Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for April 14, 2020

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

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Airmen 3D Printing, Sewing Masks to Counter COVID-19
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Total Force Airmen and members of the USAF community are using high- and
low-tech methods to manufacture personal protective equipment for use in the
fight against the new coronavirus pandemic. Some of these efforts, which include
everything from 3-D printing masks or face shields to turning base Arts and
Crafts spaces into mask-masking operations, predated the Defense Department's
April 5 guidance mandating the wear of fabric-based face coverings at all U.S.
military installations.

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USAF Flies First COVID-19 Positive Patients with Isolation Pods
By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force employed its specially designed isolation pods to transport highly
contagious COVID-19 positive patients from Afghanistan to Germany on April 10,
the first use of the system in the new coronavirus outbreak, while the service
is also developing a more advanced version of the system. Three U.S. government
contractors in Afghanistan tested positive for COVID-19, the disease caused by
the new coronavirus, and needed to be medically evacuated to Landstuhl Regional
Medical Center for treatment. The team from across the Air Force and aircraft
from Joint Base Charleston, S.C., had 24 hours to prepare for the mission,
according to Air Mobility Command.

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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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Boeing to Reopen KC-46 Production Line
By Brian W. Everstine

Boeing on April 13 reopened some of its production lines, including work on the
Air Force's new KC-46 tanker, which had been closed for weeks due to the
coronavirus pandemic. The company also is restarting work on the Navy's P-8 at
its Renton facility and work on the 737 MAX in Moses Lake. “Boeing’s work
supporting the Department of Defense as part of the defense industrial base is a
matter of national security and has been deemed critical,” the company said in
a statement.

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Investigation: Parachutist’s Mistakes Caused Fatal Jump Incident at Edwards
By Brian W. Everstine

An Air Force survival, evasion, resistance, and escape specialist died during a
September 2019 parachute jump at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., because he
overcontrolled his parachute, prompting an uncontrolled spin and hard landing,
according to a recently released investigation. Staff Sgt. Adam Erickson, with
the 412th Operations Support Squadron at Edwards, was conducting parachute
training jumps from a civilian DHC-6 Twin Otter with an advanced parachute
system for the Air Force’s Test Parachutist Program at the time, according to
an Accident Investigation Board report.

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AIB: Inert Bomb Dropped on Private Property Near Misawa Due to Pilot Error
By Brian W. Everstine

An F-16 pilot mistakenly dropped an inert bomb on private property near Misawa
Air Base, Japan, in November because of a failure of communication, according to
a recently released Pacific Air Forces investigation into the incident. On Nov.
6, 2019, an F-16 with the 14th Fighter Squadron was flying a suppression of
enemy air defense upgrade training sortie at the Draughon Range north of the
base. As part of the mission, the F-16 relied on targeting from other aircraft
to drop an inert GBU-12 bomb. However, the pilot did not confirm the
coordinates, and dropped the bomb about 3.4 miles away from its target,
according to the investigation

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VOX Space Nabs First Mission of Quick-Launch Program
By Rachel S. Cohen

Virgin Orbit subsidiary VOX Space will launch dozens of small satellites into
space for the Space Force’s Orbital Services Program-4, under a $35 million
contract announced April 10. For OSP-4’s first round of launches, dubbed Space
Test Program-S28, VOX Space will deliver 44 satellites to low Earth orbit across
three launches starting in October 2021. Onboard will be a range of experimental
technologies that will further the military’s progress in areas like space
domain awareness and communications.

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Yokota Issues Whooping Cough Warning After Employee Contracts Disease
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, Yokota Air Base, Japan, is having a new kind of
health scare: whooping cough. An individual who works at both the on-base Pizza
Hut and the installation’s Military Clothing Store was diagnosed with the
highly contagious, bacterial disease, which is formally known as pertussis,
according to an April 13 post on the base's Facebook page. As a result, Yokota
is advising certain groups of people who patronized the restaurant (either
in-person or via delivery) or utilized military clothing services from March
20-April 2 to consult with their healthcare providers about treatment that can
potentially keep them from getting the disease in case they were exposed.

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Virtual Events: Condoleeza Rice on National Security Impacts of COVID-19
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Today, former Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice, the Hoover Institution’s
Thomas and Barbara Stephenson Senior Fellow on Public Policy, will host a
virtual briefing on the COVID-19 pandemic's national security implications at 2
p.m. EDT.

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Radar Sweep

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Snapshot: DOD and COVID-19

Here's a look at how the Defense Department is being impacted by and responding
to the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Pentagon Supercomputers Puzzle Out How to Safely Airlift COVID-19 Patients

The Defense Department’s High Performance Computing Modernization Program, or
HPCMP, has been in operation for nearly two decades, delivering supercomputing
capabilities and computational science expertise to advance the agency’s
mission and help solve some of its most crucial challenges. Defense officials
are now turning HPCMP’s supercomputing resources to overcome one of the most
daunting challenges of the century: defeating the novel coronavirus pandemic.

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Wright-Patterson Physicians Coordinating a New Protocol for COVID-19 Patients

Air Force doctors Maj. Evan Fisher, Chief of Nephrology, and Maj. Matthew
Koroscil, a Pulmonary and Critical Care Specialist at the Wright-Patterson
Medical Center, are leading the way in coordination with the Dayton, Ohio
medical community on a new drug protocol for COVID-19 patients. Their work on
the project allowed Premier Health’s Miami Valley Hospital to potentially lead
the country in administration of the Mayo Clinic approved plasma protocol.

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AEDC Innovation Grant Research Generates Tactical Solution for Test Facility Security

Engineers at Arnold Air Force Base have researched the use of a Cross-Domain
Solution, or CDS, interface to allow plant operations systems outside of the
plant control room to remain unclassified during classified test programs.

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Vital Treaty Monitoring Mission Continues in Wake of COVID-19 Response

The commander of the Air Force Technical Applications Center, the organization
charged with monitoring nuclear activity around the world, has made it his
priority to ensure his workforce is doing all they can to make AFTAC a “hard
target” while also flattening the COVID-19 curve.

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DOD Announces $133M Defense Production Act Contract for N95 Masks

The Pentagon will soon be awarding $133 million to U.S. companies to produce 39
million N95 masks over the next 90 days as part of its first Defense Production
Act action to respond to the COVID-19 outbreak.

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Nearly 600 USS Theodore Roosevelt Sailors Catch Coronavirus, Navy Evacuates Thousands From Aircraft Carrier

Around 580 crew members on board the USS Theodore Roosevelt aircraft carrier
have contracted coronavirus, prompting the ship to be evacuated. The U.S. Navy
announced on Sunday that 3,967 sailors had been taken off the aircraft carrier
in Guam, where it is docked. Those who have been evacuated have been put into
isolation for 14 days in local hotels and other nearby facilities.

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L3Harris to Begin Pre-Launch Work on ‘Wide Field of View’ Missile Defense Satellite

U.S. Space Force missile warning satellite, six years in the works, is nearly
completed. The company that developed the sensor, L3Harris, received a $9.3
million contract on April 6 to maintain and prepare the satellite for launch in
2021.

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OPINION: JADC2 Needs To Change Course: More C2, Less Comms

"Unless DOD puts the C2 back into JADC2, the multi-billion dollar effort meant
to transform how America fights may well create the kind of brittle, centralized
hierarchy the U.S. military is supposed to avoid,” write Center for Strategic
and Budgetary Assessments Senior Fellows Bryan Clark and Dan Patt.

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Rapid Acquisition & Sustainment

The Air Force and U.S. defense establishment are breaking down barriers and
injecting speed, innovation, and creativity into the procurement system. Check
out our new page to learn more about these efforts.

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FCC to Approve Spectrum Plan That Pentagon Claims Will Harm GPS

The Federal Communications Commission is poised to approve a draft order that
would reallocate a specific portion of the radio spectrum for broadband
communications, overruling a decade of strong objections from the Department of
Defense. Senior Pentagon leaders warn that such a move will lead to
“unacceptable” harm to the GPS system by creating new interference that
could disrupt satellites critical to national security.

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Faulty Helicopter Part Caused the Deaths of Four Marines, New Lawsuit Claims

The families of four U.S. Marines who died in a 2018 CH-53E Super Stallion
heavy-lift helicopter accident have filed a lawsuit March 31 alleging that two
companies were responsible for the faulty aircraft component that caused the
fatal crash.

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These States Contributed the Most Troops to America's Wars in 2019

The United States has spent upwards of $6.4 trillion on the post-9/11 wars, from
outright appropriations funding to health care costs for veterans of the
conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. But as the Global War on Terror enters its
19th year, new research underscores how different states are bearing the human
costs of the forever wars.

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U.S. Welcomes Apparent Consensus on Forming a Government in Iraq: Pompeo

U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said on April 13 that his country welcomes
an apparent agreement among Iraq’s Shia, Sunni, and Kurdish groups to form a
new government, adding it would need to be capable of confronting the
coronavirus pandemic, helping the economy and bringing arms under control.

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One More Thing...
Thunderbirds Soar Above Las Vegas Valley to Honor Those Battling Pandemic

The Air Force’s Thunderbirds gave residents a reason to head outside and cheer
for the first time in weeks when the fighter jets performed a flyover April 11
above every hospital in the Las Vegas Valley. The sky-high honor began at 2:30
p.m. local time and was intended to recognize first responders, health care
professionals, and other workers battling the coronavirus pandemic, Nellis Air
Force Base officials said April 10.

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