Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for July 8, 2020

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Edited by Rachel S. Cohen with Brian W. Everstine, Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory and John A. Tirpak

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House Defense Appropriators Float Fiscal 2021 Plan
By Rachel S. Cohen

House appropriators are planning to offer the Pentagon $694.6 billion for
operations, personnel, and procurement, plus another $10.5 billion for military
construction, in fiscal 2021. The Defense Department funding proposal is $1.3
billion higher than DOD received in fiscal 2020, but nearly $4 billion lower
than the Trump administration requested. It spans $626.2 billion for the base
account and another $68.4 billion to fund ongoing combat and deterrence
operations in the Overseas Contingency Operations account.

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Air Force Sees Major Spike in COVID-19 Cases
By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force this month saw its highest one-week spike of coronavirus cases
since the pandemic began, with more than 1,000 new cases reported among
uniformed military, civilian, dependents, and contractors from June 29 to July
6. As of July 6, there were 3,325 total COVID-19 cases in the service, including
2,121 within the uniformed ranks. That compares to 2,300 total and 1,366
military cases as of June 29, according to Air Force data released July 7. The
week of June 29 saw the Air Force's second civilian death, eight new
hospitalizations, and 99 new recoveries. The increase comes as the United States
sees COVID-19 surge in several states, and as the military grows its ability to
test more people for the virus.

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Senators Want to Speed Turkey’s F-35 Ouster
By John A. Tirpak

A bipartisan group of four senators are demanding that the Pentagon explain why
Turkey's expulsion from the F-35 program—to have been completed in March—now
isn't expected until 2022. The senators said the sense of Congress on the matter
is clear, and they want no further delay in ousting Ankara from the fighter
program. The Pentagon argues it was trying to avoid costly disruption, but
senators believe the delay is making the U.S. look weak.

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DOJ: Former Airman Planned to Give Classified Information to Russia
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Elizabeth Jo Shirley, a former Active-duty and Reserve Airman, confessed to
illegally holding onto a National Security Agency document that contained
top-secret information, as well as to kidnapping her child, the Justice
Department announced July 6. The DOJ alleges that she planned on passing
classified information to Russia.

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Some Directed-Energy Weapons Show Promise While Others Slow
By Rachel S. Cohen

Air Force officials are still looking to perfect directed-energy weapons to use
against the low-tech threat of small drones before scaling up lasers and
microwaves to take out cruise missiles. The Air Force’s high-power microwave
weapon known as the Tactical High-Power Microwave Operational Responder, or
THOR, is heading to the Army’s White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico for
further testing, Don Shiffler, chief scientist in the Air Force Research
Laboratory’s directed energy branch, said July 7. He added the Self-Protect
High-Energy Laser Demonstrator, or SHiELD, program is having difficulty
shrinking a powerful laser into a pod compact enough to fly on an airplane.

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Virtual Events: Mitchell Rolls Out New Paper, and More
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Tomorrow, AFA's Mitchell Institute will host a virtual rollout for its newest
paper, "Resolving America’s Defense Strategy-Resource Mismatch: The Case for
Cost-Per-Effect Analysis." Event video will tentatively be posted on Mitchell's
<a href="[link removed]">website</a> and <a
href="[link removed]">YouTube page</a>
after 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 Reports Nearly 5,000 Active Cases of COVID-19 Among VA Patients

Veterans Affairs Department officials reported nearly 5,000 active cases of
coronavirus among patients under their care as of the morning of July 7, but VA
Secretary Robert Wilkie said that threefold increase in cases over the last
month doesn’t point to the department’s system being overwhelmed.

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MacDill Air Force Reservists Return from Fighting COVID-19 in New York

The 927th Air Refueling Wing sent eight medics to New York to be a part of 281
Air Force Reserve medical professionals who volunteered and saw more than 37,000
patients between mid-April and June. They sent an additional dozen aeromedical
evacuation Airmen across the nation for other COVID-19 relief missions.

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Senate Kills NDAA Language to ‘Usurp’ Civilian Control Of Nuke Budget

"The compromise still achieves Chairman Inhofe’s goal of giving the Department
of Defense more direct involvement in the development of the NNSA [National
Nuclear Security Administration] budget, but the final approval power still
rests with the Secretary of Energy," Senate Armed Services Committee
spokesperson Marta Hernandez says.

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REPORT: ‘Offense–Defense Integration for Missile Defeat’

“Improved ODI [offense-defense integration] would go a long way to countering
modern missile threats,” writes Brian Green, a senior, non-resident associate
in the Center for Strategic and International Studies’ Missile Defense
Project. “But ODI is not a panacea. A better appreciation of its benefits and
challenges should give decisionmakers a better sense of how to proceed.”

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Two Female Airmen Reclassify After Attempting to Complete Special Ops Training

Two women who had been attempting to enter the U.S. Air Force's combat
controller and pararescue career fields since last fall were recently
reclassified into other jobs after not meeting the rigorous battlefield Airman
standards.

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Germany Spent over $1 Billion to Cover Costs Linked to US Troops Stationed There

The German government has paid more than $1 billion over the past decade to
cover costs related to the stationing of U.S. troops in Germany, according to
the finance ministry in Berlin. The ministry provided the figures in reply to a
query from opposition Left Party lawmaker Brigitte Freihold.

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U.N. Expert Deems US Drone Strike on Iran's Soleimani an 'Unlawful' Killing

The January U.S. drone strike in Iraq that killed top Iranian general Qassem
Soleimani and nine other people represented a violation of international law, a
U.N. human rights investigator said on July 6. The United States has failed to
provide sufficient evidence of an ongoing or imminent attack against its
interests to justify the strike on Soleimani’s convoy as it left Baghdad
airport, said Agnes Callamard, U.N. special rapporteur on extrajudicial,
summary, or arbitrary executions.

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With a View Toward Iran, Israel Launches Spy Satellite

Israel said it successfully launched a new spy satellite into space on July 6 as
its leaders hinted it was behind a massive fire at an Iranian nuclear site last
week—potentially ratcheting up a long-running covert war.

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Boeing Defense and Space’s Leanne Caret: ‘We’re Owning Our Mistakes’

Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space and Security, spoke via
teleconference with Aviation Week editors in the run-up to what would have been
the Farnborough Airshow.

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State Department Clears Nearly $8B in Potential Foreign Arms Deals

The State Department has given the green light to five potential foreign
military sales collectively worth nearly $8 billion, the Defense Security
Cooperation Agency announced July 6.

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How the Army is Approaching Joint All-Domain Command and Control

In a wide-ranging interview with C4ISRNET’s Nathan Strout, Brig. Gen. Rob
Collins discussed the various efforts he’s led in intelligence, electronic
warfare and sensors, the lessons he’s learned there, and how the Army is
approaching multi-domain operations.

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Saginaw Air Force Sergeant Gets Medal for Saving Woman from Drowning in Mediterranean Sea

A Saginaw, Mich., native serving in the U.S. Air Force has earned military
honors for saving the life of a woman in danger of drowning. Tech. Sgt.
Nathaniel Juarez received an Air Force Commendation Medal on June 24 for saving
the woman in 2017 while he was on leave.

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One More Thing...
Meet the First and Only Air Force Pilot to Shoot Down a Satellite

On September 13, 1985, an Air Force pilot pushed his F-15A into a steep climb at
near-supersonic speeds as he prepared to launch into history. The pilot had
prepared many months for what he was about to do: fire a heat-seeking missile
towards a satellite the size of a 1969 Volkswagen as it hurtled through orbit at
five miles a second. Basically, he was about to hit a bullet with another
bullet, which would require absolutely perfect timing. But the pilot was ready
for it.

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