Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Sept. 18, 2020

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

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AFMC Considers Reorganizing Depots for New eSeries Aircraft
By John A. Tirpak

Air Force Materiel Command is beginning to think about how depots and
sustainment will evolve now that USAF is embracing the "eSeries" approach to
digitally creating future platforms. AFMC commander Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr.
said he's also working to build the IT infrastructure needed to make the
e-series work, and has set up a new Transformational Capabilities Office to help
propel innovative technologies from successful prototypes to programs of record,
bringing together portfolio managers, end users, and other stakeholders to
choose future "Vanguard" projects.

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Current, Former USAF Leaders Stress Importance of Inclusion
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

Despite its diversity, the U.S. Air Force has an inclusion problem, Chief Master
Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. Bass said Sept. 16. “Diversity [means] you
ask somebody to the dance. Inclusion is you actually ask them to dance,” she
explained in a post-keynote Q&A at AFA's virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference.
“We need to have people who are actually asking people to dance and be part of
that culture, that organization, that mission, and that sense of belonging.”

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Ray: Bomber Readiness Surges with Shift to Dynamic Force Employment
By John A. Tirpak

The bomber fleet is turning in exceptional readiness and performance since it
turned away from the continuous bomber presence and close air support mission,
Air Force Global Strike Command chief Gen. Timothy M. Ray reported. In its new
dynamic force employment role, the bomber is emblematic of how the U.S. plans to
project power, he said. Ray also discussed equipping the fleet with hypersonic
weapons and upgrades to the B-52 bomber.

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C-17s Serve as Bombers, Artillery Targeting Systems in AMC Tests
By Brian W. Everstine

Air Mobility Command is testing how its workhorse strategic airlifter can not
only carry in combat weapons systems, but also directly contribute to a fight by
dropping bombs and providing targeting data for artillery. As part of the
high-tech Advanced Battle Management System “onramp” evaluations earlier
this month, AMC C-17s tested dropping joint direct attack munitions, meaning the
lumbering mobility jets effectively served as bombers, AMC boss Gen. Jacqueline
D. Van Ovost said Sept. 14 during the Air Force Association’s virtual Air,
Space & Cyber Conference. “This concept, once fully mature, is for the
munitions to behave just as if they were dropped from a bomber aircraft,” Van
Ovost told reporters.

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Gulf Coast Air Bases Emerge From Hurricane Sally
By Rachel S. Cohen

Air Force installations along the Gulf Coast are starting to resume operations
after Hurricane Sally made landfall early Sept. 16 over Gulf Shores, Ala., as a
Category 2 storm. Early announcements indicate the bases weathered harsh winds
and rain but avoided widespread damage, though nearby residential and commercial
areas were battered. The National Hurricane Center cautioned of “catastrophic
and life-threatening flooding” in the Florida Panhandle and southern Alabama.

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Space Force Official Argues Funding Should Match ‘Huge’ Space Responsibilities
By Rachel S. Cohen

Military space budgets will need to grow to adequately support air, land, sea,
and cyber operations as global warfighting grows increasingly intertwined, and
as the Pentagon solidifies its plans for offense and defense in the cosmos, a
top Space Force official argued this week. "If I was [U.S. Space Command boss
Army Gen. James H. Dickinson], I would certainly argue for a budget based on
size of [the area of responsibility], because he's got a huge one to defend,"
Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, the Space Force's deputy chief of space, cyber, and
nuclear operations, said during the Air Force Association's virtual Air, Space,
and Cyber Conference. Saltzman's comment underscores the central role space
operations promise to play in future joint operations, and foreshadows how the
military space enterprise could negotiate with Capitol Hill to let it grow.

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AMC Lays Out ‘Contested Environment’ Lessons Learned from COVID-19 Ops
By Brian W. Everstine

COVID-19’s impacts on Air Mobility Command operations, which increased as the
pandemic spread, have provided several lessons learned that mobility forces can
use for potential ops in degraded conditions, the command’s boss said. AMC
Commander Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, speaking during AFA’s virtual Air,
Space & Cyber Conference, said the pandemic is the first “thorough contested
environment” that mobility forces have faced. It forced aircrews and
commanders to think differently about how to get their mission accomplished.
“From our personal front door all the way to the foxhole, we had unforeseen
limitations on things that, frankly, we had taken for granted,” Van Ovost
said.

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GE Delivers First F-15EX Engine
By John A. Tirpak

The first of 19 engines that will power test models of the new Boeing F-15EX has
been delivered, according to GE Aviation. The new fighters enter combined
developmental and operational test at Eglin Air Force Base, Fla., early next
year. The Air Force awarded the first batch of F-15EX engines to GE as a sole
source to speed the test process, but has opened the door for Pratt & Whitney to
offer a competitive powerplant for the Eagle as well.

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ULA Boss Backs New Career Development Program for Space Industry Workers
By Rachel S. Cohen

United Launch Alliance Chief Executive Officer Tory Bruno supports the idea of
sending space industry employees for stints in the Space Force, suggesting it
could be modeled on an existing Air Force program that lets service members try
out private sector jobs. The Space Force wants to bolster its talent
pool—particularly for high-demand careers like software development—and help
its workforce think outside the box by rotating people between industry and
government more often. Bruno pointed to the Air Force’s competitive Education
with Industry (EWI) program as a good model for the Space Force’s vision.

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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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How the Military Is Supporting the Historic Race for a COVID Vaccine

The federal government outlined its plans Sept. 16 for distributing a COVID-19
vaccine free to all Americans, with the Defense Department leading the
operational planning, oversight, and logistics of distribution—without ever
touching the product, senior officials said in a phone call with reporters.

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Who Is Secretly Building USAF’s New Fighter?

Officials are mum, so here’s a roundup of clues.

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The JADC2 Revolution

U.S. forces are redefining joint operations to be more tightly integrated. Joint
all-domain command and control (JADC2) accelerates the speed and complexity of
warfare by tying forces together across the air, land, sea, space, and cyber
domains. For the latest on what this means to operators and the industry, check
out our JADC2 landing page.

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Two Air Force Bases Given Go-Ahead to Expand Network-as-a-Service

The Air Force’s initiative to modernize its network didn’t miss a beat over
the last few months despite the pandemic and other related challenges.

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Defense Industry Worries Congress Will Punt Budget Deal into 2021

As Congress readies a stopgap spending measure this week, the defense industry
is girding for a long-term funding patch that could delay both new procurement
programs and needed fiscal certainty into next year.

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57th Wing Confirms Plan to Use Threat Representative Color Scheme on the Aggressor F-35s

It’s official: The 65th Aggressor Squadron at Nellis Air Force Base want to
give their Lightning stealth jets a “threat representative” color scheme.

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Lockheed Unveils Speed Racer UAS to Prove Digital Engineering

Lockheed Martin’s Skunk Works division said on Sept. 16 it is developing and
will fly a new unmanned aircraft system called Speed Racer to validate that an
internal digital engineering process called StarDrive can produce sophisticated
flight vehicles faster and cheaper across the full range of the company’s
product portfolio.

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Military AI Coalition of 13 Countries Meets on Ethics

In an extraordinary meeting that highlights how crucial artificial intelligence
is becoming to the U.S. and its allies, some 100 officials from 13 democratic
countries met online Sept. 15-16 to discuss how their militaries could ethically
use artificial intelligence, the first summit of its kind. Hosted by the
Pentagon’s Joint Artificial Intelligence Center, the virtual conference kicked
off what JAIC’s calling the AI Partnership for Defense, an international forum
it hopes will evolve from broad principles and policy to technical cooperation
on data and algorithms.

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Xage Security Prepares US Space Force Cyber Strategy

Xage Security, a Silicon Valley cybersecurity startup, announced a contract
Sept. 17 to develop, evaluate, and prepare a data protection strategy for the
U.S. Space Force.

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One More Thing...
The Navy’s ‘Top Gun’ Aviators Have to Cough Up $5 If They Quote the Film, According to a Former Instructor

If you feel "the need for speed" at the U.S. Navy's elite fighter pilot school,
you'd best not say it, or be prepared to pay the price.

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