Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Sept. 8, 2020

View in your Web Browser: [link removed]
Edited by Amy McCullough with Rachel S. Cohen, Brian W. Everstine and Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

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

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

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

‘Smart’ Bullet Downs Cruise Missile in 2nd ABMS Test
By Brian W. Everstine

More than 1,600 personnel, 60 companies, over a dozen aircraft, and dozens of
radars and sensors came together for a massive Air Force-led event that utilized
everything from boots on the ground to satellites in space to test how the
service expects to fight a war in the future. The event culminated when a cruise
missile was downed by a “smart” bullet. The Air Force’s second “ABMS
onramp,” long delayed because of COVID-19, took place on Sept. 3, largely
within four national training ranges and a part-operations center, part-fusion
cell at Joint Base Andrews, Md., where the new cloud-based, artificial
intelligence-fueled command center brought together new and legacy ways of
fighting wars, which is the backbone of the service's push for joint all-domain
command and control.

[link removed]

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

COVID-19 Delays Military’s Plan to Downsize, Close Medical Facilities
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

A Pentagon effort to shutter or downsize the scope of services offered at 50
military hospitals and/or clinics across the country—12 of which are located
on Air Force bases—has been slowed by the COVID-19 pandemic, Defense Health
Agency Director Army Lt. Gen. Ronald J. Place told Air Force Magazine in an
exclusive interview. As a result, facility closures and changes are unlikely to
take place before next summer, he said. But DHA can’t proceed with those
changes until it reaches what Place called “a steady state” with respect to
COVID-19—where the agency either is operating under the assumption of a
prolonged pandemic, or working within a post-pandemic "new normal." Once DHA
achieves that state, he said, it must reevaluate each impacted market,
brainstorm a game plan with its collaborators in each location, and then present
a plan to the Office of the Assistant Secretary of Defense for Health Affairs.

[link removed]

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

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

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

USAF Wants Airmen’s Stories to Shape Harassment, Assault Prevention
By Rachel S. Cohen

The Department of the Air Force this month will survey Airmen about their
experiences with interpersonal violence, seeking feedback that could shape
future policies to keep service members safe. Starting the week of Sept. 7, the
department plans to survey civilian and uniformed Air Force and Space Force
members about sexual assault and abuse, domestic abuse, bullying, and stalking.
“Survey data and the data gathered from reviewing past cases involving
interpersonal violence will be used to identify any themes or areas for
improvement,” the department said in a Sept. 3 release.

[link removed]

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

Morris Takes Command of Air Force Life Cycle Management Center
By Rachel S. Cohen

Lt. Gen. Shaun Q. Morris took over as head of the Air Force Life Cycle
Management Center in a Sept. 3 ceremony, the service said in a release. He
replaces Lt. Gen. Robert D. McMurry, who retired this week, as the top officer
overseeing the development and sustainment of Air Force aircraft, software,
missiles, and more. AFLCMC encompasses a $304 billion portfolio and employs more
than 28,000 people. Morris takes the helm at AFLCMC for what could be a
significant shakeup of Air Force technologies over the next few years.

[link removed]

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

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

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

CMSAF: Airmen, USAF Civilians Can’t Opt-Out of Payroll Tax Deferral
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Airmen and Air Force civilians aren’t allowed to opt-out of a Social Security
payroll tax deferral the government instituted as a form of COVID-19 relief,
Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass confirmed in a Sept. 7
Facebook post. While U.S. troops and DOD civilians can’t say no to the
deferral, the Defense Finance and Accounting Service “will temporarily defer
the 6.2 percent Social Security Tax withholding” for service members whose
monthly basic pay is below $8,666.66, DFAS explained on a web page about the
measure. This temporary deferral is “effective for the September mid-month
pay,” it added.

[link removed]

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

Virtual Events: Spain on Mitchell Institute’s ‘Aerospace Nation,’ and More
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

On Sept. 8, the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies
will host Brig. Gen. Adrian L. Spain, director of plans, programs, and analyses
at U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Air Forces Africa on the latest installment of
its “Aerospace Nation” series. 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> afterward.

[link removed]

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

[ Advertisement ]
Baesystems.com/AFA

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

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]

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

Roper Mulls Name Change For Changing ABMS (Not Skynet!)

The Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS) has already evolved so far beyond
its original aim—to replace the aging E-8 JSTARS plane for surveillance and
C2—that Air Force acquisition czar Will Roper is seriously considering
changing the program’s name. “I think Skynet is out,” he said with a sigh
and a grin, “as much as I would love doing that as a sci-fi thing. I just
don’t think we can go there. … I do think that we do need to change the
name. I don’t think ABMS is primarily a battle management system. It’s an
Internet.”

[link removed]

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

The Air Force Wants to Overhaul Pilot Training. But It Has to Win Over the Skeptics First

"People have an assumption that we're asserting that [we're building] twice as
good a pilot in half the time; that was never the plan," said Maj. Gen. Craig
Wills, 19th Air Force commander, referring to the service’s Undergraduate
Pilot Training 2.5 program. "The plan was to build just as good a pilot in about
half the time, and that experiment has been largely successful."

[link removed]

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

MQ-NEXT: Air Force Sets Sight on Reaper Drone Replacement

The General Atomics-built MQ-9 Reaper—a medium-altitude, long-endurance
unmanned aerial vehicle with millions of hours of operation under its belt—has
had a ubiquitous presence over battlefields in the Middle East. But with the
Pentagon preparing for future fights in contested, non-permissive environments
against peer adversaries, the service is beginning its search for the
aircraft’s replacement.

[link removed]

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

Israel to Ask US for Arms to Offset UAE F-35 Sale, Report Says

Israel has concluded it can’t block the sale of American-made F-35 stealth
fighters to the United Arab Emirates, and will ask the White House for other
weapons so it can maintain its regional military superiority, Yedioth Ahronoth
reported, without saying where it got the information.

[link removed]

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

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

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

Lockheed Tests New Phased Array Antenna for US Space Force

The new multi-band, multimission antenna is under development to address a
serious problem: As the military puts an ever-increasing number of satellites on
orbit, where will the services put all of the antennas needed to connect to
them?

[link removed]

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

4 Kansas Cities Seek to Land U.S. Space Command Headquarters

Gov. Laura Kelly said in a news release that she has directed her Cabinet to use
all resources necessary to support the selection of Kansas as the headquarters
for U.S. Space Command, which is responsible for military operations in outer
space.

[link removed]

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

Lockheed Martin’s Greenville Campus Gets $62B Boost with Latest F-16 Contract

A recent $62 billion contract to build 90 F-16 fighter jets is being touted as
an important win for Lockheed Martin’s campus in Greenville, S.C., which had
just a handful of planes left in its order book after losing a bid in 2018 to
build a next-generation trainer jet for the U.S. Air Force. Aerospace analyst
Dhierin Bechai said the order—66 jets for Taiwan’s military and 24 for the
Royal Moroccan Air Force—provides “significant chances for follow up orders
for more fighter jets and services.”

[link removed]

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

Northrop Grumman Shares Video of Firebird Demo at North Dakota Facility

U.S. defense contractor Northrop Grumman put out a short video on Facebook
showing optionally-piloted Firebird multi-mission aircraft execute intelligence,
surveillance, and reconnaissance demos from the company’s North Dakota
facility. The Firebird is an intelligence-gathering aircraft with autonomous
mission capability. Available in manned, autonomous and optionally piloted
configurations, Firebird is designed to provide ISR payload and cockpit
flexibility through truly open architecture and plug-and-play payload
integration.

[link removed]

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

One More Thing...
This Video Of F/A-18s Refueling from a KC-130 Near a Lightning Storm Is Sinister as Hell

The video has one of the most dramatic backdrops we have ever seen and a very
relevant soundtrack, as well.

[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]

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