Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Feb. 5, 2020
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Edited by Amy McCullough with Rachel S. Cohen, Brian W. Everstine, Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory and John A. Tirpak
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Trump Honors Tuskegee Airman in State of the Union Address
By Amy McCullough
President Donald Trump honored Tuskegee Airman Charles McGee during his State of
the Union address on Feb. 4, hours after pinning stars on McGee's shoulders in
the Oval Office. Throughout his career, McGee flew a record 409 combat missions,
more than any other pilot in World War II, Korea, and Vietnam. “Incredible
story. After more than 130 combat missions in World War II, he came back home to
a country still struggling for civil rights and went on to serve America in
Korea and Vietnam,” Trump said. He added, “Gen. McGee, our nation salutes
you. Thank you, sir.”
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Barrett: ‘Pass-Through’ Funding May Become Core of Space Force Budget
By John A. Tirpak
The Air Force’s unique “pass-through” budget mechanism, which inflates the
apparent size of the service’s budget with monies that aren’t actually under
its control, may become the core of the new Space Force’s budget, Air Force
Secretary Barbara Barrett reported. Barrett, in a Jan. 30 interview with Air
Force Magazine, said giving the pass-through account to Space Force is “one of
the ideas” being
evaluated as the new service’s budget is shaped for the
first time. There are, however, opponents to the change, which she characterized
as "protecting their rice bowl."
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Empowering Disaster Response and Recovery From Space
When a natural disaster or emergency occur, an immediate and seamless response is necessary to
save lives. Operational and situational awareness becomes increasingly important to responders.
If critical infrastructure is down in the disaster zone, then the systems and networks required for
powering the relief efforts are compromised. Ground operations must look to space to solve their
communication needs. Read the full story.
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SOCOM Announces Plans to Buy 75 ‘Armed Overwatch’ Planes
By Brian W. Everstine
US Special Operations Command is moving forward with its armed overwatch plan,
independent of the Air Force’s light attack experiment, inviting industry for
a briefing in March on a proposal to buy an estimated 75 aircraft. The aircraft
would “provide Special Operations Forces deployable and sustainable manned
aircraft systems" for close air support, precision strike, and SOF intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance in austere and permissive environments,"
according to a Feb. 3 announcement.
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Global Strike Comfortable with GBSD Under Sole Contractor
By Rachel S. Cohen
VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, CALIF.—Air Force Global Strike Command’s No. 2
officer said his organization is comfortable with how the next-generation
land-based nuclear missile program is progressing despite having only Northrop
Grumman involved in the design competition. “What we have seen so far is going
in an incredible direction, regardless of if we had multiple competitors or
not,” Lt. Gen. Anthony Cotton, AFGSC’s deputy commander, told reporters Feb.
3. “We're not seeing any concern to think that the vendor will try to do
something that is out of faith for us."
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CAP Provides Imagery, Logistical Support amid Earthquakes
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory
Since an ongoing series of earthquakes began to rock Puerto Rico in late
December, including a magnitude 5.0 tremor on Feb. 4, Civil Air Patrol has been
engaged in relief and recovery efforts, both in the sky and on the ground. The
U.S. Air Force Auxiliary has not only teamed up with the Federal Emergency
Management Agency to scope out the extent of the damage, but it has also worked
with local organizations to connect citizens in need with basic necessities.
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Radar Sweep
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U.S. Space Force Organizational Plan Delivered to Congress
The report delivered Feb. 3 stresses that the Space Force will not have the
traditional layers of bureaucracy that Congress cautioned it did not want to see
in the new service. “Building the Space Force from the ground up is an
historic opportunity to take a clean sheet approach to designing a 21st century
military service with a streamlined organizational structure,” says the
report.
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Legacy U.S. Air Force Fighters, Bombers Are on the Chopping Block
The Pentagon will propose retiring many of its older aircraft as new
capabilities come online, but the cuts aren’t as steep as initially planned.
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Here Are the Fighter Squadrons Currently in the Middle East
The Air Force now has three squadrons of fighter jets deployed to three
different countries in the Middle East.
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AFRICOM Continues Strikes Targeting al-Shabab Militants in Somalia
U.S. Africa Command conducted an airstrike against al-Shabab militants in
Somalia on Feb. 4. The strike comes on the heels of several operations and
airstrikes in Somalia last month that resulted in the destruction of two
al-Shabab compounds. "Armed overwatch and precision engagement capabilities will
continue to create big-time challenges for al-Shabab,” U.S. Army Brig. Gen.
Miguel Castellanos, AFRICOM’s deputy director of operations, said in a news
release Feb. 4.
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Air Force Taps Google for IT Security Assessment
The Air Force has awarded Google’s cloud business a $2 million contract it
hopes will ultimately provide its tens of thousands of airmen more secure,
higher-quality data.
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One More Thing...
Boeing and U.S. Navy Successfully Link Piloted, Unmanned Growlers
Boeing and the U.S. Navy successfully flew two autonomously controlled EA-18G
Growlers at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, as unmanned air systems
using a third Growler as a mission controller for the other two. The flights,
conducted during the Navy Warfare Development Command’s annual fleet
experiment exercises, proved the effectiveness of technology allowing F/A-18
Super Hornets and EA-18G Growlers to perform combat missions with unmanned
systems.
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