Phillip Swarts, Author at Air Force TImes

U.S. needs more resiliency in space, general says

Phillip Swarts — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 16:05:00 +0000

U.S. space capabilities in 2030 need to look very different than they do in 2016 if the military wants to keep its edge in Earth orbit, a top Air Force space official said.

“Our current enterprise is not resilient enough to survive a war that would extend into space,” said Maj. Gen. (sel.) Stephen Whiting, the director of integrated air, space, cyber and ISR operations at Air Force Space Command.

Speaking at a recent breakfast hosted by the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, Whiting said one of the biggest challenges is that the space assets the U.S. has now are very vulnerable to attack.

“Most of our current space systems were designed when space was considered a benign environment,” he said. “Little thought was given to system protection or defense.”

Maj. Gen. (sel.) Stephen Whiting, top Air Force Space Command officer, said the U.S. military needs more resiliency for satellites and ground systems if it expects to keep its edge in orbit.

Photo Credit: Air Force

In order to keep down cost and weight, several military capabilities were often grouped together and launched on the same satellite. That’s created some satellites that might have communications, navigation and timing, or missile warning and surveillance systems, all onboard the same craft.

“Today’s large and relatively unprotected systems offer a tempting target for any potential adversary seeking to level the playing field by denying us the warfighting advantage our space systems deliver,” Whiting said. “Other countries understand the competitive advantage we derive from space. They view our reliance on space as a key vulnerability, and they’re working hard to exploit it through kinetic, non-kinetic, and cyber tools designed to deny, degrade, and destroy our space capabilities.”

The Air Force is launching the Space Enterprise Vision, or SEV, a roadmap to 2030 that will include bolstering space resiliency.

One of those key steps, Whiting said, will be disaggregating satellites so there aren’t so many critical systems on a single unit. Another option would be hardening satellites against an attack.

The Air Force also wants to move to a “faster and more predictable” launch schedule that will include launches scheduled at regular intervals, rather than the current model of tying rocket launches to specific payloads.

Whiting described it as a “freight train to space” model, likening it to ground transportation that is always ready to move cargo when needed. He said he expects the launches would make use of both military and private-sector launch capabilities.

“The idea is that there are regular launches that we can predict, and we know exactly what orbital altitude they’re going to, and we can quickly mate a payload to them that needs to go,” he said.

But one thing the service is going to have to do first is to standardize the interfaces and operating systems of both satellites and ground control. Previously, each satellite was built in a vacuum, with software and controls often specialized for just that unit, and each with a specific ground-based infrastructure.

The service is now looking at creating common operating systems – or at least compatible systems – that will allow easy communication and transfer between different satellites.

“One of the key things we’re going to need is to standardize the interface between our payloads and our boosters,” Whiting said. “We want to reduce the preparation time to get the rocket out to the pad and then launch it.”

Air staff close out AFA conference with Q&A on everything from F-22s to promotions

Phillip Swarts — Sun, 25 Sep 2016 13:22:42 +0000

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Nearly the entire air staff of the Air Force took to the stage Wednesday to close out the annual Air Force Association conference with a rapid-fire Q&A. Here are some of the highlights:

Stepping up training for Remotely Piloted Aircraft pilots.

“The RPA community has gone through a lot over the last few years,” said Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, leader of Air Education and Training Command. “When I first got here [in July 2015] we were training 192 RPA pilots per year, and we have doubled that to 384 pilots per year.”

Roberson described a “monumental effort” to double the training pipeline in just 12 months.

“We had to increase the number of simulators, we had to increase the number of facilities,” he said. “This is critically important to helping establish the foundation for the RPA community for the United States Air Force.”

The new KC-46 Pegasus refueling tanker.

“It definitely is going to provide us enhancement to the strategic agility that we have for our nation,” said Gen. Carlton Everhart II, leader of Air Mobility Command,

The new tanker will support not only the nine combatant commanders, but NATO allies as well. Everhart said he thought the planned number of 179 KC-46s is “a start,” and added that AMC is also looking to leverage emerging technology.

“I’m looking at the next leap in technology, I’m looking at 20 years down the road,” he said. “Where’s the next opportunity for investment? … Every about 18 months new capabilities come out, so we’re looking at what is going to happen 20 years down the road from now, what does that aircraft look like, what does it have on it?”

Cooperating with industry

Cooperation isn’t just about buying things, said Gen. Paul Selva, vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. It’s also about partnering with the private sector to develop new capabilities.

“The partnership that I envision with industry, which is incredibly important, is the marriage of new technologies and the changes that they suggest to our organization,” he said. “They’re about how we bring innovation into the organization, how we infuse it soon enough that we’re able to organize around the new technology that industry can bring to use.”

“Our history as an Air Force is all about reinventing ourselves around the kinds of technologies that make us successful,” Selva continued. “We’ve got to be good at what we do, but we also have to be willing to experiment with new ideas and risk failure early in the innovation process so we can learn lessons from those experiments.”

Increasing tensions in the Pacific

“It drives us to be more operationally focused,” said Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of Pacific Air Forces, noting some of the hot spots around the theater.

In the past, it was only the Korean Peninsula – with an often unstable and unpredictable North Korea – where airmen needed to be “ready to go tonight,” O’Shaughnessy said. But now that mindset has been applied to the whole AOR.

“You see the airmen all the way across the Pacific – not just on the peninsula – they are ready, they are ready at a moment’s notice to respond to whatever the future will bring,” he said. “We watching things happening in Korea, we watch the South China Sea, we watch the East China Sea, we see an assertive Russia, we see an assertive China in the area, we need to be ready and we need to have that credibility.”

The Enlisted Evaluation System

“Performance influences promotion recommendation,” said Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force James Cody. “I do believe all airmen have potential. A commander’s responsibility has to be to discern amongst that and identify those with the highest potential so we get the order right. That doesn’t mean others will not, over time, also advance in promotion. It’s about getting the order right.”

Restarting the F-22 Raptor production line

While the F-22 is a “fantastic airplane,” the money spent on reopening production could best be used in other areas, said Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle, head of Air Combat Command.

The primary area where money needs to go towards is acquiring the F-35 Lightning II as quickly as possible, he said.

“The belief in what we see so far is maintaining the buy rate – which is the most important to me right now on the F-35 program – is get the buy rate as high as we possibly can and keep it up so we can start getting the capacity,” he said.

Spending money on more F-22s could also stunt investment in the Air Force’s next generation of aircraft, Carlisle said.

“If we looked at those costs versus what else we wouldn’t be able to do, i.e., keep up the F-35 line or move to what is next in the penetrating counter-air capability … that outweighs the time and the amount of money you would spend reopening an F-22 line,” he said.

When airmen should take joint opportunities

Asked whether Reservists should seek joint assignments when they are majors, or wait until they are an O-6 or higher, Lt. Gen. Maryanne Miller, chief of the Air Force Reserve, said get the experience as soon as you can.

“It’s critical to get it the younger you are. It just builds a tremendously capable officer. [It] just brings more diverse experience to your career,” she said. “The more you achieve rank, the harder it is to get joint assignments. It’s super, super competitive. It’s important to get it early.”

RPAs need improvements to stay alive on future battlefields, experts say

Phillip Swarts — Thu, 22 Sep 2016 00:07:21 +0000

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. — Remotely piloted aircraft must undergo major changes to stay relevant in a future battlespace, a panel of experts said Tuesday.

“As we go forward, the question is. ‘How do I employ this unmanned component in a non-permissive environment?’ ” said Kenneth Callicutt, the director of capability and resource integration for U.S. Strategic Command.

In their now near-ubiquitous role in operations against terrorism worldwide, RPAs have operated almost exclusively in a permissive environment without many direct threats.

That’s something that’s changing as U.S. adversaries — and especially near-peer competitors — adjust to the Air Force’s increasing reliance on the unmanned systems, the group of experts said at the annual Air Force Association Air Space Cyber conference here.

“When you use something a lot, the folks that you’re using it against adapt to it,” said James Gear, the vice president for advanced systems at L3 Communications. “The enemy gets a vote. You can never be satisfied with the status quo.”

Changes could be incredibly wide-ranging, including building RPAs with stealth elements, or cheaper expendable systems that would lessen Air Force worries about survivability, the panel said.

But Callicutt argued that communication systems must also improve, and that operators need to be prepared for enemies attempting to jam signals between RPA controllers and the aircraft themselves.

“What are we doing to plan around not having [satellite communications]?” he said. “When they’re disconnected, what is that vehicle going to do?”

RPAs might require a degree of complete autonomy in the event they lose contact with human controllers, the panel said. That could include something as relatively simple as programming an RPA to return to predetermined coordinates if communications are jammed.

The fact that RPAs are remotely piloted and usually cheaper than manned aircraft means the Air Force “can afford risk” to experiment with new systems, Callicutt said.

Testing out new technology or new ways to operate could happen at a much more rapid pace, he said, because the Air Force wouldn’t initially need to be as concerned about safety. If a cheap unmanned system crashes on a testing range, it doesn’t put any pilot’s life at risk.

Tom Clancy, the vice president of unmanned aerial systems for Aurora Flight Sciences Corporation, said he would like to see RPAs start to achieve true autonomy and not require human interaction for some operations, which he dubbed “more robots doing the work of less people.”

“Right now we have a situation where our unmanned systems take more people to operate then our manned systems,” he said. “I think we definitely have the effectiveness. Check. But I think as we look at going forward, we want to see how can we deliver on the lower cost in terms of basically more capability with less people.”

That could include true drones that would fly out, survey a battlefield, and relay the information back to mission planners without much human interaction, Clancy said.

Syria is an ‘incredibly complex’ battlefield, says head of Air Combat Command

Phillip Swarts — Wed, 21 Sep 2016 04:14:18 +0000

NATIONAL HARBOR, Md. – The intermingling, often overlapping, areas of Syria controlled by President Assad, the Russians, U.S.-backed rebel groups, and the Islamic State terrorist group are creating a monumental challenge, said the head of Air Combat Command Tuesday.

“This is not Desert Storm, this isn’t Iraqi Freedom or Enduring Freedom; this is a totally different and incredibly complex battlefield with coalition airpower in a very, very challenging environment,” said Gen. Herbert “Hawk” Carlisle at the Air Force Association’s Air, Space and Cyber conference here,

The difficulty has been highlighted in the past few days by two incidents: an airstrike on a United Nations humanitarian aid convoy en route to the besieged city of Aleppo Monday, reportedly by the Russians, and an accidental strike Saturday on Syrian government forces, reportedly by U.S. aircraft.

In regard to the attack on the convoy, CENTCOM officials have confirmed that aircraft from the U.S. and its allies didn’t conduct any bombings in the vicinity at the time it was hit, according to Col. Patrick Ryder, an Air Force spokesman.

The airstrike hit the convoy as it was headed for Aleppo, in the northwestern part of Syria, to deliver badly needed food, supplies and medicine to the city, which has been at center of the Syrian civil war since it began. The incident is estimated to have killed more than 20 people, and the U.N. announced it is suspending any further planned humanitarian convoys into the area.

The attack effectively ended a week-old cease-fire agreement that had been in place.

Russia — which is supporting the government of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad — denied conducting the airstrike. But several Syrian rebel groups, accused the Russians of carrying out the strike. The convoy likely would have provided aid to areas controlled by insurgents trying to overthrow Assad’s regime.

CNN reported Monday afternoon that U.S. officials have reached a preliminary conclusion that Russia did carry out the airstrikes, but Air Force Times has not independently verified this.

Transparency lacking

Carlisle said Tuesday that Russia is not being transparent enough with its operations in the country. Although U.S. and Russian military officials communicate every day, that doesn’t always amount to a disclosure of Russia’s planned military actions in Syria.

“The Russians are the Russians, I don’t know how else to say it,” Carlisle said. “They’re sometimes very forthcoming, other times less so.”

He pointed to examples where Russia has launched military operations with very little notification.

“There have been cases in the past where they’ve launched cruise missiles through airspace, uncoordinated, with the potential for challenges there with respect to where coalition aircraft were flying or not flying,” Carlisle said.

The U.S. and Russia are still in “deconfliction mode” in terms of coordinating airstrikes, the general said, and not truly operating in a joint capacity.

Questions about U.S. strike

The U.S. is facing an airstrike controversy of its own after U.S. aircraft reportedly mistakenly targeted a group of of Syrian soldiers on Sept. 17. The Russian military reported that more than 60 people were killed.

The Hill reported that the U.S. point of contact for Russia wasn’t immediately available when Russia called to warn the U.S. to stop the airstrikes.

“They asked to speak to their contact, and that individual wasn’t next to the phone,” The Hill quoted Air Force Col. J.T. Thomas, coalition spokesman, as saying. “They weren’t expecting a call.”

Once Russia explained that the coalition was hitting Syrian forces — not the targeted Islamic extremists — the airstrikes were stopped in “less than five minutes,” The Hill quoted Thomas as saying.

At the AFA conference Tuesday, Carlisle promised the Air Force would be “very diligent” in uncovering exactly what happened.

“We’ll do an investigation and determine what happened,” said Carlisle said. “When something happens, we are very transparent about going in, looking at it, and sometimes we do make mistakes and sometimes we have to throw things out there where we missed something or we made a mistake.”

U.S. airstrikes have also expanded out of Iraq and Syria and into other locations where extremists are operating — mainly Libya.

Carlisle declined to give the number of airstrikes the U.S. is carrying out in the country, but said the Air Force is engaging.

“We’re thinking of every different way to do it and to take advantage of the assets we have in theater to conduct those strikes,” he said. “The synergy of the move between the CENTCOM AOR and the African AOR allows us to swing assets in some cases.”

Enlisted RPA training to begin in October, head of AETC says

Phillip Swarts — Mon, 19 Sep 2016 23:37:50 +0000

National Harbor, Maryland – The first four enlisted airmen training to fly remotely piloted aircraft will start class in October, the head of Air Education and Training Command said Monday.

“Our first enlisted RPA students will begin the program next month,” said Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, speaking to reporters at the annual Air Force Association conference here.

“So it’s here,” he added.

The opportunity has been a much anticipated move that will open one of the Air Force’s most in-demand career fields to enlisted airmen. They’ll have the opportunity to fly the RQ-4 Global Hawk for intelligence, reconnaissance, and surveillance missions.

Air Force leadership hasn’t shut the door on enlisted airmen flying strike RPAs like the MQ-9 Reaper, but said they want to see the results of the Global Hawk endeavor first.

According to Roberson, the plan is to start off with three classes of four enlisted airmen each over the next few months. The Air Force has dubbed them ‘EPIC’ – Enlisted Pilot Initial Classes.

“Right now, the going-in plan is that the training we give to the enlisted pilots is going to be exactly the same as what we’re giving our officer pilots,” the general said. “So right now there is no difference. We did that very deliberately.”

The first 12 airmen that will make up the three starting classes come from across the service and have a range of experiences.

“All four of the very first class that begins next month are very experienced and even familiar with RPA operations,” Roberson said. “These are going to be tech sergeants, master sergeants, who are either already sensor operators for other RPAs, or are in some way very familiar with the operations that occur.”

But some of the airmen also won’t have any RPA expertise.

“By the time we get to the 12th EPIC member, we are bringing in somebody who is not familiar, never been exposed to it, and comes from a different training area, so that we get the full gamut of somebody who really knows what’s going on all the way to somebody who’s never been exposed to it,” Roberson said.

The general said he expects the initial training to take about six or seven months, at which point the service will “make any adjustments that we see are necessary before we start the real full-up RPA enlisted program,” he said.

Those initial enlisted pilots will join the 24 RPA officer pilots per class that Air Force training is also producing. Soon, however, the enlisted pilots could start taking over the duties.

“The way that we’re approaching this is each enlisted pilot that comes in is going to replace what would have been an officer. So it’s not additive, it’s a replacement for,” Roberson said.

Eventually, Roberson said, he believes the career opportunity could be a draw for the service.

“I think the word is going to spread among the enlisted force, I think it’s going to be very positive, and I think it’s actually going to help with recruitment,” he said. “I think in many ways recruitment may go up because enlisted members are going to have an opportunity that they haven’t had for a long time.”

Air Force gets ball rolling on UH-1N Huey replacement

Phillip Swarts — Wed, 14 Sep 2016 23:25:10 +0000

The Air Force is taking the next steps toward finding a replacement for the UH-1N “Huey” used by the service’s nuclear forces.

On Sept. 9, the Air Force posted online a Request for Information for a replacement helicopter, a solicitation for companies to advise service officials of what’s available on the market.

The submissions will give military leaders a good idea of what helicopters are available for purchase and their capabilities. Top brass have already said they’re looking to buy an existing aircraft, possibly modified, and not go through the process of designing and building a new one.

The Air Force also posted a draft of its Air Vehicle System Requirements Document for industry review and announced an industry day and one-on-one sessions with industry representatives Sept. 27-28 at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Acquisition officials are looking to purchase 84 new helicopters, and expect to award the contract in early fiscal 2018. Deliver of the aircraft would start no later than one year after that, meaning it’s likely to be 2020 or 2021 before the entire fleet of Huey’s is replaced.

Air Force Global Strike Command uses UH-1Ns to guard nuclear-tipped Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Montana; F.E. Warren AFB, Wyoming; and Minot AFB, North Dakota. The helos are also used for VIP and personnel transport.

Following a request from the head of U.S. Strategic Command, the Air Force had proposed an immediate reprogramming action, which would have given Sikorsky a sole-source contract for its UH-60 Black Hawk helicopters. However, a group of lawmakers protested the idea.

“It is our collective view that a terrible precedent would be set if services were allowed to justify sole-source acquisitions by citing a sense of urgency due in part to a failure to properly plan and execute against known requirements,” stated an April letter signed by 12 members of the U.S. House of Representatives, some of whom sit on the House Armed Services Committee.

They added that the committee “has been a champion for competition and it should continue to be.”

In May the Air Force heeded the lawmakers, and announced that it would move forward with a “full and open” competition for a replacement helicopter. But that move angered other lawmakers who said the Hueys weren’t up to the task and needed to be replaced immediately.

Sikorsky did not disclose whether they are still going to enter the Black Hawk into the competition, but did tell Air Force Times that they are “actively pursuing” the contract.

The company is “ready to support aircraft deliveries to the Air Force off a hot production line and fully meet the Air Force requirements for its missile site and utility support missions,” it said in a statement.

The request for information – or RFI – is an early step in that process, and will help inform officials before they put out an official request for bids.

Among the questions on the RFI, officials are interested in determining if the replacement helicopters would use spare parts that are already in the Pentagon inventory, whether the helicopters have already completed live-fire testing for the Defense Department, and a readout on the materials and aerodynamics of the craft.

Companies have until Sept. 26 to submit information.

Air Force F-15s conduct joint air policing missions with Bulgaria

Phillip Swarts — Tue, 13 Sep 2016 23:35:32 +0000

Four Air Force F-15C Eagles are conducting joint air policing missions with their Bulgarian counterparts from Sept. 9 to 16 — the first U.S./NATO joint mission in Bulgaria.

The aircraft are from the Massachusetts Air National Guard’s 104th Fighter Wing and the California Air National Guard’s 144th Fighter Wing, attached to the 194th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, forward deployed to Romania. Some 75 airmen, including active-duty airmen in support roles from the 52nd Fighter Wing at Spangdahlem Air Base, Germany, also traveled to Bulgaria. The Eagles will be flying alongside Bulgarian MiG-29s.

The Bulgarians have become increasingly concerned about Russian incursions into their territory. In July, Bulgaria accused Russian military planes of violating its airspace four times, and civilian planes six times, within the month. Russian officials denied the infringements, but Bulgaria’s defense minister, Nikolay Nenchev, called the events “very worrying.”

Though Bulgaria does not share a border with Russia, it’s eastern border is on the Black Sea, an area Russia has sought to bring under its sphere of influence. The Russian Federation annexed Crimea in 2014 in the aftermath of the Ukrainian revolution.

The Bulgarian parliament approved the joint air policing mission in February. It “enables on-demand response capabilities, which serve to mitigate and deter violations and infringements on Bulgarian sovereign airspace,” according to an Air Force news release.

The Air Force is regularly helping NATO allies defend their airspace, in line with security commitments to NATO. The 194th EFS previously conducted joint air policing in Iceland in March, the first under the concurrent Operation Atlantic Resolve mission.

Bulgarian MiG-29s at Graf Ignatievo air base will fly joint air policing missions with U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagle fighter aircraft. The U.S. aircraft arrived from Campia Turzii, Romania, where they are part of a theater security package deployment to Europe as a part of Operation Atlantic Resolve.

Photo Credit: SSgt. Joe W. McFadden/Air Force

“It’s important that we are standing side-by-side with our NATO allies,” said Lt. Col. Cesar Gonzalez, the 194th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron aircraft maintenance commander, in the news release. “We are committed to the security of Europe and helping Bulgaria and countries who ask for our help.

“Our Guardsmen protect, and we’re on alert protecting the home front and the western front,” Gonzalez said. “What a great opportunity to do the same for the Eastern Bloc of Europe.”

The air policing mission may increase the likelihood of an unsafe intercept by Russian aircraft, which has been an ongoing concern in recent years. On Sept. 7, a Russian Su-27 flew within 10 feet of a U.S. Navy P-8A over the Black Sea, according to Pentagon officials. Navy Capt. Jeff Davis, a Pentagon spokesman, said the Russian SU-27 Flanker fighter made the unsafe maneuver as the Poseidon aircraft was conducting routine operations in international airspace.

Russian Defense Ministry spokesman Maj. Gen. Igor Konashenkov said in a Sept. 7 statement that the Poseidon aircraft did not have its transponder turned on, and that it approached Russia’s southern border twice, but U.S. officials denied that the transponder was turned off .

“We frequently encounter the Russians in and around international airspace,” Gen. Frank Gorenc, then-commander of U.S. Air Forces Europe-U.S. Air Forces Africa, told Air Force Times June 27. “The majority of those intercepts continue to be professional, but every once in a while, there is a discussion in respect to the professionalism of a particular crew … that causes us to look at it and say, ‘What are they doing?’ ” he said.

Terrorist threat hasn’t abated 15 years after 9/11, top Army general says

Phillip Swarts — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 18:08:54 +0000

BALTIMORE — The Army must continue to be ready at a moment’s notice for whatever crisis threatens America or its allies, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said Saturday.

“The readiness of that Army will remain our No. 1 priority. We have no other choice,” Milley said, addressing the National Guard Association of the United States annual conference. “We must remain prepared. We can never break faith with the American people. We owe that to them, we signed up for it, we took an oath to it, and we will not fail.”

Speaking on the eve of the 15^th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Milley said that the threat posed by extremists has not lessened.

“Those people, those enemies, those members of that terrorist group, still intend — as they did on 9/11 — to destroy your freedoms, to kill you, kill your families, they still intend to destroy the United States of America,” he said.

The military, Milley noted, has been fighting the Global War on Terror for a decade and a half since 2001.

“All our lives, all our destinies were forever changed in those moments and we have been at war for 15 consecutive years,” he said. “And so many soldiers, airmen, sailors and Marines, so many guardsmen have given their lives and their limbs and all of you have made sacrifices in the defense of that freedom.”

It’s a fight that Milley doesn’t see ending anytime soon.

“That mission, that task, is likely to remain for quite some time,” he said.

That’s why the chief said he’s placing so much emphasis on readiness, for both active duty and Guard units.

“The possibility of armed conflict is real, and the time available to mobilize and deploy … might not be available in the next conflict,” he said.

The Army, Milley said, is looking at taking “very concrete steps” to improve the readiness of guardsmen.

“In 2016 we had two Guard brigade combat teams go to decisive action rotations,” he said, noting that two will also go for training in 2017.

“By 2018, we want to have, and we put into the budget, that we’re going to double that to four,” Milley added. “So we’ll have four Army National Guard brigade combat teams go to decisive action training [at] combat training centers.”

And for guardsmen, “we’re going to increase the training days,” Milley said, acknowledging that it’s going to be a challenge. “Increasing training days has proven to come off my lips pretty easy … I’m going to do it, though.”

The Guard needs to be ready because it has become such an integral part of Army operations, the general said.

“This year, we will see four of the eight National Guard divisions deploy in one capacity or another,” Milley said.

And on the home front, Guard units have been involved in aid and recovery operations for the historical flooding in Louisiana, Hurricane Hermine that hit Florida and the East Coast, and wildfires that are spreading across California and the western U.S.

“Our nation’s ability to protect not only our oversees interests but respond to natural disasters here at home and protect the American people, our ability to do that would not exist without the American National Guard,” Milley said.

The general emphasized that the National Guard is a critical part of all military operations, and compared the different branches of the Army — active duty, Guard and Reserve — to water.

“Just as water can exist in three states, a solid, a liquid, and a gas, we have one Army,” Milley said. “We’re not an army of 10 divisions, we’re an army of 18 divisions … We were one Army a year ago, and we’re one Army today, and we’re going to remain one Army forever.”

National Guard needed now more than ever, Air Force secretary says

Phillip Swarts — Sun, 11 Sep 2016 15:01:49 +0000

BALTIMORE — Of all the organizations that the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, impacted, it may have affected the greatest change on the National Guard, Secretary of the Air Force Deborah Lee James said.

“There’s no single institution that has been transformed in the last 15 years as much, I think, as the National Guard has been transformed,” said James, speaking Saturday to the National Guard Association of the United States annual conference.

Once considered to be a back-up for the active component, the Guard has instead become an integral part of military operations worldwide, the secretary said.

“During the Cold War, the Guard was a strategic reserve; but, of course, today you are fully an operational force by design, moving toward even more seamless integration with the active component,” she said.

“Since 9/11, you’ve had nearly 700,000 individual deployments to the CENTCOM AOR, and guardsmen are there right now as we speak, and they are bringing the fight right on home to Daesh,” James continued, using an Arabic name for the Islamic State terrorist group.

The Air National Guard is much more integrated with the active component than it was 25 years ago, James said, close to the time she was serving as the assistant secretary of defense for Reserve Affairs.

“And tomorrow’s Air Force will continue to move more and more and more in that direction,” she added.

A key area the Air Force is looking to expand Guard involvement is with cybersecurity.

“One area where we know the Guard has unique skills and capabilities is in cyber, because of your close work with the states, and in some cases because of your civilian jobs,” James told the audience. “Some of you have gained experience every day that we can leverage better in defending critical cyber infrastructure.”

The Air Force’s plan going forward will including standing up new units.

“It’s no surprise that we’re going to rely on the Guard more in this area,” James said. “By 2019, we expect to have cyber units in 34 states in the National Guard, consisting of almost 3,000 cyber trained service members.”

The Air Force is also studying increases in Guard involvement for mission fields like space operations, aircraft maintenance, and remotely piloted aircraft flights, James said.

Looming on the horizon, however, is the likely passage of a continuing resolution, which would keep Air Force budget levels at those of the previous year, impacting service efforts to grow and expand.

CRs get passed when Congress can’t decide on a full budget. If one is passed this year, James noted it would be the tenth straight year that lawmakers have failed to pass a complete defense appropriation by the start of the fiscal year, Oct. 1.

No matter what happens, James said the ANG would have input on any fiscal decisions.

“We’re committed to making sure that the Guard and Reserve get a seat at our decision-making table for all the processes, including the budget processes,” she said.

And while the Air Force might have trouble getting money from Congress, James vowed that guardsmen shouldn’t have trouble getting money from the Air Force.

“Airmen, after all, shouldn’t have to have a PhD in IT or accounting to get through our systems and to get paid,” she said.

The Guard is an increasingly important part of the force, and has started to pick up many missions from the active component, James said.

“Our active duty force today is the smallest it has ever been since we became a separate service in the year 1947,” the secretary said. “Our active duty end strength is 200,000 people fewer than it was back in the 1990s.”

With such a reduction in end strength, communication and cooperation between the different parts of the Air Force has become key in meeting all mission demands, James said.

“We are making ends meet with this much smaller force precisely because today’s Air Force is more integrated across the active duty, the National Guard and Reserve,” she said. “We are asking more of you, we are utilizing your talents more now than ever before, and I would say that’s precisely because we need you now more than even we did before.”

Too soon to tell what U.S. response to North Korea nuke test might be, Pacific Air Forces leader says

Phillip Swarts — Sat, 10 Sep 2016 09:00:00 +0000

Speaking to Air Force Times just a few hours after North Korea allegedly conducted their fifth nuclear test, Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy, commander of Pacific Air Forces, said it’s still too soon to determine what the U.S. response might be to the latest provocation.

“It’s a little too early to tell with specificity what the reaction will be, but I will say clearly our president has reaffirmed our commitment to South Korea and the region,” O’Shaughnessy said.

He pointed to the last nuclear test North Korea carried out in January, and the U.S. response that saw B-52s, F-16s, and F-22s travel to Osan Air Base and train with South Korean forces.

“They demonstrate not only the iron clad commitment the United States has to our allies and partners, but it clearly demonstrates how we can operate together as an alliance,” the general said.

And in August, Andersen Air Force Base in Guam hosted B-1s, B-2s, and B-52s, the first time all three bombers have been together in the Pacific.

“This is a real strong assurance for our allies and partners and certainly deters any potential adversaries,” the general said.

General Terrence J. O’Shaughnessy assumed command of Pacific Air Forces in July 2016.

Photo Credit: Air Force

O’Shaughnessy just assumed command of PACAF in July, but he’s been in the theater for nearly a decade, including assignments at Misawa Air Base, Japan; Osan AB, South Korea; and Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam, Hawaii.

During that time, the general said that events in the region have started to unfold more rapidly.

“Perhaps the biggest change I’ve seen in this theater over the decade or so that I’ve been out here, is that the force needs to be ready at a moment’s notice,” O’Shaughnessy said. “Over the next year our focus is going to be to make sure … that we have a forward-deployed ready force. … It’s not really a question of if the force is called, it’s really a question about when is that force going to be called upon to act.”

That doesn’t always mean it might be a tactical situation or a provocation from North Korea, though.

“Eighty percent of the world’s natural disasters happen in this region,” O’Shaughnessy noted.

PACAF has responded to natural disasters in Nepal. the Philippines and Japan, among other countries, and has helped U.S. allies in the region in other ways, including Air Force deployments to train with other nations’ air forces.

“The rebalance is real,” O’Shaughnessy said. “The U.S. is committed to this region, and we as PACAF forces are committed to our allies, partners, and friends within the region.”

South China Sea dispute

Some of those partners are becoming increasingly concerned about China’s actions in the South China Sea. China has claimed vast swaths of territory as its own, and has built a series of artificial islands and military outposts throughout the region.

An international court at The Hague, Netherlands, ruled that China has no legal claim to the sea, but Chinese officials have indicated they will not recognize the decision.

O’Shaughnessy said the U.S. will continue to be a presence in the area and remains committed to finding a peaceful solution.

“We want all claimants to exercise restraint,” he said. “We want to take advantage of the opportunity provided by the tribunal’s decision as an opportunity to work together to resolve these disputes. Those should be done in a diplomatic fashion, not a military fashion.”

With increasing tensions in the region – and tightening budgets across the service – O’Shaughnessy said one of his top priorities is ensuring airmen don’t get burnt out.

“The pace of operations has increased significantly over the years,” he said. “I think we’ll be able to maintain a high ops tempo no doubt, but an ops tempo that is sustainable.”

One of the most important parts of that is prioritizing.

“I have a team here at the headquarters really analyzing what is the value for everything that we do to make sure we are doing what is most valuable to our combatant commander and most valuable to our nation,” O’Shaughnessy said.