Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for June 30, 2020

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Edited by Amy McCullough with Brian W. Everstine, Alyk Russell Kenlan and Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

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RPA Training Next Looks to Personalize Pilot, Sensor Operator Training
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Air Education and Training Command’s RPA Training Next effort wants to
overhaul how the Air Force builds future RPA pilots and sensor operators. More
specifically, it wants to give these Airmen more personalized journeys through
the RPA training pipeline instead of making them adhere to a one-size-fits-all
path to their careers.

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USAFE Advanced Battle Management System Experiment Looks to Improve ISR Targeting
By Brian W. Everstine

U.S. Air Forces in Europe will host its own Advanced Battle Management System
experiment next spring. The exercise will bring in allies and take advantage of
new Joint All-Domain Command and Control capabilities to speed up intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance targeting, USAFE boss Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian
said at a virtual June 29 Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event.
Harrigian said his goal with ABMS is to use “layered ISR capabilities” to
“refine our timelines, to take data from different sensors, and provide those
to shooters that would be available to us.” The Air Force has a series of the
experiments planned, each hosted by different commands.

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Bomber Task Force Deployments Building Muscle Memory in Europe
By Brian W. Everstine

The unprecedented pace of bomber task force deployments to Europe recently has
allowed USAF's strategic forces to train with allies they haven’t flown
alongside before in areas generally unfamiliar to the bombers, the head of U.S.
Air Forces in Europe said. The task force flights, which recently have been
flown direct from the continental U.S., have ventured into the Black Sea, the
Baltics, and even the Arctic to demonstrate how well U.S. Strategic Command and
Air Force Global Strike Command are able to integrate with allies, USAFE boss
Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian said June 29 at a virtual Mitchell Institute event.
“We were able to generate these sorties and coordinate them from across Europe
to facilitate training opportunities, demonstrate interoperability, and, at the
end of the day, ensure ... we continue to refine what I’ll call our muscle
memory to operate across Europe,” Harrigian said.

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COVID-19 Patient Transportation System Ready for Operation
By Alyk Russell Kenlan

The first operationally ready Negatively Pressurized Conex arrived in Ramstein
Air Force Base, Germany, on June 24. The adapted shipping container can fit onto
C-17 and C-5M aircraft, and can safely transport up to 23 COVID-19 patients
without risking contamination of the aircrew or aircraft, according to a USAF
release. The NPC has been in development since early April, when Air Mobility
Command and Air Force Materiel Command leaders called for a method to move large
numbers of COVID-19 patients, should the need arise. “The NPC allows us to
perform those life-saving movements in only hours,” said Col. Timothy Mach,
Air Mobility Command Requirements Division chief.


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Eielson Airmen Build Bombs for New F-35As
By Alyk Russell Kenlan

Airmen from Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska recently finished the first bombs
for the 354th Fighter Wing’s F-35A strike fighters. Eielson, which received
its first two F-35s on April 21, is the first Pacific Air Forces base to host
F-35s. The fighter delivery and munitions manufacturing are part of a shift for
the 354th Fighter Wing as they start a combat mission alongside ongoing Red
Flag-Alaska training exercises.

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Virtual Events: Goldfein Discusses the State of USAF at Brookings, and More
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

On July 1, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein will appear in
conversation with Brookings Institution Senior Fellows Michael E. O’Hanlon and
Frank A. Rose where they're discuss the state of the service, innovation
efforts, recruitment, the Space Force's development, and more. Learn more about
the event or register for the webcast <a
href="[link removed]">here.</a>

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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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White House Briefs Republicans on Russian Bounties

The White House briefed eight House Republicans on intelligence that Russia
offered bounties to Afghan militants who targeted U.S. troops for assassination,
according to Trump administration officials and congressional sources.
Noticeably absent from the briefing, which are traditionally bipartisan affairs,
were any Democrats, despite controlling both House panels. House Majority Leader
Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) is expected to bring a group of Democratic members to the
White House for a briefing Tuesday at 8 a.m. EDT.

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Iran Issues Arrest Warrant for Trump Over Killing of Top Commander Qasem Soleimani

Iran’s government has issued an arrest warrant for U.S. President Donald Trump
over the killing of its top commander, Gen. Qasem Soleimani, in January, the
country’s semiofficial Fars news agency reported June 29.

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Testing More, the Air Force is Seeing a Coronavirus Spike Among Basic Trainees in San Antonio

Coronavirus cases have accelerated among Air Force recruits in San Antonio since
the service ramped up testing five weeks ago, including a recent spike of 13
cases in one week.

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L3Harris Wins $900M Air Force IDIQ to Build Simulator Architecture, Security Ops Center

L3Harris Technologies has secured a 10-year, $900M contract to help the U.S. Air
Force design, produce, deploy, and sustain a common architecture for training
simulators.

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Air Force, Navy Sign Memo Establishing Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling Service-Lead Transfer

Air Force Vice Chief of Staff Gen. Stephen W. Wilson and Vice Chief of Naval
Operations Adm. William K. Lescher signed a Memorandum of Agreement June 24
transferring the lead responsibility of Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling,
Washington, D.C., from the Navy to the Air Force. While the base will remain
under Navy authority until the new fiscal year in October, the memorandum
signature signifies the next milestone in the transfer process. “More than
half of the mission sets on JBAB fall under the Air Force, so it made sense for
us to assume the responsibility for prioritizing installation and
mission-support resourcing at the base,” Wilson said.

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New Iranian Missile Could Strike Central Europe: Analysis

So far, Iran says it officially limits the maximum range of its ballistic
missiles to 2,000 km; sufficient to reach Israel and Saudi Arabia, the stated
foes of the Iranian regime. The U.S. government maintains that Iran’s
Satellite Launch Vehicle development is a cover for building long-range
ballistic missiles and this analysis does not contradict that assertion.

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The Surge Nobody’s Talking About: The U.S. War in Somalia

For the better part of two decades, U.S. military operations in Somalia have
been shrouded in secrecy. In 2002 or 2003, President George W. Bush sent Special
Forces and CIA officers to Somalia to capture or kill members of al-Qaeda
believed to be responsible for the 1998 bombings of the U.S. embassies in Kenya
and Tanzania. In January 2007, the Bush administration carried out its first
airstrike against suspected members of al-Qaeda in Somalia using an AC-130
gunship. Four and a half years later, the United States, under President Obama,
launched its first publicly acknowledged drone strike in Somalia. From 2012 to
the end of the Obama administration, the U.S. Africa Command, which oversees
operations in Somalia, publicly declared it had conducted a grand total of 33
airstrikes in Somalia (15 more strikes have also been alleged, though not
confirmed).

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National Guard Says F-16s Circled Madison Airport After Warning Light Malfunction; Jet Landed Safely

Two F-16 fighter jets circled the Madison airport at low altitude Tuesday after
a faulty warning light led a Wisconsin Air National Guard pilot to cancel his
planned mission. According to a statement from the Wisconsin Air National Guard,
the pilot landed safely after a caution light went on during a routine flight
from Truax Field.

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Former Air Force Civilian Allegedly Swiped $1 Million Cash Advance on Government Credit Card

From March 2014 to Sept. 2017, Johnson, a travel coordinator in the Office of
the Air Force Secretary, allegedly used a government-issued Citibank card to
obtain over $1.1 million in cash advances at Bank of America branches in
Maryland, Virginia, and Washington, D.C., wrote U.S. Attorney Robert K. Hur.

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One More Thing...
More Fragments from 1952 Air Force Plane Crash Found in Alaska Glacier

A lucky Buddha figurine, a flight suit, several 3-cent stamps, a crumpled 1952
Mass schedule for St. Patrick’s Church in Washington, D.C., and 480 bags
containing individual human remains. Those were among the items recovered this
month from Alaska’s Colony Glacier, where an annual somber search continues
for human remains and debris after a military plane crashed 67 years ago,
officials said Friday.

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