Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Nov. 2, 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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Can Space Force Be the First Military Branch Built for Women?
By Rachel S. Cohen

For nearly 250 years, the U.S. military has designed its machines, career paths,
and uniforms through a male lens. Now, the Space Force has a chance to make
history as the only military branch built with women in mind from the start.
Female service members say the Space Force can pursue a more equitable force
through changes to recruitment, policy, professional development, and
infrastructure.

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Vice Chief Wilson: Long-Awaited Spectrum Warfare Wing Coming to ACC
By John A. Tirpak

Air Combat Command will soon set up an electromagnetic spectrum warfare wing
that will most likely fall under 16th Air Force, Vice Chief of Staff Gen.
Stephen W. “Seve” Wilson said in an AFA “Airmen in the Fight” streaming
program Oct. 30. The announcement closely follows the Pentagon's release of a
new EMS strategy governing electronic warfare. Wilson said he's happy to see the
Pentagon strategy, as the Air Force has allowed its electronic warfare
capabilities to atrophy during years of focus on counterinsurgency. “If we
don’t dominate the spectrum, we will lose, across all the domains,” Wilson
said.

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USAF is Closing the Pilot Shortage, But Still Planning for Post-Pandemic Dip
By Brian W. Everstine

The COVID-19 pandemic’s impact on the commercial airline industry means Air
Force pilot retention—a big problem earlier in the year—is in relatively
good shape, but the service still needs to prepare for empty cockpits when the
economy comes back. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., speaking
Oct. 28 at the virtual Airlift/Tanker Association Conference, said the downturn
in the industry means USAF is doing a “pretty good” job keeping its pilots
around, but he acknowledged, "Retention is always a challenge, it ebbs and flows
with the economy."

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Izmir-Based Airmen Unscathed after Earthquake Rocks Turkey, Greece
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

No personnel from the 425th Air Base Squadron at Izmir Air Station, Turkey—a
geographically separated unit of Incirlik Air Base's 39th Air Base Wing—were
harmed in a 7.0-magnitude earthquake that shook Turkey and Greece on Oct. 30,
Wing Commander Col. John B. Creel wrote in a Facebook post the same day. No USAF
aircraft are stationed at Izmir—just personnel who backup NATO Allied Land
Command and additional agencies, added wing spokesperson Capt. Geneva Giaimo in
a statement provided to Air Force Magazine.

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DOD Creates New Top Space Policy Job
By Rachel S. Cohen

The Pentagon on Oct. 29 added a new top leadership position to oversee
space-related combat policy across the department, as required by lawmakers in
the 2020 defense policy bill. The Assistant Secretary of Defense for Space
Policy will report to the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy, and is
responsible for “interagency coordination and international engagement on
space policy and strategy,” the Defense Department said in an Oct. 30 release.
Justin T. Johnson will perform the duties of the role until someone is nominated
and confirmed by the Senate.

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Space Force Plans Out-of-This-World Transfer Ceremony for NASA Astronaut
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The Space Force plans to swear in NASA Astronaut and Air Force Col. Michael S.
Hopkins while he’s aboard the International Space Station as part of the
upcoming Crew-1 Mission, a service official confirmed to Air Force Magazine on
Oct. 29. Hopkins is slated to command the upcoming mission, which his NASA bio
notes is the “first post-certification mission of SpaceX’s Crew Dragon
spacecraft” and its second crewed flight. “[Chief of Space Operations] Gen.
[John W. “Jay”] Raymond is working with [NASA] Administrator [Jim]
Bridenstine to leverage this unique venue for the ceremony as a way to spotlight
the decades-long partnership between DOD and NASA,” the official said in a
statement provided to Air Force Magazine.

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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 Hopes to Jettison Pass-Through Budget

The Air Force has long been saddled with accounts that fund other
organizations’ projects, but officials and other supporters are pushing to
change that. “It makes it look like the Department of the Air Force is getting
more money than it actually is,” Lt. Gen. S. Clinton Hinote, deputy chief of
staff for strategy, integration, and requirements, said during the Air Force’s
Association Virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference. “It obscures debate about
defense spending. And it gets into this idea of how hard it is to compare
[funding] across services.”

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The U.S. Military Has a Problem: Defending Bases in a War Won't Be Easy

The Pentagon is looking across the services to figure out ways to better defend
forward-positioned bases, assets, and forces from a growing sphere of highly
sophisticated, long-range enemy attack threats.

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Pentagon Draw-Down at U.S. Embassies Prompts Concern About Ceding Field to Global Rivals

The Pentagon has quietly begun withdrawing top military officers from U.S.
embassies in Africa and downgrading other such posts world-wide, a move
officials say is necessary to shift resources to counter China and Russia on the
geopolitical stage and meet congressional caps on the number of generals and
admirals in the military.

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Pentagon Expects to Deploy New Telework Tool in June 2021

The Defense Department’s Commercial Virtual Remote Environment enabled the
rapid shift to mass telework during the pandemic, but a solution to handle more
sensitive data is on the way.

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DOD Canceled Its Diversity Training Audit to Comply with New White House Rules

The Defense Department’s inspector general has canceled an audit of its
diversity, inclusion, and equal opportunity training just a month after first
announcing it.

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A New Pentagon Report on Sexual Assault in the Military Is a Wakeup Call to a ‘Systemic’ Problem

The report from the Defense Advisory Committee on Investigation, Prosecution,
and Defense of Sexual Assault in the Armed Forces, which advises the Secretary
of Defense there is a "systemic" problem in the military of referring sexual
assault cases to trial when there isn't enough evidence available to get a
conviction.

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Helicopters Over DC Protesters Broke Regulations While Commander was Driving Home, DC Guard Concludes

Two D.C. National Guard helicopters that flew low over protesters in Washington,
D.C., on the night of June 1 were not properly authorized to be there—and were
directed by a lieutenant colonel who was far from the scene, driving home in his
car, according to an initial investigation by the D.C. National Guard.

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Air Force C-17 Pilot Lauded for Airmanship in Kandahar Emergency Landing

A video shows a C-17 in Afghanistan landing on a runway with its nose landing
gear up.

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Navy Aviators Learn to ‘Fly’ the MQ-25 Unmanned Aerial Refueler

Four Navy air vehicle operators from VX-23, the Navy’s developmental test
squadron, and VX-1, the operational test squadron, recently traveled to
Boeing’s St. Louis facility for an immersive three-day simulation designed to
train them to operate a flight from start-up to shut-down from the ground
control station—the MQ-25’s terrestrial or CVN-based “cockpit.”

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Insights About Chinese Military Aircraft

Take a look at the range of aircraft populating the Chinese military fleet.

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Icebreaker Polar Star to Make Unusual Arctic Deployment

The U.S. Coast Guard Cutter Polar Star (WAGB-10) will deploy to the Arctic this
winter to help protect the nation’s maritime sovereignty and security in the
region, the Coast Guard Pacific Area said in an Oct. 29 release. Typically, the
Polar Star travels to Antarctica each year in support of Operation Deep Freeze,
the annual military mission to resupply the United States’ Antarctic stations,
in support of the National Science Foundation.

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Video: Joint NNSA Strategic Nuclear Deterrence Forum with Mr. James McConnell & Mr. Robert Raines

James McConnell and Robert Raines joined the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace
Studies and the Advanced Nuclear Weapons Alliance Deterrence Center for a
virtual session of the Joint National Nuclear Security Administration Strategic
Nuclear Deterrence Online Forums on Maintaining a Credible Strategic Nuclear
Deterrent: Modernizing the NNSA Nuclear Weapons Complex Infrastructure.

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One More Thing...
U.S. Space Force: Origin

Neil Armstrong made “one giant leap for mankind” on July 20, 1969, as he
became the first person to walk on the moon. Now, more than 50 years later, a
new Space Force recruiting commercial says, “It’s time for another giant
leap.” The nearly 3-minute ad emphasizes the importance of space not only for
military operations but also for our everyday lives. “We aren’t just getting
ready for the near future. We’re getting ready for the 22nd Century. When our
enemies ask, ‘What if?’ We will have an answer,” according to the
commercial.

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