Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Oct. 27, 2020

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Edited by Amy McCullough with Brian W. Everstine and John A. Tirpak

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Roper: Air Force Shopping for ‘Skyshots’
By John A. Tirpak

The Air Force is calling on small businesses to pitch new technologies the
service can help nurture into “war-winning” capabilities, service
acquisition chief Will Roper said Oct. 26. These “Skyshots”—something
short of “Moon Shots”—would be comparable to USAF's flying car initiative:
requiring sustained investment that companies might not be able to find
commercially, but could give USAF a big edge. Roper also said the service is
shifting away from setting requirements to choosing from among arising
technology “opportunities” as a quicker and less prescribed way to build
future systems.

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Enlisted Leaders Defend Abrupt Tuition Assistance Cuts
By Brian W. Everstine

Top enlisted leaders defended the Air Force's decision to reduce tuition
assistance by $750, saying it was the best option available as the manpower
directorate scrambled to find money over the summer or risk canceling classes.
In late September, the Air Force announced it was only going to pay $3,750 of
college tuition for Airmen and space professionals each fiscal year—a
reduction from the previous limit of $4,500. Chief Master Sergeant of the Air
Force JoAnne S. Bass and Chief Master Sgt. Roosevelt Jones, the senior enlisted
leader for the deputy chief of manpower, personnel, and services, speaking
during an Oct. 26 town hall said the department had about $163 million allocated
for tuition assistance in 2020, but that funding ran out in July. “We wanted
to make sure that we covered the majority of Airmen in the United States Air
Force to be able to fund how much they normally utilize each year,” Jones
said.

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Hill F-35s, Airmen Return from Middle East Deployment
By Brian W. Everstine

F-35As and Airmen from the 421st Fighter Squadron returned home to Hill Air
Force Base, Utah, within the past week after a six-month deployment for combat
operations in the Middle East. The 421st was the third Hill squadron in a row to
be tasked with deploying to U.S. Central Command, where they flew close air
support, offensive and defensive counter air operations, and flew in multiple
exercises with partners in the region, according to a base release. The squadron
is a combination of the Active duty 388th and Reserve 419th Fighter Wings at
Hill, the service’s only operational F-35 base in the continental United
States. Hill F-35s had flown combat missions in CENTCOM non-stop since April
2019, and it is not clear if the squadron returning home means that the region
is now without a fifth-generation USAF fighter presence. Prior to the first F-35
deployments, Air Force F-22s had been steadily deployed to the theater.

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Bug-Spraying C-130s Deploy to Louisiana
By Brian W. Everstine

The Air Force activated the military’s only large, fixed-wing pest control
aircraft to help areas recovering from hurricanes and heavy rains. The C-130s
from the 910th Airlift Wing at Youngstown Air Reserve Station, Ohio, deployed to
Barksdale Air Force Base, La., on Oct. 20 for several days in support of
Environmental Protection Agency-registered aerial spray to control mosquitos
that thrive in post-storm conditions across the state. The C-130s are the
military’s only aircraft equipped with the Modular Aerial Spray System. It is
the first time the unit has been activated for storm response since Hurricane
Harvey impacted 1.4 million acres in 2014.

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

On Oct. 27, the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute will host an
installment of its “Aerospace Nation” series featuring Pacific Air Forces
Commander Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach. The think tank will post event video on its
<a href="[link removed]">website</a>
and <a href="[link removed]">YouTube
page</a> after the live event.

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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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Air Force To Try Space-Based 3D Printing: Roper

Figuring out how to create a 3D printing-based supply chain in space will be the
focus of one future ‘challenge’ for innovators competing for Air Force prize
money, service acquisition czar Will Roper says.

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DOD Awards Applied Hypersonics Contract to Texas A&M University

The Defense Department awarded Texas A&M University's Engineering Experiment
Station a $20 million per year contract to establish and manage a University
Consortium for Applied Hypersonics, or UCAH. "This first-of-its-kind consortium
will be critical to advancing hypersonics research and innovation, a key
priority of the Department of Defense," said Michael Kratsios, acting
undersecretary of defense for research and engineering.

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OPINION: There's No Turning Back on AI in the Military

“China’s ambitions far outstrip merely copying or surpassing our military.
AlphaGo’s victory was a Sputnik moment for the Chinese Communist Party,
triggering its own NASA-like response: a national Mega-Project in AI. Though
there is no moon in this digital “space race,” its giant leap may be the
next industrial revolution. The synergy of 5G and cloud-to-edge AI could
radically evolve the internet of things, enabling ubiquitous AI and all the
economic and military advantages it could bestow. It's not just our military
that needs digital urgency: Our nation must wake up fast. The only thing worse
than fearing AI itself is fearing not having it,” writes Air Force acquisition
head Will Roper.

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Air Force Explosive Unit Removes Device from Downtown Charleston

According to Charleston police, this suspicious package was several smoke
detectors and a carbon monoxide detector inside of a bag. “The carbon monoxide
detector was beeping,” Charleston police said.

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Space Force Official: Launch Scrubs are No Reason to Despair

A streak of United Launch Alliance and SpaceX launch scrubs has frustrated
rocket company executives and space aficionados. But Space Force launch managers
are not discouraged, and in fact see scrubs as proof that systems are working
like they should, Col. Douglas Pentecost said Oct. 22.

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China to Sanction Boeing, Raytheon, Lockheed Over Taiwan Arms

China will impose unspecified sanctions on Boeing Co.’s defense unit, Lockheed
Martin Corp. and Raytheon Technologies Corp. after the U.S. State Department
approved $1.8 billion in arms sales to Taiwan last week. The sanctions will be
imposed “in order to uphold national interests,” Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokesman Zhao Lijian told reporters Monday in Beijing.

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One More Thing...
We Just Found Water on the Sunlit Moon. That Could Change Everything.

Scientists have revealed that they've discovered traces of molecular water on
the sunlit surface of the moon. The discovery could forever change our
relationship with our closest cosmic neighbor. “This is exciting because the
expectation is that any water present on the sunlit surface of the moon might
not survive the lunar day,” Paul Hertz, the Astrophysics division director at
NASA Headquarters, said in a press conference Monday. Because the moon does not
have an atmosphere, any water on its sunlit surface was thought to be lost to
space. "[I]f we find a large concentration of water on the sunlit moon, we may
be able to extract it and use it as a resource for exploration," Casey
Honniball, a Postdoctoral Program Fellow at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center,
tells Popular Mechanics via email.

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