US Air Force News

[Poohbah]

Pentagon leaders cancel drag show at a Nevada Air Force base

Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains
Wed, May 31, 2023

Defense Department leaders have stepped in to stop a drag show scheduled for Thursday at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, according to two defense officials and a U.S. official.

The show, which was in celebration of Pride Month, was approved by Air Force leaders, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told the Air Force it is not Pentagon policy to fund drag shows on bases and the show should be canceled or moved off base.

Drag shows and events on military bases have become a politically contentious issue in recent months, with conservative politicians and pundits arguing the military should not be spending taxpayer money on them.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on March 29, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., angrily questioned Austin and Milley about drag queen story hours on bases around the world, including in Montana, Nevada, Virginia and Germany.

“Drag queen story hours is not something that the department funds,” Austin told the committee.

Milley chimed in, asking to see the flyers for the events Gaetz was referring to and saying he was not aware of such events and does not support their being held on military bases.

“I’d like to take a look at those, because I don’t agree with those,” Milley said.

When Milley was informed about the event this week, he was visibly angry about the decision to host the event on base, a U.S. official and a defense official said.

“Consistent with Secretary Austin’s congressional testimony, the Air Force will not host drag events at its installations or facilities. Commanders have been directed to either cancel or relocate these events to an off-base location,” an Air Force official said when asked about the Nellis event.

“Per DoD Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in non-Federal capacity to use DoD facilities and equipment. As Secretary Austin has said, the DOD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities. Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of DOD resources,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement.

The Nellis drag show was scheduled for Thursday, but the base commander was informed in the past few days that it must either be canceled or moved off base, the officials said.

“I can confirm the Nellis commander informed the private organization that the drag event would have to be canceled or relocated to an off-base location,” a source familiar with the matter said.

Nellis AFB hosted a Pride Month drag show in June 2021, named “Drag-u-Nellis.” A spokesperson for the base said in a statement that it was intended to promote inclusivity and diversity.

On May 23, Gaetz sent a letter about the issue to Austin and Milley, detailing six other cases of drag shows or events on bases or approved by the U.S. military. Gaetz asked the Pentagon leaders to provide information about the events and to say whether any punitive action has or will be taken against anyone who used taxpayer money on them.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Defense Secretary Orders No Drag Shows on Military Bases After Political Furor

1 June 2023
Military.com | By Rebecca Kheel and Thomas Novelly

A Defense Department-wide prohibition on drag shows on military bases has resulted in the cancellation of at least two events that were planned for Pride Month and previously approved by base officials, two defense officials confirmed to Military.com.

Shows at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and Ramstein Air Base in Germany scheduled for this month were canceled, participants and defense officials confirmed. The two officials told Military.com the cancellations were part of a direction from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that drag shows, which have become a target of the political right, not be hosted on bases.

The show at Nellis, the cancellation of which was first reported by NBC News, drew intense criticism from GOP politicians in recent weeks, including a letter conservative firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., sent to Austin calling the event an "outright attack on children." While a drag event at Ramstein last year faced similar attacks, the event this year had flown under the radar and the base's LGBT community had been eagerly anticipating a celebratory Pride Month.

"We're celebrating that we get to survive," Lane Fox, a member of the drag troupe that was slated to perform at a bar on Ramstein and whose partner is an active-duty service member, told Military.com on Thursday.

"The idea is that we have these public events because for the longest time we weren't able to do that because you'd get arrested and beaten and killed," Fox continued while choking up. "And now I wake up on June 1 and it's all corporate pride, and there's rainbows in every ad and then at the bottom of the rainbow is this big pot of festering lies and hate and fear."

News of the broader on-base drag ban comes as defense officials, including Austin, issue statements in support of Pride Month, the annual observance celebrating the LGBT community.

"As secretary of defense, I remain dedicated to making sure that our LGBTQ+ personnel across the joint force can continue to serve the country that we all love with dignity and pride -- this month and every other one," Austin said in a statement Thursday.

While a Defense Department spokesperson would not directly confirm Austin issued a new order banning on-base drag shows, they suggested such performances violate existing department regulations that govern on-base events hosted by private organizations.

"Per DoD Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in non-federal capacity to use DoD facilities and equipment," Defense Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a statement. "As Secretary Austin has said, the DoD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities. Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is inconsistent with regulations regarding the use of DoD resources."

Pressed on exactly what part of the regulations drag shows violate, the department did not have an immediate response.

An Air Force official told Military.com that base leaders have been told to relocate those shows or cancel them if they're on the installation.

"Consistent with Secretary Austin's congressional testimony, the Air Force will not host drag events at its installations or facilities," the official said. "Commanders have been directed to either cancel or relocate these events to an off-base location."

During a March hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Gaetz pressed Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley about drag shows hosted on military bases. Austin repeatedly told Gaetz that such events, which are typically sponsored by community groups, are "not something that the department supports or funds."

Drag, which dates back to the Elizabethan era and has become a popular form of entertainment among the LGBT community and its allies as a celebration of self-acceptance, has become a fixation of right-wing politics. Several Republican-led states have moved to ban drag shows, including Tennessee and Florida.

In the military, drag dates back decades. The first official drag show after the end of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" prohibition on gay people serving openly is believed to have been held at Kadena Air Base, Japan, in 2014. But historical records indicate drag performances to entertain the troops happened as least as far back as World War II.

Nellis, where one of this year's canceled shows was slated to happen, has hosted at least two other drag shows in past years, public affairs officials at the base told Military.com.

According to a copy of the event flyer posted online, the drag show scheduled for Thursday was supposed to take place at the Nellis Club Ballroom at 4:30 p.m. local time. It was sponsored by the Nellis LGBTQ+ Pride Council and marketed as a "family-friendly show to celebrate the legacy of Stonewall and contributions of Drag to the LGBT+ community!"

Performers Lawanda Jackson, Coco Montrese and Carne Asada were scheduled to be at the event, according to the poster.

Jackson told Military.com in a phone interview that a reporter was the one who broke the news about the cancellation on Wednesday. The drag performer is worried what precedent and message the abrupt removal of the on-base show will send to service members.

"It took a second to digest it, but I was saddened by the ripple effect this was going to cause," Jackson said. "It pushes everything back."

The LGBT community at Ramstein weathered similar criticism last year over a planned "Drag Queen Storytime" at a base library. The event was canceled as criticism started pouring in on Facebook and from lawmakers in D.C., particularly a letter Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall calling the event "completely insane."

After that incident, Ramstein's LGBT community rallied to form a nonprofit, called KMC Pride, a reference to the Kaiserslautern Military Community, to advocate for themselves and host LGBT-themed events.

The group hosted a drag show at a base bar in March, the first on-base drag event since the story time controversy, with little fanfare, though the founder of the organization told Military.com they had to assure base officials that children would not be present.

"We got a bunch of new members and they were talking about how much fun they had and how much it did mean that we had an event like this on-base and there is a group like this," Natalie Ricketts, KMC Pride's founder, told Military.com in an interview in May. "Being a brand-new, private org and being able to throw an event like that and be successful after everything that had happened, yes, that was a huge deal."

Ricketts said she founded the group after seeing the emotional and mental toll the criticism of the drag storytime took on her wife, a transgender active-duty service member. Officially, base officials maintained at the time that the library event was canceled because it didn't go through the proper approval process.

"She didn't expect to to deal with this type of discrimination on a military base overseas," Ricketts said of her wife. "Regardless of what the actual reasoning behind canceling [last year's] events was, it still looks like leadership sided with discrimination."

This year's canceled event was scheduled to take place June 17 at a base pub called the Brit Bar and was restricted to people 18 years and older. With an event again canceled this year, Fox said members of the drag troupe, called the Monarchy of RoyalTEA Drag Family, are fearful for transgender service members since drag is often conflated with being transgender.

"How do you keep fighting?" Fox said. "They said that we could do this if we got the right paperwork in order, that because this was a cultural event and celebration for a marginalized group that really all we needed to do was get our paperwork in order and then we'd be able to do it."

"How do you win when the game is rigged? How do you even play?" Fox said.

Who in the hell, in the era of #MeToo and multiple mandatory annual CBTs on sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and sexual assault prevention and response, would think that a drag show is at all appropriate?

[Johnnie Lyle]

Pentagon leaders cancel drag show at a Nevada Air Force base

Courtney Kube and Mosheh Gains
Wed, May 31, 2023

Defense Department leaders have stepped in to stop a drag show scheduled for Thursday at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada, according to two defense officials and a U.S. official.

The show, which was in celebration of Pride Month, was approved by Air Force leaders, but Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, told the Air Force it is not Pentagon policy to fund drag shows on bases and the show should be canceled or moved off base.

Drag shows and events on military bases have become a politically contentious issue in recent months, with conservative politicians and pundits arguing the military should not be spending taxpayer money on them.

At a House Armed Services Committee hearing on March 29, Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., angrily questioned Austin and Milley about drag queen story hours on bases around the world, including in Montana, Nevada, Virginia and Germany.

“Drag queen story hours is not something that the department funds,” Austin told the committee.

Milley chimed in, asking to see the flyers for the events Gaetz was referring to and saying he was not aware of such events and does not support their being held on military bases.

“I’d like to take a look at those, because I don’t agree with those,” Milley said.

When Milley was informed about the event this week, he was visibly angry about the decision to host the event on base, a U.S. official and a defense official said.

“Consistent with Secretary Austin’s congressional testimony, the Air Force will not host drag events at its installations or facilities. Commanders have been directed to either cancel or relocate these events to an off-base location,” an Air Force official said when asked about the Nellis event.

“Per DoD Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in non-Federal capacity to use DoD facilities and equipment. As Secretary Austin has said, the DOD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities. Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is not a suitable use of DOD resources,” deputy press secretary Sabrina Singh said in a statement.

The Nellis drag show was scheduled for Thursday, but the base commander was informed in the past few days that it must either be canceled or moved off base, the officials said.

“I can confirm the Nellis commander informed the private organization that the drag event would have to be canceled or relocated to an off-base location,” a source familiar with the matter said.

Nellis AFB hosted a Pride Month drag show in June 2021, named “Drag-u-Nellis.” A spokesperson for the base said in a statement that it was intended to promote inclusivity and diversity.

On May 23, Gaetz sent a letter about the issue to Austin and Milley, detailing six other cases of drag shows or events on bases or approved by the U.S. military. Gaetz asked the Pentagon leaders to provide information about the events and to say whether any punitive action has or will be taken against anyone who used taxpayer money on them.

This article was originally published on NBCNews.com

Defense Secretary Orders No Drag Shows on Military Bases After Political Furor

1 June 2023
Military.com | By Rebecca Kheel and Thomas Novelly

A Defense Department-wide prohibition on drag shows on military bases has resulted in the cancellation of at least two events that were planned for Pride Month and previously approved by base officials, two defense officials confirmed to Military.com.

Shows at Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada and Ramstein Air Base in Germany scheduled for this month were canceled, participants and defense officials confirmed. The two officials told Military.com the cancellations were part of a direction from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin that drag shows, which have become a target of the political right, not be hosted on bases.

The show at Nellis, the cancellation of which was first reported by NBC News, drew intense criticism from GOP politicians in recent weeks, including a letter conservative firebrand Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., sent to Austin calling the event an "outright attack on children." While a drag event at Ramstein last year faced similar attacks, the event this year had flown under the radar and the base's LGBT community had been eagerly anticipating a celebratory Pride Month.

"We're celebrating that we get to survive," Lane Fox, a member of the drag troupe that was slated to perform at a bar on Ramstein and whose partner is an active-duty service member, told Military.com on Thursday.

"The idea is that we have these public events because for the longest time we weren't able to do that because you'd get arrested and beaten and killed," Fox continued while choking up. "And now I wake up on June 1 and it's all corporate pride, and there's rainbows in every ad and then at the bottom of the rainbow is this big pot of festering lies and hate and fear."

News of the broader on-base drag ban comes as defense officials, including Austin, issue statements in support of Pride Month, the annual observance celebrating the LGBT community.

"As secretary of defense, I remain dedicated to making sure that our LGBTQ+ personnel across the joint force can continue to serve the country that we all love with dignity and pride -- this month and every other one," Austin said in a statement Thursday.

While a Defense Department spokesperson would not directly confirm Austin issued a new order banning on-base drag shows, they suggested such performances violate existing department regulations that govern on-base events hosted by private organizations.

"Per DoD Joint Ethics Regulation (JER), certain criteria must be met for persons or organizations acting in non-federal capacity to use DoD facilities and equipment," Defense Department spokesperson Sabrina Singh said in a statement. "As Secretary Austin has said, the DoD will not host drag events at U.S. military installations or facilities. Hosting these types of events in federally funded facilities is inconsistent with regulations regarding the use of DoD resources."

Pressed on exactly what part of the regulations drag shows violate, the department did not have an immediate response.

An Air Force official told Military.com that base leaders have been told to relocate those shows or cancel them if they're on the installation.

"Consistent with Secretary Austin's congressional testimony, the Air Force will not host drag events at its installations or facilities," the official said. "Commanders have been directed to either cancel or relocate these events to an off-base location."

During a March hearing before the House Armed Services Committee, Gaetz pressed Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Gen. Mark Milley about drag shows hosted on military bases. Austin repeatedly told Gaetz that such events, which are typically sponsored by community groups, are "not something that the department supports or funds."

Drag, which dates back to the Elizabethan era and has become a popular form of entertainment among the LGBT community and its allies as a celebration of self-acceptance, has become a fixation of right-wing politics. Several Republican-led states have moved to ban drag shows, including Tennessee and Florida.

In the military, drag dates back decades. The first official drag show after the end of the "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" prohibition on gay people serving openly is believed to have been held at Kadena Air Base, Japan, in 2014. But historical records indicate drag performances to entertain the troops happened as least as far back as World War II.

Nellis, where one of this year's canceled shows was slated to happen, has hosted at least two other drag shows in past years, public affairs officials at the base told Military.com.

According to a copy of the event flyer posted online, the drag show scheduled for Thursday was supposed to take place at the Nellis Club Ballroom at 4:30 p.m. local time. It was sponsored by the Nellis LGBTQ+ Pride Council and marketed as a "family-friendly show to celebrate the legacy of Stonewall and contributions of Drag to the LGBT+ community!"

Performers Lawanda Jackson, Coco Montrese and Carne Asada were scheduled to be at the event, according to the poster.

Jackson told Military.com in a phone interview that a reporter was the one who broke the news about the cancellation on Wednesday. The drag performer is worried what precedent and message the abrupt removal of the on-base show will send to service members.

"It took a second to digest it, but I was saddened by the ripple effect this was going to cause," Jackson said. "It pushes everything back."

The LGBT community at Ramstein weathered similar criticism last year over a planned "Drag Queen Storytime" at a base library. The event was canceled as criticism started pouring in on Facebook and from lawmakers in D.C., particularly a letter Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., sent Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall calling the event "completely insane."

After that incident, Ramstein's LGBT community rallied to form a nonprofit, called KMC Pride, a reference to the Kaiserslautern Military Community, to advocate for themselves and host LGBT-themed events.

The group hosted a drag show at a base bar in March, the first on-base drag event since the story time controversy, with little fanfare, though the founder of the organization told Military.com they had to assure base officials that children would not be present.

"We got a bunch of new members and they were talking about how much fun they had and how much it did mean that we had an event like this on-base and there is a group like this," Natalie Ricketts, KMC Pride's founder, told Military.com in an interview in May. "Being a brand-new, private org and being able to throw an event like that and be successful after everything that had happened, yes, that was a huge deal."

Ricketts said she founded the group after seeing the emotional and mental toll the criticism of the drag storytime took on her wife, a transgender active-duty service member. Officially, base officials maintained at the time that the library event was canceled because it didn't go through the proper approval process.

"She didn't expect to to deal with this type of discrimination on a military base overseas," Ricketts said of her wife. "Regardless of what the actual reasoning behind canceling [last year's] events was, it still looks like leadership sided with discrimination."

This year's canceled event was scheduled to take place June 17 at a base pub called the Brit Bar and was restricted to people 18 years and older. With an event again canceled this year, Fox said members of the drag troupe, called the Monarchy of RoyalTEA Drag Family, are fearful for transgender service members since drag is often conflated with being transgender.

"How do you keep fighting?" Fox said. "They said that we could do this if we got the right paperwork in order, that because this was a cultural event and celebration for a marginalized group that really all we needed to do was get our paperwork in order and then we'd be able to do it."

"How do you win when the game is rigged? How do you even play?" Fox said.

Who in the hell, in the era of #MeToo and multiple mandatory annual CBTs on sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and sexual assault prevention and response, would think that a drag show is at all appropriate?

Probably someone who didn’t think - or who didn’t understand that the rules are the same for everyone, no matter how you’re plumbed or who you want to get horizontal and naked.

[James1978]

Who in the hell, in the era of #MeToo and multiple mandatory annual CBTs on sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and sexual assault prevention and response, would think that a drag show is at all appropriate?

If you're an officer aspiring to greater things, it's not unreasonable to think that if the Commander in Chief is all in on LGBTQ, then a drag show is absolutely appropriate.

At least those cancelled events had the good sense to be 18 and over only events.

[Poohbah]

Who in the hell, in the era of #MeToo and multiple mandatory annual CBTs on sexual harassment, hostile work environment, and sexual assault prevention and response, would think that a drag show is at all appropriate?

If you're an officer aspiring to greater things, it's not unreasonable to think that if the Commander in Chief is all in on LGBTQ, then a drag show is absolutely appropriate.

At least those cancelled events had the good sense to be 18 and over only events.

Back when I was a young and foolish Lance Coconut, Maintenance Control hired a stripper for the Maintenance Control Chief's birthday.

The Sergeant Major noticed me gradually filtering to the rear of the crowd, and asked me later, "Was she that ugly?"

Me: "Oh, she's quite lovely to look at. Almost as lovely as my girlfriend. The difference is that one is my girlfriend, and one isn't."

Sergeant Major: (About five second pause followed by light bulb coming on) "Oh!"

A Serious Conversation Ensued in the Staff NCO Mess, and that was that for hiring strippers...

[MikeKozlowski]

As with pilots, he also said USAF has to accelerate the timeline between getting someone to agree to serve and actually getting them into uniform. A prolonged wait increases the chances of that recruit taking up another opportunity, he said.

“We have to eliminate those ‘barriers to entry,’” Brown said. “People get tired of waiting.”

We knew that shit thirty years ago, Sir. Start again.

Mike

Don't we also know that pilots want to fly aircraft and not desk?

Jem,

Yep. Won't do anything that would have a real effect. Forty years ago, an official report suggested bringing back WOs to fill the flight suit gaps and hold down non-flying admin jobs.....and the USAF leadership shied away from it like the Devil from holy water.

Mike

[James1978]

Top Air Force leader raises alarm on slumping standards amid China, Russia threats: 'Second best won't cut it'
Michael Lee
June 21, 2023

A top Air Force leader acknowledged the concerns of many members who have complained of failing standards in the branch, arguing the problem could lead to the U.S. military falling behind China and Russia.

"Based on my travels and conversations with Airmen of all ranks I have noticed a common concern regarding standards," Chief Master Sgt. of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass wrote in a memorandum to members Tuesday. "History shows that when standards erode, military capabilities and readiness decline."

The letter comes as all branches of the military have faced questions over the seemingly "woke" turn the country's armed forces have taken in recent years, with some critics arguing that prioritizing programs such as diversity, equity and inclusion over standards and training have left the country ill-equipped to win future conflicts.

The concern over falling behind rivals was apparently shared by Bass, who warned a decline in standards would leave it more difficult to "keep pace with the rapid expansion of the Chinese military, Russian aggression, and other emerging global challenges."

"In our profession, second best won't cut it," Bass said in the memorandum. "We must hold ourselves and others accountable. When any of us walk by or tolerate something below high standards, we damage our credibility."

The leader's memo also comes at a time when all branches of the military have been battling a recruiting crisis unseen in nearly 50 years, including the Air Force, which was forced in Fiscal Year 2022 to dig deep into its pool of delayed entry program candidates to fill the ranks. While the move helped the Air Force meet its recruiting goals last year, it set them behind target for meeting their objectives in 2023.

The country's largest military branch, the Army, has been the hardest hit by the recruiting crisis, coming 15,000 recruits short of its 2023 goals. However, Army Secretary Christine Wormuth has taken a seemingly different approach to the problem, blaming critics of the military's so-called "woke" policies for contributing to the crisis.

"We are a ready Army, not a ‘woke’ Army," Wormuth told reporters last week.

But Bass instead encouraged Air Force members to look inward, encouraging them to take responsibility for upholding high standards.

"When something isn't right… not up to standards, have the moral courage to do something about it," Bass said. "I call on all Airmen to both exemplify and uphold our standards in line with the Core Values: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence In All We Do."

Asked to comment on specific standards that weren't being met or the reason for concerns about slumping standards, Bass told Fox News Digital the Air Force has "some opportunities to refocus on standards, especially as they relate to how we perform and execute the mission as members of the Profession of Arms."

"We share a responsibility to lead by example at every echelon within the chain of command," Bass said. "Focusing on empowering our Airmen to make decisions that meet command intent maintains the level of trust and credibility needed to serve in unison."

Exclusive: CMSAF Bass Explains What Led to Her Recent ‘Standards’ Memo to Airmen
July 1, 2023 | By David Roza

When the Air Force’s top enlisted leader wrote an open letter to Airmen focusing on professional standards in June, the memo drew mixed reactions. Some Airmen thanked her for addressing issues of concern about grooming and behavior standards; others questioned the memo’s timing and wondered why she didn’t shed more light on specifics.

“History shows that when standards erode, military capabilities and readiness decline,” Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass wrote in the letter, posted on Facebook on June 20. “We can’t afford to let this happen and still expect to keep pace with the rapid expansion of the Chinese military, Russian aggression, and other emerging global challenges.”

In an exclusive interview with Air & Space Forces Magazine, Bass said there was no particular instance or issue that prompted her memo, but that questions about discipline and even when and how to correct other Airmen came up regularly as she travelled around the force.

“All healthy organizations, all strong teams, [need to] take a step back and reflect on what is good and what things they can do to continue to get better at their profession and at their trade,” she said in the interview. “There wasn’t one thing that triggered this, it really was more, ‘Hey, we’ve got to always police ourselves up to make sure that we remember that we are part of a profession of arms and that we are holding ourselves to a higher standard than an everyday American.’”

Bass joined the Air Force amidst the post-Gulf War drawdown in the 1990s, a time of significant change in the force. Bass cited two deadly accidents, among them the accidental shoot down of two Army helicopters and a fatal B-52 crash which raised fears of a “hollow force.” At that time, the Air Force was rapidly getting smaller and a series of sexual harassment and related scandals across the military services had highlighted the growing role of women in the military. Congress and the White House negotiated what would come to be called “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell,” the easing of rules that had formerly barred gay men and women from military service.

That’s when then-Chief of Staff Gen. Ronald Fogleman applied the Air Force Academy’s Core Values to the entire service, and with his personnel chief, Lt. Gen. Billy Boles, published the service’s original “Little Blue Book.”

The Air Force of today is also juggling change, undergoing a massive modernization push, developing new concepts like Agile Combat Employment, and gearing up for a different kind of security posture in which China looms as a peer and pacing military threat. At the same time, the COVID-19 pandemic, polarizing politics, and rapidly changing societal attitudes, including toward military service, are posing new challenges to the force.

Major changes to appearance standards, including looser regulations over hair length, color, and accessories, mustaches, tattoos, uniforms, morale patches, handbags, physical fitness, and even new rules allowing Airmen to stand with hands in pockets have generated controversy, particularly among old timers.

“The past five years there have been so many changes, it’s hard to keep up,” one security forces master sergeant told Air & Space Forces Magazine, on condition his name would be withheld. “As a senior NCO, trying to keep up with the new standards, if you make the wrong correction now you look like you don’t know what you’re talking about.”

Bass said she is well aware of such concerns.

“I have absolutely heard from our Airmen that there are too many changes … and they don’t know what those standards are,” she said. “What I would offer is, we cannot rationalize that ‘there are too many changes and that’s why we can’t uphold standards.’ We, as Airmen, absolutely know what right is and what right looks like, and [if unsure] we can look up what those standards are.”

One Airman told Air & Space Forces Magazine that he worried he might be accused of being racist or sexist if he tried to enforce particular grooming and appearance standards. Asked about that concern, Bass said the key is to enforce standards fairly and with respect.

“If you’re being fair, just, and true, then good order and discipline is going to prevail,” she said. Airmen should not be afraid to share high expectations and to hold each other accountable.

“We can’t be afraid to do those things,” Bass said. “That gets back to being a disciplined force…. [NCOs] just have to be fair and you can do so in a way that is respectful.”

Times are always changing, and generations are always shifting. Bass urged that it’s important to remember that and try to understand the world as younger Airmen see it.

“When I was a young Airman 30 years ago, I remember the folks who’d been in a long time talked about my generation and how we lacked standards,” Bass said. “So it’s interesting how history repeats itself. … I’m excited for this generation, because this generation is going to help us get after and tackle some of the toughest challenges that we’ve ever had, and we need to make sure that we cultivate the landscape so that they’re able to be the best versions of themselves.”

Bass said her letter was intended to remind Airmen of the rigid discipline required to be the best Air Force in the world, the best possible warfighting organization. “We must set high standards and execute to them because the line between average and elite airpower is razor thin,” she wrote. “In our profession, second-best won’t cut it.”

The objective is to ensure the U.S. Air Force can win wars and what will make that possible is the core values and high standards that helped build that force in the first place, Bass said. But she admitted those issues may not always be at the front of every junior Airman’s mind.

“When I was young Airman Bass, I wasn’t necessarily reflecting on core values, I was just trying to do my job and do it well,” she said. “But as leaders, it’s important to understand the broader picture. … This uniform is a reminder to myself that this is a commitment to duty, it’s a profession of arms, and in that we must hold ourselves to higher standards.”

Among the deadly mishaps in 1994 that prompted Fogleman’s focus on values was a deadly friendly fire incident in which two Air Force F-15 pilots mistook two Army Black Hawk helicopters for Iraqi aircraft, and shot them down. The helicopters were carrying international military and diplomatic officials over Iraq; all 26 on board were killed. The Government Accountability Office concluded that discipline problems in the F-15 community at the time played a role in the incident.

That same year, a B-52 pilot flying over Washington state took the bomber beyond its operational limits, losing control of the aircraft, and killing all four officers aboard.

“When leadership fails and a command climate breaks down, tragic things can happen,” Air Force Maj. Tony Kern wrote in a 1995 case study about the crash. “This is the story of failed leadership and a command climate which had degenerated into an unhealthy state of apathy and non-compliance—a state which contributed to the tragic crash.”

Those events played a role in the original rollout of the Air Force Blue Book, which codified the branch’s three core values: Integrity First, Service Before Self, and Excellence In All We Do.

“The small things led to bigger things,” Bass said. “We can’t ever allow ourselves to go back.”

Still, tying the styling of hair to safety seems a stretch to some Airmen. An aircraft armaments master sergeant who spoke with Air & Space Forces Magazine noted that in his experience, different career fields adhere to grooming standards differently.

“What gets me is this assumption that if you have a slip up in grooming standards then you’re going to slip up at work,” said the master sergeant, who asked not to be named publicly. “Correlation doesn’t always equal causation.”

For her part, Bass emphasized that standards are about professionalism: taking pride in the service means embracing the rules as they exist and applying them fairly and consistently to the Airmen around you. Bass argued that attitude is key to ensuring the Air Force remains the best in the world.

Unlike those crashes, Bass said her letter had no single triggering event. “We needed just a quick vector check,” she said. “And we needed to put that out there for all Airmen.”

[James1978]

Kendall: Air Force Recruiting Shortfall Not a ‘Crisis’
June 22, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force does not have serious long-term concerns about recruiting, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall said June 22.

“We have things that we can do to manage our way through this, so we’re not in any kind of crisis,” Kendall said at an event hosted by the Center for a New American Security. The Air Force is in line to miss its recruiting goal by about 10 percent this year for the Active-Duty Force, with slightly worse numbers for the Guard and Reserve.

Kendall said the service has tried to offer more flexibility in a competitive job market to help bridge the shortfall.

Led by Gen. David W. Allvin, the service’s Vice Chief of Staff and expected successor to Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., the Air Force has looked to make policy changes that make the service a possibility for those who may have previously been excluded.

Kendall said Allvin has led a team to “kind of push through some of the bureaucracy that makes policy changes slow.” The target of one of Brown’s four signature ‘Action Orders,’ bureaucracy is an oft-cited bogeyman for the service’s woes as it is trying to rapidly modernize to meet the challenge posed by China’s growing military might.

“We’ve got a long list of things that where we have rules in place that really didn’t make any sense,” Kendall said. “We’re not lowering our standards.”

But the service is loosening its tattoo rules, changing how it measures body mass index, and offering a second chance for some prospective Airmen who test positive for marijuana. Individually, Kendall said, the policies are not revolutionary. Together, though, they are part of a broader effort to appeal to more Americans.

“We’re doing some things on the margins and we’re seeing very specific increases coming out because of that,” Kendall said.

Kendall said those lessons could be applied more wholesale across the service to offer more flexibility.

“The situation we have right now is probably going to give us an opportunity to, I think, take a look at a number of policies and adjust them where we can be more open to terms of people we weren’t letting in before,” Kendall said. While the Space Force doesn’t have recruiting issues, Kendall said, the young service allows for more innovative thinking, such as directly commissioning officers from industry to attach high-level talent.

In addition to the challenges the Department of the Air Force faces from the labor market, military personnel issues have become increasingly politicized as of late. Kendall said one of his biggest concerns is misperceptions of the military—misperceptions that are often reinforced during contentious hearings on Capitol Hill.

“There are, both on the left and on the right, there are some criticisms and some issues that get brought up, and I think overemphasized,” Kendall said.

Two main issues can be misconstrued, Kendall said: the military is not concerned with preventing sexual assault and the Air Force’s efforts to be diverse and more welcoming to people with a myriad of backgrounds are undermining its core mission as a fighting force.

“The positive story there is that we’re working very hard to address sexual assault, sexual harassment,” Kendall said. “On the diversity side, the military is essentially a conservative organization. It has always been, and I think always will be. But it’s a diverse force, and it’s getting more so over time, and you want it to be as effective and capable as it can be. That means that people are going to have to work with people that they haven’t had a chance to be exposed to or understand in the past, have some empathy for them, understand what they’ve been through in their lives, and be able to make them as effective as they can be and be able to work with them well on a team.”

Kendall framed his views on personnel through the lens of his trademark focus: China and the possibility of a near-peer conflict.

“All the things we’re doing in making it a safer place to work and to make it a place where teams everybody on the team is respected and is working to their full potential is all about our ability to do our job at the end of the day,” Kendall said. “We may be back in a combat situation sometime where we have a lot of casualties. We will have to do other people’s jobs. We have to keep working under extreme stress. So that’s what we’re shooting for. All the other things that we talked about contribute to that. They give people the freedom to focus on their work.”

[James1978]

This Air Force Squadron Is Key to DOD’s Plan For Climate Change
June 8, 2023 | By David Roza

For military planners, a change in the weather can impact a host of factors and decisions.

For instance, rising air temperature on Guam, a central hub of military operations in the Pacific, impacts the density of the air, which affects how much runway length a military aircraft needs to take off and how much gas, weapons, and cargo it might be able to carry.

“All of those calculations tie into larger strategies of how long our runways need to be, how many cargo aircraft we need, how much armament can fit on our planes, how powerful our helicopters need to be,” Lt. Col. Bill Danyluk, commander of the 14th Weather Squadron, told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

There are several weather squadrons in the Air Force, many of which provide forecasts so that units can safely operate. Danyluk’s squadron, however, has a mission performed by no other unit in the military: predicting what the climate might be like more than 10 years from now, with calculations that include the effect of human emissions, rather than simply relying on historical climate data.

“The average environment is going to change, and we need to start thinking about that now so we can adapt to those changes without losing combat power,” said Danyluk.

The goal is for the 14th Weather Squadron to be able to answer nuts-and-bolts questions that military planners have about how climate change will impact operations.

“What we’ve seen over the last couple of years is a significant increase in specific questions about climate change,” Danyluk said.

For example, if unit commanders want to plan for operations in northern Alaska in 2035, they would need to start planning years in advance to know what equipment and training regimens to develop so that troops are prepared for that environment. Part of the planning process involves knowing projected temperatures, snowfall amounts, wind, and other data that no current tools in the U.S. military can provide.

“It takes a long time to develop and field equipment to work in that new environment,” Danyluk said. “That’s why they need to ask for it now and understand how the future climate might be different from what it is today.”


The 14th Weather Squadron’s new mission is one of several efforts the Department of Defense and the Air Force is pursuing to be ready for a changing climate. In October, the Air Force released its Climate Action Plan, where it established goals such as cutting emissions, pursuing alternative energy sources, and tying the “security implications of climate change” into its planning, training, operations, acquisition, logistics, and other areas of decision-making.

Though climate projection is a new mission for the 14th, the squadron has experience studying climatology. In fact, Danyluk said the name “Weather Squadron” is a bit misleading because the unit works on climatology, which involves longer-term analysis than weather studies.

“Weather is generally up to 10 days in the future, and then beyond that you are using some form of climatology,” he explained.

Climatologists often use historical data to predict what might happen in the future, but climate change throws a wrench in the works, potentially making those assessments less reliable. Instead, a new field called climate projection has emerged where climatologists use data such as future emissions concentrations, together with climate models, to project the future state of the climate.

The military has two preexisting methods for making climate assessments—the DOD Climate Assessment Tool (DCAT) is used to assess climate risk specifically for military installations and infrastructure, and the Department of Defense Regional Sea Level (DRSL) database projects sea levels. The 14th Weather Squadron will aim to answer climate questions beyond the scope of those tools.

The squadron, which falls under the 557th Weather Wing based in Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., is located in Asheville, N.C., amid some of America’s leading institutions for climate study. There is the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s National Climatic Data Center and the North Carolina Institute for Climate Studies, which helps the squadron stay abreast of the latest tools and techniques of the trade.

About half of the squadron’s 64 members are civilians. On the military side, Airmen who join the squadron have typically served at least one operational assignment providing weather expertise for an operational unit commander. That experience shows weather Airmen how operational commanders use climate data.

“The installation commander says ‘I want to know what the normal snowfall amount is here at my base in Utah so I can plan to buy enough salt and enough snowplows,’” Danyluk said. “He’ll ask his weather flight, who will then send the [request for information] over to the 14th Weather Squadron. It is really helpful to have that perspective from the field on how decision makers actually use the data.”

The squadron provides data to all the services, the intelligence community, and NATO, Danyluk said. Several of the squadron’s civilian members are experts with over a decade of work in climatology. But climate projection requires a new skill set—and involves some uncertainty.

“When you look 10 to 30 years into the future, there is some variability in the projections, because those projections are based on future emissions concentrations,” Danyluk said. “Those come from humans, so it depends on what humans do, and that cannot always be easily projected.”

The 14th will need new resources to take on its new mission. While the unit has an initial “pathfinder” capability to pursue its new climate projection mission, the Air Force is still working out how many and what kinds of new tools or staff the 14th will need to pursue it at a larger scale, Danyluk said.

“The timelines for how soon we can be fully capable depend on when we get the resources, and it also depends on what is defined as fully capable,” he said.

In the meantime, Airmen are improvising—as they so often do.

“We have tech sergeants and Airmen who are actually writing and manipulating computer code to extract data from our database and provide answers to questions that essentially have never been asked before,” Danyluk said. “As those new questions come in, they have to figure out how to answer them on a regular basis. It is pretty impressive what the individual Airmen are doing.”

Though planners can use the analysis provided by the 14th Weather Squadron to make decisions, Danyluk emphasized that it’s not the squadron’s job to make recommendations. Weather or climate Airmen provide data and analysis, but it is up to the policy-maker to decide how to act on that analysis.

“It’s an exciting time for the 14th and the whole military, because it is providing a new capability,” he said. “The end goal is to make better decisions, make better use of taxpayer money and, at the end of the day, to maintain the core mission of the Department of Defense.”

[James1978]

Brown: USAF Must Commit to Industry to Build Up Capacity for Munitions, Spare Parts
June 8, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

After a long period in which munitions were almost an afterthought and sacrificed to pay for other priorities, the Air Force needs to focus on them in order to have the right “package” of capabilities for future conflicts, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said June 7.

“I’ve watched this over probably the last seven or eight years,” Brown said at a Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. “It’s an area that we tend to not spend as much focus on and I think we need to. In some cases, because you don’t have a threat right on your doorstep, munitions aren’t high on your priority list. Well, that’s different now.“

The war in Ukraine has highlighted the urgent need to be able to surge production of munitions, Brown said, as has the National Security Strategy and reviews of U.S. military posture in places like the Korean Peninsula, where stockpiles of weapons in particular were scrutinized.

While fielding new platforms like the B-21 bomber is important, munitions are an area “we’ve got to pay attention to to ensure we bring those along,” Brown said.

The Mitchell Institute has published several studies of USAF munitions over the last few years and determined the service needs both longer-range weapons and far more of them if it is to have a chance of prevailing in a conflict in the Pacific, where there would be tens of thousands of potential targets.

In its fiscal 2024 budget, the Air Force is seeking an increase in multiyear procurement of the AIM-120 AMRAAM air-to-air missile, the AGM-158 JASSM stealth ground-attack cruise missile, and its marine warfare variant, the Long-Range Anti-Ship Missile. All three are in production and have successors in the works.

“I believe that is just a start,” Brown said. “We’ve got to look at multi-year procurements, so that it helps give a predictable demand signal to industry.”

Indeed, Air Force officials have said in budget discussions there aren’t enough missiles on hand for a no-notice air campaign, and Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante has warned that industry has been reluctant to invest in weapons manufacturing facilities and capacity because of uneven funding.

Companies need a clear business case—backed up by action—to convince their stockholders to underwrite more capacity, LaPlante has said.

“It’s not just the primes,” Brown said. “It’s all the [subcontractors] below them.” Without predictability, those companies can’t invest in capacity and workforce—sending a clear signal that weapons will be bought at a steady rate “helps us to be able to surge if we need to,” Brown added.

Likewise, Brown said partners and allies who have U.S.-type aircraft also have to have the munitions that go with them.

“We have to ensure that we have enough munitions on the shelf to support us and our allies and partners, and so that’s something that I think we need to continue to focus on and make sure we have a complete package of capability for our weapon systems,” he said.

New weapons like the B-21 won’t have the desired effect if they aren’t matched with munitions that take best advantage of their capabilities, Brown said.

“That’s an area that I do focus on, to ensure that we’re able to have the complete package,” he said. “And then on top of that, is how we use those bombers.” The Air Force needs to show it can put aircraft and munitions anywhere it needs but must also monitor adversaries like China to see if the message being sent is the one being received, Brown noted.

Similar to the munitions issue, Brown said industry also needs to see stability in spare parts funding so they can feel confident investing in new technologies and parts-making capacity.

Digital engineering, which is now becoming standard for all USAF programs, will help make parts easier and cheaper to make through 3-D printing, Brown said. The key is assessing the quality of printed parts and the confidence in that process to make flight-critical parts, he said.

At the same time, the Air Force aims to reduce the cost of weapon system sustainment through greater use of predictive maintenance, he said, wherein accumulated data on how a part performs in a fleet can save money and aircraft downtime by accurately predicting when it will need replacing.

“I think we have opportunity here,” Brown said. “Our Rapid Sustainment Office is taking a look at this as well, but to use the data to be a little more predictive in not only how we change the parts, but also work the supply chain.”

[James1978]

How a Rusty B-52 Carcass Is Key to the Bomber’s Big Upgrades
May 24, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak

OKLAHOMA CITY—Within a brand-new, gleaming-white facility called the “high bay” at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Complex, a battered and rusty-looking fuselage and left wing of a B-52H has become a laboratory for the government-industry team that will revamp the aged Stratofortress fleet for the next 30 years.

Still bearing its nose art—nicknamed “Damage, Inc. II”—the B-52H, which sat in the “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force, Ariz., for more than two decades, will serve as a testbed for engineers looking to align new digital models of the bomber with the hands-on real world.

The right wing and tail horizontal stabilizer from the aircraft are in a separate stress test facility—McFarland Research and Development in Wichita, Kan.—to determine how much structural life is left in the wings and control surfaces of the B-52 fleet, among other things.

The carcass will be a valuable tool for engineers “who have never had the chance to get inside” one of the bombers, said Jennifer Wong, head of bomber programs for Boeing, which along with Rolls-Royce provided travel, meals, and lodging for reporters traveling to Oklahoma City to report on the B-52J program.

Boeing is responsible for integrating the various upgrades that will turn the B-52H into the B-52J, including new engines, a new radar, communications and navigation, new weapons, and other improvements.

“In order to perform all of the necessary mods of this program, we are touching more than just the engines,” Wong said.

The carcass will allow engineers to crawl around in the airplane, to see how much space there is for installation of new gear and for maintainers to work on new equipment, and to appreciate the variations present in an aircraft built with sheet metal methods and blueprints more than a half century ago, Wong said. And crucially, it will allow these explorations without taking any of the Air Force’s current B-52s out of commission.

The aircraft made the month-long, 1,500-mile flatbed journey from Davis-Monthan to Oklahoma City in early 2022 and is already serving as a reality check on the B-52 engineers’ digital models, used to project how they will mount new engines and pylons, run new cable, replace cockpit instrumentation, and otherwise organize the B-52’s rebirth.

The carcass has also helped engineers determine the proper placement of the B-52’s new Rolls-Royce F130-200 engines, to see how the flaps will have to be re-shaped to accommodate the new engine nacelles. It will also offer an opportunity for fit-tests of new cockpit displays, wiring, and generator accessories that will be located in the landing gear bays, for example.

The digital models are intended to make sure those new items don’t interfere with older ones; the carcass ensures the models haven’t missed something, such as “finding out you can’t reach a particular panel once this new thing is in place,” one engineer said.

“We like to say everything underneath the wing is pretty much brand new … or modified for this program,” Wong said. “But in doing so, when you integrate new engines, you’re also affecting the wiring … the hydraulic system, the power system. … All of those have to be redesigned, modified and/or developed.”

The hope is the B-52 carcass will smooth the way toward final designs.

The virtual reality systems developed by Rolls-Royce and Boeing for the new engines and other aircraft gear have gotten high marks from maintainers and will likely be offered to the Air Force as a maintenance training system at some point, company officials said. But that is not part of the B-52 upgrade effort, according to Col. Louis Ruscetta, senior material leader for the program.

“This is an upgrade with a lot of moving parts,” Ruscetta said. “I want to keep this … as simple as possible.”

For example, installing the new radar and preventing it from interfering with other systems is a formidable task in itself. It comes in two parts: the sensor of the AN/APG-79V4 used on the F/A-18 will be in the new radome, but the processor will come from the APG-82 flown on the F-15. They will be mounted—together—and must fit in fuselage space occupied by the current system.

The new system is also heavier than the old one, and though it doesn’t affect the aircraft’s weight and balance, the structure in that part of the aircraft has to bear a new load.

The radar will be used for both targeting and navigation but won’t be integrated with the electronic warfare system, Ruscetta said.

“We have that as a growth requirement,” he said. “It will have the hooks to do that. But under the KISS methodology [Keep It Simple, Stupid], I wanted to make this a radar integration program, and not an EW integration program, which is a lot different scope.”

In the cockpit, the digital models can be checked to see if crewmembers can see and reach new displays and controls associated with the new systems or upgraded to new standards. Because the B-52 was built in the 1960s—from a 1950s design—not all sizes of Airmen will be able to operate the aircraft, but the program is aiming to make the cockpit friendly to more pilots.

The High Bay will also serve to test interfaces for various weapons, pylons, and other B-52 accessories. Present in the facility were two dummy rounds of the AGM-158 Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile (JASSM), several variants of the GBU-31/32/38 Joint Direct Attack Munition, the ADM-160 Miniature Air-Launched Decoy, B-52 wing-mounted weapons pylons, a Common Strategic Rotary Launcher, and various items of B-52 ground equipment. There also appeared to be other weapons which a Boeing official said might be future “notional” munitions.

One aspect of the B-52 not getting a refresh is its basic appearance. While the C-5M Galaxy got fresh interior paint and soft surfaces when it was re-engined in the 2010s—Air Mobility Command generals said they wanted their Galaxy pilots to feel like it was a new airplane—the B-52 won’t be getting any such cosmetic improvements.

“That’s not part of this program,” Ruscetta said, though the Air Force might opt to do it at some later date.

[James1978]

Here Are the Air Force Jobs Losing Special Duty Assignment Pay

11 July 2023
Military.com | By Thomas Novelly

Department of the Air Force officials have revealed which jobs are no longer eligible for a bonus meant to incentivize airmen to take on the most difficult roles in the service, after Military.com reported on the service's lack of transparency in not releasing the information to the public.

Last week, Military.com reported that the Air Force had repeatedly declined to list which jobs would no longer qualify for Special Duty Assignment Pay. The only way to view the revised list of jobs that qualify was to have a login for the Air Force's myForce Support Squadron, or myFSS, a web portal accessible only to service members -- meaning it was hidden from spouses, the media and government watchdogs.

On Tuesday, four days after Military.com's article, the Air Force revealed which jobs no longer qualify for Special Duty Assignment Pay.

Last month, the Department of the Air Force announced that a newly formed board reviewed the special pay program and reduced the number of jobs that qualify for the bonus from 103 to 70 for fiscal year 2024.

Of the 70 jobs that were approved to receive Special Duty Assignment Pay, "four were initial requests that were certified for the first time, 48 were recertified at their current rate, 11 increased rate and seven decreased rate to maintain parity with specialties of similar duties, responsibilities and training,” according to the Air Force.

The bonus, which can range from $75 to $450 a month, is meant for those "who serve in duties which are extremely difficult," according to Air Force budget documents. Many service members choose to take on those jobs because of that extra money while formulating family budgets around the higher pay.

Here are the jobs that no longer qualify for Special Duty Assignment Pay:
* President's Emergency Ops Center
* Cryptologic Language Analyst
* Electronic Security Systems
* Aircraft Battle Damage Repair Exp Depot Mx
* Defense Threat Reduction Agency (DTRA)
* 361st Intelligence, Surveillance, and Reconnaissance Group (ISRG)
* Defense Couriers
* 31 Communication Squadron and 39 Communication Squadron NC3
* Army Support Weather Ops
* Flight Attendants
* 52nd Munitions Maintenance Group NC3
* Airborne Mission System Operators
* Flight Engineers
* Loadmasters
* Sensor Operators
* Special Mission Aviators
* Contracting
* Remotely Piloted Aircraft (RPA) Cyber Technicians
* International Enlisted Engagements Managers
* RPA Ops -- Weather Support
* Modular Airborne Fire Fighting System
* Super High Frequency Operators
* Advanced Intelligence Instructors
* Ski Mission -- Flight Engineers and Loadmasters
* Airborne Mission Systems Specialist -- Host Nation Riders
* 55th Operations Group Management Operator
* 336th Training Squadron & 98th DRA Aircrew Flight Equipment
* Diagnostic Med Sonographer
* Honor Guard
* Air National Guard RPA Cyber Ops
* Radar, Airfield & Weather Systems
* Casualty Cell (next-of-kin notification)
* Military Working Dog Handlers

A June 23 press release from the Department of the Air Force said the board "focused on identifying personnel in extremely demanding positions with unusually challenging responsibilities based on a defendable scoring methodology, and decisions were made agnostic of budgetary funding."

Those serving in a field that will be removed from the bonus list won't lose all the pay at once; they will still receive Special Duty Assignment Pay at "a rate of one-half their original SDAP through Sept. 30, 2024," according to the release.

Jobs that will see a reduction in Special Duty Assignment Pay include:
* Military Human Intelligence
* 724th Special Tactics Group Operations, Support
* Subsurface Analyst
* Parachuting Instructor
* 33rd Cyberspace Operations Squadron, Operating Location Alpha
* Mission Field Chef
* Special Ops Surgical Team

Jobs where the Special Duty Assignment Pay is being reduced will be "given 90 days before the reduced rate will become effective," the release added.

Some career fields that were previously ineligible for Special Duty Assignment Pay now qualify. They include:
* Material Management
* Bomber Airborne Maintenance Support
* United States Air Force Academy Enlisted Faculty Instructor
* Special Missions Support

Career fields that will see an increase in Special Duty Assignment Pay include:
* Survival, Evasion, Resistance, Escape (SERE) Specialists
* Cyber Warfare Ops
* Flying Crew Chiefs
* Special Reconnaissance
* Air Force Office of Special Investigations
* First Sergeant
* Command Chief Master Sergeant
* 844th Communications Squadron
* Independent Duty Medical Technician
* Respiratory Care
* Fire Protection

Those in jobs receiving an increase in Special Duty Assignment Pay will see it in place starting Oct. 1.

The Department of the Air Force's choice not to, at first, publicly disclose what jobs were being cut from Special Duty Assignment Pay concerned government watchdogs like Jason Paladino, a researcher at the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight.

"The Air Force public affairs office is once again showing a reflexive secrecy, withholding unclassified information from the public without justification," Paladino said. "U.S. taxpayers have a right to know how much they are paying members of the military."

On Monday, the Air Force announced that it could potentially run out of money in its personnel budget and began pausing some duty assignments and reenlistment and retention bonuses, as well as extending some deployments to address the shortfall.

The Air Force detailed a $92.2 million ask for Special Duty Assignment Pay in the fiscal 2024 budget documents which were released this year. The budget from the year prior asked for an estimated $96.2 million for the financial incentive, about $4 million more.

The Air Force said the bonus would be for an estimated 33,500 airmen last year. For the fiscal year 2024 ask, it would be for around 29,800 airmen, according to the service's documents, or about 3,700 fewer people.

[James1978]

KC-46 Update: Where Things Stand With Every Deficiency
Aug. 7, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—More than six years after the Air Force identified the first serious deficiency on the KC-46 tanker, six Category 1 deficiencies still remain and a seventh was downgraded to Category 2 in April, said Col. Leigh Ottati, chief of the KC-46 program office—the first public announcement of that development

Ottati detailed the deficiencies still plaguing the Pegasus during the Life Cycle Industry Days conference last week and shared updated timelines for resolving some of them.

The Air Force defines a Category 1 deficiency as one which “may cause death, severe injury, or severe occupational illness; may cause loss or major damage to a weapon system; critically restricts the combat readiness capabilities of the using organization; or result in a production line stoppage.” Category 2 defects, meanwhile, “impede or constrain successful mission accomplishment.”

The Government Accountability Office noted seven Category 1 deficiencies on the KC-46 in January 2022, and 19 months later none have been fully resolved. The Air Force worked with subcontractor GE Aerospace to develop a software fix for issues with the KC-46’s flight management system, Ottati said, but while the fix appears to be working it remains under observation.

“We’re going to do that for a period of time to make sure that all the software fixes that are out there are working, which they have been, and then we’ll close that deficiency completely,” he said.

RVS 2.0

The most prominent problem for the KC-46 is its troubled Remote Vision System, the camera and video system boom operators use to refuel other aircraft. The Air Force claims two Category 1 deficiencies related to the RVS, one of which causes the other. In certain lighting conditions, the boom operator is unable to see the receptacle clearly, and that can result in damage to the receiving plane if the boom scrapes against that aircraft. Aircraft like the B-2 and F-22 that have special stealth coatings are particularly susceptible to damage. The planned fix, a brand-new system RVS 2.0 solution, isn’t expected to be ready until 2025, Ottati confirmed. Contractor Boeing offered its first look at RVS 2.0 to Air & Space Forces Magazine late last year, saying it hoped to field them by October 2025.

“We still have challenges and schedule risks with RVS 2.0, but right now, we’re working closely with Boeing and their main subcontractor, Collins, on continuing to progress well with that, and intending to complete the development in late ’25 as previously reported, and then go straight into retrofits,” Ottati said.

Once RVS 2.0 is ready, Boeing will retrofit the Air Force’s KC-46s at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Fla., with the process taking about two months, Ottati said.

In the meantime, Boeing and the Air Force are still trying to close out the last “critical action item” from RVS 2.0’s critical design review, which has been ongoing since June 2022.

“The last critical action item had to do with the FAA certification plan for the commercial off-the-shelf cameras that are in the RVS 2.0 solution,” Ottati said. We’ve been working very closely with Boeing and the FAA on that and we have a good path forward and expect to close out that last critical action from CDR this quarter, so by the end of September.”

Stiff Boom

Another deficiency identified more than half a decade ago is “stiffness” in the refueling boom—certain aircraft that can’t produce as much thrust, such as the A-10, cannot provide enough force to keep the boom in place during refueling.

The problem is the boom’s actuator, which “drives the boom out in the telescope direction, and then when a receiver connects with it, the receiver drives the boom back into sort of a nominal refueling position,” Boeing KC-46 Program Manager James Burgess previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Rather than redesign the entire boom, Boeing and the Air Force have opted to redesign the actuator, but developing a compliant actuator has proven difficult, Ottati said.

“We just recently had a Test Readiness Review meeting with Boeing and [subctontractor] Moog, and there’s still some challenges with [the boom telescope actuator redesign],” Ottati said. “Right now, we’re still expecting an early fiscal 2025 completion of the development for BATR [the telescoping boom actuator replacement]. And we have some margin until we can start retrofit, because of the long lead items for the retrofit portion. But we’re still struggling a little bit with the BTAR schedule and working closely with Boeing and Moog to make sure that we don’t eat up that margin that we have between the finishing of development and the start of retrofit, based on again, those long lead items.”

Quality Deficiencies

The remaining Category 1 deficiencies are all related to KC-46 product quality, Ottati said.

One is related to the tanker’s auxiliary power unit’s drain mast on the outside of the tail, which could potentially crack or break loose. The Air Force previously downgraded that deficiency to a Category 2, believing it had an interim fix, but backtracked after cracks continued to appear, Ottati said. Boeing is developing a long-term fix—“a newer, more robust drain mast, beefed-up APU doors,” Ottati said, but USAF is being cautious before declaring the problem solved.

“[We want to] make sure we have the right data, the appropriate data to ensure that we’re not seeing the same excessive vibrations and cracking in APU drain masts,” Ottati said. “And I say appropriate data because it’s primarily at high speeds with the boom lowered that we were seeing those kind of vortices in the back of the aircraft that were causing that vibration. So I want to make sure we have a significant amount of flight hours showing that those drain masts are not an issue any longer. Maybe six months or longer before we will look at potentially downgrading those and downgrading that one as well.”

Another deficiency is bad seals, that lead to fuel system leaks. Boeing officials say they’ve redesigned the valve seals to make them easier to install, and both Boeing and Air Force officials say they’re seeing far fewer leaks as a result.

But Ottati said he’s not ready to declare that deficiency resolved either.

“We’ll analyze in the next six months if that’s one we could downgrade and close at some point,” he said. “I don’t want to close … prematurely. I want to make sure that we have the right fix and plan for the retrofit for the entire fleet that’s affected.”

The final product quality deficiency relates to cracks in a drain line. “It’s a drain line that comes from the receptacle of the KC-46, through the flight deck, and then exits out the bottom of the aircraft—primarily for any excess fuel or water or anything like that to make sure that it doesn’t stay within the receptacle and drains,” Ottati said. “And what we’re seeing is because of the design, in cold temperatures with remaining water or fuel in the line, that drain line was cracking, creating the potential that there could be fuel on the flight deck.”

Progress on that fix has been slowed by the need for FAA certifications, but Boeing is hoping to begin flight testing a solution in the next month or so. After that, Ottati said, the Air Force will finalize the design and retrofits will begin.

[James1978]

Big shocker - ICBM facilities built in the 1960s are full of nasty chemicals.
The headline says Minot, but there are problems at Malmstrom a well.

Air Force Finds Elevated Levels of Toxic Chemicals at Minot
Aug. 24, 2023 | By Chris Gordon

The Air Force has found residue of a harmful and possibly carcinogenic substance at intercontinental ballistic missile facilities at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., it announced Aug. 24.

According to service officials, military bioenvironmental experts found elevated levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in an underground launch support building at the base.

The Air Force has now released findings on PCB levels at all three of its ICBM bases. Two—Minot and Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.—had levels that exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s acceptable limit, while the third, F.E. Warren Air Force Base, Wyo., had trace amounts of PCBs below the EPA’s acceptable limit.

Air Force Global Strike Command has ordered clean-ups for all three bases.

“Based on these survey results, I directed Twentieth Air Force to take immediate measures to mitigate exposure by our Airmen in all locations where PCBs were detected,” AFGSC commander Gen. Thomas A. Bussiere said in a statement, referring to the Numbered Air Force that oversees ICBM bases.

The Air Force is conducting extensive environmental testing at its ICBM bases as part of the Missile Community Cancer Study, which has two parts: environmental sampling of Active bases and an epidemiologic study of personnel who served in ICBM fields to assess cancer rates.

One of the purposes of testing was to search for polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in launch control centers, the underground bunkers where missileers work in 24-48 hour shifts, and in other facilities.

PCBs are “probable human carcinogens” according to the EPA, which adds that they “have been demonstrated to cause a variety of adverse health effects.”

The findings at Minot were outlined in an Aug. 21 memo from Col. Tory Woodard, the commander of the U.S. Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine (USAFSAM), which is leading the study on behalf of the service.

Three hundred total samples—air samples and swipe tests—were taken at Minot, with 30 returning traces of PCBs. The swipe tests involve gauze wetted with a solution run over surfaces and then analyzed for suspected contaminants. No air samples detected PCBs, Woodard’s memo states. Twenty-eight of the 30 samples that detected PCBs were below limits.

Two swipe samples, however, had levels above EPA limits—both in the same facility, a Launch Control Equipment Building (LCEB).

LCEBs sit alongside the underground Launch Control Centers (LCC) and provide mechanical support. Above-ground Missile Alert Facilities (MAFs) were also tested, but did not return traces of PCBs.

“We will begin immediately cleaning PCBs in all LCCs and LCEBs where PCBs were detected, regardless of whether they met EPA standards for mitigation,” Bussiere said of the Minot findings.

“Further rounds of testing for PCBs will take place in all these locations to help us measure the effectiveness of our mitigation efforts,” he added.

PCB production was banned in 1979, but the intercontinental ballistic missile facilities are decades old. An AFGSC official familiar with the study previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine the Air Force began phasing out PCBs at ICBM facilities in the 1980s, but the tests would ultimately determine how thoroughly that process was conducted.

Yet PCBs are far from the only—or main—concern of the ongoing Missile Community Cancer Study. There have long been concerns voiced by former missiles and other personnel stemming from their duties at ICBM bases. Those concerns were highlighted when a presentation detailing cases of non-Hodgkin lymphoma, a blood cancer, at Malmstrom appeared online earlier this year.

Bussiere ordered a review of the issue, which led to the study, overseen by USAFSAM. Members of the study team carried out initial visits in February and March at the ICBM bases to understand what they should look for and where—ICBM silos are spread out over vast fields that reach into five states, with underground and surface support facilities. Among the potential dangers, the study teams found stickers indicating the presence of PCBs in older electronics—one reason PCBs have been an early focus of the study.

“These results are just the first part of an extensive survey taking place at all our missile bases,” Bussiere said. “As more results come, we will provide updates to our Airmen and families, along with the resources they need to understand the results. My absolute priority is to provide Airmen with a safe and clean working environment, so they can carry out our nation’s most important missions.”

In particular, researchers are still looking awaiting results from ground and water sampling at all three ICBM bases.

“Additional results for other environmental samples collected will be reported separately, as these are still being analyzed and are not yet available,” Woodard wrote in his latest memo.

[James1978]

Air Force won’t say whether newest ARRW test succeeded, echoing past failure
The Air Force fired another all-up round test of the Lockheed Martin-made ARRW, but like a previous test that a top official later admitted fell short of its goals, the service won’t claim that this test met all its objectives

By Michael Marrow
August 22, 2023

WASHINGTON — The Air Force recently conducted another all-up round test of the AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon (ARRW), but the service won’t say whether this test was a success — echoing how the service handled a previous failed launch of the weapon.

“A B-52H Stratofortress conducted a recent test of the All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon. This test launched a full prototype operational hypersonic missile and focused on the ARRW’s end-to-end performance,” an Air Force spokesperson said in a press release.

“The Air Force gained valuable new insights into the capabilities of this new, cutting-edge technology. While we won’t discuss specific test objectives, this test acquired valuable, unique data and was intended to further a range of programs such as ARRW and HACM. We also validated and improved our test and evaluation capabilities for continued development of advanced hypersonic systems,” the spokesperson added.

It is possible that the test was successful or at least met some of its objectives, but not announcing it as such raises the reality that it may be yet another failure for the weapon. Following the ARRW program’s previous all-up-round — or fully assembled — test in March, the Air Force conspicuously declined to say whether the test met all its objectives, with service secretary Frank Kendall later confirming that it was “not a success.” The ARRW had failed to transmit necessary data from the test flight, according to a report in Bloomberg.

The ARRW, made by Lockheed Martin, is a hypersonic glide vehicle launched by bombers. Its development has been bumpy, and following mixed results and seemingly contradictory messages from service officials about its future, some lawmakers are now inclined to kill the program in fiscal 2024.

The Air Force, Kendall said in March following the unsuccessful test, was now “more committed” to the service’s other fast-flying prototype, the Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile (HACM) — a smaller, air-breathing missile capable of launching from a greater number of platforms. Raytheon and Northrop Grumman are partnered on HACM.

In a statement, Lockheed expressed confidence in the ARRW’s design.

“With this recent test, Lockheed Martin is confident in the ARRW missile’s operational end-to-end capability at hypersonic speeds, validating the design and production of the system. We remain committed to partnering with the U.S. Air Force on hypersonic-strike capability and have established a production line alongside development and testing activities to accelerate the delivery of these systems to the U.S. military,” the company said.

Congress has been pushing the military services to accelerate their respective hypersonic development programs, noting that peer adversaries Russia and China already have operational hypersonic weapons in their arsenals.

Hoping for a speedy development for ARRW in what would’ve been the Air Force’s first hypersonic weapon, officials pursued it as a Middle Tier Acquisition (MTA) program, though the weapon’s goals did not pan out.

“The Committee believes that the Department must be clear-eyed that utilizing innovative or rapid acquisition authorities carries inherent acquisition risk to cost, schedule and performance,” Senate appropriators wrote in their markup of the FY24 defense spending bill.

[Rocket J Squrriel]

KC-46 Update: Where Things Stand With Every Deficiency
Aug. 7, 2023 | By Greg Hadley

DAYTON, Ohio—More than six years after the Air Force identified the first serious deficiency on the KC-46 tanker, six Category 1 deficiencies still remain and a seventh was downgraded to Category 2 in April, said Col. Leigh Ottati, chief of the KC-46 program office—the first public announcement of that development

Ottati detailed the deficiencies still plaguing the Pegasus during the Life Cycle Industry Days conference last week and shared updated timelines for resolving some of them.

The Air Force defines a Category 1 deficiency as one which “may cause death, severe injury, or severe occupational illness; may cause loss or major damage to a weapon system; critically restricts the combat readiness capabilities of the using organization; or result in a production line stoppage.” Category 2 defects, meanwhile, “impede or constrain successful mission accomplishment.”

The Government Accountability Office noted seven Category 1 deficiencies on the KC-46 in January 2022, and 19 months later none have been fully resolved. The Air Force worked with subcontractor GE Aerospace to develop a software fix for issues with the KC-46’s flight management system, Ottati said, but while the fix appears to be working it remains under observation.

“We’re going to do that for a period of time to make sure that all the software fixes that are out there are working, which they have been, and then we’ll close that deficiency completely,” he said.

RVS 2.0

The most prominent problem for the KC-46 is its troubled Remote Vision System, the camera and video system boom operators use to refuel other aircraft. The Air Force claims two Category 1 deficiencies related to the RVS, one of which causes the other. In certain lighting conditions, the boom operator is unable to see the receptacle clearly, and that can result in damage to the receiving plane if the boom scrapes against that aircraft. Aircraft like the B-2 and F-22 that have special stealth coatings are particularly susceptible to damage. The planned fix, a brand-new system RVS 2.0 solution, isn’t expected to be ready until 2025, Ottati confirmed. Contractor Boeing offered its first look at RVS 2.0 to Air & Space Forces Magazine late last year, saying it hoped to field them by October 2025.

“We still have challenges and schedule risks with RVS 2.0, but right now, we’re working closely with Boeing and their main subcontractor, Collins, on continuing to progress well with that, and intending to complete the development in late ’25 as previously reported, and then go straight into retrofits,” Ottati said.

Once RVS 2.0 is ready, Boeing will retrofit the Air Force’s KC-46s at Cecil Airport in Jacksonville, Fla., with the process taking about two months, Ottati said.

In the meantime, Boeing and the Air Force are still trying to close out the last “critical action item” from RVS 2.0’s critical design review, which has been ongoing since June 2022.

“The last critical action item had to do with the FAA certification plan for the commercial off-the-shelf cameras that are in the RVS 2.0 solution,” Ottati said. We’ve been working very closely with Boeing and the FAA on that and we have a good path forward and expect to close out that last critical action from CDR this quarter, so by the end of September.”

Stiff Boom

Another deficiency identified more than half a decade ago is “stiffness” in the refueling boom—certain aircraft that can’t produce as much thrust, such as the A-10, cannot provide enough force to keep the boom in place during refueling.

The problem is the boom’s actuator, which “drives the boom out in the telescope direction, and then when a receiver connects with it, the receiver drives the boom back into sort of a nominal refueling position,” Boeing KC-46 Program Manager James Burgess previously told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

Rather than redesign the entire boom, Boeing and the Air Force have opted to redesign the actuator, but developing a compliant actuator has proven difficult, Ottati said.

“We just recently had a Test Readiness Review meeting with Boeing and [subctontractor] Moog, and there’s still some challenges with [the boom telescope actuator redesign],” Ottati said. “Right now, we’re still expecting an early fiscal 2025 completion of the development for BATR [the telescoping boom actuator replacement]. And we have some margin until we can start retrofit, because of the long lead items for the retrofit portion. But we’re still struggling a little bit with the BTAR schedule and working closely with Boeing and Moog to make sure that we don’t eat up that margin that we have between the finishing of development and the start of retrofit, based on again, those long lead items.”

Quality Deficiencies

The remaining Category 1 deficiencies are all related to KC-46 product quality, Ottati said.

One is related to the tanker’s auxiliary power unit’s drain mast on the outside of the tail, which could potentially crack or break loose. The Air Force previously downgraded that deficiency to a Category 2, believing it had an interim fix, but backtracked after cracks continued to appear, Ottati said. Boeing is developing a long-term fix—“a newer, more robust drain mast, beefed-up APU doors,” Ottati said, but USAF is being cautious before declaring the problem solved.

“[We want to] make sure we have the right data, the appropriate data to ensure that we’re not seeing the same excessive vibrations and cracking in APU drain masts,” Ottati said. “And I say appropriate data because it’s primarily at high speeds with the boom lowered that we were seeing those kind of vortices in the back of the aircraft that were causing that vibration. So I want to make sure we have a significant amount of flight hours showing that those drain masts are not an issue any longer. Maybe six months or longer before we will look at potentially downgrading those and downgrading that one as well.”

Another deficiency is bad seals, that lead to fuel system leaks. Boeing officials say they’ve redesigned the valve seals to make them easier to install, and both Boeing and Air Force officials say they’re seeing far fewer leaks as a result.

But Ottati said he’s not ready to declare that deficiency resolved either.

“We’ll analyze in the next six months if that’s one we could downgrade and close at some point,” he said. “I don’t want to close … prematurely. I want to make sure that we have the right fix and plan for the retrofit for the entire fleet that’s affected.”

The final product quality deficiency relates to cracks in a drain line. “It’s a drain line that comes from the receptacle of the KC-46, through the flight deck, and then exits out the bottom of the aircraft—primarily for any excess fuel or water or anything like that to make sure that it doesn’t stay within the receptacle and drains,” Ottati said. “And what we’re seeing is because of the design, in cold temperatures with remaining water or fuel in the line, that drain line was cracking, creating the potential that there could be fuel on the flight deck.”

Progress on that fix has been slowed by the need for FAA certifications, but Boeing is hoping to begin flight testing a solution in the next month or so. After that, Ottati said, the Air Force will finalize the design and retrofits will begin.

I finally got to talk to my cousin whose a retired exec, 40+ years there, at Boeing. Best way to summarize the conversation:
1. Every bad thing you've heard about Boeing is true.
2. It all started to go wrong when Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas and MD took over Boeing. The senior execs at Boeing didn't know what hit them. By the time they realized it was a take over it was way too late. Shining example: Moving the HQ to Chicago.

[James1978]

I finally got to talk to my cousin whose a retired exec, 40+ years there, at Boeing. Best way to summarize the conversation:
1. Every bad thing you've heard about Boeing is true.
2. It all started to go wrong when Boeing bought McDonnell Douglas and MD took over Boeing. The senior execs at Boeing didn't know what hit them. By the time they realized it was a take over it was way too late. Shining example: Moving the HQ to Chicago.

If you have Netflix, I reccomend watching "Downfall: The Case Against Boeing". It's about 90 minutes long. The main focus is on the 737Max crashes, but they spend a pretty good chunk of time exploring how McDonnell Douglas management culture wrecked Boeing and led to the Max situation even being possible.

[M.Becker]

Not news but fits into the B-52 modernisation.

[James1978]

U.S. Air Force Selects Fast Microreactor for Nuclear Power Pilot
31 August 2023
by Sonal Patel

The U.S. Air Force’s first nuclear microreactor planned for Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska under a federal nuclear microreactor pilot program will be an Oklo liquid metal-cooled fast reactor.

The Defense of Logistics Agency (DLA), acting on behalf of the Department of Air Force (DAF), on Aug. 31 issued a Notice of Intent to Award (NOITA) that selects the Santa Clara, California–based nuclear technology firm’s Aurora Powerhouse for its Eielson Air Force Base pilot and initiates an acquisition process to potentially award Oklo a 30-year, firm-fixed-price contract to pilot the advanced nuclear energy technology.

Initiated in response to a Fiscal Year 2019 National Defense Authorization Act requirement, DAF’s Micro-Reactor Pilot Program seeks to build and operate at least one licensed microreactor by Dec. 31, 2027, that will deliver power and steam to a defense base under a long-term power purchase agreement (PPA). DAF in October 2021 picked Eielson Air Force Base as the site for its first microreactor in part “due to its resilient power needs for mission assurance, limited access to clean energy, existing energy infrastructure and compatible climate,” the agency said.

Oklo will site, design, build, own, and commercially operate the microreactor. DAF, however, will execute a land lease and the 30-year fixed price PPA with Oklo once Oklo obtains a combined operating license from the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC).

DLA’s NOITA builds on a request for proposals issued in September 2022 and which closed on Jan. 31, 2023. DAF said its next steps after selecting a vendor and releasing the NOITA will move to permitting and licensing activities. DAF is expected to begin a National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) assessment by 2024. Microreactor demonstration and operational testing are targeted to begin by the end of 2027, though that timeline is “tentative and subject to change,” it notes.

A Key Goal: Mission Assurance

According to DAF, the pilot project will explore the microreactor’s potential to provide reliable and flexible carbon-free energy. Microreactors “are equipped with built-in safety features that self-adjust to changing conditions and demands to prevent overheating,” the agency said. “The technology’s ability to operate independently from the commercial grid and reduce greenhouse gas emissions make micro-reactors a promising power source for remote domestic military installations critical to the national security infrastructure.”

On Thursday, Brendan Owens, assistant secretary of Defense for Energy, Installations, and Environment, suggested the pilot at Eielson Air Force Base could play a larger role in future defense energy procurement. “We are watching this project closely and working with the other military departments to identify additional installations where deployment of U.S.-developed advanced nuclear technology will improve power reliability and installation resilience,” he said.

Another Critical Pilot for Oklo

Oklo’s Aurora Powerhouse is a vertically oriented compact passive fast-spectrum reactor derived from the Experimental Breeder Reactor-II (EBR-II) that uses liquid metal as a coolant. The company recently uprated its design’s capacity offerings to between 15 MWe and 100 MWe. The compact fast reactor uses a high-assay, low-enriched uranium (HALEU) metallic uranium-zirconium fuel enriched to about 19%.

Oklo, notably, already has an agreement with with Idaho National Laboratory (INL) to demonstrate down-blended HALEU in a commercial-scale Aurora reactor within a 2026 or 2027 timeframe, and it is seeking licensing for the Idaho Falls project. In March 2020, Oklo submitted the first-ever combined license application (COLA) to the NRC for an advanced non-light water reactor (LWR) for the INL project. While NRC staff in January denied the application “without prejudice,” Oklo in September 2022 formally relaunched the licensing effort with the submittal of a licensing project plan.

The company is pursuing a Part 52 NRC licensing approach. “For a company that is both designing, constructing, and operating a facility, the Part 52 pathway Oklo is pursuing allows for greater speed and repeatability by licensing nuclear power plants of the same design utilizing the ‘R-COLA/S-COLA’ approach. Specifically, the first COLA serves as the ‘reference’ COLA, which can then be incorporated in ‘subsequent’ COLA’s, where future reviews are focused only on the content that changes from the reference application,” it has said. “In other words, Oklo will gain staff approval of its design for both its first deployment and subsequent deployments through its combined license application review, while also receiving approval to construct and operate, pending completion of key inspection and testing.”

In tandem, Oklo has recently marked progress in its effort to procure adequate fuel. While the INL project will demonstrate its use of down-blended HALEU in a commercial-scale Aurora reactor, Oklo earlier this week reached a memorandum of understanding with Centrus—a firm poised to demonstrate HALEU production—for HALEU produced at its Piketon, Ohio, American Centrifuge Plant cascade. The deal could result in a power purchase agreement with Centrus for the off-take of power produced by Oklo’s second and third commercial 15-MWe Aurora Powerhouse reactors, which are planned on a land parcel in Piketon that the Department of Energy in 2018 transferred to community reuse organization Southern Ohio Diversification Initiative (SODI).

[James1978]

Air Force to fall nearly 150 pilots short of annual training goal
By Rachel S. Cohen
September 11, 2023

The Air Force will fall short of its fiscal 2023 pilot training goal by about 120 airmen, missing its annual target of around 1,500 new aviators for the eighth consecutive year, the service confirmed Sept. 8.

A slew of maintenance woes, staffing issues and other unexpected setbacks led the Air Force to pin wings on around 1,350 airmen rather than its aspirational goal of 1,470. The shortfall makes it more difficult for the service to fill a pilot shortage of around 2,000 people that has persisted for years.

“We’re going to try to make sure we are still flying because that’s what we do as an Air Force,” Maj. Gen. Clark Quinn, the two-star general in charge of pilot training told reporters on a recent conference call.

The Air Force set a new target of around 1,500 new aviators a year in fiscal 2020 but has so far failed to meet its own bar. It will aim for that same goal in fiscal 2024, Air Force spokesperson Benjamin Faske said.

About half of unfilled pilot billets belong to the active duty Air Force, and most fall within the fighter community. To avoid shortchanging the operational squadrons that fly missions around the world each day, the Air Force instead leaves staff jobs empty that pilots would typically fill.

“It sounds like it’s not as big of a deal to short the staff,” Quinn said. “That actually does affect long-term mentoring and growth of the officers that we expect to be able to lead our Air Force in the future.”

It also puts more pressure on the service to retain experienced pilots. More than 650 airmen, or 67% of eligible people, have accepted bonus pay under a legacy program aimed at keeping aviators in uniform, the Air Force said Aug. 30.

At least 210 more airmen have signed contracts worth up to $50,000 a year as part of a new, congressionally mandated pilot retention program that opened this summer.

Slower-than-expected repairs to the engines used on the T-38 Talon jets have limited the number of aircraft that can be used for daily training missions for more than a year. T-38s are the Air Force’s sole intermediate platform for teaching airmen to fly fighter and bomber aircraft.

“It has not gotten worse, but it has also not gotten better,” Quinn said. “The government is looking at perhaps doing some in-house … parts production to try and help facilitate getting them back healthy.”

In July, a thunderstorm further set back undergraduate pilot training when it damaged nearly 20 T-6 Texan II turboprop aircraft at Vance Air Force Base, Oklahoma.

“Those spare parts are not sitting on a shelf where you can pull them out and fix it the next day,” Quinn said.

The service is also still struggling to fill its civilian instructor jobs, 30-40% of which sit open. Quinn said the Air Force is testing the possibility of hiring remote teachers to control a simulator or run a class from afar. Slow internet connections could limit how widely that option may be used, he added.

Those problems have made it difficult for the Air Force to fully reap the benefits of years of changes to its undergraduate pilot training, shrinking it to a seven-month process that allows airmen to move at their own pace using virtual reality and other educational technology.

The service had hoped the overhaul would eventually allow it to graduate more pilots who are better equipped to juggle the conflicting demands of modern combat.

As years of UPT refinements come to a close, other updates are still getting off the ground. A streamlined version of fighter pilot training, which combines introductory and graduate-level practice in the T-38 Talon jet, is underway at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi, Quinn said.

“They’re executing that right now,” Quinn said. “It is ... maybe 15% to 20% of the way through the syllabus, so far too early to take any grand conclusions from it. But having notionally talked to some of the pilots, they’re already seeing where there’s going to be opportunities to make the entire pipeline more efficient.”

The Air Force is leaning into its plan to train new mobility pilots using simulators instead of the T-1 Jayhawk jet, which will gradually retire through fiscal 2026.

“Again, it’s a little bit too soon to make grand assessments, but at this point, the folks that have graduated from that … program are doing just fine at the formal training units,” Quinn said. “We’ve noticed no significant trends or dropoff in their performance.”

Lawmakers have requested more insight into that process as part of the fiscal 2024 defense policy bill, and proposed to block the service from retiring any T-1s until more questions on the plan’s impact on pilot production are answered.

A revamped version of helicopter training has ended the practive of first teaching airmen to fly the T-6 Texan II turboprop plane, and instead begins with rotary-wing training from the outset. After an introductory course, airmen head to undergraduate helicopter training at the Army’s Fort Novosel.

Defense company CAE announced in June it would run the Introductory Flight Training-Rotary course over the next 10 years under a contract worth up to $111 million. The class will move to the company’s facility near Fort Novosel in Dothan, Alabama. Quinn indicated that transition will be complete in the fall.

The various slowdowns have also created a bottleneck in the training pipeline itself, as hundreds of airmen wait for spots at those flight schools to open up.

More than 900 people were waiting to begin pilot training at the end of August, Faske said. The pool of pilot hopefuls typically spikes in the late spring and early summer as candidates graduate from college, then wanes as they enter the schoolhouses throughout the year.

But the downturn in aircraft availability means those students filter through the system more slowly, keeping them out of the cockpit for months.

Half of that pool must wait three to nine months to begin undergraduate pilot training, Faske said. Another quarter waits for less than three months, and the remaining quarter is in limbo for more than nine months.

In the meantime, airmen get their initial flight training classes and survival courses out of the way, start postdoctoral studies, or are slotted into office jobs where they can use their college degrees.

“You’ve completed your training. We had a commitment to you, we’re going to make you a lieutenant, and we will put you to work,” Quinn said.

[James1978]

Boeing to deliver first T-7 to US Air Force, outlines testing plans
By Stephen Losey
September 12, 2023

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Boeing plans to deliver the U.S. Air Force’s first T-7A Red Hawk on Tuesday, marking a major milestone for the trainer aircraft that has struggled with safety issues, software problems and schedule slips.

In a briefing at the Air and Space Forces Association’s Air, Space and Cyber conference in National Harbor, Maryland, Col. Kirt Cassell, who leads the service’s T-7A division, and Evelyn Moore, Boeing’s vice president and program manager for the aircraft, also outlined plans for further deliveries and testing of the critical trainer.

The Air Force plans to buy 351 T-7s to replace its fleet of 504 aging T-38 Talon trainers. T-7s are designed to emulate a fifth-generation fighter, and will help new pilots learn how to fly advanced jets such as the F-22 and F-35.

But problems with the T-7, particularly its escape system and flight control software, caused the program to fall behind schedule. The Air Force said in April that the aircraft’s flaws had caused it to both re-baseline its schedule and fall further behind its timeline. The Air Force originally expected the T-7 to reach initial operational capability in 2024, but the service now expects that won’t happen before spring 2027.

In Tuesday’s briefing, Cassell said the Pentagon is processing the final paperwork that allows the Air Force to officially accept the trainer designated APT 2, which the Air Force took for its first test flight in June.

The Air Force’s first T-7 test pilots will start training and becoming acclimated to the aircraft in a week or so at Boeing’s factory in St. Louis, Missouri, Cassell said, and will start initial flight tests there to gauge qualities such as how well it handles. Boeing expects to deliver the second and third trainers in October, and they will then move to Air Force bases for more in-depth testing.

The fourth and fifth T-7s are in their final stages of construction, with delivery expected by the end of 2023, Moore and Cassell said. All five are needed for when the program moves past the engineering and manufacturing development phase and into the initial operational test and evaluation phase, Cassell said.

The first two T-7s will fly to Edwards Air Force Base in California, where they will undergo a series of increasingly intensive tests measuring performance and handling, Cassell said. This will include studying factors such as aerodynamic “flutter” and how much load the trainer can bear in flight.

The third jet will go to Eglin Air Force Base in Florida for about six weeks of climate testing at the McKinley Climatic Laboratory. That testing occurs in a chamber designed to emulate varying temperatures and weather conditions in order to ensure aircraft can operate safely in all climates.

Moore said the T-7 is on track for a milestone C decision authorizing low-rate initial production in the first quarter of 2025.

Saab, which makes the T-7′s aft fuselage in West Lafayette, Indiana, and other key suppliers to Boeing have already made major assembly components for the next wave of T-7s, Moore said. This will allow Boeing to have T-7s built at St. Louis and ready for delivery as soon as low-rate initial production is authorized, she said. Moore expects Boeing can built about 60 T-7s per year.

The Government Accountability Office earlier this year noted that Boeing’s plan to start building aircraft before the Air Force officially placed an order could pose “significant risks” to the service. The watchdog said the Air Force and the Defense Contract Management Agency would be unable to conduct all the necessary production oversight to ensure the planes meet requirements. And if the T-7 changed significantly between the test phase and award of a low-rate initial production contract, the GAO said, those planes already built might need retrofitted.

Moore and Cassell also provided updates on efforts to fix the T-7′s escape system and glitchy flight control software. Problems with the T-7s flight control software are still being worked out, Moore said, but an update to is on the way and expected to be released in the next few months.

Cassell said that following a successful and informative February test of the redesigned escape system, the Air Force and Boeing have since conducted further tests measuring the ejection seat’s center of gravity and inertia, as well as collecting data in a wind tunnel.

More tests will follow this fall on other elements of the escape system, including the seat’s drogue parachute, Cassell said. Another “full-up shot” to test the complete system is expected to take place in February 2025, he added.

Cassell said the Air Force did not issue a formal waiver allowing T-7 tests to take place before the final fixed escape system was in place. Instead, he explained, Air Force leadership was briefed that “the escape system is not exactly where we’d like it to be yet,” and gave permission to conduct flight tests.