Faster Pilot The Goldfein Years 37 | Long-range Strike 46 | Spaceplanes, Then and Now 55 Training 16 BLACK AND AIR FORCE BLUE For Black Airmen, disparities persist In USAF life, culture, and promotions | 28 July/August 2020 $8 Published by the Air Force Association STAFF Publisher July/August 2020. Vol. 103, No. 7 & 8 Bruce A. Wright Editor in Chief Tobias Naegele Managing Editor Juliette Kelsey Chagnon Editorial Director John A. Tirpak News Editor Amy McCullough Assistant Managing Editor Chequita Wood Senior Designer Dashton Parham Pentagon Editor Brian W. Everstine Tech. Sgt. Jake Barreiro Sgt. Jake Tech. Digital Platforms DEPARTMENTS FEATURES Senior Airman Editor 2 Editorial: Power 8 Q&A: The Future of the Expeditionary Force Cody Mehren Jennifer-Leigh Plays and signals to a B-2 Oprihory Competition Lt. Gen. Mark D. Kelly, incoming head of Air Combat Spirit bomber during a refuel- Senior Editor By Tobias Naegele Command, speaks with John A. Tirpak about the Rachel S. Cohen changes coming to USAF. ing stop at An- 3 Letters dersen Air Force Production Base, Guam. Manager 4 Index to 28 Leveling the Field Eric Chang Lee Advertisers By Rachel S. Cohen Photo Editor 7 Verbatim The Air Force has room for improvement in Mike Tsukamoto 10 Strategy & Policy: addressing racial bias in the promotion process. The Big Fighter 33 Black Airmen Speak Out Contributors Gamble John T. Correll, By Rachel S. Cohen Robert S. Dudney, 12 Airframes Mark Gunzinger, In a force where color shouldn’t matter, inequalities 16 World: Rebuilding Jennifer Hlad, persist. Alyk Russell Kenlan, the forge; Meet the LaDonna Orleans new CMSAF; Space 37 The Goldfein Years Force organization; Russian Intercepts; By John A. Tirpak and more ... Chief 21’s legacy is his vision for the future: A highly 27 Faces of the Force connected joint force. 60 Airman for Life 41 Coping with COVID Across the Force ADVERTISING: Nominees for AFA National Officers; By Brian W. Everstine Kirk Brown Director, Media Mitchell Institute USAF is keeping the tip of the spear honed, despite ON THE COVER Fellows; AFA social pandemic challenges. Solutions media takeover. 703.247.5829 46 Stand In, Standoff [email protected] 64 Namesakes: Shaw By Mark Gunzinger SUBSCRIBE The right balance for the future bomber fleet. & SAVE Subscribe to 52 Let the Games Begin Air Force Magazine By Amy McCullough and save big off The Air Force sees cooperative esports as both Sgt.Staff Campbell/NYANG Ryan the cover price, recruiting tools and boosts to resiliency. Lt. Col. Paul Lopez, plus get a free then-commander membership 55 The Spaceplane: 60 Years On of USAF’s F-22 to the Air Force Demonstration Association. By John T. Correll Team, salutes a 1-800-727-3337 The ultimate goal was to take off from Earth, fly a crew member. See “Black Airmen mission through space, re-enter the atmosphere, and Speak Out,” p. 33. land on a runway. Air Force Magazine (ISSN 0730-6784) July/August 2020 (Vol. 103, No. 7 & 8) 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. JULY/AUGUST 2020 AIRFORCEMAG.COM 1 EDITORIAL By Tobias Naegele Power Plays and Competition ussia and the United States are flying missions on the edges ludicrous to think that serious people would do serious damage to of each other’s territory at the fastest pace in a generation. our national defense. RRussian Tu-95 Bear bombers have repeatedly approached U.S. With only a couple of exceptions, defense spending has risen airspace near Alaska, causing F-22s to scramble, and U.S. bombers and annually for roughly two decades. Expensive ground-centric wars intelligence aircraft have similarly shown their prowess over northern in Afghanistan, Iraq, and Syria have taken their toll. It is natural for Europe and the Pacific. Russian instigation also rattles its neighbors. taxpayers and legislators to want to ratchet down that spending now On the other side of the planet, China continues to press territorial to fund other priorities; it is beyond their intuition to understand that claims in skirmishes and standoffs all along its southern flank. China our military is now depleted and ill-suited to take on peer competitors faced off with India and Bhutan, on land, over border claims in June, in potential future conflicts. and in the South China Sea, continues to build up man-made islands The fact that our Air Force is now the smallest and oldest it in a bid to extend its perimeter beyond international norms. To China, has ever been is common knowledge only to those in the know. the entire sea is sovereign territory. Joe Public is oblivious, and even less aware of what the U.S. will China’s increasingly brutal treatment of ethnic Uyghurs, includ- face should it ever need to engage in combat with the People’s ing forced sterilization and imprisonment in concentration camps, Republic of China. was classified as genocide in a recent report from the Jamestown Taking on China will require superior air, space, and cyber forces. Foundation. Its tightening stranglehold on Hong Kong, meanwhile, Conventional land and naval forces need not apply. While the cry demonstrates the “One Country, Two Systems” “where are the carriers” might have defined policy—in place since 1997—is shrinking away. potential combat with China a generation ago, In Taiwan, they can only be wondering: Can Taking on China will require that is no longer the case. Aircraft carriers, the the U.S. be relied on in the face of Chinese ex- superior air, space, and pride of the Navy fleet, remain among the most pansion and aggression? Likewise, a free and cyber forces. Conventional visible symbols of American military power. But unfettered Europe depends largely on America’s in combat with China they will instead be our commitment to its NATO allies in the face of land and naval forces most visible targets—and greatest symbols of Russian instigation. need not apply. U.S. vulnerability. Too big to hide and too slow Regardless of your domestic politics, protect- to escape, they will be held at bay—or sunk at ing our allies and deterring our rivals remains central to American will—by hypersonic guided missiles, destroyed before they get close interests both at home and abroad. U.S. strategy depends on the enough to become effective. ability to deter competitors, with credible force, from trying to have Instead, it will be the United States’ low observable assets that their way with neighbors. China may not fear Taiwan, but it does fear reign supreme in conflicts with other great powers. Stealth fighters a conflict with the United States—at least for now. and bombers that can strike deep in enemy territory without being Republicans and Democrats agree on funding defense—at least detected; spacecraft that can track and queue potential targets and the experts do. The House Armed Services Committee approved its threats from the vantage of the gods; and cyber operators that can version of the 2021 defense policy bill by a 56-0 vote, and the Senate paralyze adversaries’ intelligence and communications networks Armed Services Committee approved its version also by a very a with strategic effect are all critical to deter future wars—and to win wide margin. But it is among the non-experts that cracks appear in them should it come to that. this apparent unity of vision. No wonder, then, that the Navy and Army are trying to develop The trillions of dollars invested to cushion the blows of COVID-19 long-range strike weapons to seek relevancy in such a fight. Unable have ballooned the budget deficit this year to more than $2 trillion to get within 1,000 miles of their targets, they want new capabilities and our overall national debt to more than $20 trillion. Near-zero to enable them to engage. They forget why we have a joint force: It’s interest rates today make that debt burden relatively manageable, not to divvy up missions to ensure that everyone gets a piece of the but our deflated economy will produce less tax revenue to pay those action, but rather to match the right solution to the problem. No one bills. Interest rates, and inflation won’t remain at historic lows forever. would call on a B-2 bomber to eliminate a terrorist streaking across Hence, the knives are out and those who’d carve up and redirect the desert in a pickup truck, because an MQ-9 Reaper will do the the defense budget for other purposes are honing the blades. Rep. job well for a fraction of the cost. Likewise, it makes little sense for Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) offered a resolution in June to cut $350 billion the Army to acquire a capability for which the Air Force is inherently from defense spending “to reduce the priority given to war in our better suited.