Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Aug. 14, 2020

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

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CMSAF Wright’s Last Message to Airmen Before Retirement
By Brian W. Everstine

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright called on Airmen to work
together and treat each other with dignity in a divisive time, in his parting
letter to the service. “Trust that we are all worthy individuals, who deserve
respect and deserve to serve with dignity,” Wright wrote. “No matter what
the challenges we face, we can always overcome them if we are united. Please
don’t let those who are set on dividing us win. Don’t let them drive us
apart.” Wright, who has served as the Air Force’s top enlisted leader since
2017, will hand over the job to the next Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force,
JoAnne S. Bass, during a ceremony Aug. 14 at Joint Base Andrews, Md.

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Brown Outlines Leadership Style, Expectations as New Chief of Staff
By Brian W. Everstine

As Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. took over as the service’s top uniformed leader,
he directed his inner circle to address urgent issues with, at times, imperfect
information and to provide direct, unvarnished advice to move the service
forward. The guidance to the Air Staff, issued Aug. 6, provides a glimpse of the
direct leadership style of the 22nd Chief of Staff as the service prepares for a
high-end fight, with specific mentions of the growing threat from China and the
“generational” opportunity to restructure that comes along with the creation
of the Space Force. “We must make enterprise-wide and clear-eyed judgments
about our strategic future as an Air Force and how we enable all Airmen to reach
their full potential, quickly adapt to changes in the geopolitical environment,
and succeed in a high-end fight,” Brown wrote.

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Space RCO Presses Forward Amid Reorganization
By Rachel S. Cohen

The secretive Space Rapid Capabilities Office’s workload has taken shape two
years after its inception, as the space research and development enterprise
changes around it. The Space RCO, which speedily develops cutting-edge
technologies at the request of Space Force Chief of Space Operations Gen. John
W. “Jay” Raymond, handles capabilities that go “in, from, and to space,”
with less bureaucracy and more flexibility than typical research programs, Space
RCO Director Michael W. Roberts said during an Aug. 13 Mitchell Institute for
Aerospace Studies event. Most of its portfolio is classified, with one
unclassified ground control station project. It will not manage the X-37B
spaceplane, or fall under the Space Force's Space Systems Command.

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Offutt Airmen Face Falling Concrete, Asbestos as Rebuild Costs Rise
By Rachel S. Cohen

Offutt Air Force Base, Neb., continues to move forward with its effort to
rebuild following last year’s historic flood, despite the coronavirus
pandemic, growing costs, and hazardous work conditions. Lt. Col. Chris J.
Conover, director of Offutt’s rebuilding management office, told Air Force
Magazine the initial price tag was off and could rise further. The Air Force now
estimates it will cost more than $1 billion to create a new Offutt, meaning they
may need to ask Congress for more help. Meanwhile, makeshift workplaces at the
base—which handles intelligence-collecting and nuclear command aircraft like
the Rivet Joint, Open Skies, and “Doomsday” planes—are hardly ideal.

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Global Hawk Learns New Tricks While Congress Mulls Retirement
By Rachel S. Cohen

Air Force intelligence officials will keep improving the RQ-4 Global Hawk
surveillance drone until Congress directs them to ditch it, the 16th Air Force
commander said Aug. 13. The RQ-4 enterprise is in limbo, as the Air Force wants
to retire 24 of the aircraft in fiscal 2021, but lawmakers have not yet signed
off on the plan. If the request is approved, the Global Hawk inventory would
shrink from around 30 aircraft to 10. “[Airmen are] going to continue to
optimize everything we’re doing with the Global Hawk for as long as the Global
Hawk’s in our inventory,” 16th Air Force boss Lt. Gen. Timothy D. Haugh said
during an online Air Force Association event.

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DOD Gives Military Families Access to Child Care Search Service
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The Defense Department is giving military parents access to a subscription-based
online service that they can use to find hourly child care services that make
the most sense for their families, according to an Aug. 10 release. This
service, which they can sign up for through Military OneSource, will let them
look for care based on their family’s unique needs and preferences, locate
potential providers, pore through their background checks and references, and
interview them, according to Military OneSource’s website.

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Virtual Events: Holmes on AFA’s ‘Airmen in the Fight,’ and More
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

On Aug. 14, Air Force Association President Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright
will host Air Combat Command boss Gen. James M. Holmes for a review of ACC over
the past few years and a look at the future during the latest installment of
AFA's "Airmen in the Fight" Series. Event video will tentatively be posted to
AFA's <a href="[link removed]">website</a> and
<a href="[link removed]">YouTube
page</a> afterwards.

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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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Commander: Military Accounts for 7 Percent of Hawaii Virus Cases

The head of the U.S. military’s Indo-Pacific Command has said that service
members and their families represent about 7 percent of the coronavirus cases in
Hawaii.

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Air Force Academy Begins Coronavirus-Distanced Classes

The entire class of roughly 4,400 cadets has returned to the academy, and will
be attending classes split roughly evenly between online and in-person lessons,
academy spokesman Mike Slater said in an email on Aug. 12. Bringing about half
the courses online will result in smaller in-person class sizes, Slater said,
which will make it easier for cadets to socially distance when they gather.

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Moving US F-16s from Germany Will Ripple Far Outside the Black Sea Region

The strategic and geopolitical implications of the changes could be even more
considerable than first thought and play into a range of areas from Germany’s
fighter contest to the way the U.S. Air Force trains for war, former Defense
Department and Air Force officials told Defense News.

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Air Force Flight Tests B-21 Avionics; Program ‘On Right Track’

"I know we're not going to be immune from design flaws," Air Force Rapid
Capabilities Office Director and Program Executive Officer Randall G. Walden
said of the B-21 program. "We're going to have to work through those, and we're
doing some of that today."

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Congress Has Secretly Blocked US Arms Sales to Turkey for Nearly Two Years

Four key members of Congress, either individually or collectively, have quietly
frozen all major U.S. arms sales to Turkey for nearly two years in a move to
pressure Ankara to abandon its Russian-built S-400 air defense system, Defense
News has learned.

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Deloitte Wins $106M JAIC Contract to Build A.I. Toolkit

The Joint Common Foundation will put a standard set of tools in the cloud, where
any Defense Department artificial intelligence project can use them.

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Ban on Chinese Products Starts Despite Confusion over Acquisition Rule

The second and more arduous deadline for agencies and vendors to ensure they are
no longer using certain Chinese made telecommunications products and services is
here, and few are happy about it. Industry and agencies alike continue to sound
the alarm about the potential and real impacts of the interim rule implementing
part B of Section 889 of the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act. Under the
interim rule, which remains open for comments through mid-September, agencies
cannot award new contracts, task orders, or modify existing contracts to any
vendor who doesn’t self-certify that they are not using products from Chinese
companies like ZTE and Huawei.

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Air Force Announces Cancellation of 20OT03 OTS Selection Board

The upcoming 20OT03 Officer Training School selection board scheduled for
September 14-18 has been canceled. The board focused on the following career
fields: 13S—Space Operations; 15W—Weather, 32EXA—Architect/Architectural
Engineer; 32EXC—Civil Engineer; 32EXE—Electrical Engineer; 32EXG—General
Engineer, and 62EXE— Electrical/Electronic Engineer.

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Congress Wants the Pentagon to Expand Coverage for Troops' Eating Disorder Treatments

Congress wants the Pentagon to provide service members and TRICARE dependents
broader access to treatment for eating disorders—a behavioral health issue
legislators say is a "significant problem in society, as well as in military
beneficiaries."

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One More Thing...
Check Out These Images of Russia's Second Su-57 Felon Fighter Under Construction

The Russian Ministry of Defense has released images of the second
series-production Su-57 Felon advanced combat jet, which is now under
construction. The first production example crashed during a flight test last
year.

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