Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Aug. 10, 2020

View in your Web Browser: [link removed]
Edited by Brian W. Everstine with Rachel S. Cohen and Jennifer Hlad

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ULA, SpaceX Win Space Force Launch Provider Competition
By Rachel S. Cohen

United Launch Alliance and SpaceX will continue in the Space Force’s National
Security Space Launch program. Challengers Northrop Grumman and Blue Origin were
left to hope for future military launch wins in subsequent competitions. ULA
will provide the rockets for 60 percent of Space Force launch missions through
2024, while SpaceX will handle the other 40 percent. Together, they will support
up to 34 Space Force and National Reconnaissance Office launches over the next
few years.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

DOD: Most Troops, Families Must Quarantine Before Traveling Overseas
By Brian W. Everstine

Most of the Defense Department's uniformed and civilian personnel and their
families must complete a risk assessment and quarantine for 14 days before
moving overseas to curb the spread of the novel coronavirus, according to a new
Pentagon memo. Matthew P. Donovan, the undersecretary of defense for personnel
and readiness, released the latest health protection guidance for the armed
forces Aug. 6. Before traveling, service members, civilians, and family members
need to determine how likely it is that they are sick or have come into contact
with someone with COVID-19.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

AFRL Commander Wants Lab’s 2030 Strategy to Move Faster
By Rachel S. Cohen

More than a year after the Air Force released its “Science and Technology
2030” strategy, the officer in charge of carrying it out says the future
should come a little faster. “The strategy is important, but accelerating it,
… that's at the top of my list,” Air Force Research Laboratory Commander
Brig. Gen. Heather L. Pringle told reporters Aug. 4. “I don't want to wait. I
don't want to go slowly.” Speeding up S&T 2030 is one of Pringle’s top
priorities as she nears the two-month mark in her new job. She is the lab’s
first permanent leader since Maj. Gen. William Cooley was abruptly fired in
January amid an Air Force Office of Special Investigations inquiry into
misconduct allegations. AFOSI has not responded to questions about the status of
the investigation.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

USAF Looks to Build Planes, Workstations to Fit More Aviators
By Brian W. Everstine

Tall or small, the Air Force wants to ensure that Americans of more shapes and
sizes can fit into its future aircraft. The service on Aug. 4 updated its
guidance on the minimum physical size requirements used to design cockpits and
aircrew flight equipment, which were originally based on a 1967 survey of male
pilots. The parameters established by the 1967 study exclude about 44 percent of
women, including 74 percent of Black women, 72 percent of Latino women and 61
percent of Asian American women unless they are granted a waiver, according to
an Air Force release.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Thompson Tapped as Space Force Vice Chief
By Rachel S. Cohen

Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson is nominated to formally become the Vice Chief of
Space Operations, the Space Force’s second-highest officer, and is up for a
promotion to four-star general, the Pentagon said Aug. 7. Thompson took the job
of vice commander of Air Force Space Command in April 2018, after holding the
position from 2015 to 2017. The job carried over when AFSPC became the Space
Force in December 2019, so the new nomination would establish Thompson within
the Space Force’s new leadership structure.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Small Part Falls off Kadena-Based F-15
By Jennifer Hlad

An F-15 from Kadena Air Base, Japan, dropped an “eagle claw” at some point
during a training flight Aug. 4, and the 18th Wing is looking into what caused
the part to fall. The part is a C-shaped metal object that is about 7 inches
long and weighs 8 pounds, a spokesman for the 18th Wing told Air Force Magazine.
Eagle claws are there to hold munitions in place, though there were no munitions
on the aircraft during the training flight, which took place off the coast of
Okinawa.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, 1925-2020
By John A. Tirpak

Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft, twice U.S. National Security
Adviser, unelected statesman of international affairs, and adviser to six U.S.
presidents, died Aug. 6 at age 95. Scowcroft was a pragmatist who helped the
U.S. navigate the collapse of Soviet Communism and the 1991 Gulf War, and
predicted the consequences of U.S. wars in the Middle East during the 21st
century. He was known for building inclusive and consensus-based approaches to
foreign policy.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Virtual Events: RCO Directors on Mitchell’s Space Power Forum, and More
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

On Aug. 13, the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
will host its “Space Power Forum: DAFRCO/SpRCO | The Need for Specialized
Acquisition Offices” event, featuring Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office
Director and Program Executive Officer Randall G. Walden and Space Force Rapid
Capabilities Office Director and Program Executive Officer Michael W. Roberts.
Event video will tentatively be posted to the think tank's <a
href="[link removed]">website</a>
and <a href="[link removed]">YouTube
page</a> afterwards.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Radar Sweep

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pentagon Chief Esper Talks with Chinese Counterpart as Tensions Soar

Amid deteriorating U.S.-China relations, further aggravated by a highly unusual
trip to Taiwan this weekend by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex M. Azar
II, Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper talked for 90 minutes on Aug. 6 with his
Chinese counterpart, Defense Minister Wei Fenghe.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Mitchell Institute Nuclear Deterrence Forum Featuring Ilan Berman, Senior VP, American Foreign Policy Council

The Air Force Association’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies hosted
American Foreign Policy Council Senior Vice President Ilan Berman for a timely
discussion of the potential implications of Iran's impending 25-year strategic
cooperation agreement with China. The conversation also covers the latest on the
explosion at the Natanz nuclear plant, Iran’s recent military exercises, and
the future of U.S. policy toward Iran and the Middle East more broadly.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Pentagon Code Library Will Support Multiple Clouds

Military information is too important to store in a single cloud. Although the
$10 billion JEDI contract dominates public conversation about military cloud
services, the Pentagon’s Chief Information Officer Dana Deasy says the
department is creating its own repository of shareable code for managing the
constellations of clouds within the Pentagon.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Air Force Eyes Hypersonic VIP Passenger Aircraft in New Deal with Aviation Startup

The U.S. Air Force has awarded the Hermeus Corporation a contract to support its
work on a hypersonic aircraft powered by an advanced combined-cycle jet engine.
The service says that the deal could be a stepping stone to fielding a
high-speed plane for VIP transport and other missions in the future.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

OPINION: Why Giving the Space Force Naval Ranks Might Widen the Schism with the Air Force

“Culturally, the Space Force leadership was raised in an environment where
social standing and kudos went to the “warfighters”: fighter pilots and
those who could produce effects on the ground,” writes retired Air Force Lt.
Col. Peter Garretson, a senior fellow in defense studies at the American Foreign
Policy Council and space consultant who previously served as director of Air
University’s Space Horizons Task Force. “The result is that, while a small
navalist cultural tradition in the Space Force and its precursor does exist, it
is not widespread and confined mostly to its intellectuals.”

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

GPS M-Code Gapfiller Installed for Trial Run, Space Force Eyes Operational Acceptance This Fall

The Space Force announced that it has completed a major upgrade to its GPS
Military-Code signal that will improve anti-jamming and anti-spoofing
capabilities for users.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Special Ops Nominee Grilled over Charge His Firm May Have Trained Khashoggi's Killers

The White House nominee to a top Pentagon post claimed Aug. 6 to have no
knowledge of published allegations that a security firm he worked for may have
been involved in training the Saudi hit team that murdered and dismembered
Washington Post journalist Jamal Khashoggi.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

VA Needs a Cyber Audit of its Governmentwide Financial Services Center

The accounting shared services program—used by a range of federal agencies and
programs—needs to ensure its systems are secure.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

National Air Force Museum Opens New Exhibit on Air Force One

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has announced that it will open a new
exhibit titled “Flying the President,” featuring memorabilia flown aboard
Air Force One from administrations ranging from Franklin Delano Roosevelt to
Donald Trump.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

One More Thing...
Live War Ordnance Discovered at Museum

The museum shut down early on Aug. 5 after Austin Truex, an intern at the
Elkhorn Valley Museum in Norfolk, Neb., found the ordnance among its stored
items. The grenade, ammunition, and ordnance were found while reorganizing
storerooms in the facility.

[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

- Daily Report: [link removed]
- Contact Us: [link removed]
- Advertise With Us: [link removed]
- Purchase/Reprint: [link removed]

- Air Force Association: [link removed]
- Join AFA: [link removed]

- AF Mag on Facebook: [link removed]
- AF Mag on Twitter: [link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Published by the Air Force Association

All airforcemag.com material is under copyright of
the Air Force Association. All rights reserved.

The Air Force Association
1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA
22209-1198

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe or change your preferences, please visit the link below:
[link removed]

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------