Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Feb. 13, 2020

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

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Pentagon Mulls Space National Guard Options
By Rachel S. Cohen

National Guard officials are pushing for the Defense Department and Congress to
create a Space National Guard, despite some uncertainty within the Pentagon
about how to move forward. The Office of the Secretary of Defense is drawing up
multiple options for what the Space Force’s reserve component might look like,
including creating a single-component service with full-time and part-time
employees instead of traditional Reserve or National Guard units, or possibly
ditching the reserve component altogether, said Maj. Gen. David Baldwin,
California’s adjutant general. “We don’t really know what [a single
component] means, but they’re, again, doing their due diligence and they need
the time to be able to churn through that,” Baldwin told reporters at a Feb.
12 briefing.

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Space Force May Bring Launch Wings Under Systems Command
By Rachel S. Cohen

VANDENBERG AIR FORCE BASE, Calif.—Military officials are looking at putting
the 30th and 45th Space Wings under a new Space Force Systems Command to group
the launch-focused organizations with others that handle procurement rather than
warfighting. “In the [reorganization], we have seen different models where
perhaps these two, the Western range and the Eastern range, they could go on to
another field command like Systems Command,” Combined Space Operations Center
boss Brig. Gen. Scott Brodeur told Air Force Magazine in a recent interview
here. “One of the things that's on the table is, how do we look at our space
launch organization in the future?” 

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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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Kelly: 21st Century Realities Shaped USAF’s 2021 Budget
By John A. Tirpak

The new Air Force budget responds to the arrival of peer militaries on the world
scene, the service's deputy chief of staff for operations said Feb. 12. The
nation must shake off notions about Air Force capabilities that are 30 years old
and no longer realistic, Lt. Gen. Mark Kelly said, adding the new force also
relies on allies to provide capacity in a multi-theater war.

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SOCOM’s Armed Overwatch Expected to Replace the AFSOC U-28 Fleet
By Brian W. Everstine

U.S. Special Operations Command’s armed overwatch planes eventually will
replace the U-28 Draco, a small fleet of specialized and heavily used
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft, Air Force Special
Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. James Slife said Feb. 12. Under the armed
overwatch program, SOCOM wants to purchase 75 off-the-shelf aircraft within
about five years to fly air support for special operators. The new, low-cost
aircraft will conduct a similar ISR role as the U-28 as well as provide strike
support. The U-28 has service life issues “because of how heavily we’ve
operated those airplanes
over the last 15 years or so,” Slife said.

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USAF Updates Instruction Allowing Religious Waivers for Beards, Turbans, Hijabs
By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force has updated its grooming standards to formally allow Airmen to
grow neatly trimmed beards, standardizing the religious or medical exemption
process. The updated Air Force Instruction, released Feb. 7, also formally
allows Sikh airmen to wear turbans and Muslim women to wear hijabs. Groups such
as the Sikh American Legal Defense and Education Fund and the Council on
American-Islamic Relations, which pushed the service to grant such waivers,
called it a “step toward religious accommodation and inclusion for military
personnel of all faiths.”

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Radar Sweep

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PRESIDENT’S PERSPECTIVE: Every Airman a Warrior

“On every continent, Airmen are on watch and ready to deliver decisive blows
to our enemies and critical aid to their teammates in arms—Soldiers, Sailors,
and Marines,” writes retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright,
president of the Air Force Association. “Teamed with our remarkable Special
Operations forces, our Airmen are the ‘killer angels’ overhead. To much of
America, however, they are all but invisible. Yet their work should never be a
thankless task.”

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U.S. Sends Three Aircraft Along Taiwan Strait after Back-to-Back Chinese Drills Near Taiwan

The Air Force flew two B-52 bombers and an MC-130J Commando II tanker along the
Taiwan Strait on Feb. 12 after Chinese naval and air forces flew over the island
twice this week, Taiwan’s Ministry of National Defense said. The aircraft flew
north to south along the airspace over the Taiwan Strait and were “closely
monitored,” the defense ministry said in a statement.

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U.S. to Seek More Help from NATO to Counter Islamic State

U.S. Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Feb. 11 he is looking to NATO allies for
more help countering the Islamic State group in Iraq and in bolstering U.S.
defense efforts in the Middle East more broadly. Speaking to reporters enroute
to Brussels for a NATO defense ministers meeting, Esper said he wants NATO
countries to do more to help Iraq’s security forces.

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Iran Touts Big Ballistic Missile and Lightweight Solid Fuel Rocket Motor Leaps

The technology could lead to new and improved ballistic missile designs with
greater reliability, flexibility, and added range.

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U.S. Space Force, Space Command to Get State-of-the-Art Facility in Colorado

The Pentagon’s budget request for fiscal 2021 includes $88 million to complete
the construction of a Consolidated Space Operations Facility at Schriever Air
Force Base, Colo. The CSOF was requested two years ago by the U.S. Air Force
Space Command and U.S. Strategic Command to meet growing demands for secure
facilities for military space operators and analysts from the intelligence
community. The facility is funded in the U.S. Air Force budget, and will be used
by the U.S. Space Force and U.S. Space Command.

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Space Software Startup to Pursue SDA Contracts

Three of the founders of bankrupt Vector Launch have created a new startup,
NewSpace Networks, to develop space software products for applications such as
data analysis, cybersecurity, and the Internet of Things. As one of their first
forays into the market, the company intends to respond to the Space Development
Agency’s January call for “leap-ahead technologies” for its evolving
Defense Department space architecture.

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Neo-Nazi Group Membership May Not Get You Booted from Military, Officials Say

Membership in a white supremacist or neo-Nazi group won't necessarily get a U.S.
service member tossed out of the military, defense officials told a House
subcommittee Feb. 11. The officials, including representatives of Naval Criminal
Investigative Service and the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, appeared
to make a distinction between membership in an extremist organization and
"active participation" in deciding on recruitment and retention.

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VA’s Electronic Health Records System Won’t Make Its First Go-Live Deadline

Training was supposed to start this week ahead of deployment in March, but
Veterans Affairs officials said that timeline has been pushed out.

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One More Thing...
Air Force Pilot Sends Ring to Space in Epic Marriage Proposal

Capt. Stuart Shippee, of the 393rd Bomb Squadron at Whiteman Air Force Base,
Mo.,, proposed to his girlfriend Marie Lisman by launching a weather balloon
into space with a ring soaring high above the Earth, according to a recent news
release.

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