Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Feb. 6, 2020

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Edited by Amy McCullough with Rachel S. Cohen, Brian W. Everstine and John A. Tirpak

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Planners Aim to Build Slim, Agile Space Force
By Brian W. Everstine

The U.S. Space Force is being built from the existing Air Force with a priority
to keep a small and low-priced footprint, relying heavily on existing force
structure. The Air Force on Feb. 3 sent a 26-page document to Congress outlining
the plan for the structure of the new service —with the main goal to be lean,
agile, and “minimize cost and bureaucracy.” The document, which was required
under the fiscal 2020 National Defense Authorization Act, likely will continue
to evolve, with a finalized version expected in early May. “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,” Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett wrote in the
document.

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Hanging Between Past and Future, Missileers Practice for War
By Rachel S. Cohen

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.—You see the intercontinental ballistic
missile before you hear it. Upon ignition in its underground silo, the horizon
blooms bright red-orange, and a ball of light rises west over the Pacific Ocean.
A dull roar intensifies as the unarmed nuclear missile jets upward to arc over
the moon on its way to the Kwajalein Atoll in the Marshall Islands. As the
weapons reach 50 years since they were first deployed across the U.S., the Air
Force is checking that its more than 400 Minuteman IIIs can still perform. At
the same time, the service is looking ahead to the future Ground-Based Strategic
Deterrent missiles that will replace Minuteman III and outlast some of the
people managing it.

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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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Defense Industrial Base Health Gets a “C” Grade from NDIA
By John A. Tirpak

A health of the defense industrial base was given a grade of "C" by the National
Defense Industrial Association in a report released Feb. 5. The NDIA says the
report will be issued annually to gauge whether the industrial base is able to
surge at need, is properly funded, and is not onerously regulated, among many
other evaluated factors. The grade was pulled down by cyber theft and a shortage
of skilled labor and materials, but was buoyed by strong demand for U.S. defense
goods and services.


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New Coronavirus Evacuees Arrive at Travis
By Brian W. Everstine

Two charted aircraft arrived at Travis Air Force Base, California, on Feb. 5
carrying about 350 passengers evacuated from the epicenter of the new
coronavirus outbreak. The 747s flew from Wuhan, China, and were received at
Travis by personnel from the Department of Health and Human Services and the
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Passengers from one of the planes
will be quarantined for 14 days at a hotel on base, while the other aircraft
refueled and continued on to Marine Corps Air Station Miramar. Also on Feb. 5,
the Pentagon announced Camp Ashland, Nebraska, also will provide housing for up
to 75 people who may be quarantined upon returning to the United States.


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Radar Sweep

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Trump Praises U.S. Military Buildup but Vows Overseas Troop Cuts in State of the Union Address

President Donald Trump hailed the U.S. military as “unmatched anywhere in the
world” and vowed to use it to pursue terrorists worldwide in his annual State
of the Union speech on the night of Feb. 4, but he also vowed to end America’s
wars in the Middle East because of the strain they have put on military
families.

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Nominee for Top Pentagon Personnel Job Withdraws after Op-Ed Surfaces

In 2017, J. David Patterson co-wrote an op-ed for The Federalist website blaming
mass killings on immigrants who failed to “assimilate” into American
culture.

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ODNI Plans to Share More about Cyber Threats Under New Counterintelligence Strategy

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence will take a “whole of
society” approach that hopes to encourage greater private-sector participation
in protecting the country from cyber threats, according to a leading official
who said a related strategy document will be published Feb 10.

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Esper Issues Talking Points Before Pentagon Budget Roll-Out

All roads lead to the National Defense Strategy from here on out, Defense
Secretary Mark Esper wrote Jan. 27 in a memo to top military leadership. The
Pentagon plans to put its money where its mouth is as it announces the fiscal
2021 budget, according to the memo, focusing funding on the kinds of programs
and weapons that will bring the U.S. up to snuff with competitors like China and
Russia.

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Russian Submarine Activity Has Picked Up in Atlantic, Navy 3-Star Says

U.S. ships leaving the East Coast must now consider the Atlantic Ocean a
contested battlespace, a U.S. Navy three-star said this week, as Russian
activity continues to pick up just off the American coast.

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315th AW Delivers Humanitarian Aid to Honduras

Airmen from the 315th Airlift Wing deployed a C-17 Globemaster III Feb. 1 to
deliver donated humanitarian aid to Honduras in support of the Denton Program.

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Military Sexual Assault Reform Pledge Backed by Majority of Presidential Candidates

One of the preeminent service member sexual assault awareness organizations has
the support of most presidential candidates, and at least slight consideration
from the second highest military official, in an effort to change the way the
most serious crimes in the military are prosecuted.

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New OCP Uniforms: Time is Running Out to Start Wearing New Items

The Air Force is getting ready for the next steps in the transition to the
Operational Camouflage Pattern uniform across the service. Beginning June 1,
airmen will only be allowed to wear a coyote brown T-shirt with the OCP and will
no longer be allowed to wear the lighter desert sand shirt under their new
utility uniforms, Air Education and Training Command said in a release.

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Judge OKs Limited Release of Pentagon Papers Case Records

The government must release some documents that will shed light on two grand
juries that sat in Boston nearly 50 years ago to investigate the leak of the
Pentagon Papers, a federal judge ruled Feb. 4. The records detailing the probe
into the publication of records that exposed the deceit of American policymakers
during the Vietnam War were sought by Jill Lepore, a Harvard University
professor and New Yorker staff writer.

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Toxic ‘Black Goo’ Base Used by U.S. Had Enriched Uranium. More Veterans Report Cancer

For the last six weeks, a private Facebook group set up to help veterans who
served at a toxic base in Uzbekistan has been flooded with new members, many
with hauntingly familiar stories: I served at K2. I have cancer.

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One More Thing...
This Is What Nellis Air Force Base's Ongoing Red Flag Exercise Looks Like from Space

Red Flag is nearly half a century old and it is still the world's top air combat
training event, the latest iteration of which is very exclusive.

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