News from the Air Force

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A-10 Completes Developmental Tests with Guided Rocket

The 40th Flight Test Squadron at Eglin AFB, Fla., completed developmental flight testing of BAE Systems' fixed-wing Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System II on the A-10 ground-attack aircraft, according to a base release. The first of three shots of the 2.75-inch diameter, 35-pound, laser-guided rocket occurred in February, with the weapon impacting inches away from the target, according to the April 3 release. The Air Force is performing this testing under an Office of the Secretary of Defense-sponsored joint concept technology demonstration that aims to take the combat-proven APKWS, which Marine Corps helicopters have used in Afghanistan, and modify it for use on fixed-wing platforms. The lightweight rocket is designed to minimize collateral damage. "We don't have a precision weapon out there now that can do that," said Joe Stromsness, project manager. Operational testing on the A-10 and F-16 is slated to start in May at China Lake Test Range in California. The Navy in March tested this variant of APKWS on the AV-8B. This weapon could be ready for operational use by 2015, according to the release.

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Capt. James Steel, an F-16 pilot assigned to Shaw AFB, S.C., died last week when his fighter crashed near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Steel's F-16 went down about 10 miles south of Bagram's runway while he was returning from a routine close air support mission, reported Stars and Stripes on April 5, the day that the Pentagon announced Steel's death. He was 29. "Our condolences and prayers are with the family, friends, and squadron members of Captain Steel," said Col. Clay Hall, commander of Shaw's 20th Fighter Wing. "This is a difficult time for Shaw AFB, but we are focused on taking care of the Steel family, our airmen, and continuing to execute the mission," he added. Steel, from Tampa, Fla., was chief of mobility for the 77th Fighter Squadron. He was a 2006 Air Force Academy graduate who had been stationed at Shaw since June 2010, according to the base officials. The accident is currently under investigation. Officials said they would release more details as they become available

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AWACS Squadron Activated

Members of the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing activated the 968th Expeditionary Airborne Air Control Squadron, an E-3 AWACS unit, at the wing's undisclosed operating location in Southwest Asia. They said the new unit is "the first enduring AWACS squadron" at the base, according to the 380th AEW's April 2 release. "This squadron was activated to usher in a new era in AWACS," said Lt. Col. Peter Mykytyn, 968th EAACS commander. "For the first time this unit will have a one-year commander supported by units from Pacific Air Forces and Air Combat Command," he added. The activation took place on March 25. The squadron traces its lineage to 1943 and the European theater of World War II, states the release.

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Locklear Vows PACOM is Prepared

Adm. Samuel Locklear, US Pacific Command boss, told lawmakers on Tuesday that, in light of the missile threat from North Korea, he requested the deployment of the Terminal High Altitude Area Defense anti-missile system to Guam to protect the US territory in the event of attack. "We are doing that to make sure we can adequately defend our territory," he said during the Senate Armed Services Committee's April 9 hearing. He noted that the missile that the North Koreans are prepping for launch on North Korea's east coast did not have range to reach Hawaii. Locklear also made clear that the United States has "credible capability" to defend the US homeland and allies against a missile strike. In response to questions about hardening facilities on Guam to withstand attack, Locklear said PACOM is "acutely aware" of the issue and is working on a number of initiatives to improve base defense on the island. "There are those things that would allow you as quickly as possible to recover if attacked by anyone," he said. Initiatives include hardening fuel heads on the island, improving runway recovery capabilities, and improved command and control of dispersed assets, he said.

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Pilot Error Caused F-16 Crash

An F-16 pilot's failure to recover his aircraft from an inverted stall, along with the pilot's complacency and errors in applying recovery procedures, led to the fighter's crash in late December east of Fresno, Calif., announced Air Combat Command officials. The pilot, assigned to the California Air National Guard's 194th Fighter Squadron in Fresno, was on an air-to-air training mission when his aircraft departed controlled flight and crashed on government land, according to ACC's April 9 release, which discusses the findings of the command's newly issued accident investigation board report. The pilot ejected; the F-16 was destroyed upon ground impact, a loss of approximately $21.4 million, states the release. The AIB found that the pilot "failed to properly apply out-of-control recovery procedures" after the stall. The board president noted that three human factors were primarily responsible for the mishap: "complacency evident throughout the entire flight, pressing the equipment beyond reasonable limits, and procedural error in the last few minutes of flight," according to the release.

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President Obama on Thursday awarded the late Capt. Emil J. Kapaun, a Roman Catholic priest from Kansas who served as an Army chaplain during the Korean War, a posthumous Medal of Honor, the nation's highest military decoration. Ray Kapaun, nephew of the late priest, accepted the medal on behalf of his uncle during the award ceremony in the White House's East Room. Obama honored Chaplain Kapaun for his conspicuous gallantry while serving with the 1st Cavalry Division during a major Chinese attack in Unsan, Korea, from Nov. 1-2, 1950. Kapaun braved withering enemy fire to provide comfort and medical aid to his comrades and later helped negotiate their safe surrender. He also pushed aside an enemy soldier preparing to execute a comrade, thus saving that life. "This is the valor we honor today—an American soldier who didn't fire a gun, but who wielded the mightiest weapon of all, a love for his brothers so pure that he was willing to die so that they might live," stated Obama. Kapaun died as a prisoner of war on May 23, 1951.

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The Patriot batteries currently based in Turkey to shield the NATO ally against Syrian ballistic missiles could also, if repositioned closer to the Syrian border, help establish a safe zone in northern Syria to protect civilians and aid opposition forces fighting Syrian President Bashar Assad's regime, said Gen. Philip Breedlove, US Air Forces in Europe commander, on Thursday. "They have the capability to do it," said Breedlove in response to questioning during the Senate Armed Services Committee's April 11 hearing to consider his nomination to be NATO's Supreme Allied Commander in Europe and head of US European Command. There are currently six Patriot batteries stationed in Turkey: two US, two Dutch, and two German. While Breedlove agreed, when asked, that the presence of the Patriots would be a powerful deterrent to Syrian pilots flying over parts of Syria, he said "creating a safe zone in northern Syria" would require "much more" than just the Patriots. "It would probably require fixed-wing air, and other capabilities," he said. Establishing a no-fly zone in Syria would start "with having to take down" the Syrian military's integrated air defenses, he said.

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Prioritizing Flying Hours

Last week, eight Air Force fighter and bomber units ceased flying and entered a dormant status. Four additional units are expected to stand down when they return from deployment in the next few weeks. And another bomber unit that is slated to come home this summer will stand down once it returns, said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley. In light of such drastic changes, funding flight hours must be a priority in Fiscal 2014, he told members of the House Armed Services Committee during an April 12 hearing to discuss the Air Force's Fiscal 2014 budget request. The Air Force seeks 1.2 million flying hours next fiscal year—an increase of 40,000 hours from Fiscal 2013. "Flying hours are allocated to maintain, and in some cases, incrementally improve readiness levels across the Total Force in this budget," said Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh at the same hearing. In the past, the Air Force relied heavily on overseas contingency funds to fund its flying hours, but as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan come to a close, the service is moving those funds back into its base budget. In fact, by 2015 as much as 90 percent of peacetime flying hours will be back in the baseline budget, said Welsh. That's "a level we haven't reached in quite some time," he said.

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Davis-Monthan Begins Shifting A-10s


The 355th Fighter Wing at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., earlier this month began retiring 38 of its A-10s as it prepares to receive 41 A-10s from other units over the next few months as part of a fleet-wide shift of assets, according to base officials. "The change comes from budget cuts in Congress," said MSgt. Mark Molineaux, 355th FW A-10 divestiture team superintendent, in the base's April 11 release. "Congress looked at all the A-10s in the fleet and decided which ones to get rid of based on the number of hours on the plane, body condition, and flying ability," he added. The A-10s leaving the wing began entering the base's 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group, the Air Force's aircraft boneyard, on April 8, states the release. The first incoming A-10 arrived on April 9 from Barksdale AFB, La. A-10s will also come from Osan AB, South Korea; Spangdahlem AB, Germany; and Whiteman AFB, Mo

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A Temporal Future for Air Dominance

Senior Air Force officials, analysts, and others are thinking hard about a concept that has received relatively little scrutiny in recent years: air dominance, or air superiority, and how it will apply in future conflicts. Since the end of the Gulf War, America's adversaries have had some air capability, but the United States was able to dominate them relatively quickly, Gen. Mike Hostage, head of Air Combat Command, said at a recent talk at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C. Looking ahead, however, "if we are in an anti-access/area-denial [environment], that's not necessarily the case," said Hostage during the April 11 event. He noted that air superiority would become more "temporal" and not necessarily static. "I will be able to concentrate in that area, provide air dominance in that area," but will not be able to "own" the airspace as US forces grew accustomed to Iraq and Afghanistan, he said. "I won't be able to take the current fleet of ISR assets I have . . . park them over an adversary, and stare at them over a period of time," said Hostage. However, the Air Force will have the ability to deal with denied airspace, and provide combatant commanders with the awareness and tools to conduct operations, he said.

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The 763rd Expeditionary Reconnaissance Squadron earlier this month completed its 10,000th sortie in Southwest Asia since it began flying in the region some 23 years ago, announced officials associated with the unit. The squadron, which operates RC-135 electronic eavesdropping airplanes from an undisclosed air base, has been a continuous presence in Southwest Asia over that span, supporting coalition troops in places like Afghanistan and Iraq. The squadron hit the milestone sortie on April 10, according to a release five days later from the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing, the squadron's host organization. "The job we do gets people home safely," said Lt. Col. Brian Lebeck, 763rd ERS director of operations. "If we can do that for one or two soldiers on the ground, that makes all the difference in the world," he added. The squadron's RC-135 flights average about 10 hours in duration, according to the release.

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Air Guard Falls under Authorized End Strength

The Air National Guard has fallen below its congressionally authorized end strength in this fiscal year thanks in large part to recent uncertainties regarding missions and budget turmoil, Lt. Gen. Stanley Clarke, ANG director, told lawmakers last week. As of March 8, there were 104,204 Air Guardsmen, 1,496 under the Fiscal 2013 authorized level, stated Clarke in his April 17 prepared testimony to the Senate Appropriations Committee's defense panel. Clarke noted that throughout Fiscal 2013, Air Guard recruiters have "met or exceeded" monthly accession goals; however, monthly losses were higher than expected. "Fiscal uncertainty, force structure changes, and mission turmoil, combined with the drawdown of the war in Afghanistan, are the primary causes of the increased loss rate," said Clarke. To attack the problem, ANG officials have taken steps like increasing recruiting goals and offering bonuses or incentives to more career fields, he said. The Air Guard also is introducing tools so that unit commanders can better identify loss trends, he said. "Overall, I'm very confident in our ability to not only meet end strength, but to recruit and retain the skill sets necessary to perform the missions the nation asks of its Guard airmen," stated Clarke.

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Doolittle Raiders Gather for Final Public Reunion

Three of the four surviving Doolittle Raiders gathered in Fort Walton Beach, Fla., for what they've said would be the Raiders' final public reunion. Retired Lt. Col. Richard Cole, retired Lt. Col. Edward Saylor, and retired SSgt. David Thatcher took part in the reunion festivities, which ran from April 17 to April 20, to mark the 71st anniversary of the Doolittle Raiders' B-25 bombing raid on Japan on April 18, 1942. Retired Lt. Col. Bob Hite, the fourth surviving Raider, was not in attendance. "Who could imagine volunteering for our mission in 1942 and celebrating its success 71 years later?" asked Cole in a video on the reunion. "We were just doing our job helping our country win the war," he added. Among their activities, the three Raiders on April 17 attended the dedication of an F-35 hangar at Eglin AFB, Fla., in Saylor's honor. That same day, they took part in the unveiling of the Doolittle Raiders' exhibit on the campus of the Northwest Florida State College in Niceville. On April 18, they spoke to airmen at Hurlburt Field, Fla. Two days later, they participated in Fort Walton Beach's parade of heroes, which included flyovers of vintage World War II aircraft, including the B-25, the model that the Raiders flew.

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Protect the Bombers

The Air Force is "still a year or two away" from "what I would call the downselect decision" for the new Long Range Strike Bomber, Secretary Michael Donley told defense reporters in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday. Already, "LRS-B contractors are developing and refining their designs in accordance with government requirements," an Air Force representative told the Daily Report following Donley's April 23 media event. Donley said a slight downturn in the bomber's proposed funding in Fiscal 2014 from the level predicted last year is not intended to send a "major message." He insisted "we're still committed to the program." The Air Force has requested about $380 million for the new bomber in Fiscal 2014, said Donley. The funding "grows in the outyears and it remains one of our most important priorities," he said. The Air Force is developing the bomber's contract strategy with the Pentagon's acquisition executive, said Donley. He noted that the program gets "good and appropriate attention" in the new US defense strategic guidance. "We're stable in how we're approaching this project; there've been no major changes in design or requirements," he said. The service's goals "are still on track to have the first article in the mid-[20]20s, to build an inventory of 80 to 100 aircraft" at a base-year cost of $550 million a copy, said Donley.

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Suicide Prevention Requires Face-to-Face Engagement

Suicide prevention is not just a medical issue, but also a community and leadership matter, Lt. Gen. Thomas Travis, Air Force surgeon general, told lawmakers. Prevention requires contact and interaction in addition to raising awareness, he said in testimony before the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel on April 24. "You really have to do face-to-face with your airmen," he said. "You engage with them and you ask them. And then you care for them, and if you're still worried about them, you escort them to the right care," he added. Those efforts are resulting in "quite a bit of success," said Travis. While there has been "a slight increase" in the past few years in the number of airmen suicides, so far in this fiscal year, there has been "quite a decrease," he said. The Air Force's suicide prevention strategy comprises 11 elements including leadership and community engagement; education for airmen, supervisors, and commanders; and supporting those considered at risk, said Travis.

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Mainstreaming Responsiveness

The Pentagon's Fiscal 2014 budget request proposes abandoning the Operationally Responsive Space Office in favor of integrating its business models and rapid-fielding practices into the service's normal space acquisition processes, Gen. William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, told lawmakers. This is the second straight year that the Pentagon has requested this; Congress rejected the idea for Fiscal 2013. "What we're trying to do is inculcate the ORS lessons learned into the mainstream programs at the Space and Missile System Center," said Shelton when asked about the proposal during the April 24 hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee's strategic forces panel. SMC is the Air Force's space acquisition arm located at Los Angeles AFB, Calif. Shelton said tightening budgets also influenced the proposal. "This is just a matter of how much budget we've got," he said. "Rather than having a dedicated office with a dedicated budget," the Air Force would incorporate ORS methods into SMC, he said. The ORS office resides at Kirtland AFB, N.M.

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A "massive crowd" turned out at Duke Field, Fla., to bid farewell to the Air Force's five remaining MC-130E Combat Talon I special-mission airplanes, marking the end of the aircraft type's nearly five decades of service, according to a base release. "Today we say goodbye to a trusted friend, more than a machine to those who flew her, but a faithful and reliable partner," said Maj. T.J. Kollar, an electronic warfare officer with Air Force Reserve Command's 711th Special Operations Squadron, during the April 25 retirement ceremony, according to Duke's April 29 release. The five MC-130Es were adorned with American flags and lined up for viewing, states the release. The MC-130Es flew their final sorties from Duke on April 15. They will take to the air one last time in mid-May when they fly to the Air Force's aircraft boneyard at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., for retirement. The Combat Talon I flew its first combat mission in 1966 and participated in all major US conflicts since then, states the release. New-build MC-130J Commando IIs are replacing the MC-130Es for special-mission roles like covert infiltration and exfiltration of special operations forces.

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NORAD, Russian Officials Plan Upcoming Exercise

NORAD and Russian air force officials met late last month at Peterson AFB, Colo., to hash out details of the upcoming Vigilant Eagle exercise. This year's Vigilant Eagle is scheduled to take place in August in Anchorage, Alaska, and Anadyr, Russia, and will include a live-fly element as the two organizations fine-tune procedures to deal with scenarios in which a hijacked commercial aircraft traverses both NORAD-controlled and Russian airspace, according to NORAD's April 30 release. "The Vigilant Eagle exercise series has been an extraordinary and historic opportunity for NORAD and the Russian Federation to coordinate on the response to a mutually acknowledged hijacking threat," said Joe Bonnet, NORAD's joint training and exercises director. "From a participant's perspective, it is more than a military exercise; it is creating lasting bonds and partnerships extremely valuable for the security of our nations," he added. The meeting took place from April 24 to April 27. The final planning conference will take place in June in Ottawa, Canada, states the release. Last year's Vigilant Eagle activities featured a command-post exercise and had no live-fly element.

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Air Force officials on Wednesday said they took "a major step forward" in the KC-46A tanker program by awarding a $78.4 million contract to FlightSafety Services of Centennial, Colo., for the development of the tanker's aircrew training system. The KC-46 is the Air Force's top acquisition priority. "This [contract] is a vital step in the development of KC-46A," said Maj. Gen. John Thompson, the Air Force's tanker program executive officer, in the service's May 1 release. Under the contract's terms, FlightSafety Services is tasked to start delivering the first simulator-based aircrew training devices and courseware to the KC-46 schoolhouse and initial operational beddown locations in 2016 for use in preparing flight crews to operate the new tanker. The company will perform its work in Broken Arrow, Okla., and St. Louis. Contract options out to 2026, if exercised, will increase the contract's value, states the release. Boeing is under contract to provide 179 KC-46s to replace the Air Force's oldest KC-135s by 2028. The first KC-46 is scheduled to fly in 2015.

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North Korea remains a threat to US national security and to stability in Northeast Asia through activities like its "pursuit of nuclear weapons and long-range ballistic missiles," the Defense Department told Congress on Thursday in its annual report on the communist nation's military and security developments. The hermit kingdom "has an ambitious ballistic missile development program and has deployed mobile theater ballistic missiles capable of reaching targets throughout [South Korea], Japan, and the Pacific theater," states the report. The North Koreans "will continue using and improving" the Taepo Dong 2 long-range ballistic missile that "could reach the United States with a nuclear payload if developed" as an intercontinental ballistic missile, states the report. North Korea "successfully launched" the TD-2—which North Koreans call the Unha-3—in December. "All three stages of the TD-2 appeared to operate nominally and placed a satellite into orbit," states the report. "We expect that North Korea will seek to continue to test-launch missiles, including the TD-2 ICBM/space launch vehicle," notes the report. The North Koreans displayed "a new road-mobile intercontinental ballistic missile" in April 2012 that's not yet been flight tested. They're also developing "a new solid-propellant short-range ballistic missile" and "an intermediate-range ballistic missile."