Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Jan. 12, 2021

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

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

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

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

Barrett, Five Other Top USAF Civilians to Leave Posts
By Rachel S. Cohen

Six high-ranking Air Force officials will say goodbye to the service Jan. 14 as
they prepare to leave their posts when the Trump administration departs next
week. The Department of the Air Force will bid farewell to Secretary Barbara M.
Barrett in a ceremony. Also on the way out are acting Air Force Undersecretary
Shon J. Manasco, Comptroller John P. Roth, General Counsel Thomas E. Ayres,
acquisition boss Will Roper, and Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for
Installations, Environment, and Energy John W. Henderson, according to the
event’s livestream page. Their last day on the job will be Jan. 19, the day
before President-elect Joe Biden’s inauguration. An Air Force spokeswoman said
the department does not yet have a full slate of acting officials to fill the
positions that will be open starting Jan. 20.

[link removed]

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

USAF Finds Key To Raising SERE Graduation Rates
By Amy McCullough

After years of struggling with high failure rates at the Air Force’s rigorous
Survival, Evasion, Resistance, and Escape Specialist Apprentice Course,
officials think they’ve finally cracked the code. Twenty-six of 28 new SERE
specialists graduated on Jan. 7, the highest-ever graduation rate. Of the two
who didn’t make it, one dropped because of an injury and will retake the
course. In the past, only about half the candidates completed the apprentice
course, the longest of three parts in the six-month SERE trainer pipeline, said
Col. Nicholas Dipoma, 336th Training Group commander. Although the possibility
of great power conflict with Russia and China make these skills increasingly
important, the SERE career field is only about 80 percent manned. The field is
“healthy enough to function,” Dipoma said, but historically high attrition
rates are “unsustainable.”

[link removed]

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

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

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

Collaborative Bombs Fall Short in First Golden Horde Flight Test
By Rachel S. Cohen

A group of networked bombs failed to hit the right target in the Air Force’s
first flight test of its nascent weapon-swarming technology last month, posing a
new obstacle as the service tries to speed the concept to the battlefield. On
Dec. 15, the Air Force Test Center dropped two Collaborative Small Diameter
Bombs from an F-16 jet to see whether the modified weapons could work together.
The weapons defaulted to hit a fail-safe location instead of their intended
target because of an “improper software load,” the Air Force said Jan. 7.

[link removed]

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

Guard to Send 10,000 Troops to D.C. Ahead of Inauguration
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

The National Guard Bureau plans to send 10,000 troops to the National Capital
Region in the lead-up to the 2020 Presidential inauguration, with permission to
tap another 5,000 if the need arises, NGB Chief Gen. Daniel R. Hokanson told
reporters Jan. 11. The U.S. Secret Service, U.S. Capitol Police, and U.S. Park
Police have all requested NGB support, he said during a joint press briefing
with Pentagon spokesman Jonathan Rath Hoffman.

[link removed]

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

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

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

Support Grows for U.S. Capitol Police Officer, ANG Vet Killed in Capitol Attack
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory

A Michigan Congresswoman asked the Defense Department to allow Brian D.
Sicknick, a Capitol Police Officer and New Jersey Air National Guard veteran who
was killed in the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol building, to be buried at
Arlington National Cemetery.

[link removed]

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

[ Advertisement ]
[link removed]

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

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]

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

Pentagon Presses Ahead with Afghanistan Troop Drawdown Despite Law Barring It

The U.S. military has not halted a U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan, the
Department of Defense told Reuters on Jan. 11, despite a new law prohibiting
further reductions without the Pentagon sending Congress an assessment of the
risks.

[link removed]

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

Stealth, Speed, Precision, and Persistence: The Keys to the Aerospace Advantage

Join 17th Air Force Chief of Staff and retired USAF Gen. John Jumper and
Mitchell Institute Dean and retired USAF Lt. Gen. Dave Deptula to explore how
the Air Force can secure maximum value for every dollar it invests. In
conversations with “Aerospace Advantage" host and retired USAF Lt. Col. John
Baum, these seasoned leaders explore the intersection between technology,
concepts of operation, and a continual quest to pursue smart solutions, not just
pure low tech mass. A central part of the conversation focuses on
cost-per-effect analysis and covers a wide range of air operations—from the
skies over Vietnam and Desert Storm, to Kosovo and Afghanistan. These leaders
also explore key investment areas that should be prioritized to best address
tomorrow’s challenges.

[link removed]

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

OPINION: The Wrong Way to Gauge Readiness

“Mission capable rate is a lagging indicator, a fleet management tool for
resource and maintenance planning. When examined in a historical sense,
especially when aggregated across a service-wide fleet, the metric is of little
utility in measuring the overall readiness of a combat unit. Therefore, claiming
the Department of Defense is less capable or ready based solely on MC rates
misrepresents actual readiness levels,” writes Matthew Donovan, defense
undersecretary for personnel and readiness.

[link removed]

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

Nebraska Bid to Attract Space Command Includes $107 Million

Nebraska’s bid to attract the U.S. Space Command’s headquarters to Offutt
Air Force Base includes $107 million of public and private money. Greater Omaha
Chamber of Commerce President David Brown said the local money is meant to help
offset the roughly $1 billion cost of building the new headquarters at Offutt.

[link removed]

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

Space Development Agency Restores L3Harris, SpaceX Contracts Following Protest

Following a series of contract protests, the Space Development Agency again
awarded SpaceX a $149 million contract and L3Harris a $193.5 million contract to
each build four satellites to detect and track ballistic and hypersonic missiles

[link removed]

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

Biden Defense Pick to Get Up to $1.7 Million From Raytheon Role

Retired Gen. Lloyd J. Austin III, President-elect Joe Biden’s pick for Defense
Secretary, may get as much as $1.7 million in payments tied to the board seat
he’d be giving up at defense contractor Raytheon Technologies Co. “As soon
as practicable but not later than 90 days after my confirmation, I will divest
my financial interest in Raytheon,” Austin wrote in his ethics agreement with
the Pentagon and his financial disclosure report, which are being released
Sunday by the Office of Government Ethics. He also pledged to recuse himself for
one year from decisions involving Raytheon, the nation’s No. 3 defense
contractor.

[link removed]
(Subscription Required)

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

Acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf Resigns after Riot at Capitol

Wolf, in a letter to Department of Homeland Security staff, said his resignation
was “warranted by recent events, including the ongoing and meritless court
rulings regarding the validity of my authority as Acting Secretary.”

[link removed]

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

For CIA Director, Biden Taps Veteran Diplomat William Burns

His selection means a career foreign service officer—not a career intelligence
official—could soon be assuming the top job at Langley.

[link removed]

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

US Could Finalize UAE F-35 Deal By Inauguration Day

Congress narrowly failed to block the controversial $23 billion deal the Trump
administration forged with the UAE, and the Biden team has expressed skepticism,
but the rush is on to wrap it up.

[link removed]

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

Scott AFB’s Innovation Hub Receives Air Force Lab Designation

Scott Air Force Base’s innovation hub, Elevate, received Air Force approval to
be designated a defense laboratory, Jan. 6. The approval marks Scott as the
first Air Force innovation cell to become an official defense lab for technology
transfer purposes. The designation allows the Elevate team to partner with
educational institutions under an Education Partnership Agreement in sharing
resources, equipment, and information. EPAs, however, do not allow the sharing
of funds.

[link removed]

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

Retired Air Force Lieutenant Colonel Arrested, Charged in Capitol Riot

Larry Rendall Brock Jr., an Air Force veteran seen brandishing zip tie handcuffs
during the pro-Trump siege at the U.S. Capitol, was arrested Jan. 10 in Texas
and charged with knowingly entering a restricted building without lawful
authority, according to the Justice Department.

[link removed]

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

One More Thing...
Retired Navy Football Mascot Bill 33, the Goat at Center of Army-Navy Scandal, Dies at 13

In 2012, the Animal Welfare League of Arlington rescued Bill 33 from a median on
Army Navy Drive, just outside the Pentagon, after he was abducted from his home
at Maryland Sunrise Farm in Gambrills. He was the latest victim in a
long-running history of mascot heists. The goatnapping of Bill 33 prompted the
Naval Academy to move their mascots’ homes and keep their location, as well as
the identities of their caretakers, secret to the public indefinitely.

[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]

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