Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for July 29, 2020

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

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ACC Awards 3 Companies Contract for Adversary Air Support
By Amy McCullough

Air Combat Command on July 21 awarded three companies contracts worth up to
$433.6 million to provide 5,418 annual sorties of adversary air support at five
bases over the next four and a half years, a command spokesperson told Air Force
Magazine. The contracts with Airborne Tactical Advantage Company, Tactical Air
Support, and Draken International are the first to be awarded under the larger
Combat Air Force/Contracted Air Support indefinite delivery, indefinite quantity
contract, which is envisioned to eventually include 40,000 hours of adversary
air and 10,000 hours of close air support training with a final price tag worth
up to $6.4 billion.

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Iranian Ballistic Missile Launch Briefly Raises Alarm at Al Udeid, Al Dhafra
By Brian W. Everstine

Personnel at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, and Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab
Emirates, briefly took cover after Iran launched ballistic missiles into the
nearby Persian Gulf, which landed in the sea without incident on July 28, the
U.S. military said this week. At about 5:30 a.m. local time, Iran launched
missiles from within its borders as part of an ongoing exercise. An “initial
assessment indicated a potential threat,” U.S. Central Command spokeswoman
Maj. Beth Riordan said in a statement. “The incident lasted a matter of
minutes, and an all-clear was declared after the threat indicator had passed,”
Riordan said. “The safety and resilience of our service members and coalition
partners is a top priority.”

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Cruise Missile Awareness is NORTHCOM Nominee’s Top Priority
By Brian W. Everstine

Tracking and countering advanced cruise missiles developed by Russia and China
needs to be a top priority for U.S. Northern Command, the nominee to lead the
organization told lawmakers July 28. USAF Lt. Gen. Glen D. VanHerck, currently
the director of the Joint Staff, said during his Senate Armed Services Committee
confirmation hearing that, if confirmed, his No. 1 job will be developing
improved “domain awareness” to counter cruise missiles. The response
highlights an ongoing effort within North American Aerospace Defense Command and
the Air Force to test modern radar systems, and to update how it handles missile
threats.

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Army General Auditions for Top SPACECOM Job
By Rachel S. Cohen

Army Lt. Gen. James H. Dickinson on July 28 outlined his plans to continue
ingraining space operations expertise around the U.S. military, if confirmed as
the next boss of U.S. Space Command. Dickinson, currently SPACECOM’s deputy
commander, would be the first uniformed officer outside the Department of the
Air Force to run the organization. SPACECOM oversees daily operations of
military space assets like the GPS satellites and radars that warn of incoming
ballistic missiles, which until recently have been Air Force missions. If
confirmed, Dickinson would replace Gen. John W. Raymond, who also serves as the
Space Force’s first chief of space operations.

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Smart Investment Can Avoid Future Storm Devastation at USAF Bases, Official Says
By Rachel S. Cohen

The Air Force’s top installations official warned this week that defense
budget constraints make it imperative that the service take a smarter approach
to rebuilding facilities struck by natural disasters. Targeted investments and
storm preparation procedures can help avoid continued, costly recovery efforts
after hurricanes and floods like those that recently hit Tyndall Air Force Base,
Fla., Offutt Air Force Base, Okla., and JB Langley-Eustis, Va. “The doctrine
in which we combat severe weather and combat severe weather threats is really no
different than how we would combat a conventional adversary. We have to
understand the adversary through intelligence, indications and warnings,” John
W. Henderson, assistant Air Force secretary for installations, environment, and
energy said July 28 during the online AFWERX Fusion conference.

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Pandemic Poses New Threat to Nascent Space Industry, DOD Officials Warn
By Shaun Waterman

Economic fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic threatens to undermine the growing
U.S. commercial space sector and, potentially, U.S. space superiority, according
to a new report by a panel of government experts released on July 28. Investors
are pulling back to conserve cash at the very time this emerging industry needs
it most, said Brig. Gen. Steven J. Butow, director of the space portfolio at the
Defense Innovation Unit, who co-authored State of the Space Industrial Base
2020, with U.S. Space Force Chief Scientist Joel B. Mozer; Col. Eric J. Felt,
director of the Air Force Research Laboratory's Space Vehicles Directorate; and
Thomas W. Cooley, the directorate's chief scientist. The report goes well beyond
the COVID-19 threat and includes 39 recommendations for government and industry
to ensure a robust commercial space industrial base.

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Former SECAF Wilson Unveils Her Unique Portrait
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The official portrait of former Air Force Secretary Heather A. Wilson unveiled
July 28 at a socially distant ceremony breaks with tradition: While it looks
like an oil painting, it's the result of digital production, a special finishing
technique, and an Airman's original photograph. The Air Force Association
commissioned, paid for, and gifted the portrait, which is unique among the Air
Force's Pentagon portraits in multiple ways.

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Virtual Events: Mitchell, ANWA DC Co-Host NNSA Series Event, and More
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Today, AFA's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, in partnership with the
Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance Deterrence Center, will present a Nuclear
Deterrence Forum with Charles Verdon, deputy administrator for defense programs
at the National Nuclear Security Administration, as part of their NNSA Series.
Event video will tentatively be posted on Mitchell’s <a
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and <a href="[link removed]">YouTube
page</a>after the event. Additionally, Day 2 of <a
href="[link removed]">the 2020 AFWERX Fusion event</a> will kick
off at 11 a.m. EDT, and Air Force Materiel Command will host a <a
href="[link removed]">virtual town hall on its Facebook
page</a> at 2:30 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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DOD, HHS Preparing for Large-Scale Manufacturing of COVID-19 Treatments

The Defense Department and the Department of Health and Human Services—using
an other transaction authority contract through Army Contracting Command—want
to ensure therapeutic COVID-19 treatments can move from prototype to large-scale
manufacturing and are developing a program to demonstrate such capabilities.

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More than 2,000 Veterans Affairs Patients Have Now Died from Coronavirus

More than 2,040 VA patients have died from complications related to the virus
since early March, when the first death at a department medical center was
reported. That total translates into about 17 patient deaths a day for the last
four months.

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Military Stolen Valor Cases on the Rise, Investigators Say

Investigators at the National Archives have taken steps to make their research
resources more available to federal and local law enforcement to deal with what
they suspect is an uptick in "stolen valor" cases to obtain benefits or loans
during the COVID-19 pandemic.

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Wilson Becomes Longest Serving Vice Chief in History: Analyzing, Innovating, Succeeding Along Way

When Gen. Stephen W. “Seve” Wilson stepped into his new job as Air Force
Vice Chief of Staff in July 2016, he arrived as a “man of action” with more
than 4,600 flying hours, including 680 combat hours, a former Global Strike
commander and deputy commander of U.S. Strategic Command, among other
distinctions. That record is worth noting now, when, by punching in for work
July 26, Wilson began his fifth year in the job, thus becoming the longest
serving vice chief of staff in Air Force history.

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US Space Force and UK Ministry of Defense to Hold International Space Pitch Day

U.S. and U.K. defense agencies plan to award $1 million to startups at the first
International Space Pitch Day in November during the Defence Space Conference in
London. The event, backed by the U.K. Defence Science and Technology Laboratory,
Royal Air Force, U.S. Space Force, and NATO, is designed to identify commercial
technology with military space applications.

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How One Component Improved US Navy F/A-18 Fleet Readiness

The U.S. Navy’s F/A-18 and EA-18G fleets have experienced a dramatic
turnaround. In 2017, less than half of the Navy’s Boeing F/A-18 Super Hornets
were able to fly. Now, 80% of its carrier-based fighters are ready for missions.
The solution involved fixing a single component within the General Electric F414
engine.

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The Blue Angels Have Officially Received Their First F/A-18E Super Hornet

The famous flight demonstration team is set to get a total of 18 Super Hornets
to replace its existing F/A-18 Hornets by the end of the year.

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Inhofe Places Hold on FCC Commissioner Nomination

Sen. Jim Inhofe (R-Okla.) announced July 28 he has placed a hold on the
nomination of Mike O'Rielly for another term as a commissioner on the Federal
Communications Commission until O'Rielly publicly commits to vote to overturn
the FCC's decision to approve Ligado Networks' L-band network.

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Should US Pay Semiconductor Makers to Compete Vs. China?

The Senate voted to subsidize domestic manufacturers of vital computer
components. Will national security concerns overcome a longstanding aversion to
government-led industrial policy?

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One More Thing...
Space Force Makes History with All-Female 2 SOPS Crew

Schriever Air Force Base’s 2nd Space Operations Squadron, the providers of GPS
signals to billions of users worldwide, made history July 23 when a crew of
eight women space operators gained satellite control authority of satellite
vehicle number 76.

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