin F-22 Vice President Ken Merchant argued. able to elaborate due to classification. “It’s about $25-$30 million an airplane” to upgrade the early version F-22s up In cooperation with the Air Combat to a common eet conguration, Merchant said. One of the biggest costs would Command, Merchant said, Lockheed be to upgrade their radars “and put Gen 4 radars on those 34 jets.” “ ere’s a is looking at trying out some new ca- good bit of money that could be saved” by doing so, he asserted. If a jet comes pabilities for the F-35 on the F-22 first. in for depot maintenance, and all aircraft are of the same conguration, it “I can get things on the jet much doesn’t necessarily have to go back to the unit it came from. quicker,” he said, “because I don’t have at’s important because the Air Force is husbanding its F-22 eet very to do the negotiations with the foreign carefully—by tail number—to balance the number of hard and easy hours each partners” to wedge an improvement jet ies, or how long each one soldiers on in a harsh environment. Merchant into the already-robust F-35 Block IV said the F-22 has the potential—using careful monitoring, balancing eet program. Babione can lend Merchant hours, and assuming a midlife upgrade in the 2020s—that the F-22 could serve some engineers “that would work on another 40 years. e Air Force asked the company to do an analysis to see my team with the uniqueness … maybe if it could stretch the Raptor eet to last until 2045, and the analysis showed there’s … an extra connection, some “we can get them all the way out to 2060,” Merchant boasted. bit of software,” that would have to “Now, is it a frontline, go downtown, take the ght to the bad guy kind of be finessed, but both jets could use airplane in that time frame? Probably not. But it might be your homeland the result. defense airplane, much like the F-15 today,” he said. e F-22 design life was A small number of F-35s could then 6,000 hours, but tests showed it could go to 14,000-15,000. be tested with the improvement, and e training Raptors at Tyndall are aging faster than those at other bases if it works, it could be deployed on the because of the salty, humid air. Without a commonality upgrade, they will F-22 first as the F-35 production line is have to operate only there, corroding and aging out faster than the others. adjusted. “And you save a whole lot of Merchant said the F-22 eet could be managed the way the Air Force has money,” Merchant insisted. Otherwise, been controlling the aging of other types. It swaps airplanes between Active, with two engineering and production Guard, and Reserve jets because the Active Duty force uses their airplanes “a teams—unlikely to come to a common little harder” while the Guard and Reserve jets are own “less hard, and they solution—“the Air Force is spending take really good care of their airplanes, they freshen them up.” Plus, a dierent twice to get that same capability on simulator wouldn’t have to be maintained with dierent software. two jets.” In the F-22 eet, jets that have been ying in Operation Inherent Resolve Babione said the fifth gen synergy are also being swapped with aircraft that have been Stateside because, par- doesn’t stop between the F-22 and adoxically, the ones “downrange” are mostly ying benign “highway miles,” F-35. Merchant said. “There will absolutely be more tech- “When they’re over in the AOR, you y out, you hit the tanker, you y … nology sharing across various Air Force to your overwatch area, or y in as an escort to the fourth gen ghters, and programs,” he said, noting that fifth you’re just ying pretty much straight and level,” said Merchant. is doesn’t gen technologies are migrating to the put too much stress on the aircraft. Stateside, the jets “y out to the target company’s T-50A candidate for the area and … mix it up pretty good,” putting a lot of loads on the airframe with new Air Force trainer, its JSTARS re- violent maneuvering. cap offering, “and other Skunk Works Keeping all the aircraft common would keep “overall average hours down on efforts,” referring to the company’s the eet” and provide Air Combat Command the exibility to take aircraft from advanced technology shop. Merchant depot and put them—with their up-to-the-minute congutration—wherever said that, although Lockheed has not they most need to go. yet been asked, it’s possible the Air Gen. James “Mike” Holmes, commander of ACC, told Air Force Magazine Force will request it to collaborate last spring that he’d like very much to upgrade the training F-22s, but other with Northrop Grumman on the ser- programs have so far had higher priority. Merchant noted, though, that besides vice’s other fifth gen aircraft, the B-21 making the eet cheaper and easier to maintain, upgrading the training jets bomber. An antenna designed for the “gives [ACC] potentially another 20 percent operationally capable airplanes F-35, for example, proved a perfect they could take to war tomorrow.” “drop-in” fit for the B-2 and will soon at would be a great deal less costly than reopening the F-22 line, which be fitted to the F-22. the Air Force has been asked to cost out but says it simply can’t aord to do. “We’ll see more of that moving for- “I haven’t met anybody in the Air Force who says it’s a dumb idea,” Mer- ward,” Babione said. chant said. “There are incentives—financial and otherwise—for everyone involved here to find more synergy across pro- NOT EVERYTHING TRANSFERS wedge under the F-35’s “chin” that programs. Synergy between the F-35 and One thing the jets could not share vides many of the visual and infrared F-22 is a good example, but certainly is the F-35’s electro-optical targeting sensors other jets must carry in pods. not the only one,” according to Babi-

system (EOTS), the diamond-shaped Though the Air Force is considering one. J Bradshaw/USAF R.Photo: Nial

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Verbatim [email protected] By Robert S. Dudney

Of Glass Houses ... Crystal what’s going to happen? I’m going to “We need to move quickly. We need “I ... sent a note to Qasem Soleimani say, ‘Mr. President, it’s illegal.’ And guess to accelerate [space] acquisition. We [commander of Iran’s Quds Force]. I sent what he’s going to do? He’s going to say, need to innovate and prototype new it because he had indicated that forces ‘What would be legal?’ And we’ll come systems faster ... stop studying things under his control might, in fact, threaten up with options and a mix of capabilities to death, and get capability in orbit for US forces in Iraq. ... What we were com - to respond to whatever the situation is. the warfighter. ... The US built a glass municating to him in that letter is that That’s the way it works.”—USAF Gen. house before the invention of stones. we would hold him and Iran accountable John E. Hyten, head of US Strategic The shifting of space [from] being a be - for any attacks on American interests Command, Halifax International Se- nign environment to being a warfighting in Iraq by forces under his control. We curity Forum, Nov. 18. environment requires different capa- wanted to make sure he and Iranian bilities.”—Secretary of the Air Force leadership understood that in a way Root and Branch Heather Wilson, Reagan National that was crystal clear.”—CIA Director “It [creation of a separate Space Defense Forum, Dec. 2. Michael Pompeo, Reagan National Corps] is going to happen. It’s inevitable. Defense Forum, Dec. 2. ... By segregating those space profes - ... and Tortoises sionals in the Air Force into a separate “I’m worried about the future because, Lead or Die organization, segregating the resources, I don’t know how it happened, but some- “Rapid advances in artificial intelli- [with] an educational system for space how this country just lost the ability to gence—and the vastly improved auton- professionals, we can develop a culture go fast. And we have adversaries that omous systems and operations they will that focuses on the No. 1 mission, which go fast. We take four years to study a enable—are pointing toward new and is space dominance. ... We are going to program before we do anything. We do more novel warfighting applications have to rip this out by the roots.” —Rep. four years of risk reduction for technol - involving human-machine collaboration Michael D. Rogers (R-Ala.), House ogies we built fifty years ago. Why do and combat teaming. These new appli - Armed Services Strategic Forces sub- we take that much time?”—USAF Gen. cations will be the primary drivers of an committee, Reagan National Defense John E. Hyten, head of US Strategic emerging military-technical revolution. Forum, Dec. 2. Command, Reagan National Defense [The US] can either lead the coming Forum, Dec. 2. revolution, or fall victim to it.” —Robert Game Changer? O. Work, former Deputy Secretary of “[The US has] developed a sustained End Stage Defense, Washington Post, Dec. 3. air interdiction campaign and, for the “We’re getting close to a military first time in this war, a counter-threat conflict [with North Korea]. ... We’re Lost in Space revenue campaign. Using airpower, we running out of time. ... I’m going to urge “To attack a satellite probably does have been able to target the Taliban in the Pentagon not to send any more de - not require nation-state space capa- their so-called safe zones, command and pendents to South Korea. South Korea bility. Due to cost saving measures, the control nodes, illicit revenue-generating should be an unaccompanied tour. It’s command and control channel to the ventures, and their logistical networks …. crazy to send spouses and children to satellite is unencrypted. The security is Keep in mind that this is the first time South Korea, given the provocation of little more than a password. To hack such we have persistently used our airpower North Korea. So I want them to stop a system would require sophisticated in this interdiction role. The Taliban sending dependents. And I think it’s and proprietary equipment, although narcotics leadership was absolutely now time to start moving American with today’s Digital Signal Processing caught off-guard …. The Taliban have dependents out of South Korea.”—Sen. systems, it is becoming trivial. By the never had to face a sustained targeting Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Senate time it was noticed that a bird was put campaign focused on disrupting their Armed Services Committee, on CBS’s into a spin of death, the fuel is shot, illicit revenue activities. And it’s not over. “Face the Nation,” Dec. 2. there is very little fuel, ... and there’s a In fact, it’s only just begun …. With the $75 million dollar paperweight spinning air interdiction campaign, we are able to Reassurance You Can Hear in space.”—Stephen Northcutt, SANS go after the Taliban’s support structure “Owning the ... high ground is con - Technology Institute, Los Angeles …. We’re able to go after their weapons tinually going to be important as we go Times, Nov. 13. cache sites, their revenue generation, forward. Air superiority is not an Amer - and their C2 nodes. All the areas where ican birth right. It’s actually something Legal and Illegal they thought they were safe and they we have to plan for, train for, fight for, and “Some people think we’re stupid. are no longer so …. That is our new win. I see it as nothing short of a moral We’re not stupid people. We think about strategy going forward and it’s definitely obligation that, when any soldier or [use of nuclear weapons] a lot. ... If you been a game-changer and the Taliban is airman hears a jet noise overhead, they execute an unlawful order, you will go definitely feeling it.”—USAF Brig. Gen. don’t look up. They know it’s us.” —Gen. to jail. It applies to nuclear weapons. ... I Lance R. Bunch, chief of future op - David L. Goldfein, USAF Chief of Staff, provide advice to the President. He’ll tell erations in Afghanistan, Kabul news airforcetimes.com, Sept. 18. me what to do and, if it’s illegal, guess conference, Dec. 12.

FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM Then-1st Lt. Duston O’Brien, a pilot with the 71st Fighter Training Squadron, boards a T-38 at JB Langley-Eustis, Va. GROWING

PAINSSomething’s Gotta Give.

By Amy McCullough, News Editor compare the service to a rubber band rst and foremost, people. We are too that’s been stretched too far, imply- small [to do what] the nation expects n congressional testimony and ing that at some point—possibly quite us to perform.” speeches over the last few years, soon—it’s going to break. In recent years, budget constraints senior Air Force leaders have In 1991 the Air Force had 134 ghter have pushed the Air Force to make gotten almost rote in their mes- squadrons; today, it has just 55. “Yet, a priority of capability over capacity sage: USAF is simply too small to we are much more active in combat leading to a drastic reduction in the do all the missions being asked than we were during the Cold War,” said service’s personnel end strength. of it. Wilson during an event at the Center In 2001, there were 357,000 Active Lately, though, the language has be- for Strategic and International Studies Duty airmen, but USAF cut the Active comeI more urgent. Last fall, Air Force in October. In order to “win any ght force by 10 percent, leading to an all- Secretary Heather Wilson and Chief of at any time … we have to restore the time low of 311,357 in 2015, said Col. Sta Gen. David L. Goldfein began to readiness of the force. That means, Dennis A. Haught, the Air Force’s chief

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM MSgt. Alex (full name withheld, in the foreground), an Enlisted Pilot Initial Class student, works with Lt. Col. Aaron, a course director, during a simulator flight at JBSA-Randolph, Texas, in May. of program development for Manpow- “WE CAN’T AFFORD NOT TO er, Organization, and Resources. It didn’t take long for senior leaders COMPENSATE OUR TALENTED to realize they’d cut too much, too fast, and that there was nothing to suggest AVIATORS.” the demand for Air Force capabilities —Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson would ease. In Fiscal 2016 the service moved to bring end strength back up ing pipeline, AETC will have its hands forces, nuclear forces, and cyber com- to 317,000 Active Duty personnel. full training them and will have to munities. That was the largest increase in grow its own ranks to accommodate accessions since the Vietnam War, the surge. For example, AETC added NOT JUST THE AIR FORCE Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, then-com- 95 recruiters last year toward a goal Goldfein and other leaders have mander of Air Education and Training of adding between 240 and 250 new called the pilot shortage a “national Command, told Air Force Magazine. recruiters overall to sustain the growth. crisis,” and the service is working with “That was a really important num- It will also have to increase the number commercial airlines, academia, and ber for us,” said Roberson, because of instructors at basic military training the rest of the Defense Department to Congress didn’t believe the service and at the various technical schools to nd creative solutions that will help was capable of growing as quickly as train the new recruits. close the gap. it wanted to and had threatened to “We’re not looking to spike up and e Air Force closed out Fiscal 2017 withhold funding for future growth come back down. We’re trying to build about 2,000 Total Force pilots short, in- if USAF didn’t reach the targeted back up and build a more stable and cluding remotely piloted aircraft pilots. 317,000 airmen in Fiscal 2016. sustainable succession plan for USAF About 1,300 are ghter pilots, service The goal was met, though, and end in the long term,” asserted Roberson. leaders said. strength is still increasing. In Fiscal He added, “ at all costs resources. “ e shortage in our manned plat- 2017, USAF grew to 321,000 Active All of this takes a little bit of time and forms continued to grow by about 250 Duty people and is on track to grow preparation to make it work smoothly.” pilots” in FY17, although that loss “was to 325,000 in Fiscal 2018. The plan is ough there are shortages across the oset by improvements in the health of to have 327,000 Active Duty in Fiscal force, the most urgent need is to boost our RPA force,” according to a service 2019, toward a goal of about 350,000 the number of pilots and maintainers, spokeswoman. in the coming years, Roberson ex- which most immediately aect combat e biggest shortfall is with ghter plained. capability. Other populations that need pilots, Brig. Gen. Michael G. Koscheski, As more airmen move into the train- to grow include intelligence, security director of the recently stood up Aircrew

FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM SSgt. Jerey Kohler inspects an AIM-120 missile at Shaw AFB, S.C. The pilot shortage gets the headlines, but keeping enough weapons, fuel, and maintenance airmen is an issue for USAF as well.

Bonus Program, under which aircrew can receive a signing bonus for up to 13 years of service, earning up to $455,000. at’s a signi cant bump from the previous maximum total payout of $225,000. e service also has increased the monthly aviation incentive pay, com- monly referred to as ight pay, for both ocer and enlisted aviators for the rst time since 1999. Beginning Oct. 1, ight pay increased to a maximum of $1,000 per month for ocers. Enlisted aircrew members also saw an increase, to a maximum of $600 per month. “We need to retain our experienced pilots and these are some examples of how we’re working to do that,” said Wilson. “We can’t aord not to compensate our talented aviators at a time when airlines are hiring unprecedented numbers.” Capt. Timothy Six, in the cockpit of an F-35, prepares for a weapons system e Air Force is also trying to tap evaluation flight at Hill AFB, Utah. another resource: ex-pilots. In August 2017, the service announced the Vol- Crisis Task Force, said. He is concerned initial recommendations, but USAF untary Rated Return to Active Duty that future growth in the airline industry has already started rolling out some (VRRAD) program, which initially al- will cause the ghter pilot shortage to solutions. lowed up to 25 separated pilots to return infect mobility forces, as well. In fact, ough the service can’t compete to Active Duty for up to 12 months. the spokeswoman said the “greatest with commercial airline salaries, it’s e goal was to voluntarily bring back negative trend” between Fiscal 2016 trying to ease the nancial burden on retired pilots to ll “critical-rated sta and Fiscal 2017 was “in our bomber and pilots and their families by raising ight positions,” which would allow current mobility pilots.” bonuses. USAF is also taking steps to pilots to remain in operational units. e task force has put together sev- keep pilots doing what they joined to “As you can imagine,” Koscheski ob- eral “tiger teams” looking at all aspects do—y—instead of sending them to served in October, that program “wasn’t of the problem. It was expected to brief nonying jobs as they move up in rank. super appealing, being only one year.” senior Air Force leaders at their top-lev- In June of 2017, the Air Force an- e Air Force wanted to expand the au-

el Corona meeting in November on its nounced it was increasing the Aviation thorities, enabling more retired pilots Biese; Joel Martinez/USAF; A1C Sean Sweeney;Photos: R.Bradshaw/USAF A1C Tristin Nial

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Maj. Trevor Cooks mentors cadets at the Utah Military Academy in Riverdale, Utah, for CyberPatriot IX, AFA’s annual STEM competition for middle and high school students. The Air Force is looking to expand its cyber and intelligence workforces. to come back to Active Duty and for a announced the Second Assignment Aeronautical University in Daytona longer period of time. President Donald In-Place Pilot Program, which allows a Beach, Fla., where “pilot training is a Trump signed an executive order in limited number of Active Duty, late-ca- part of their culture.” Roberson said he’d October that did just that. Speci cally, reer ghter pilots and weapon system like to see the Air Force take advantage Trump eliminated the cap on the num- ocers to remain at the same base for of such programs, as well as similar ber of retirees who are able to return to a second tour. e goal is to improve programs at companies that train pilots, duty and extended the time of service the quality of life and potentially retain “to help us train to a certain level.” After to three years instead of one. aviators with more than 20 years experi- earning a few hundred hours in the Koscheski said the move “changes ence, according to an Air Force release. cockpit at the university, students could the decision calculus,” enabling some “We’re going to break paradigms, go enter the Air Force training pipeline. recently retired pilots to return to ight outside of traditional methods of pro- Because this problem affects the status and serve as instructor pilots. ducing Air Force pilots, and look at all whole country and not just USAF, Rob- However, he acknowledged that if histo- options out there on how to solve some erson said the service is also looking to ry is any indicator, the service isn’t likely of these problems that we’re facing,” develop a “national academy for pilot to bring in more than a few hundred said Roberson. production.” is would involve part- retirees. Just before the executive order nering with the airlines “in a way we was announced, between 10-15 pilots MAXING OUT THE PIPELINE have haven’t done before.” Under one had expressed interest in the program AETC produced 1,100 pilots in 2016 concept, students who graduated from and just three were on contract, said and 1,200 in 2017, Roberson said. He the national academy would serve a Koscheski. anticipated that number will grow to certain number of years in the military, “Each pilot that comes back is one 1,400 pilots per year in the “next couple but then be guaranteed a civilian ying sta position we won’t have to ll for of years,” and then top out at 1,600 per position after that. three years, so that helps with require- year in the future. At that point, Rober- ere isn’t a silver bullet, single-point ments,” he added. However, “our long- son said, “we’re going to have to gure solution to the problem, though. term x for the pilot crisis is to grow out a way to get at producing pilots that “It’s going to be 100 little things. It’s our way out of this, so it’s going to take is outside of the resourcing capacity of going to be a journey we’re going to be awhile to get in place what we need to the United States Air Force.” on for the next 10 years,” said Goldfein start producing more pilots.” For example, the command is looking at a Heritage Foundation event in Wash- On Sept. 7, 2017, the service also at universities such as Embry-Riddle ington, D.C., last April.

FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM Family and friends greet airmen returning from a deployment to Southwest Asia last November at McLaughlin ANGB, W. Va.

MIND THE MAINTAINER GAP said Roberson. “It stresses the whole an “Air Force cyber warrior,” and that Before the fighter pilot shortage system, but we’re closing the gap.” the service was “able to accommodate stole the national spotlight, USAF’s e Air Force is scrambling to ll the [him] based on his talents.” He said such focus was on a critical shortfall of ranks of its cyber specialists, whose exibility could lter down to other ca- maintainers. At one point, the Air expertise is urgently needed as cyber reer elds, though that hasn’t happened Force was short some 4,000 main- attacks and cyber crimes skyrocket. yet. at’s a huge part of what AETC’s tainers as it worked to bring the fifth Haught said, “ ere is a lot of move- new “Continuum of Learning” initiative generation F-35 strike fighter online ment in the cyber realm” and the service is all about. while still maintaining legacy aircraft has grown in response, but the “end- “ e Continuum of Learning is a it once hoped to divest, such as the game target” is still not quite clear. way of describing our deliberate eort A-10 and U-2. One thing that’s certain is the service of taking training and education and Because of the increase in end will have to change how it trains in order combining them with experiences,” strength over the last couple of years, to recruit the right kind of talent. Rober- Roberson said at AFA’s Air, Space & Cy- Roberson said USAF has “come a son tells a story about a Microsoft exec- ber Conference last September, where long way” and is “definitely closing utive who wanted to join the Air Force he unveiled the overhauled training the gap” in maintenance manpower. and serve his country. Because the Air concept. “We have to do a better job to The biggest challenge now is experi- Force doesn’t have any type of “gifted transform what we’ve been doing for the ence. It takes time to train all the new and talented” program, the service was last 70 years—from a pipeline, industri- maintainers coming into the service, going to start his training on Day One as al-age kind of production system—into which is placing a heavier burden on if he knew nothing about cyber. a much more modern learning system.” the more experienced maintainers. “ at was one of those cases where ere’s little time to gure it out, “They are now having to take more we had to take a step back and say, though. ose new recruits are already on their backs to make sure these ‘What are we doing?’ ” said Roberson. showing up for duty, and the Air Force young, larger numbers of maintainers “We need more exibility. … We have will have to show Congress it can use are getting the [on the job training] to be more agile.” every person to maximum benets or they need to become the maintainers Roberson did not name the Microsoft the long hoped-for growth may stop

we need them to be down the road,” executive, though he did say he is now abruptly. J Holcomb/USAF; Capt.Photos: Nelson/ANG Paul Holli

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MERCER Misc.: iStock ID: 534134538 Replacing Minuteman The Air Force is finally moving forward with a program to develop a next generation ICBM. By Wilson Brissett, Senior Editor

he Air Force’s effort to field is working hard to keep the program on a next generation inter- time and within budget. continental ballistic mis- It’s a tough challenge, since the next sile (ICBM) system has re- ICBM needs to last until 2075 and must newed energy, as the service be able to adapt to decades’ worth of announced in August the evolving threats. Success will require awardT of two contracts for technology a smart acquisition strategy and intel- maturation and risk reduction (TMRR) ligent system design. work. The Minuteman III replacement The contracts, to Boeing and program hasn’t always enjoyed this Northrop Grumman, pave the way kind of momentum. Within the bow for replacing the Minuteman III with wave of modernization programs the what is being called the Ground-Based Air Force is funding—a large Strategic Deterrent (GBSD). One of the slate of new fight- two will be chosen in 2020 to build the system, and the service’s Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland AFB, N.M.,

An artist’s illustration of Boe- ing’s proposed Ground Based Strategic Deterrent missile, intended to replace USAF’s Minuteman III ICBMs.

An artist’s illustration depicting a USAF crew working in a modern control room for the GBSD program.

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Two Minuteman III missiles are launched from Vandenburg AFB, Calif., seconds apart during a SAC readiness exercise in 1979.

ers, bombers, space systems, and surveillance platforms—recapitalizing “I THINK WE NEED TO LOOK AT nuclear ICBM and bomber weapon systems has repeatedly been delayed WHETHER OR NOT THE TRIAD or deferred. STILL MAKES SENSE. DO WE e new ICBM system will be very expensive. Replacing Minuteman alone NEED THE ICBMS?” could cost as much as $85 billion for re- Rep. Adam Smith (D-Wash.) search and development, procurement, and military construction. With budget The Pentagon and Air Force lead- warned, because “nuclear weapons shortfalls pressing the Department of ership answer yes emphatically. In pose the only existential threat to the Defense from every direction, upgrad- March, Vice Chairman of the Joint United States.” ing the nation’s nuclear weapons is “the Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Paul J. Selva, told Hyten agreed. “When I look at each one place where we can save money the Congress that “there is no higher prior- element” of the triad, “we cannot slow most clearly,” said Rep. Adam Smith ity for the joint force” than the effort to them down,” he told the audience at an (D-Wash.), the ranking member of the “modernize all three legs of the triad.” AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace House Armed Services Committee, in All of those systems have been Studies event in June, insisting, “We July. stretched “well beyond their designed actually need to accelerate them, not In a post-Cold War world, policy- service life,” US Strategic Command decelerate them.” makers have also questioned the need boss Gen. John E. Hyten said at the In the 1960s, he pointed out, USAF to maintain a triad of air-, sea- and same hearing, noting that the average built the Minuteman I in five years, ground-launched nuclear weapons. To age of a US nuclear warhead is 26 years. and at a cost of $17 billion in today’s some it seems like overkill. “A more fo- After a decade of uncertainty, and dollars. At AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber cused strategy” could create a credible despite the continuing questions, the Conference in September, Hyten said deterrent while reducing the nuclear GBSD and B-21 Raider next generation there’s no reason why the service arsenal, said Smith. “Personally, I think programs now appear to be on their couldn’t achieve similar results with we need to look at whether or not the strongest footing yet. GBSD. The key, he said, would be de- triad still makes sense. Do we need Congress must act to modernize veloping “simple requirements” that

the ICBMs?” this capability “with urgency,” Selva don’t change over the life of the pro- SSgt. Marine Illustration/Boeing; Grumman; John Photos: Illustration/Northrop

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM gram and making sure the program director is “given the authority and responsibility to execute that program” without excessive bureaucratic oversight. Finally, GBSD will require a stable annual budget to keep the program on track, Hyten said. Given that the federal government has run on 31 continuing resolutions over nine of the last 10 years, the lack of a stable, predictable budget may be the most difficult aspect of the program.

KEEP IT SIMPLE, STUPID Building a new ICBM system is a highly complex and technical endeav- or, and the Air Force rarely misses an opportunity to remind the public that it’s more than rocket science. Besides the missiles themselves, there are launch facilities, command and control networks, nuclear warheads, and thousands of miles of copper wiring to keep the weapons connected over the vast distances of Wyoming, Montana, and North Dakota. Replacing or refreshing all of these components presents the mother of all systems engineering challenges. Air Force GBSD program manager Col. Heath Collins insists on keeping simplicity as the No. 1 goal for his team. “We’re a program that is not looking to push the technology bounds,” he told Air Force Magazine. “There’s no technology miracles that have to happen for GBSD. It really is an integration program.” From guidance systems to propul- sion and software, “today’s technology, integrated and implemented in GBSD, can meet our requirements,” Collins said. Collins believes that acquisition efforts run into schedule and cost problems primarily when managers depend too heavily on “technical miracles … that need to happen for the program to be successful.” He learned this lesson SSgt. Stephen Kravitsky inspects a Minuteman III missile inside a silo near working in space acquisition. Before Grand Forks AFB, N.D., in 1989. taking the GBSD lead in February of 2016, Collins was a troubleshooter on tension programs (SLEP) in the 1990s, have worked hard to develop “a very programs like the Space Based Infra- “a lot of authority and control was detailed own-the-tech baseline strat- red System (SBIRS), which saw cost given” to the prime contractor, Collins egy and data rights strategy … to make overruns of nearly 300 percent and said. When the government yields sure we … get the best value for the arrived almost nine years late. To avoid data rights and the technology base- government.” a similar fate for GBSD, Collins said, line to contractors, it becomes much No matter how simple and firm the “Our foundation is a low-risk, mature more difficult to maintain competition system requirements for GBSD remain, technology program.” “throughout the life cycle of the pro- the Air Force’s expectation that the Another key to keeping costs low gram,” according to Collins. weapon will need to be operational over the lifespan of the program is for The GBSD must not only have “a for nearly five decades means the new the service to “own the tech baseline,” very firm requirements baseline, that ICBM must be able to evolve to meet he said. With recent satellite programs, we’ve spent a lot of time to mature,” unknown future threats. The service’s

as with the Minuteman service life ex- stated Collins, but he and his team fundamental approach to this problem SSgt. ArchivesPhoto: Wycheck/via Alan National

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM A1C William Ray removes the screws holding the Minuteman III nose point to the rest of the re-entry system while aboard a payload transporter in the F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., missile complex in 2016. is to build a modular system that can then make changes to the “hardware part because the US has not built a new accommodate maximum change with and software on the ground too.” Some ICBM system since Peacekeeper was minimum cost and e ort. of these upgrades could become very developed in the early 1980s. In 2016, Modularity starts with digital mod- labor-intensive (and therefore expen- the Air Force estimated the program eling design. For all its reliability, Min- sive) as well, because of the need to would cost $62.3 billion for GBSD mis- uteman III is not particularly agile, and open launch facility doors or partially siles—400 for deployment and the rest that truth is reected at the design level, remove the missile from its silo in order to make up a test-launch stockpile. But which required “thousands of pages of to make the changes. the DOD’s Cost-Assessment and Pro- blueprints,” Collins said. Both Boeing GBSD will have “very set, modular gram Evaluation (CAPE) oce later said and Northrop Grumman are using com- components that are built around a GBSD would cost closer to $85 billion. puter-based 3D modeling to explore standard,” Collins said, so that a guid- CAPE said the more than $20 billion potential designs well in advance of ance system upgrade will be as easy as di erence was “driven by the selection prototyping. is process makes early switching “a component we can change of data sources.” e Air Force estimate design changes more ecient and less in and out very quickly.” e same could relies on the Minuteman and Peace- costly. be true of a new re-entry vehicle or keeper programs, whereas CAPE in- At the heart of modularity, however, updated cyber capability or almost any corporated more recent evidence from is the creation of an open-systems archi- part of the system. Modularity means the Navy’s Trident II and the Missile tecture. Implementing “open standards “we can much more e ectively and Defense Agency’s Ground Based Inter- and open designs” means that program cost-eciently make changes … based ceptor programs. With either method, ocials can “make modications or on evolving threats, based on evolving CAPE concluded, “it was unusually changes as you go forward on the pro- capability needs, based on evolving dicult to estimate the cost of a new gram,” Collins said. Again, the contrast technology,” Collins explained. ICBM program because there was no with Minuteman is instructive. recent data to draw upon.” As a result, Minuteman III is “a very tightly cou- GETTING AHEAD OF THE COST any attempt to anticipate the cost of pled, integrated system,” Collins said, CURVE GBSD brings “considerable uncertainty which means that “if you wanted to Over the coming year, the Air Force and risk” along with it. change something in the guidance sys- will have initial opportunities to control Collins said that more clarity on tem, you would actually have to change GBSD costs. Cost has been a controver- the cost of the program is not far away. pieces and parts on the missile” and sial subject already with this program, in Within nine months from the TMRR

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM 2nd Lt. Nikolas Ramos (l) and 1st Lt. Terrence Dale Duarte work at a control console inside a launch control facility at F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., in 2016. awards, the program o ce will hold for the incremental increase in capabil- current acquisition plan doesn’t have “cost capability technical interchange ity,” he said. that same kind of time line.” He allowed meetings” with Boeing and Northrop One decision that’s already been that “it could be accelerated perhaps Grumman. e purpose of these meet- made is to reuse the existing Minute- from where it is, but that’s a decision ings is to identify cost-capability trade- man launch facilities for the new mis- that we as a nation need to make.” os in order to highlight key e ciencies siles. An Air Force analysis of alter- Crossing that Rubicon would mean, for the GBSD system. natives determined that “to generate at least, committing to “continuity of e Air Force team will be working and build 450 new silos was very cost purpose”—having the sustained na- with the contractors to nd “the big prohibitive,” Collins said. His team is tional will to modernize the strategic cost drivers in the program from a re- analyzing the concrete in the existing si- deterrent, so it can continue to credibly quirements perspective,” and to outline los and has concluded so far that “those hold diverse and evolving threats at risk. “potential savings that could be had,” are still solid launch facilities.” Collins Presumably, continuity of purpose Collins noted. For example, a ve per- said this decision doesn’t bring with it includes having lawmakers consistently cent reduction in some requirements any technical limitations. “ey were pass federal budgets and for them to might translate to “really huge cost big enough for whatever GBSD needed include su cient funding for GBSD and savings.” ese tradeos could include to be and to refurbish them was much related defense programs. e Minute- “range or ability to penetrate any of more cost-eective.” man replacement can succeed under a those major requirements,” Collins said. e contractors are pleased with the shadow of inconsistent and uncertain e data from that review should be Air Force’s handling of the program budgets, but it will take longer to deliver available by May of 2018. Collins’ task thus far. e service “drove through that way, and will ultimately cost the will then be to work with Air Force Glob- evaluations and [TMRR] awards ahead nation more for the same capability. al Strike Command, in coordination of schedule,” Frank McCall, head of “We hear General Hyten,” when he with US Strategic Command, to work strategic deterrence at Boeing, told Air talks about going faster and doing it out adjustments to the program that will Force Magazine. He also said he expects more cheaply, Collins said. “We abso- preserve core capability while shaving clarity and consistency as the service lutely want to deliver GBSD as quickly cost where possible. Beyond these core drills down to the next level of detail at and efficiently and affordably as we capabilities, which are approved by the the systems requirements review. can, and our industry partners agree.” Joint Requirements Oversight Council, As to whether the impressive speed Perhaps the most important ques- there is room to nd “the knees in the and aordability of Minuteman can be tion, then, is what Congress thinks, curve where you start paying too much repeated on GBSD, McCall said, “our and what it is willing to do. J Photos: SrA. Bradon Valle; SSgt. Christopher Ruano SSgt. Christopher Valle; Photos: Bradon SrA. FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM SCREENSHOT

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM 12.13.2017

A California ANG C-130J equipped with the Modular Airborne Fire- Fighting System (MAFFS) drops Phos-Chek flame suppressant on the massive Thomas Fire in the hills above Santa Barbara, Calif. Photo: SSgt.Photo: Carzis/ANG Nieko Photo:

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM COMPASS CALL ANDRESPONSE

Electronic warfare isn’t going away—but EC-130Hs will.

Brian W. Everstine, Senior Editor An EC-130H Compass Call taxis at an undisclosed location in Southwest Asia. The aircraft type has been flying nonstop in the region for more than 15 years. ransplanting the innards of the Air Force’s Compass Call electronic warfare aircraft to a new host platform is finally underway, after an exhausting prelude of pro- Ttests, congressional interference, and public criticism of USAF’s acquisition strategy on the project. On Sept. 7, 2017, USAF awarded the first contract action to L3 Technolo- gies to begin removing critical equipment from the aged EC-130H fleet for installation on fresh Gulfstream G550 business jets. The small, 14-aircraft EC-130H fleet has been flying since 1981—and near-constantly in the Af- ghanistan, Iraq, and Syrian conflicts, An artist’s concept of a Gulfstream G550 in Compass Call configuration. Critical because of the unique capability it equipment from the aging EC-130H fleet will be installed on the business jets. offers in communications jamming and electronic attack. It has been a that can’t be matched by any other Combat Squadron, recently told Air key element in the fight against ISIS, aircraft. The airplane carries a team Force Magazine. an adversary that has adapted high of linguists who monitor ISIS com- “We are inducing massive confu- technology to its tactics and strategy. munications, while electronic warfare sion and friction into their opera- While USAF has struggled to rehost officers use the aircraft’s electronic tions that make them ineffective as the Compass Call mission, the EC- attack weapons system to target and a fighting force,” Lt. Col. Josh Koslov, 130Hs have soldiered on. They deny block communications when needed. 43rd Expeditionary Attack Squadron “time-critical” enemy coordination The aircraft help prevent “the in- commander, said in an Air Force news in ongoing combat, according to Air formation from getting to the boss” release. Forces Central Command. and “prevents the boss from ever Because the mission has been both The EC-130Hs deployed for Opera- being able to direct his forces,” Capt. crucial and ever-changing, the electron- tion Inherent Resolve have an auton- Tim West, director of operations for ic gear on the Compass Call has been omous electronic attack capability the 43rd Expeditionary Electronic constantly refreshed in recent years.

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM RESPONSE

An Israeli Air Force tanker refuels a G550 airborne early warning aircraft during an Independence Day flight over Israel.

So while the EC-130Hs are largely worn out, their equipment does not need to be THE FLEET REQUIRES “UNIQUE replaced. at’s why the Air Force came up with the idea of “cross-decking;” tak- SPECIALIZED” MAINTENANCE ing the equipment from the old airplane SUPPORT DOWNRANGE. and putting it on a new one. The final decision to cross-deck —Lt. Col. Matthew Cunningham, EC-130H aircraft commander equipment from the EC-130Hs to the new bizjets was made because it could be done “quicker than we could any oth- reduce future e ectiveness of the eet. 737 aircraft, Bombardier pitched its er way, getting a critical need to address is step faced immediate and stri- Global 6000, and Gulfstream proposed something out in the future—a threat dent congressional opposition, especial- its G550 jet. that is evolving,” said Lt. Gen. Arnold W. ly from Arizona lawmakers with constit- ese aircraft became the candidates Bunch Jr., USAF’s top uniformed acqui- uencies near Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., for cross-decking, which involves re- sition ocial, speaking with lawmakers where the Compass Call eet is based. moving the antenna array components last May. e move was stymied. from the prop-driven EC-130Hs and In awarding the project to L3, the Air In the Fiscal 2016 National Defense installing them on each side of a new Force let the company pick the aircraft Authorization Act, lawmakers called on jet in “cheek” blisters. e Compass it deemed best-suited to carry the elec- the Air Force to submit an explanation Call avionics, wiring, operator consoles, tronic warfare gear. for retiring the Compass Call, specically power supplies, and other equipment USAF’s acquisition strategy ignited calling on the service to outline how it would then be removed from the EC- multiple protests, spurring a Govern- might transfer the perfectly good mis- 130H, installed on the new platform, ment Accountability Oce review that sion equipment to another platform. and ight tested. dragged throughout 2017. While it pondered this direction from e Air Force notied Congress in Capitol Hill, USAF took a formal step in April 2016 that Gulfstream’s o ering was PREMATURE RETIREMENT October 2015, releasing a request for in- “the only one on the market that meets e Air Force took its rst major step formation to industry. It wanted to know size, weight, power, cooling, aperture, to shed the old EC-130H airframes in if aircraft manufacturers could provide a and performance requirements and 2014. It was then that the service pro- commercial derivative aircraft that could does not require development and/or posed a plan to Congress to retire the carry the the Compass Call system and certication work that would prevent existing Compass Call eet outright. meet all mission requirements. meeting schedule needs.” This was in response to what USAF Industrial competitors replied that About four months later, USAF issued described as budget constraints and the switchover could be done. e re- a classied “justication and approval”

evolving worldwide threats that would sponders included Boeing, o ering its authorizing a sole-source award to L3 Zigi Hehnly;Photos: TSgt. Jonathan illustration Gulfstream

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Communications for the cross-deck process. L3 has been the sole company provid- ing maintenance and integration on the current EC-130 eet for the past 15 years, and the Air Force claimed because of national security interests and the classi- cation of the equipment, L3 needed to be the company doing the work. “L3 has played the role of systems integrator as we’ve modernized these aircraft over the last 15 years,” Bunch said. “ey are the ones that are very fa- miliar with the mission equipment that’s on there. at mission equipment is highly classied to be able to execute the electronic warfare mission we ask that platform to do. ey have all the tooling, they have all the existing knowledge, and they have all the modeling and all the information they need to do that work.” L3 was the only company capable of performing the “critical function” of selecting, “based on market research, the aircraft subsystem and perform the mission equipment integration eort,” an Air Force spokeswoman told Air Force Magazine. Congress blessed the program in the Fiscal 2017 National Defense Authoriza- tion Act, giving the Air Force permission to “carry out a program” transferring primary mission equipment from an EC-130 to an “aircraft platform” that the service deemed “more operationally effective and survivable” than the current C-130 platform. e Air Force had already told Con- gress that the G550 was the only airplane meeting its requirements, even before a contract was awarded. After Congress green-lighted the plan for Fiscal 2017, Bombardier led a protest with the Government Account- ability Oce last February, claiming the sole-source award, the classied justication, and the approval process were improper and claimed L3’s choice of the Gulfstream jet at USAF’s urging was inappropriate. e Bombardier protest was dismissed as premature by the GAO because there hadn’t been a formal solicitation.

MOUNTING PROTESTS e formal solicitation came in May, as the Air Force called on L3 for a pro- posal backing the denitization of a sole-source contract. e statement of work for the contract called on L3 to deliver one rehosted aircraft and provide a “comprehensive analysis” supporting its A1C Chase Krol completes a postflight inspection on an EC-130H Compass Call at choice of aircraft and subcontractor. Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Eleven days later, Boeing led its own

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM SrA. Whitni Orgass, a cryptological language analyst, works aboard a Compass Call out of Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. protest with the GAO, claiming it could along with Northrop Grumman, on the contract for services or the denition both do the cross-decking work and Air Force’s Joint Surveillance Target of a prohibited contract for lead sys- provide a 737 to meet the requirements. Attack Radar System (JSTARS) recapi- tems integration. e GAO also denied “We believe that the US Air Force and talization, and the two companies work Boeing’s claims because the company taxpayer would be best served by a fair together on G550-based systems for didn’t demonstrate that the justication and open competition, and that the Air foreign militaries. and approval was unreasonable, and Force can still meet its stated time line In April, L3 CEO Michael Strianese the company failed to demonstrate a of replacing the aging eet of EC-130Hs shrugged o Boeing’s claim. In a rst con ict of interest regarding L3 and within 10 years,” Boeing spokeswoman quarter conference call with investors, Gulfstream. Caroline Hucheson said at the time. he said no decision had been made on Bombardier led a protest too, on the aircraft saying, “it could be a 737. It STEP ON IT May 26, claiming its Global 6000 could could be one of multiple business jets.” e Air Force moved quickly after the meet the requirements, but it did not After three months, the GAO made GAO auditors rendered their ndings, claim it could do the integration work. its decision—rendered secretly at rst. awarding on Sept. 7, 2017, the undef- e main claim in the protests was In a 22-page justication, the agency initized contract action to L3 to move that the Air Force was telling L3 to pick rejected all the claims from both Boeing equipment from the EC-130H Compass Gulfstream for the subcontract award and Bombardier. Call. e program also got a name: EC-X. without a valid basis. e companies e claim that the Air Force directed en, in a long-expected move, L3 also claimed that the award violated the L3 to choose Gulfstream was rejected decided on the Gulfstream platform. law, violated a prohibition on the award because, although the service said the “After their analysis and sharing that of contracts for governmental functions, G550 was the only aircraft that could with the program oce, L3 has decided and that the proposed award was a pro- meet its requirements, the GAO stated to use the Gulfstream G550 Airborne hibited lead systems integrator contract. that the award didn’t specify any specic Early Warning aircraft as the new plat- Lastly, Boeing, in its protest, also aircraft for the award. e sole-source form,” the Air Force said in a statement claimed it could perform the rehost work award didn’t violate the 2017 authoriza- announcing the contract. and that a sole-source award is improper tion act because the law didn’t require ings moved rapidly after that. A pre- because of an unmitigable con ict of USAF to conduct its procurement in the liminary design review was completed interest arising from the relationship way alleged by the companies. in late September, only a few weeks after between L3 and Gulfstream. e two e GAO stated the sole-source award the GAO decision.

companies are already working together, didn’t meet the denition of a prohibited e EC-X is not the rst use of the Photos: SSgt. Dobrydney; David TSgt. Joseph Swaord

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM Airmen remove a panel on the right horizontal stabilizer of a Compass Call aircraft at Davis- Monthan AFB, Ariz.

Gulfstream G550 by the Air Force. e type is currently own by USAF as the basis of the C-37B used for VIP transport. Crunching the Hours Northrop Grumman also chose the e Air Force is pressing forward on a time line to recapitalize its Compass G550 as the mount for its version of the Call eet while reducing the impact on current operations as much as possible. proposed JSTARS recap, which would e service has 14 EC-130Hs and plans to buy a eet of just 10 G550 re- adapt the jet to provide ground moving placements, known as EC-X for now. To mitigate impact on operations, the target indication. While a speedy re- service plans to buy one new aircraft per year until 2029 when recapitalization placement of the existing E-8C JSTARS is planned to be complete. e cross-decking process will happen one at a eet is USAF’s preferred outcome, the time, when a Compass Call EC-130H is scheduled to enter depot maintenance. service does not plan to simply cross- e Air Force has not announced a concrete plan for basing and operations deck equipment from those aircraft for the new aircraft. e current Compass Call eet calls Davis-Monthan AFB, to whatever airplane is chosen for the Ariz., home. e solicitation for the next-generation aircraft calls for one op- new JSTARS. In that contest, Boeing is erating base in the continental United States, with a “set of user-veried and also oering an adaptation of its 737, published” operations and maintenance procedures. and Lockheed Martin’s version would e current eet has a 13-member team, which includes front-end aircrew, ride on the Global Express business jet. linguists, and electronic warfare ocers operating the aircraft’s electronic While the Compass Call replacement attack weapons system. e solicitation for the new aircraft calls for two ight acquisition program moves forward, the aircrew along with a minimum of ve mission crew members. Air Force is pressing to keep its current eet modern and capable. In 2016, the service kicked o a $45 million upgrade e eet is still showing its age, which said Lt. Col. Matthew Cunningham, called the “avionic viability program” is reected in its availability. In 2015, as an EC-130 aircraft commander, in an that keeps the eet in line with Federal Operation Inherent Resolve hit a high August 2017 release about the Compass Aviation Administration and interna- operations tempo, the EC-130H eet Call’s current operations. tional regulations on ight information had just a 72 percent mission capable In Afghanistan, the deployed EC-130 and provides a “glass” liquid crystal rate—more than a quarter of the aircrews hit a 27-month record high for display information suite in the cockpit. craft were not available for operations. mission capability of 96.5 percent in The upgrade, which is ongoing, e eet requires “unique and special- November 2016. at crew, from the helps “increases the pilot’s situational ized” maintenance support downrange, 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Mainte- awareness tenfold,” said Maj. Gerardo with specialized maintainers from Da- nance Squadron, had 146 deployments Sanchez, the assistant director of oper- vis-Monthan deploying alongside the among them. EC-130Hs there have been ations for the 42nd Electronic Combat aircrews to try to keep the aircraft ying. deployed nonstop since 2002, the lon- Squadron, when the program began “We do not y our mission without gest continuously deployed Air Force

installation in August 2016. our maintainers dedication and eort,” unit in the Afghanistan war. J Betty SrA. Photo: Chevalier

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01_24929_001_BIBR.indd 1 11/29/17 10:57 AM ON

THE ON By Brian W. Everstine, Pentagon Editor LIFE THE LINE USAF is probably buying fewer aircraft than you think. Here’s a look at what’s actually in a hot production line.

FEBRUARY ★ WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM Photo: RandyPhoto: Crites/Lockheed Martin

Lockheed Martin’s F-35 line in Fort Worth, Texas, is the largest military aircraft production facility in the world. It is frequently updated to incorporate more efficient materials and processes.

By Brian W. Everstine, Pentagon Editor

America’s military technology depends not just on the embarking on a modernization binge after decades of having science of new technologies, but the ability to turn those key programs canceled or postponed. breakthroughs into practical hardware. If all goes as planned, a bevy of new ghters, tankers, bomb- e story of the “Arsenal of Democracy” runs from Rosie ers, trainers, and surveillance aircraft will start entering service the Riveter and the gargantuan production plants of World in the next few years, although the production surge won’t War II to the heavily guarded desert factories where the Air come close to the levels seen during the so-called “Reagan Force’s most secret systems are sometimes hand-built to ful ll buildup” of the 1980s, when F-16 ghters were built at rates exacting missions. From massive, robot-assisted assembly exceeding 200 a year. operations to small companies with a few dozen workers, production lines are the Air Force’s lifeblood. THE GREEN MILE e service is ramping up production of munitions after Lockheed Martin’s mile-long production line in Fort Worth, half a decade of using them up faster than it builds them and Texas, employs about 8,800 people who work on the F-35 Joint

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Strike Fighter. e famous plant—operated be predecessor entities such as Consolidated, Convair, and General Dynam- ics—has produced B-24 and B-58 bombers, F-106s and F-111s, among others. e last factory-fresh F-16 left the plant in December 2017, after more than 40 years of Viper production. e F-16 line will be moved to Greenville, S.C., and foreign locations to make more room for the burgeoning F-35 line. It takes about 22 months to build an F-35, and production is slated to increase rapidly, as the plant builds jets for USAF, the Navy, Marine Corps, eight partner nations, and at least four foreign customer nations. Last July, the Pentagon announced its 11th contract for low- rate initial production of the fth generation ghter. e $5.6 billion contract modi cation covered 48 F-35A variants for the Air Force, along with 18 F-35Bs for the US Marine Corps, and 7 eight F-35Cs for the US Navy. In Fiscal 2018, the Air Force is requesting 46 more F-35As, aiming to get to 60 per year early in the next decade. USAF wants 1,763 F-35As in all. e program has two more production lines globally. 1/ An early P-51 Mustang is assembled at the North American Europe’s F-35 nal assembly and checkout (FACO) facility Aviation plant in Los Angeles in 1942. 2/ Due to the limited is in Cameri, Italy, where Lockheed expects more than 6,300 space indoors, P-38 Lightnings were finished on the flight people to work at peak production. e rst jet rolled o the line in World War II. 3/ Workers build an SR-71 Blackbird Italian line last March. reconnaissance aircraft at Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works Another FACO is located in Nagoya, Japan, operated by facility in Burbank, Calif., in 1965. 4/ Pratt & Whitney F135 Lockheed partner Mitsubishi Heavy Industries. At least 38 engines for the F-35 strike fighter roll down the produc- F-35s will be built there; the rst Japan Air Self Defense Force tion line in West Palm Beach, Fla. 5/ The Lockheed Martin F-35 rolled out last July. facility in Fort Worth, Texas, is over a mile long. 6/ F-35s on the assembly line in Fort Worth. 7/ A completed KC-46 BUILD ‘EM BIG Pegasus tanker receives a coat of paint at Boeing’s Everett, e world’s largest building, by volume, sits on Boeing prop- Wash., factory. 8/ Workers install a refueling boom on a erty in Everett, Wash. e 98.7-acre facility houses production USAF KC-46 at the Boeing factory.

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8 Photos: of Alfred Congress; Palmer/Library Lockheed Martin; CIA; & Whitney; Chapman/Lockheed Neal Rick Koehler/Pratt Martin; Alexander Groves/Lockheed 8) Martin; Boeing (7,

FEBRUARY ★ WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM 1 2 for the company’s civilian airliners and the Air Force’s new tanker, the KC-46A Pegasus. e tanker has su ered development delays but production is beginning to ramp up. e jet is adapted from the company’s 767-200ER airliner-cargo jet. Boeing was cleared for Pegasus production in August 2016. As of October 2017, six of 24 aircraft on contract were ying and undergoing tests. e service plans to eld at least 179 KC-46s, with the rst operational model coming early in 2018. Boeing had previously committed to 18 tankers being delivered by that time.

BLACK JETS Air Force Plant 42, north of Los Angeles in Palmdale, Calif., hosts several big contractors, all doing “special access” work. Lockheed Martin refurbishes U-2 intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft at its facility there, and Northrop Grumman seems to be organizing space at its portion of the sprawling plant for manufacture of the still-secret B-21 Raider stealth bomber. The B-2 Spirit stealth bomber was built in Palmdale and receives its depot maintenance there, as well. Northrop was up to 3,000 workers at the Palmdale facility last fall, adding more at a steady clip, the Los Angeles Times reported. By 2019, the company expects to have 5,200 em- ployees working on the Raider and other aircraft in Palmdale, wrote the Times. Production is just beginning on the bomber. Much of its funding remains secret and the Air Force has said only that 3 it will build “at least” 100 of the jets. e program has passed its preliminary design review, and drawings are now going

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1/ A C-130J Super Hercules aircraft at Lockheed’s production facility in Marietta, Ga. 2/ Two USAF KC-46 Pegasus tankers on the assembly line at Boeing’s factory in Washington. The new aerial tanker can refuel all compatible US, allied, and coalition aircraft. It can also carry cargo and passengers. 3/ First flight for the last Raptor. The last production F-22 takes off on its first test flight at the Marietta facility on March 14, 2012. 4/ A Lockheed Martin technician cuts strips of thermoplastic-resin composites for an F-22 aircraft panel. The material allows airframes to be lighter than those built from metal. Photos: Lockheed Martin; Boeing; Nguyen/Lockheed Thinh Martin; Schulzinger/Lockheed Martin Eric

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to vendors to begin fabrication, according to the Air Force’s Rapid Capabilities O ce, which oversees the project.

BOMBED UP e Air Force has released 54,000 precision guided weapons against ISIS since 2014, a gure that doesn’t count weapons used by the Navy, Marine Corps, and coalition partners. Wil- son acknowledged in September that stockpiles haven’t been replenished fast enough. USAF is moving to get inventories back into the black. Pro- duction of the Small Diameter Bomb 1 is accelerating from 5,000 to 8,000 units per year. e Joint Direct Attack Munition production rate is ramping up to 45,000 per year—and could go higher—though production depends on several component suppliers keeping up that pace. In concert with the Army, USAF is stepping up production of AGM-114 Hell re missiles, and the Air Force is working with the Navy on the Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System. ese new weapons have “changed the way we ght,” Wil- son said in September, and many senior USAF leaders have suggested the service will never go back to imprecise weapons that may not hit exactly what they’re aimed at. “We will continue to work closely with our industry partners 2 to manage production, she said, but keeping old equipment ready “isn’t enough.” Production will have to increase.

FEBRUARY ★ WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM 1/ The first international F-35 for the United Kingdom rolls out of the factory in 2011. The Ministry of Defense will use this short take off/vertical landing jet, known as BK-1, for training and tests. 2/ A Pratt & Whitney F119-PW-100 tur- bofan engine for the F-22 Raptor undergoes a test. The engine combines stealth technologies and vectored thrust to provide unprecedented maneuverability and survivability. 3/ The aft fuselage section of the first F-22 is lowered into the mate tool. This completed the primary assembly of the jet. The F-22 took advantage of new technologies such as composite materials, computerized flight control systems, thrust-vectoring engines, and radar-reducing design. Modern production lines are far quieter and more streamlined than plants of 30 years ago. Cabling, compressed-air devices, and other clutter or clatter are underground, allowing easier and safer access to the object being built. Photos: & Whitney; Randy Crites/Lockheed Martin; Pratt Rossino/LockheedJohn Martin

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RESTARTING THE RAPTOR e Air Force is struggling today to meet regional commander demand for the world-beating F-22 Raptor ghter. en-Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates halted its production in 2009, and there aren’t enough to meet all of USAF’s com- mitments; only 187 of a required 381 were built. Since the last F-22 rolled out of Lockheed Martin’s Marietta, Ga., facility in 2012, members of Congress have asked what it would take to restart the line and bring eet strength up to par. In the Fiscal 2017 Defense Authorization Act, USAF was directed to study the costs, time lines, and e ort required to produce up to another 194 F-22s. In July 2017, the Air Force submitted its report, saying that another 194 F-22s would cost $50 billion. That cost includes $9.9 billion to restart the production line—a process that involves taking tooling out of storage, hiring a workforce with proper security clearance, training it, and certifying thousands of component vendors. The service has “no plans” for doing this, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said at the time. Although it’s unlikely the American defense industrial base will see a return to the massive output last seen in the 1980s, the production pendulum is swinging back up. After a pro- longed drought, the Air Force in the 2020s will also see warm production lines for ghters, bombers, tankers, surveillance aircraft, and trainers, and a steeply accelerating output of smart munitions. Whether production reaches a sustained plateau or continues an up-and-down cycle, assembly lines 4 will continue to be the backbone of the ghting force. ✪

FEBRUARY ★ WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM 1/ Technicians install the wings onto the fuselage of a Northrop Grumman RQ-4B Global Hawk at a factory in Palmdale, Calif. 2/ Joint Direct Attack Munition (JDAM) guidance tailkits on the production line at Boeing’s St. Charles, Mo., factory. 3/ A robotic arm places a Small Diameter Bomb II guidance section into a test cell at Raytheon Missile Systems in Tucson, Ariz. 4/ Richard Barr, left, checks the fit as Harold Morris and Dennis Watts install a fuselage keel beam on the first F-22. 5/ Brig. Gen. Kristin K. French, left, then-commander, Joint Munitions and Lethality Life Cycle Management Command and Joint Munitions Command, listens as Steve Saunier explains the arming well of a 2,000-pound bomb at the McAlester Army Ammunition Plant in 2013.

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5 Photos: Northrop Boeing; Grumman; Raytheon;Lockheed Army Martin; Lea Giaudrone/US

FEBRUARY ★ WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM If you’re having suicidal thoughts or are otherwise wanting to talk to someone, you can call the National Suicide Prevention Lifeline (https://goo.gl/1QFCzu) at 1-800-273-8255 or chat with someone 24/7 (https://goo.gl/eMkOGI). Infographic SHOW ME THE MONEY Aircraft Program Value Worth of major military aircraft programs, 1994-2026 $20 AV-88

F/A-18

F-15

F-15 F-16 $15 F-22

T-45

T-6

$10 C-130 F-35

F-16 T-X

B-21

Program Value, Billions of 2017 Billions Dollars Value, Program $0 ‘94 ‘95 ‘96 ‘97 ‘98 ‘99 ‘00 ‘01 ‘02 ‘03 ‘04 ‘05 ‘06 ‘07 ‘08 ‘09 ‘10 ‘11 ‘12

FEBRUARY ★ WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM By Gideon Grudo, Digital Platforms Editor ajor governments around the planet want a slice programs. The data breaks down total market values of major of the swelling F-35 pie, and they’re putting their fixed-wing aircraft programs, ranging from the F-15 to the money where their mouths are. B-21—from 1994 through today—and projects those values The stealth fighter’s global market reached into the future through 2026. All amounts are adjusted to an all-time high in 2017: Militaries around the 2017 dollars. Mworld paid a combined $5.73 billion for F-35 deliveries. The 2018 market for F-35s is projected to reach $8.15 In the last 20 years, few aircraft programs could boast an billion worth of deliveries. No single aircraft has surpassed annual market even close to $5 billion. The F-16 pushed the $6 billion mark since 1994, when the F-16’s market hit ahead of that mark in the late nineties, its worth hitting $7.03 billion in today’s dollars. $5.4 billion in 1999. Looking to the future, the F-35’s production value will peak That’s according to data from the DC-based Teal Group, in 2024, when its worldwide market reaches $16.3 billion. a think tank with expertise in the market impact of military Below is a visualization of Teal’s data and projections.

C-17AV-88

AV-88F/A-18 F-35 F/A-18F-15

F-15F-16 F-16 F-22 F-22 T-45 T-45 Projected in Billions T-6 T-6 C-130 C-130 F-35 F-35 $8.15 T-XT-X

B-21

‘11 ‘12 ‘13 ‘14 ‘15 ‘16 ‘17 ‘18 ‘19 ‘20 ‘21 ‘22 ‘23 ‘24 ‘25 ‘26 Photos: SSgt. Mayfield Sean Martin; Malcolm SrA. TSgt. Lindsey Watson-Kirwin; Sarah

FEBRUARY ★ WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM RARE EARTH UNCERTAINTY A long list of obscure elements A long list of obscure elements are vital for are vital for advanced advanced electronics and military systems. China electronics and military has cornered the market. systems. China has cornered the market.

Secretary of the Air Force Heather Wilson pins the Air Baiyun Obo mine Force Cross on SSgt. Richard Hunter at Hurlburt Field, Fla., on Oct. 17. A Chinese rare-earth mine in inner Mongolia. of the90% world’s rare oxides and the majority of the globe’s strongest

By Peter Grier magnets come from China. “It’s a very heir names sound as if real concern, they are part of some science and it obviously ction universe: yttrium, dys- depends on the el- prosium, samarium, neodym- ements. But we use ium. ey are rare-earth ele- them for important ments (REEs)—little-known technologies to keep us all butT crucial ingredients in much modern safe,” said CIA Director Mike US military aerospace technology. importance to national security, Pompeo, in response to an inquiry at Take lasers. Lockheed Martin is work- these elements used to come a May 2017 Senate Intelligence Com- ing on a small, high-power laser weapon from the United States. From the 1960s mittee hearing on worldwide threats that the Air Force Research Laboratory to the 1980s, the US was the global lead- to the US. wants to test in a tactical ghter aircraft er in rare-earth mining and production. e rare-earth element group con- by 2021. Its active gain medium is a exi- at is no longer the case. sists of 17 minerals. Fifteen are from a ble optical ber infused with a rare-earth In recent decades China has become chemical group known as the lantha- element such as erbium or neodymium. the source of 90 to 95 percent of world nides; scandium and yttrium are the Rare-earth elements are widely used rare-earth oxides and the producer other two. All share similar geochemical in strong, permanent magnets impervi- of a majority of the globe’s strongest characteristics, generally resembling ous to temperature extremes. ey are rare-earth magnets. the chemical makeup of aluminum. used in n actuators, in missile guid- Many US ocials and lawmakers eir slight dierences in atomic struc- ance, and control systems; disk drive view this situation with apprehension. ture give them dierent optical, electri- motors installed in aircraft and tanks; They are pushing for solutions that cal, metallurgic, and magnetic qualities. satellite communications; and radar range from stockpiling critical minerals at makes them useful for a wide array and sonar systems. to the development of substitutes and of industrial applications. As might be expected given their the reopening of key domestic mines. Despite their name, rare-earth el-

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM ements are relatively widespread in the earth’s crust. ey are about as abundant as some major metals, such as copper and chrome. Even rare REEs are more common than gold. Their “rarity” stems from that fact that they are found in low concen- RARE EARTH trations, up to a few hundred parts per million by weight, at most. That makes it difficult and thus expensive to separate them from surrounding substances into useful products. Develop- An F-35 drops a ment and construction of large-scale 2,000-pound GBU-31 bomb. UNCERTAINTY rare-earth element recovery infra- Each F-35 contains nearly structure can take a decade or longer. a thousand pounds of rare While unfamiliar to most Ameri- earth elements. cans, REEs are vital components for a wide array of industries. Their unusu- al physical and chemical properties produce valuable effects when small amounts are combined with other minerals. According to a US Geological Sur- vey, yttrium, europium, and terbium are used to make phosphors—substances that emit luminescence—for the flat panel display screens that are ubiquitous in modern electronics. The glass industry is a large user of rare Arleigh earths for polishing and to provide Burke color and special optical qualities to finished products. Digital camera lens- DDG-51 es can be up to 50 percent lanthanum. REEs are used as catalysts in the production of petroleum and in auto- SSN-774 motive catalytic converters. They help Virginia- make lighter flints and fluorescent class light bulbs. Submarine But their fastest-growing use, and the one arguably most important for US national security, is in lightweight, more powerful than traditional ferrite vasive in the military, from oce com- strong, durable magnets. magnets. at makes them ideal for use puters to combat aircraft, ships, and “Exceptionally notable is how REE in the tiny electronic components such vehicles. Missile guidance and control alloys revolutionized the magnet trade as disk drives that have helped make motors and actuators depend on small, and subsequently enhanced the prod- possible decades of computer-driven powerful rare-earth magnets. If it were ucts of all other businesses relying on innovation. not for them, precision-guided weapons that industry,” wrote USAF Lt. Col. Jus- e world’s push for renewable en- such as the satellite-guided Joint Direct tin C. Davey in a 2011 Air War College ergy sources may only increase the de- Attack Munition would require much report. The magnets, and by extension mand for non-renewable REE magnets. bulkier and more expensive hydraulic the elements, are now common in con- A Toyota Prius, for example, uses about systems. sumer electronics and indispensable two pounds of neodymium in its hybrid e generators that produce elec- for many defense applications. power system. Wind turbines need lots trical power for aircraft all contain sa- Samarium-cobalt magnets are more of neodymium—new models use up to marium-cobalt magnets. e stealth resistant to demagnetization than two tons of neodymium magnets. technology that produces white noise those made from any other material. e Department of Defense is not a to help conceal the sound of helicopter This quality—called high coercivi- major user of rare-earth elements, rel- rotor blades uses such magnets as well. ty—means high temperatures do not atively speaking. Defense accounts for F-22 tail ns and rudders move due to make them lose magnetic strength. about ve percent of US consumption, motors with powerful, miniature REE That makes them the best choice for according to a Congressional Research magnets. Electronic warfare jamming many military applications, according Service background report on the sub- devices use rare-earth materials, as do to Davey. ject. But REEs are integral to a vast laser targeting systems and nascent In contrast, neodymium-iron-boron array of Pentagon weapons and general laser weapons. magnets are incredibly strong and light. equipment. Each stealthy F-35 strike ghter re-

By weight they are almost 10 times Flat screens and hard drives are per- quires 920 pounds of rare-earth mate- Photos: Google Maps; Scott Wol

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM e end result is a sludge that contains a fraction of purer rare earths in the form of mixed metal oxides, which are removed. e process is messy. When Moun- tain Pass was running at full capacity it was producing 850 gallons of salty wastewater per minute, which was piped to evaporation ponds 11 miles away. Over the years, thorium and ura- nium collected as scale inside the pipe. In the 1990s several e orts to scrub the built-up scale broke the pipes instead, spilling large amounts of hazardous material into the environment. e state of California ordered Un- ocal, the oil corporation that owned Mountain Pass open-pit rare-earth mine in southeastern California was the mining rm Molycorp, to clean up the nation’s most important resource for rare-earth materials. spills. en in 2002 the company ran out of space to store waste, as its ponds had rial, according to DOD. Each Arleigh earth elements as akin to the oil in the lled and it was unable to get permits Burke DDG-51 destroyer requires 5,200 21st century—a high-demand product to build new storage. Weakened by poor pounds. An SSN-774 Virginia-class sub- that can be used for many purposes. nancial results, the mine closed. marine needs 9,200 pounds. In Washington these developments The ability of US contractors to have “given rise to concerns that China EMBRACING THE DIRTY WORK quickly make use of technological may attempt to use its control of rare By that time, China had already innovations and translate them into earth as leverage to obtain its political emerged as the world’s leading REE high-quality military systems is a pil- and economic goals”, according to the producer. e largest rare-earth mine, lar of the nation’s defense. Given that, CRS report. by far, is at Baiyun Obo in the Chinese the Pentagon is likely to become even region of Inner Mongolia. Valuable more dependent in the coming years ALLIES AND ADVERSARIES heavy rare earths are concentrated in on high-tech magnets, motors, lasers, Deposits of rare-earth elements are areas in southern China such as Hunan computers, and electric-drive systems found all around the globe. But accord- and Fujian provinces. e communist that use rare-earth materials. ing to the US Department of Energy, nation has almost half the world’s total But as noted above, the US itself only a limited number of nations have known rare-earth reserves, according no longer produces rare-earth ore or proven and signicant rare-earth re- to a CRS report on China’s rare-earth processes the substance at early points serves. ese include Australia, India, industry and export regime. along the supply chain. Virtually all China, Russia, Kazakhstan, and the Actual Chinese production of rare comes from China. United States. earths was insignicant until the 1980s. e US dominated the rare-earth en it exploded due to improved min- COMMUNIST CHOKE POINT market from the time the substances ing and production techniques and the Chinese leaders, citing domestic became important industrial ingre- nation’s lurch away from communism needs and environmental e ects, have dients up to the mid-1980s. e most toward a more market-oriented econ- in the past restricted the export of rare- important US source by far was one omy. In 1986, China passed the US to earth supplies through such means as mine, Mountain Pass, Calif. become the top rare-earth producer licenses, taxes, and out-and-out quotas. Mountain Pass is located in remote in the world. It has sat at No. 1 in those For instance, in July 2010 China an- southeastern California, not too far from rankings ever since. nounced it would reduce its exports of Arizona and only about 15 miles from Strong government support, low la- rare earths for the second half of the the southern tip of Nevada. bor costs, and lax environmental stan- year by 70 percent over the previous Retrieving usable rare-earth ele- dards are among the reasons for China’s year’s levels. ments from open-pit mines such as quick and continued domination of the en on September 7, 2010, a Chi- Mountain Pass is not easy work. e industry, according to some US mining nese shing boat and two Japanese metals are generally found mixed to- executives and members of Congress. Coast Guard vessels collided in waters gether in deposits that also contain For instance, China has the largest claimed by both nations. A few days radioactive elements such as thorium. rare-earth tailings pond in the world in later e New York Times reported that, Rock is mined, then crushed into a ne Inner Mongolia. in retaliation for the accident, China had powder, and passed though a series of Built in the 1950s, the four-square- begun restricting rare-earth exports to tanks where the rare earths come to mile pond does not have a protective Japan, the world’s biggest user. the top and waste material sinks to the liner. Radioactive waste from the site Beijing resumed its Japanese exports bottom. is gradually working its way toward the that November. But among US policy- e waste, which contains hazard- nearby Yellow River, a crucial water makers, worries about the incident have ous materials, is pumped o to storage source for millions. lingered. ponds. e rare-earth mixture is dried In the 1990s high prot margins lured It appears that China may view ra re- in a kiln and then dissolved in acid. many Chinese start-up industries into

FEBRUARY AIRFORCEMAG.COM the rare-earth business. Exports peaked the 2010 shuto of rare earths to Japan. decade the cost of REEs has remained in the mid-2000s, before prices abruptly Since at least 2011, defense authori- relatively stable. crashed, pushing some non-Chinese zation bills have generally included mines—such as California’s Mountain language directing the Pentagon to CHINA RISES Pass—into bankruptcy. identify which rare-earth elements are But that has changed recently, with Since then, Beijing has moved to strategically valuable and ways to plug prices gaining around 65 percent from exert more central control, rationalizing holes in the rare-earth supply chain. early 2016 to fall 2017. And investors may production and taxing and restricting e Fiscal Year 2012 defense bill also see more price in the future as demand exports. Compared to the low point of included a provision requiring the Sec- increases due to the rise of green ener- 2005, rare-earth prices have risen as retary of Defense to report back to Con- gy and the spread of electric vehicles. supplies tightened. At the same time gress on the feasibility of recovering, Demand for dysprosium, for instance, China has expanded its ability to pro- reprocessing, and recycling rare-earth could increase by 2,600 percent over cess raw rare-earth materials into alloys elements, including those used in the the next 25 years as wind turbines and and then into nished products. uorescent lighting of DOD facilities. electric motors proliferate, according to According to CRS, China now pro- Opinions are mixed as to whether the an MIT study. duces about 90 percent of all rare-earth Pentagon has ful lled these require- In this context, government owner- metal alloys. It manufactures about 75 ments. A February 2016 report from ship of the Mountain Pass mine in Cal- percent of all neodymium-iron-boron the Government Accountability Oce ifornia might be a good idea, say some magnets and 60 percent of all samari- assesses that it has not. industry ocials. um-cobalt magnets. “DOD has no comprehensive, de- In July 2017, Michael N. Silver, head In the context of China’s 2010 restric- partment-wide approach to determine of American Elements Corp., met with tion of rare-earth exports to Japan, the which rare earths are critical to national White House ocials in an eort to get message here is clear, claim US exec- security and how to deal with potential them interested in such a takeover. (An utives: If rare-earth materials are the supply disruptions to ensure continued eort to restart Mountain Pass opped oil of the 21st century, China wants to reliable access,” concluded the GAO in 2015, due to another bankruptcy. e pump the oil, re ne the gasoline—and study. mine has since been bought by a group maybe make the car too. e key word there may be “com- of rms, one of which allegedly has ties “Critics of China’s rare-earth policies prehensive”. As the GAO documents, to the Chinese government.) contend that they are largely aimed at a number of Pentagon organizations For the longer term, US national labs inducing foreign, high-technology and work on identifying critical rare-earth are studying the possibility of extracting green technology rms to move their needs and possible ways to handle rare-earth elements from coal and coal production facilities to China in order a shortfall. But their work is “frag- by-products. Current US coal reserves to ensure their access to rare-earth mented”, according to the study. e contain about a 1,000-year US rare-earth elements and to provide preferential Defense Logistics Agency methodically elements supply, at current consump- treatment to Chinese high-tech and analyzes risks for rare earths, but only tion levels, according to the US National green energy companies in order to over a four-year time frame. e Man- Energy Technology Laboratory. boost their global competitiveness,” ufacturing and Industrial Base Policy “I think we are at a point in this coun- concludes the CRS report on national oce relies on others to evaluate risks, try—and this is something we’ve talked defense and rare earth. and the open market to resolve supply about on this committee—[where we disruptions. e Strategic Materials need] to develop a rare-earth national NATIONAL SECURITY INTERESTS Protection Board has not developed security policy for the United States. Given this situation, what is the Pen- an overarching framework to mitigate … We would be foolish if the American tagon doing to ensure a continued the problem. government didn’t come together and supply of crucial rare earth-derived e DLA does maintain a strategic say, we are going to procure and secure products? Not enough, say some mem- materials stockpile, which includes the rare-earth metals needed from us bers of Congress. some rare-earth elements. In 2016 instead of having to depend on any other On March 28, 2017, the full Sen- the agency awarded new contracts for country,” said Rep. Ted Yoho (R-Fla.), ate Committee on Energy and Natural multiyear purchases of yttrium oxide chairman of the House Foreign Aairs Resources held a hearing on US de- and dysprosium metal. Subcommittee on Asia and the Paci c, pendence on foreign minerals, with But pressure to stockpile rare earths at an April 26, 2017, hearing. a focus on rare earths. Chairman Lisa may have been eased in recent years For the time being, however, defense Murkowski (R-Alaska)—a state with by the fact that, on the open market, lasers, batteries, displays, magnets, rare-earth resources of its own—said supplies have loosened. and other components—thousands she was frustrated by what she heard. Since that time “ere has been a of pounds of rare-earth elements in “Instead of lessening our depen- signi cant change in the global market- some advanced weapons systems—will dence, we are actually increasing our place concerning rare earths. Increased continue to be purchased in a volatile dependence. We have increased it from market supply from a more diversi ed marketplace dominated by one nation, just last year. We’re not making headway producer base coupled with decreased China. J on this issue,” she said. demand has led to global surpluses for Congressional interest in this subject several rare-earth materials,” according Peter Grier, a Washington, D.C., editor for is not new. Lawmakers have long urged to a September 2016 Annual Industrial The Christian Science Monitor, is a long- the Pentagon to take a more organized Capabilities report from the Under Sec- time contributor to Air Force Magazine. His approach to ensuring security of rare- retary of Defense for Acquisition, Tech- most recent article, “Misplaced Nukes,” earth supplies, in part as a reaction to nology, and Logistics. For much of the appeared in the August 2017 issue. GooglePhoto: Maps

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM IN PURSUIT OF THE BISMARCK

Bismarck, pictured, slams HMS Prince of Wales with fearsome artillery during Operation Rheinübung, an attempt to block allied shipping to Europe.

Swordfish torpedo bombers crippled the German battleship. British battleships cruised in to finish the job. By John T. Correll

he German battleship Bis- Sweden and out of the Baltic, heading the renowned battle cruiser HMS Hood. marck was the most pow- for Nazi-controlled Norway on the first e British put everything they could erful warship in the world. leg of their breakout into the North into the pursuit, eventually leaving con- She was launched to great Atlantic. voys and troop ships unguarded and acclaim in 1939 and n- eir mission was not to directly shifting all of the resources they could ished her sea trials in April challenge the Royal Navy, which had to nd and sink Bismarck. Both sides 1941. e British knew the numerical if not qualitative superiority. were chronically hampered by bad luck, Bismarck would soon make its rst sor- e objective was to sever the British misjudgments, and mistakes. Fortu- Ttie into the Atlantic and prepared for it lifeline, the merchant convoys that were nately for the British, the Germans got as best they could. bringing supplies from North America. the worst of it. e Bismarck mounted eight 16-inch German U-boats had been operating e chase came down to a very close guns and 81 smaller ones. She had a top against the convoys with deadly eect, finish. Bismarck, leaking oil from a speed of 31 knots and was more heavily but there were not enough of them to lucky British shot, was hours away from armored than anything else aoat. No do the job alone. escaping toward the coast of occupied ship in the Royal Navy was a match for it British reconnaissance con rmed the France for repair and re t. e Home in single combat, so the British planned arrival May 21 of Bismarck and Prinz Fleet battleships and cruisers were in to ght the fearsome newcomer with Eugen at Grimstad Fjord in Norway. no position to prevent it. team tactics. For the next six days, Bismarck would e only chance was by the British Bismarck and the heavy cruiser command the full attention of British carrier Ark Royal, arriving from Gi- Prinz Eugen lifted anchor at Goten- Home Fleet. e international press braltar with a complement of obsolete hafen Roads near Danzig in Poland followed the action with front page Sword sh biplanes, but nobody expect- on May 18, 1941. They slipped through reports. Before it was over, Bismarck ed much from the Sword sh. Bismarck’s the channel between Denmark and would sink the pride of the Royal Navy, armor was built to withstand attack

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM IN PURSUIT OF THE

British pilot Dennis Briggs spotted the German battleship Bismarck west of Brest, France, and alerted the Royal Navy.

from weapons much bigger than their commander of the the German navy, Holland’s flagship was the aging light aerial torpedoes. did not want to wait. Operation Rhe- Hood, the largest vessel in the Navy. However, one last turn of fate re- inübung (“Rhine Exercise”) would be She had eight 15-inch guns but was mained, and it would go against Bis- launched in May with Bismarck, Prinz rated a battle cruiser rather than a marck. Eugen, and accompanying destroyers. battleship because of the light armor Adm. Günther Lütjens would com- installed when she entered service CONVOYS mand the task force with Capt. Ernest in 1920. She was called “The Mighty Germany had failed in its attempt to Lindemann as captain of the flagship Hood” by the newspapers but the thin conquer the British Isles in the Battle of Bismarck. decking was vulnerable to enemy fire Britain in 1940, but the rest of Europe, Raeder was explicit in his orders that struck on a plunging trajectory. from Norway to the Pyrenees, was under to Lütjens: “First and foremost battle Prince of Wales, sister battleship to German control. Britain’s ability to defy against supplies. Goal is always the King George V, was so new that civilian the Germans and continue the war de- convoys, not the escorts, which are to contractors remained aboard trying pended on the vulnerable supply lines be evaded if they are not significant- to fix a recurring problem with the from overseas. ly weaker.” He understood that the main guns. When Bismarck began its run, the overall advantage in numbers of the When British bombers arrived at British had 11 convoys in progress. Royal Navy was insurmountable. “We Grimstad Fjord in response to the Battleships and other naval combatants must strive for local and temporary reconnaissance sighting, Bismarck had been pressed into duty as escorts. command of the sea in this area and and Prinz Eugen were gone, leaving Despite the protection, German U-boats gradually, methodically, and system- their destroyer escorts behind. Prinz were sinking between 30 and 50 mer- atically extend it,” he said. Eugen had refueled in Norway, but chant ships a month. The British Home Fleet was based for reasons not clear, Lütjens and The scheme of the Kriegsmarine, at Scapa Flow in the Scottish Orkney Lindemann did not top off the Bis- the German navy, was to add capital Islands and commanded by Vice Adm. marck tanks. ships to the attack and cut the British John C. Tovey, who did not know what lifeline once and for all. By the mid- route the Germans would take. He led BREAKOUT dle of summer, more ships would be part of the responding force himself, e Germans had several possibilities available, including Bismarck’s sister including the battleship King George for passage to the North Atlantic. e battleship, Tirpitz, then in workup trials, V, to cover the southern approaches. most direct routes were to the south and the battle cruisers Scharnhorst and Vice Adm. Lancelot Holland led the of Iceland, but they carried the risk of Gneisenau, which were in repair for northern squadron, consisting of the discovery by spotters from the Faroe, battle damage. new battleship Prince of Wales, the Shetland, and Orkney Islands or by the

However, Grand Adm. Erich Raeder, battle cruiser Hood, and six destroyers. British Home Fleet at Scapa Flow. Museum Archives;Photos: Federal War German Imperial

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM British deck crew members on HMS Ark Royal load a torpedo onto a Swordfish aircraft in 1941.

Lütjens chose to swing wide to the ahead on an intercept course. Thus, Of the crew of 1,421, only three were north and come down the Denmark only the guns in his forward turrets picked up alive. Admiral Holland was Strait between Greenland and Iceland. could be brought to bear, reducing not among them. In May, the navigable channel of open his firepower by half. It was further Loss of Hood was a devastating water was only about 30 miles wide, diminished when one of the problem blow to the British. The news enraged narrowed by pack ice extending east- guns on Prince of Wales stopped work- the nation, and especially the Royal ward from Greenland and by British ing altogether. Navy, which called in all of the assets mine fields. Holland initially targeted his big- it could—battleships, battle cruisers, Lütjens, told by German intelligence gest guns on the leading German ship, aircraft carriers, cruisers, and destroy- that the British were still at Scapa which he mistakenly believed to be ers—to find and destroy Bismarck. Flow, was surprised to find the British Bismarck. Meanwhile, Lütjens ordered Ocean liners, merchant ships, and one heavy cruisers Suffolk and Norfolk a hard turn to port and brought his convoy carrying troops to the Middle patrolling the strait. In an otherwise ships around to fire broadside on the East were abandoned as their escorts inconsequential exchange with Nor- British. rushed to the North Atlantic. folk, the Bismarck’s forward-looking Unknown to the British, three shells radar was damaged by the firing of its LOSS OF HOOD from Prince of Wales had hit and dam- own guns. Prinz Eugen, with its intact The engagement began at 5:52 a.m. aged Bismarck, finding gaps in the radar, moved into the leading position. and rapidly closed to a range of 10 defensive armor, exploding among The German ships emerged from miles. The lofted ballistic trajectory the oil tanks, and blowing a hole in the the strait just after midnight May 24 of the shells from Bismarck brought side of the ship. Some of the oil was and encountered Holland’s squadron them crashing almost straight down contaminated with water, making it at about 5:30 a.m. on Hood. Four minutes into the battle, useless for fuel, and some was leaking Holland planned to double-team a shot from Bismarck struck at the out into the sea. Bismarck with Hood and Prince of most vulnerable point, between the There was no real danger Bismarck Wales while the two cruisers kept Prinz funnels where the armor plating was would run out of fuel, but its flexibility Eugen occupied, but he made several only three inches thick. It punched was limited by a reduction in speed mistakes. through several decks and into a mag- and other measures taken to conserve He could have waited across the azine, setting off hundreds of tons of oil. The declination to refuel in Nor- path of the approaching Germans, pre- high-explosive shells. way had come back to haunt Lütjens. senting Hood’s eight big guns and the The flames rose upward for a thou- Lütjens decided to head for the 10 from Prince of Wales broadside to sand feet and when they subsided, nearest dry dock at Saint-Nazaire on the enemy’s bow. Instead, he charged Hood broke into two parts and sank. the French coast to make repairs. He

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM HMS Hood is sunk by the German battleship Bismarck in a painting by J. C. Schmitz-Westerholt. HMS Prince of Wales is in the foreground. sent Prinz Eugen southward alone under covering fire from Bismarck to carry on the mission against the convoys. Bismarck headed south as well, then circled around and took up a course toward France.

LOST AND FOUND At 3 a.m. on May 25, the British lost contact with Bismarck. The cruisers were shadowing the battleship but when Suffolk began a zig-zag movement, Bismarck suddenly increased speed, looped astern of them, and was gone. Lütjens, unaware that the British had lost track of him, broke radio silence at 9:30 a.m. with a series of coded reports to Germany. Radio direction-finding stations in Britain and Ireland intercepted his signals, determined his position, and sent the bearings to Tovey’s navigation officer had lost contact. launched at 3 p.m. on May 26, nearly on King George V. The big battleship was some 700 led to disaster. The aviators mistook Unfortunately, the navigation offi- miles from France. The only force the light cruiser Sheffield for the en- cer made an error in plotting. Tovey with any hope of stopping her were emy. Their confused attack luckily changed course and headed at full the open-cockpit Swordfish torpedo failed, mainly because faulty mag- speed in the wrong direction. bombers on Ark Royal. The Swordfish netic detonators on the torpedoes Lütjens was almost out of reach. By was an old-fashioned biplane that did not work properly. The Swordfish nightfall on May 26 he would be with- seldom flew faster than 100 mph when refueled and rearmed, this time with in protective range of the Luftwaffe. carrying ordnance. It has been de- more reliable contact detonators. By the next morning, he would be in scribed as an “ungainly array of struts, At 7:10 p.m., they launched again, safe waters. At 10:25 a.m. on May 26, a wires, and fabric-covered tubing,” but 15 aircraft in three ights. Winds were Catalina flying boat spotted Bismarck it was what the Royal Navy had. blowing at near gale force, and the from the air, 31 hours after the British The first Swordfish attempt, waves were surging 25 to 40 feet high. Center Historical Naval US Musuem; War Photos: Imperial

FEBRUARY H AIRFORCEMAG.COM All the British had available for their last- ditch attack were obsolete Swordfish biplanes. Here, a Swordfish returns to HMS Ark Royal after making a torpedo attack on Bismarck.

e deck was pitching violently as the around in a circle, the British eet, tleships and cruisers in the campaign Swordsh took o and the clouds were including the battleships King George against the British supply lifeline. too thick for them to hold formation. V and Rodney and the battle cruiser Shipping losses to U-boats peaked e rst two ights struck Bismarck Renown, arrived on the morning of in 1942, then declined sharply as Allied without inicting any serious damage. May 27. ey opened re at 8:47 a.m. anti-submarine capabilities improved. from 12 miles away, quickly closed to U-boat activity in the North Atlantic SINKING BISMARCK two miles and nally to 3,000 meters, was eectively over by 1943. e last ight of ve Swordsh at- at which range the big guns readily During the buildup between June tacked at 9:05 p.m., dropping their tor- penetrated Bismarck’s vertical armor. 1943 and June 1944 for the D-Day in- pedoes from an altitude of about 50 feet Lütjens and Lindemannn were killed, vasion of Europe, thousands of supply and leading Bismarck by a standard most likely by re from Rodney around ships crossed the ocean. e Germans two ship-lengths with their aim. If Lin- 9 a.m. Bismarck’s guns were silenced managed to sink only 92 of them. demann had simply held his course, by 9:30 a.m., and by 10 o’clock the ship When Bismarck’s run ended, it had the torpedoes would have hit the 12½- was blazing ercely. e Germans, fear- been in service for 277 days. Counting inch armor belt amidships and done ing that the wreckage would be towed from the time of its departure from the no harm. to Britain and displayed as a trophy, mooring at Gotenhafen Roads on May Instead, he took an evasive maneu- opened the sea valves and exploded 18, its single combat operation had ver—turning hard to port. e critical scuttling charges. Bismarck sank at lasted for 215 hours. at was enough torpedo hit the ship in the stern, jam- 10:40 a.m. Of the initial crew of 2,400, to establish it as the greatest chase in ming the rudder at 12 degrees and only 118 survived. naval history. putting the ship into a continuous In his memoirs, British Prime Min- e story is best known in the United counterclockwise turn. The rudder ister Winston Churchill emphasized States from the 1960 movie “Sink the would not budge, and the crew was un- the battleships and the cruisers in his Bismarck!” and the song by Johnny able to cut it free with underwater saws. account of the Bismarck but acknowl- Horton—which became something No Swordsh were lost in the attack, edged that it was the “seaborne aircraft of a minor popular classic—that was though the German gunners hit them who struck the decisive blows.” associated with the movie, although well enough. One aircraft had 175 not part of the actual soundtrack. holes in it from the ak, but most of THE DANGER DIMINISHES In 1989, an exploration found the re- the antiaircraft rounds passed through Prinz Eugen arrived in France June 1, mains of Bismarck at rest on the ocean the imsy canvas structure without having encountered no British warships oor, three miles below the surface and detonating. ere is no certainty about on its patrol to the south—but having 400 miles from the coast of France. J which Swordsh made the crippling found no convoys either—as all of them shot, but Sub-Lieutenant J. W. C. Mof- had been diverted away from that area. John Correll was editor in chief of Air fatt is usually credited. e Germans, shaken by the loss of Force Magazine for 18 years and is now

As Bismarck steamed helplessly Bismarck, did not again use their bat- a contributor. His most recent article, Museum War Imperial Photo:

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7 7 13 10 ⁄8 10 ⁄8 13 3 10 ⁄16 16 3 10 ⁄4 10 ⁄ 10 ⁄4

1 1 10 ⁄2 10 ⁄2 UNITED Ofﬁ cially Licensed STATES AIR FORCE AIM HIGH Clock

Eagle emerges on the hour to a patriotic anthem Nearly 2 feet

high! Clock features mahogany-toned ﬁ nish and is embellished with stars, slogans, and symbols of service 111 Precision timepiece with accurate quartz movement and Roman numerals Shown smaller than actual size of about 111 22 inches high. Requires 1 AA and Swinging brass-toned 3 AAA batteries, not pendulum and clock face bear the included. ofﬁ cial Air Force emblem 111

Limited edition complete with Price Certiﬁ cate of Authenticity R ©2018 BGE 01-28827-001-BI Logo & A Bradford Exchange www.bradfordexchange.com/aimhighclock Address R Exclusive—Order Now! RESERVATION APPLICATION SEND NO MONEY NOW Act now to acquire your United Job Code States Air Force Aim High Clock 9345 Milwaukee Avenue · Niles, IL 60714-1393 R for four convenient installments of YES. Please reserve the United States Air Force Aim High Clock for only $49.99, for a total of $199.99*. me as described in this announcement. Limit: one per order. Please Respond Promptly Tracking Your purchase is backed by our Code unconditional, 365-day money-back Mrs. Mr. Ms. Name (Please Print Clearly) R guarantee. Send no money now. Just Address mail the Reservation Application Yellow today, or you could miss out! City State Zip Snipe *For information on sales tax ou may R owe to your state, go to Email (optional) bradfordexchange.com/use-tax 01-28827-001-E61011 *Plus a total of $24.99 shipping and service; see Shipping ™Department of the Air Force. Ofﬁ cially Licensed bradfordexchange.com Limited-edition presentation restricted to 295 crafting days. Please allow 4-8 Service Product of the Air Force www.airforce.com. weeks after initial payment for shipment. Sales subject to product availability and order acceptance. R

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01_B_I_V = Live Area: 7 x 10, 7x10 Magazine Master, 1 Page, Installment, Vertical 4 4 4 4 ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ 8 8 1 3 1 3 8 7 8 7 8 8 8 8 ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ 8 ⁄ 8 8 8 ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ ⁄ 1 3 5 7 5 1 3 7 8 8 7 7 7 8 8 7

01_28827_001_BI.indd 1 10/18/17 11:30 AM AFA National Leaders

NATIONAL OFFICERS

BOARD CHAIRMAN VICE CHAIRMAN, VICE CHAIRMAN, SECRETARY TREASURER FIELD OPERATIONS AEROSPACE EDUCATION F. Whitten Peters F. Gavin MacAloon Richard B. Bundy Ross B. Lampert Steven R. Lundgren Washington, D.C. Tyndall AFB, Fla. Spotsylvania, Va. Hereford, Ariz. Fairbanks, Alaska

NATIONAL DIRECTORS

James A. Cody Richard W. Hartle Kathleen M. McCool Leonard R. Vernamonti Fort Myers Beach, Fla. Layton, Utah San Antonio Clinton, Miss.

Terry J. Cox Charles R. Heflebower Eugene D. Santarelli Mark A. Welsh III Enid, Okla. Fairfax Station, Va. Tucson, Ariz. College Station, Texas

Lisa S. Disbrow Charles L. Johnson II Joan Sell Bruce A. Wright Alexandria, Va. Arlington, Va. Colorado Springs, Colo. Arlington, Va.

Tyler Johnson Mark L. Tarpley Hampton, Va. Oklahoma City DIRECTORS EMERITUS EX OFFICIO

L. Boyd Anderson Michael J. Dugan Dan Hendrickson James M. McCoy Mary Ann Seibel-Porto Scott P. Van Cleef Ogden, Utah Dillon, Colo. Port Angeles, Wash. Bellevue, Neb. Las Vegas Former Board Chairman Fincastle, Va. R. Donald Anderson Michael M. Dunn* Harold F. Henneke Thomas J. McKee John A. Shaud* Poquoson, Va. Port Orange, Fla. Greenwood, Ind. Fairfax Station, Va. McLean, Va. Larry O. Spencer President David L. Blankenship Charles G. Durazo Victoria W. Hunnicutt Craig R. McKinley* R. E. “Gene” Smith Air Force Association Tulsa, Okla. Yuma, Ariz. Gray, Ga. Arlington, Va. West Point, Miss. Arlington, Va.

Bonnie B. Callahan Justin M. Faiferlick Leonard W. Isabelle George K. Muellner Jack H. Steed Charles C. Baldwin Winter Garden, Fla. Fort Dodge, Iowa Lakeport, Calif. Huntington Beach, Calif. Warner Robins, Ga. National Chaplain Johns Island, S.C. George H. Chabbott Samuel M. Gardner James M. Keck Charles A. Nelson Robert G. Stein Courtney Conway Dover, Del. Garden City, Kan. San Antonio Sioux Falls, S.D. Colorado Springs, Colo. National Commander Arnold Air Society Stephen P. “Pat” Condon Edward W. Garland Thomas J. Kemp Ellis T. Nottingham Joseph E. Sutter Starkville, Miss. Ogden, Utah San Antonio Crowley, Texas Arlington, Va. Knoxville, Tenn. Tate Hall O. R. “Ollie” Crawford Don C. Garrison Robert E. Largent John J. Politi Mary Anne Thompson President San Antonio Easley, S.C. Harrison, Ark. Fair Oaks Ranch, Texas South Yarmouth, Mass. Silver Wings Auburn, Ala. William D. Croom Jr. Richard B. Goetze Jr. James R. Lauducci Jack C. Price Walter G. Vartan San Antonio Arlington, Va. Alexandria, Va. Pleasant View, Utah Chicago

Julie Curlin Emlyn I. Griith Hans Mark S. Sanford Schlitt Leonard R. Vernamonti Tampa, Fla. Rome, N.Y. Austin, Texas Sarasota, Fla. Clinton, Miss.

Jon R. Donnelly Monroe W. Hatch Jr.* Robert T. Marsh Victor Seavers Jerry White Richmond, Va. Clifton, Va. Falls Church, Va. Richmond, Texas Colorado Springs, Colo.

George M. Douglas William V. McBride Charles P. Zimkas Jr. Colorado Springs, Colo. San Antonio Colorado Springs, Colo.

*Executive Director (President-CEO) Emeritus 62 FEBRUARY H WWW.AIRFORCEMAG.COM

The United States Air Force TICKETS ON SALE NOW! Charity Ball airforcecharityball.org

Benefitting the Air Force Aid Society The Official Charity of the U.S. Air Force