Gen. John “Jay”Chief Raymond of Q&A:Space The Future of New START 36 | Space Force Training 43 | KC-46 Progress 40 Operations Operation Desert Storm’s punishing 43-day air campaign crushed Iraq’s forces in advance of the 10 ground war that followed. The war marked the first extensive use of precision weapons, many of them launched from U.S. Air Force F-16A, F-15C, and F-15E fighters. DESERT STORM 30 Years Later— Could We Do It Again? | 30 December 2020 $8 Published by the Air Force Association STAFF Publisher December 2020. Vol. 103, No. 12 Bruce A. Wright Editor in Chief Tobias Naegele Managing Editor Juliette Kelsey Chagnon Editorial Director John A. Tirpak Staff Sgt.Johnson Staff Cassandra News Editor DEPARTMENTS FEATURES A crew loads a Amy McCullough pylon of AGN- 2 Editorial: Domain 10 Q&A: Staffing and Shaping the Space Force Assistant Dominance 86/B cruise missiles onto a Managing Editor By Tobias Naegele Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond, the first Chief of Space Operations, speaks to Senior Editor Rachel S. Cohen B-52H Strato- Chequita Wood 4 Letters about building the newest service. fortress during Senior Designer the Nuclear Dashton Parham 6 Index to Surety Staff Advertisers 30 Desert Storm: 30 Years Later, Could We Do It Again? Pentagon Editor Assisted Visit Brian W. Everstine By John A. Tirpak at Barksdale 9 Verbatim Digital Platforms The U.S. crushed Iraq and could defeat similar Air Force Base, 10 Strategy & Policy: adversaries today. But that doesn’t mean the Pentagon La., Aug. 5. For Editor Parsing the New learned from the experience. more on the Jennifer-Leigh Electromagnetic nuclear posture, Oprihory Strategy 36 New Life for New START? see “New Life Senior Editor for New START,” Rachel S. Cohen 12 Airframes By Amy McCullough p. 36. Production 20 World: What’s The Trump administration wanted to widen the treaty’s Manager ahead for defense scope. Now what’s the plan? during a Biden Eric Chang Lee administration; 40 Pegasus Paradox Photo Editor Heroic Airmen Mike Tsukamoto recognized; USSF By Brian W. Everstine outlined; New USAF The Air Force is satisfied Boeing will fix the KC-46—but Contributors Vice Chief; and full-rate production is still at least three years away. John T. Correll, more ... Robert S. Dudney, 43 Space Force Training Takes Shape Mark Gunzinger, 28 Faces of the Force Jennifer Hlad, 63 Airman for Life By Rachel S. Cohen Tom Taverney Thrive After-School USSF will take USAF training protocols and fine-tune Program Wins CAP them to suit the fledgling force. Award ON THE COVER 48 Commercial Solutions Answer 64 Namesakes: Eglin Space Force’s Call By Tom Taverney National Security Space must start to ADVERTISING: use commercial satellite architectures. Kirk Brown Director, Media 52 Range and Flexibility Solutions By Col. Mark Gunzinger, USAF (Ret.) 703.247.5829 [email protected] Why bombers are the most flexible leg in the nuclear triad. Department via USAF of Defense SUBSCRIBE Air dominance in all its & SAVE 56 Putting the CAP on COVID-19 terrifying fury took center Subscribe to stage when Operation Air Force Magazine By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory Desert Shield gave way to and save big off How Civil Air Patrol rallied to the nation’s call in the Operation Desert Storm on Jan. 17, 1991. Air Force the cover price, face of the global pandemic. Magazine commemorates plus get a free 58 The Allied Rift on Strategic Bombing the air war that destroyed membership Iraq’s army with a rare to the Air Force By John T. Correll wraparound cover depict- ing F-15As, F-15Cs, and Association. The British and Americans disagreed on almost F-15E’s cruising over oil 1-800-727-3337 everything about the Combined Bomber Offensive. fields set alight by Sadd- am Hussein’s forces. Air Force Magazine (ISSN 0730-6784) December 2020 (Vol. 103, No. 12) is published monthly, except for two double issues in January/February and July/August, by the Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Phone (703) 247-5800. Periodical postage paid at Arlington, Va., and additional mailing offices. Membership Rate: $50 per year; $35 e-Membership; $125 for three-year membership. Subscription Rate: $50 per year; $29 per year additional for postage to foreign addresses (except Canada and Mexico, which are $10 per year additional). Regular issues $8 each. USAF Almanac issue $18 each. Change of address requires four weeks’ notice. Please include mailing label. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Publisher assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material. Trademark registered by Air Force Association. Copyright 2020 by Air Force Association. DECEMBER 2020 AIRFORCEMAG.COM 1 EDITORIAL By Tobias Naegele Domain Dominance hirty years pass in a flash. More than 80 percent of today’s Air services took deep force structure cuts and aging weapon systems Force was not born when Maj. Gregory “Beast” Feest, flying were retired. As a reward for bankrupting the Soviet Union and its Tan F-117 Nighthawk, dropped the first bomb of Operation communist satellites in Eastern Europe, Americans sought a peace Desert Storm at 2:51 a.m. Baghdad time on Jan. 17, 1991. dividend in the form of a smaller defense budget. U.S. and allied forces had spent five months building up to that Meanwhile, the first Gulf War’s unfinished business fell to the moment, gathering a force of more than 500,000 in Saudi Arabia, Air Force. Having left Saddam Hussein in power, U.S. forces im- and all the gear needed to house, feed, and support them. Another posed no-fly zones in both Northern and Southern Iraq, both to 200,000 supported the operation, whether in the U.S., Europe, or keep Saddam from attacking his own people and to ensure he elsewhere in the Middle East. CNN was a new media sensation, didn’t seek revenge on his neighbors. Operations Northern Watch sharing live daily briefings from the combined forces commander, and Southern Watch dragged on for years, even as the Air Force Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf, on-the-scene reporting—and airing led NATO air campaigns in the Balkans, including the decisive air grainy, black-and-white videos showing bombs guided to their war that ended Slobodan Milosevic’s Kosovo war. When al Qaeda targets with stunning precision and devastating results. struck the World Trade Center and the Pentagon on 9/11/2001, the Desert Storm was an air power triumph. In the face of one of Air Force was still flying Northern and Southern Watch. Now, nearly the most sophisticated air defenses on the planet, the Air Force two decades hence, USAF’s deployments to the region continue systematically degraded and destroyed Iraq’s ability and will to unabated, yet its force today is smaller and older—and poorly sized fight. Stealth, precision, and an eects-based for a peer fight with the likes of China or Russia. air campaign designed by then-Lt. Col. Dave The air, space, and cyber For all who care about national defense, this Deptula demonstrated a radical departure in domains will take is a pending emergency. Air Force Chief of Sta the conduct of war. It enabled Feest and his precedence over land and Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr.’s call to “Accelerate fellow Nighthawk drivers to attack key targets Change—Or Lose” is a rallying cry to get on with throughout Iraq, while USAF’s then-modern fleet sea in future conflicts. the transformation of the force that has been too of F-16s, F-15Cs, F-15Es, and F-111s took out most long delayed. Modernization is not gilding the lily, everything else. Naval aviation contributed, but its air wings had but an imperative. America’s defense strategy has long assumed been built for a dierent kind of combat and lacked the range and we could aord to have smaller forces than some rivals, so long capability to be primary contributors; instead, Navy destroyers and as we ensured we are technologically superior. Force multipliers submarines contributed Tomahawk cruise missiles to the precision like precision, space, and stealth pay for themselves by enabling attacks in the opening salvo. America to wage war with fewer, but more capable forces. This war justified the investments the Air Force made in the wake Here’s the rub: Our adversaries are not only larger today, they are of painful losses in Vietnam: growing more capable, developing means to counter our advan- ■ Precision-guided weapons to destroy targets with fewer aircraft tages in space and stealth. Where Americans, tired of a 19-year war ■ Stealth to evade enemy defenses and proceed unhindered to that’s produced little for its trillion-dollar investment, crave another well-defended targets peace dividend, our adversaries perceive weakness. China sees ■ Satellites for eyes-in-the-sky intelligence, targeting, and instant America in decline, and its own ascendance as inevitable; Russia communications. seeks to exploit a growing American preoccupation with the Pacific The Air Force paralyzed Saddam’s command and control and by growing more assertive in the Arctic and Europe. then destroyed the Iraqis’ intelligence capability, blinding them to Aerospace power is the root of our national defense and the the maneuvers of two U.S. Army corps that shifted to attack from key to our strategy to deter the aggression of others and to fight the west, rather than the anticipated frontal assault in Kuwait. The and win when needed. The speed, range, flexibility, precision, and much-anticipated tank battle was over in hours, and totally one-sid- lethality of our Air and Space Forces are unparalleled today, but ed.