Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for June 11, 2020

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Edited by Brian W. Everstine with Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory and John A. Tirpak

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Air National Guard to Fall Short of Fiscal 2020 End Strength Goal
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The Air National Guard will fall approximately 1,000 personnel short of its
authorized end strength of 107,500 at the end of fiscal 2020 due to a drop in
retention, despite recruitment being slightly on the rise, ANG Director Lt. Gen.
Scott Rice said. While the Air National Guard is working to determine the cause
of the retention issues, Rice said he suspects the uncertainty and activation
tempo associated with COVID-19 are contributing factors. “We had orders in
hand in March and April just for 30 days, 31 days, and then those are extended
to the end of May, and to the end of June, and now we have the authorization to
extend them through August,” Rice said during a June 10 Mitchell Institute for
Aerospace Studies virtual event. “That's, you know, pretty impactful on
people, as we look to the future.”

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How the Air Force Watchdog Will Study Racial Disparities
By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force Inspector General wants to hear from a broad range of Airmen as it
tries to identify racial biases in the service's justice and professional
development systems. Officials will first focus on policies and processes that
may have largely disadvantaged black Airmen, after multiple outside reports
showed the Air Force disproportionately doles out punishment to young black
personnel. The IG created a Senior Leader Advisory Group composed of 10 black
general officers, 10 black enlisted chiefs, and four black members of the Air
Force's senior executive service. Airmen from all major commands will be
selected to join the team as well. The service's watchdog will use interviews,
group discussions, and targeted and anonymous surveys to root out discrimination
in how the Air Force both punishes and advances Airmen, the Air Force detailed
in a June 10 release.

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F-22s Intercept Russian Bomber Formations Near Alaska on Same Morning
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptors, with help from KC-135 Stratotankers and an E-3
Airborne Warning and Control System, intercepted two separate Russian bomber
formations off the Alaskan coast on the morning of June 10, North American
Aerospace Defense Command said in a release. NORAD intercepted the Russian
aircraft as they traveled into the Alaskan Air Defense Identification Zone, but
they never entered sovereign American airspace, the command noted. The
intercepts come less than two weeks after Russia sent Su-27P and Su-30SM
fighters to intercept USAF B-1B Lancers “in neutral waters” in response to a
May 29 Bomber Task Force training mission over the Black Sea region.

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CENTCOM: No Finish Line Yet for Afghanistan, Syria
By Brian W. Everstine

Despite a framework for peace in one theater and declarations of upcoming troop
withdrawals in another, the head of U.S. Central Command said June 10 that
there’s no finish line or concrete withdrawal in sight in either Afghanistan
or Syria. CENTCOM boss Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, speaking at a virtual Middle East
Institute conference, said the U.S. is ahead of its timeline to reduce its troop
level in Afghanistan to 8,600 by next month, as outlined in a February deal with
the Taliban. However, the Taliban is not holding up its end of the agreement and
has continued to “aggressively” attack Afghan forces, he said. In Syria, the
Islamic State group has largely moved underground and focused on cyber
operations, plus launching some local attacks, McKenzie said.

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Roper: KC-46 IOT&E and Full-Rate Production Could Be Accelerated
By John A. Tirpak

Just a day after the Air Force announced that a full-rate production decision on
the KC-46 tanker will have to wait until late fiscal 2024 due to extended
testing of the redesigned Remote Vision System for tanking operations, the
service’s acquisition executive offered his hope that the timetable may be
accelerated by laboratory testing of RVS elements. The service and Boeing will
work with the new and improved Remote Vision System in hardware-in-the-loop
laboratories—one at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, and one at
Boeing’s Everett, Wash., facility, Air Force acquisition boss Will Roper said
June 10. The new system—called RVS 2.0—will have 4K cameras, a LIDAR system
for three-dimensional visualization and distance measuring; all to correct
perception and distortion problems with the existing RVS. “I’m … nursing
hope that this hardware-in-the-loop environment may let us squeeze more time out
of the testing,” he said.

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Small Drones Continue to Threaten Deployed U.S. Forces
By Brian W. Everstine

U.S. forces in the Middle East are not prepared enough to defend against swarms
of small drones, and the Pentagon needs to work harder to get ahead of the
enduring threat, the head of U.S. Central Command warned. Small unmanned aerial
systems, which can be purchased online or in a typical department store and
easily outfitted with weapons, have proliferated to the point where it is
costlier and harder to defend against than it is for adversaries to buy them,
CENTCOM boss Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said. Troops have seen a variety
of those aircraft in the region for years, and they won’t go away any time
soon. “I argue all the time with my Air Force friends that the future of
flight is vertical, and it is unmanned,” McKenzie said during a June 10 Middle
East Institute event. “We are seeing it now.”

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Virtual Events: Chang, Fisher on Mitchell’s Nuclear Deterrence Forum, and More
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Today, Gordon Chang, a Daily Beast contributor, and Rick Fisher, senior fellow
on Asian military affairs at the International Assessment and Strategy Center,
will speak at a Nuclear Deterrence Forum presented by AFA's Mitchell Institute
for Aerospace Studies. Event video will tentatively be posted on Mitchell's <a
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and <a href="[link removed]">YouTube
page</a> following the event.

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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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VA Unprepared to Deal with a Second Wave of COVID-19, Top Officials Say

The Veterans Affairs Department is saddled with an antiquated supply chain that
is short of personal protective equipment—including N95 masks and
gowns—swabs and other vital equipment to deal with a second wave of the
COVID-19 pandemic, VA officials said June 9.

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Airborne Laser Weapon on Track for 2022 Demonstration

The 60-kilowatt high energy laser will be mounted on an AC-130J Ghostrider, a
massively armed workhorse for the Air Force. The laser weapon will be a cherry
on top to the gunship, which already boasts a 30mm side-firing chain gun, a
105mm cannon, AGM-176A Griffin laser guided missiles, wing-mounted GBU-39/B
GPS-guided, and GBU-39B/B laser-guided Small Diameter Bombs.

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OPINION: Former DIA Director: Please, Take Your Knee Off Our Necks So We Can Breathe

“As a person who has had incredible success in this country, I am directly
appealing to those in positions of power and privilege to recognize the
experiences of your fellow Americans who do not look like you, learn from them,
and take meaningful actions to lift them up,” writes former Defense
Intelligence Agency director and retired Marine Corps Lt. Gen. Vincent Stewart.
“And I want you to imagine what our country would look like then.

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‘What I Saw Was Just Absolutely Wrong’: National Guardsmen Struggle with Their Role in Controlling Protests

POLITICO spoke to 10 National Guardsmen who have taken part in the protest
response across the country since the killing of George Floyd while in police
custody.

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This Marine Was Just Selected to Become the Next Senior Enlisted Leader for U.S. Space Command

Marine Corps Master Gunnery Sgt. Scott Stalker has been selected as the next
U.S. Space Command senior enlisted leader, the Pentagon announced June 9.
“It’s great to be a Marine right now and I appreciate the Commandant and
Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps nominating me and allowing me to compete for
this position,” Stalker, who has served as the senior enlisted leader of U.S.
Cyber Command and the National Security Agency since March 2018, said in an
email to Marine Corps Times.

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1st Special Operations Wing Gets First Female Commander

Col. Jocelyn Schermerhorn, a 25-year Air Force officer, became the first woman
to take command of the 1st Special Operations Wing in June 8 ceremonies at
Hurlburt Field, Fla., headquarters of Air Force Special Operations Command. The
1st Special Operations Wing is the most-deployed wing in the Air Force, and as
commander of the wing, Schermerhorn will also serve as installation commander at
Hurlburt.

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Bell Boeing Delivers 400th V-22 Osprey Tiltrotor Aircraft

The Bell Boeing V-22 team recently delivered its 400th aircraft, a CV-22 for Air
Force Special Operations Command. The first production V-22 was delivered on May
24, 1999, and today deliveries occur under the Multi-year Procurement III
contract valued at $5 billion.

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Military Members Are Disproportionately Affected by Cybercrime: Here’s Why and How to Avoid It

Those who serve the nation are finding themselves at a much greater risk of
being the victims of cybercrime and identity theft, according to a recent study
by the Federal Trade Commission. Active duty service members are 76 percent more
likely to report that an identity thief misused one of their accounts, such as a
bank account or credit card, according to the FTC.

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One More Thing...
Female Airmen Deployed from Hill Team up for Historic Combat Launch

Recently, Capt. Emily Thompson, an F-35A Lightning II pilot, deployed from the
388th Fighter Wing at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, made history as she flew in
combat, making her the first female to do so in that airframe.

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