Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for June 26, 2020

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

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F-22s Intercept 2 Russian Maritime Patrol Aircraft Near Alaska
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

F-22s from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, with help from a KC-135
assigned to U.S. Transportation Command, intercepted two Russian IL-38 aircraft
in the Alaska Air Defense Identification Zone late on June 24. While the
aircraft got within 50 miles of Alaska's Unimak Island and spent about four
hours in the ADIZ, they never crossed into U.S. or Canadian airspace, NORAD
announced June 25.

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HASC Floats Modest Modernization, New Sustainment Jobs
By Rachel S. Cohen

A year after the House Armed Services Committee passed its fiscal 2020 defense
policy bill in an unusually partisan fashion, the panel appears to be taking a
step back from major fireworks and aerospace programmatic shifts in its 2021
legislation. The full committee’s version of the fiscal 2021 defense
authorization bill remains largely in line with the Air Force’s wish list,
while spending less in some areas than senators want. HASC also wants to create
a deputy assistant secretary for sustainment position within the Army, Navy, and
Air Force.

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Here’s What House Lawmakers Want to Know About Military Space
By Rachel S. Cohen

It’s that time of year when Congress rolls out its lists of the data,
requirements, and strategies it wants to see from the Defense Department. The
House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee’s piece of the fiscal 2021
defense policy bill is no different. Here’s what House lawmakers want to know
about the rapidly evolving area of space.

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Kentucky Guard C-130s Deploy to the Middle East
By Brian W. Everstine

About 70 Airmen and C-130s from the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd
Airlift Wing deployed to the Persian Gulf in support of Operation Freedom's
Sentinel on June 24. The Airmen and aircraft will operate from an undisclosed
base in Afghanistan as well as elsewhere in the Middle East and Northern Africa,
according to a wing press release. The deployment will last about four months,
and comes as the U.S. has drawn down its presence in Afghanistan in accordance
with peace talks with the Taliban, and as operations in Iraq and Syria against
the Islamic State group have largely slowed.

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Virtual Events: Harrigian on Mitchell Institute’s ‘Aerospace Nation,’ and More
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

On June 29, Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian, who commands U.S. Air Forces in
Europe-U.S. Air Forces in Africa and Allied Air Command, and directs the Joint
Air Power Competence Centre in Kalkar, Germany, will appear on the "Aerospace
Nation" series hosted by AFA's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Event
video will tentatively be posted on Mitchell's <a
href="[link removed]">website</a> 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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Trump Mulls Ending Heads-Up to Congress on U.S. Weapons Sales

The proposal comes amid mounting frustration from senior administration
officials over informal holds from lawmakers on arms sales to countries like
Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, two close U.S. partners in the Middle
East. Lawmakers have tried to block weapons sales to these countries over
concerns about human rights issues and the prospect of civilian casualties,
particularly with the Saudi-led coalition’s war against Iran-backed rebels in
Yemen.

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FCC Cracks Under Hill Pressure On Ligado 5G Network

As opposition mounts from Capitol Hill—as well as a wider swath of civil GPS
users—to the Federal Communication Commission’s approval of Ligado’s
controversial 5G network, at least one of the five commissioners now says
she’d be willing to consider reversing the decision.

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Griffin’s Departure Stirs Questions about the Future of the Space Development Agency

The timing of the resignation has stirred questions inside the Pentagon and in
the space industry about what it portends for the future of the Space
Development Agency, a 15-month-old organization that Undersecretary of Defense
for Research and Engineering Michael D. Griffin pushed hard to get stood up and
he characterized as a “personal cause.”

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Glitzy Air Force Video Lays Out ‘Skyborg’ Artificial Intelligence Combat Drone Program

The U.S. Air Force has released a slick new video regarding its Skyborg program,
which is developing a suite of systems that will form an artificial
intelligence-driven "computer brain" capable of flying networked "loyal wingman"
type drones and fully autonomous unmanned combat air vehicles, or UCAVs. The
video offers new insights into what the service wants out of this project, how
it sees it fitting into its larger aerial combat ecosystem, and what unmanned
capabilities it might serve as a stepping stone toward in the future.

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AST Wins USAF Contract to Develop Icephobic Coating for Aircraft

Awarded under the USAF’s AFWERX program, the $499,000 contract will see the
development of a coating that improves pre-flight and in-flight anti-icing
properties on military aircraft and avionics.

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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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Esper Sending 4,000 Troops to Southern Border This Fall

Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper has approved a request for assistance from the
Department of Homeland Security that would authorize the deployment of 4,000
U.S. military personnel at the southern border beginning in October, with more
of the force coming from the National Guard.

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Same Mission, Different Pay for National Guard

For months, U.S. residents have seen National Guard troops fan out across
communities—testing patients for COVID-19, answering calls at state
unemployment offices and, more recently, standing in riot gear before Americans
protesting structural racism and deaths in police custody. Those troops, many of
whom hold full-time civilian jobs outside of their Guard roles, usually are
called up for domestic duty by governors, not by the Department of Defense,
and—just as with other state workers—their pay and benefits vary widely even
as they do similar jobs.

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OPINION: 'We're All Struggling with This': The Army's Top Enlisted Service Member Opens Up about Race

Sergeant Major of the Army Michael A. Grinston, the highest ranking enlisted
member of the U.S. Army, discusses his upbringing in Alabama and why he
sometimes felt, being biracial, he was "not Black enough for Black people."

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Russia Quits U.N. System Aimed at Protecting Hospitals, Aid in Syria

Russia has quit a United Nations arrangement that aimed to protect hospitals and
humanitarian aid deliveries in Syria from being hit by the warring parties,
according to a U.N. note to aid groups seen by Reuters on Thursday. The Russian
move comes after an internal U.N. inquiry in April found it was “highly
probable” the government of Syria or its allies carried out attacks on three
healthcare facilities, a school, and a refuge for children in northwest Syria
last year.

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One More Thing...
Human Rights Activists Want to Use AI to Help Prove War Crimes in Court

It would take years for humans to scour the tens of thousands of hours of
footage that document violations in Yemen. With machine learning, it takes just
days.

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