Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for March 12, 2020

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Edited by Amy McCullough with Rachel S. Cohen, Brian W. Everstine and Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

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3 Killed, at Least 12 Wounded in Rocket Attack on Base in Iraq
By Brian W. Everstine

Two Americans and one coalition service member were killed and another 12 people
were wounded in a March 11 rocket attack on Camp Taji, Iraq. Eighteen 107mm
Katyusha rockets, which are traditionally linked to Iranian-backed militias,
struck the base, located north of Baghdad. Iraqi Security Forces located the
launcher, on the back of a truck, “a few miles” from the base, which hosts
coalition personnel as well as rotary wing aircraft, Combined Joint Task
Force-Operation Inherent Resolve said in a statement.

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USAF Touts Promising Research Despite Flat S&T Budget
By Rachel S. Cohen

Air Force acquisition chief Will Roper said March 11 the Air Force is still
working on promising research despite a largely stagnant science and technology
budget request for fiscal 2021 that is worrying some lawmakers. As the U.S.
looks to develop advanced military systems like improved hypersonic weapons and
enabling technologies such as artificial intelligence faster than Russia and
China, Roper lamented that the service’s research fund lost ground to more
pressing priorities. Nuclear modernization, joint all domain command and
control, and the effort to stand up a Space Force pulled money and resources
away from basic research in the 2021 request released last month. “Sometimes
the innovation voices did not win at budget closeout,” Roper said. “[There
are] a lot of things on the Air Force’s plate … and unfortunately when we
had to make the budget balance, we had to look for areas to take risk.”

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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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First New Air Force One Begins Modification Process
By Brian W. Everstine

The first 747-8 aircraft has begun the modification process to become a VC-25B,
or the next Air Force One. The process, which began Feb. 25, will include
cutting out parts of the aircraft’s skin and structure in the forward and aft
lower lobes to install new “superpanels” with structural upgrades and
cutouts for doors, according to a March 11 release. The service expects to
deliver the two VC-25Bs in 2024 to replace the two existing VC-25As. The
aircraft are expected to serve for 30 years.

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Space Force Mulls Future SATCOM Acquisition
By Rachel S. Cohen

The Space Force aims to release details of its new satellite communications
acquisition strategy this summer as the service considers how to combine
government and privately owned technologies into one seamless enterprise. Space
Force boss Gen. Jay Raymond last month signed off on a vision to overhaul how
the service handles SATCOM. Clare Grason, head of the USSF’s commercial SATCOM
office, said they have contracted help to figure out how to move to a
service-based model, where the military can pay for comms by how much it uses,
like per byte. The Pentagon wants to rely on a mixture of military-specific and
commercial SATCOM to grow the amount of data it can pass around the world, share
the cost of global comms with companies, and fall back on the growing pool of
satellites and ground terminals if some malfunction or are attacked or
destroyed.

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5 Al-Shabab Members Killed in Single U.S. Airstrike in Somalia
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

A March 10 U.S. airstrike killed five al-Shabab targets in Somalia without
harming any civilians, U.S. Africa Command reported later the same day. The
attack—the fifth U.S. strike in Somalia this month—brings the number of
al-Shabab militants killed by American airstrikes in March into the double
digits.

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Radar Sweep

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Space Force ‘Not Rushing’ to Create National Guard Branch, Top Civilian Says

“We anticipate very much that there will be a Guard and reserve presence [in
the Space Force], but that isn’t something we’re rushing to. We have, from
Congress, an expectation of a design next year,” Air Force Secretary Barbara
Barrett, who is also the civilian leader of the Space Force, said during a March
10 AFA Mitchell Institute event.

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Hypersonics, AI Top Indo-Pacific Command's Tech Wishlist

U.S. Indo-Pacific Command has a list of cutting edge capabilities that it aims
to acquire to stay ahead of peer competitors such as China, according to a
senior official. At the top of the list is hypersonic weapons that can travel at
speeds of Mach 5 or faster and are highly maneuverable.

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Congress, Warning of Cybersecurity Vulnerabilities, Recommends Overhaul

A yearlong effort by a bipartisan group of lawmakers suggests steps to deter
attacks, including clearer communication of operations.

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DARPA’s ACE Wants to Automate Dogfighting to Empower AI

A Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency program to build pilot trust in
artificial intelligence in combat by automating dogfighting has taken a step
forward with the award of the first contract and the release of a solicitation
to develop algorithms for close-in air combat.

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How Minot Plans to Protect America’s ICBMs from Drones

The concerns of unmanned systems against nuclear facilities, both civil and
military, are clear. The devices make excellent little spies, can be weaponized
and are cheap to procure—all attributes that have become obvious to U.S.
forces who have encountered them while deployed in Syria or Iraq. But, security
officials at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota believe they at least have a
plan in place for dealing with unmanned intrusions.

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Boeing Will Cash Out $13.8 Billion Loan and Freeze Hiring Amid Coronavirus Market Turmoil

Market volatility related to the global spread of the novel coronavirus is
creating new risks for the company at a time when its business is already in a
historically fragile state.

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Military Housing Tenants Should Have Complete Protections by May 1, DOD Nominee Says

Military families should have the three missing tenant protections in the tenant
bill of rights by May 1, the administration’s nominee for the Defense
Department position that oversees housing told senators March 10. Those
protections, which have been key to military families, are a dispute resolution
process between the tenant and privatized housing landlord; a process for
withholding rent during the dispute; and a maintenance history of the house
before the family moves in.

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AFRL Scientist Named DOD Scientist of the Quarter

Air Force Research Laboratory scientist Khanh Pham has been honored as the
Defense Department Laboratory Scientist of the Quarter, for the third quarter of
fiscal 2019. Pham is revered for his contributions to the Air Force and DOD
missions, and has accumulated numerous awards throughout his illustrious career.

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Faster Acquisition

The Air Force is leveraging emerging technologies and new legislation to
accelerate acquisition decisions and streamline sustainment. Read more here.

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Pakistani F-16 Crashes In Islamabad, Video Shows Hard Maneuver Before Impact

The aircraft was involved in a practice flight in preparation for a parade that
will occur later in the month when the incident took place.

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Iranian, Russian, Chinese Media Push COVID-19 ‘Bioweapon’ Conspiracies

Disinformation about the coronavirus is spreading as quickly as the outbreak,
fueled by Iranian, Russian, and Chinese government-backed campaigns blaming and
attacking the United States as the source for the scourge. “One narrative all
three countries [including China] highlight is the notion that the United States
is weaponizing the crisis for political gain and thus worsening its spread
globally,” Rachel Chernaskey, a project manager for the Foreign Influence
Election 2020 Project with the Foreign Policy Research Institute, wrote March 9.

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Global Snapshot of COVID-19

The World Health Organization declared a global pandemic on March 11, setting in
motion further international controls as the spread of the new coronavirus that
causes the COVID-19 disease continued to increase around the world. Here’s the
state of the pandemic from the Center for Systems Science and Engineering at
Johns Hopkins University.

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One More Thing...
First “Alaskan” F-35A Lightning II with Unusual Black Tail Markings Spotted at Lockheed Martin’s Fort Worth Plant

This is the first F-35 sporting markings of 356th Fighter Squadron based at
Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. And here are some interesting details.

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