Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Feb. 28, 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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Goldfein: Take Risk Now to Buy Future Capability
By John A. Tirpak

Members of Congress who've heard the Air Force's explanation of why it's trading
capacity now to get connectivity later back the move, Chief of Staff Gen. David
Goldfein told reporters February 27. But he expects a lot more explanation will
be needed. “The risk is real,” Goldfein said. If money was unlimited, “We
would not be asking commanders to take short-term risk. But if you don’t do
that, you never buy your future.”

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For Missile Warning in Iraq, Thank the Space Force
By Rachel S. Cohen

A top Space Force official here argued the case for why the new service needed
to become a standalone organization, praising Airmen at Buckley Air Force Base,
Colo., for their role in warning U.S. troops overseas about the recent Iranian
missile attack on an Iraqi air base. “Those missiles flew for six minutes,”
Space Force Vice
Commander Lt. Gen. David Thompson said Feb. 27 at AFA’s Air
Warfare Symposium. He recalled a conversation with a U.S. Central Command
official who said: “If those Airmen on crew that night, specifically the
warning officer at the warning station, if she had not done her job better than
her training, … today we would be talking about dead Americans at [al-Asad Air
Base].”

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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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Combat Rescue Helicopter Named the ‘Jolly Green II’
By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force’s new combat rescue helicopter will be named Jolly Green II. The
new helicopter, slated to replace the HH-60G Pave Hawk, will carry on the name
of the venerable Vietnam-era HH-3E, which flew combat rescue missions from 1967
to 1995. Air Force Secretary Barbara Barrett unveiled the name during her
keynote at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., on Feb. 27 with an
early production model on-site.

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Space Force Finalizing Personnel Decisions, Legislative Proposal
By Rachel S. Cohen

The Department of the Air Force is finished internally coordinating which USAF
units will move into the Space Force and is awaiting Secretary Barbara
Barrett’s approval, a top space official said Feb. 27. The first group of
people who will be asked to re-commission and re-enlist into the Space Force are
those with the specialty codes 13S, or space operators, and 1C6, or the enlisted
equivalent. Those personnel will likely come in by the end of September, Space
Force Vice Commander Lt. Gen. David Thompson said. The second group will be the
intelligence officers, engineers, acquisition experts, and other related career
fields who are crucial to space operations. They may begin joining the Space
Force sometime in fiscal 2021. The Space Force is also within days of delivering
a legislative proposal to Capitol Hill to shape the fiscal 2021 defense policy
bill.

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Holmes Lays Out ‘Fighter-Like’ Roadmap
By John A. Tirpak

Air Combat Command is shifting from a "fighter roadmap" to a "capabilities"
roadmap that will capture many of the things fighters do today, but likely with
new types of unmanned systems and "attritable" aircraft, Gen. Mike Holmes told
reporters Feb. 27. The idea of a fighter squadron may also evolve, and there may
not be 55 such squadrons in the future, he added.

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Holmes Sees Need for Roles and Missions ‘Deconfliction’
By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force doesn't begrudge the Army its long-range fires to counter
adversaries like Russia, but Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mike Holmes said the
services need to work together to prevent excessive duplication of effort. “We
don’t have a monopoly on national technical means to go find targets,”
Holmes said of Russia and China. Their long-range fires “are ubiquitous, and
designed to keep us at a distance, and go after our strengths. I’m happy
we’re building additional long-range fires capabilities, but we just have to
make sure we’re able to target them.”

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AFSOC Reviewing Valor Awards for Possible Upgrade
By Brian W. Everstine

Air Force Special Operations Command is collecting evidence that may bolster a
few valor cases for upgrades, possibly even to the Medal of Honor. The review is
using hindsight to determine “where did we perhaps undershoot in terms” of
the award nomination, Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. James
Slife said Feb. 27 at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium. While he would not offer
specific cases, he said the command is "doing a comprehensive search for the
evidence that is out there.”

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AFRC Re-Examining Possible F-35A Basing Locations
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

While NAS JRB Fort Worth-Carswell, Texas, is slated to become the primary home
of Air Force Reserve Command’s future F-35As, AFRC is now reexamining three
bases it has deemed “reasonable alternatives”—Whiteman Air Force Base,
Mont., Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., and Homestead Air Reserve Base—to
ensure it “didn’t miss anything,” Air Force Reserve boss Lt. Gen. Richard
Scobee told Air Force Magazine on Feb. 27. A “more robust study” is also
slated for Carswell, he said. The other three bases might get F-35As later on
“based on suitability and what mission sets the Air Force” requires of the
Reserve, Scobee said in an interview on the sidelines of the Air Force
Association’s 2020 Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla.

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USAF: 3 Airmen Suffered TBIs in Al-Asad Attack
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Three U.S. Airmen are undergoing treatment for "mild Traumatic Brain Injuries"
as a result of the Iranian rocket attack on al-Asad Air Base, Iraq, the Air
Force confirmed Feb. 27." These Airmen are accounted for in the 112 service
members with TBIs as reported by DoD on Wednesday," Department of the Air Force
spokeswoman Capt. Carrie Volpe said in a Feb. 27 email to reporters. This new
total reflects a 3-service-member jump since Feb. 10.

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Goldfein Presented with Order of the Sword
By Brian W. Everstine

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein on Feb. 27 received the highest
award USAF enlisted personnel can bestow, the Order of
the Sword. Chief Master
Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth Wright
presented the award, and large sword,
during a speech at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium, saying it demonstrates the
“incredible support (Goldfein) provided enlisted airmen.”

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Radar Sweep

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Milley: U.S., Korea Taking ‘Hard Look’ at Postponing Joint Military Exercises

Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley confirmed Feb. 26 that
Army officials are considering postponing or curtailing exercises in South Korea
amid concerns over the spreading coronavirus.

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Defense Secretary: No Need to Duplicate NASIC Through Space Force

It’s important not to duplicate the work being performed by the National Air
and Space Intelligence Center (NASIC) at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio,
as the fledgling Space Force is created, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said.

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Patrick AFB, Cape Canaveral Soon to be Renamed Space Force Bases

Preparations are underway to officially transition Florida’s Patrick Air Force
Base and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station in Florida to the U.S. Space Force.
There is still no firm date for the actual name change but it could happen
sometime in March, said Brig. Gen. Douglas Schiess, commander of the 45th Space
Wing and director of the Eastern Range.

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New GPS Sats Can Maneuver & Resist Jamming

AFA 2020: Not only will the Space Force’s new positioning, navigation, and
timing (PNT) constellation, called NTS-3, provide jam-resistant capabilities to
troops on the battlefield, the satellites will be able to rapidly redeploy to
provide coverage where it’s most needed, says Bill Gattle, president of
L3Harris Space Systems.

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Al-Qaeda, ISIS Affiliates Team Up in West Africa

The only place in the world where fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Islamic
State group are cooperating is in West Africa’s sprawling Sahel region, giving
the extremists greater depth as they push into new areas, according to the
commander of the U.S. military’s special forces in Africa.

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Pentagon Policy Chief's Firing Was Part of White House Purge

The White House demanded the ouster of Pentagon policy chief John Rood last week
after the former industry executive opposed the administration on plans to pull
U.S. troops from Syria and its policy toward Chinese tech giant Huawei, six
current and former Trump administration officials tell POLITICO.

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Opinion: Beware a Peace Deal That May Spell War

Americans, so we are told, don’t care about foreign policy. Every poll shows
it is a low voter priority. But Americans do care about U.S. troops and their
ability to safeguard our country, prevent war, and preserve our way of life.
That matters. In that spirit, every American should pay attention to the Feb.
28, announcement of a peace deal with the Taliban that the Trump administration
is expected to sign. It might not create peace, wrote Tara Sonenshine, former
U.S.undersecretary of State for public diplomacy in Defense One.

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One More Thing...
Elon Musk Responds to a Long-Running Joke that he has a World War I-era fighter-pilot Doppelgänger

Fans of the modern-day billionaire Elon Musk think they've found a historical
doppelgänger for him.

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