Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Jan. 25, 2021

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

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Austin Becomes 1st Black Defense Secretary
By Brian W. Everstine

Lloyd Austin was sworn in as Defense Secretary on Jan. 22, shortly after the
Senate confirmed his nomination, becoming the first Black person to hold the
position. He assumes the top Defense Department job just one day after Congress
approved a waiver allowing him to lead the Pentagon five years after he retired
from Active duty. Austin, who retired in 2016 as the four-star commander of U.S.
Central Command after 40 years in service, becomes President Joe Biden’s
Defense Secretary after a quick and relatively easy confirmation process,
despite consternation from many lawmakers about the further erosion of civilian
oversight of the military.

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COVID-19 Delays Pentagon’s New Joint Warfighting Plan
By Rachel S. Cohen

The coronavirus pandemic has delayed release of the Pentagon’s new joint
combat guidelines until the spring, complicating efforts to put the armed forces
on the same path to better communication and speed up decision-making, the
military’s No. 2 officer said Jan. 22. Gen. John E. Hyten, vice chairman of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during an event hosted by the National Security
Space Association that even after a year of development, the joint warfighting
concept hasn’t reached “the first level of maturity” needed to publish an
initial plan.

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Next F-35 Contracts Under Negotiation, Deal Expected by Late September
By John A. Tirpak

Lockheed Martin and the Pentagon are negotiating the next three lots of F-35
production, expecting a contract by the end of the fiscal year, the Joint
Program Office reported. The negotiating strategy calls for a “base year”
contract followed by two options, likely to allow time for development to be
declared complete. That milestone was postponed to later this year by former
Pentagon acquisition and sustainment boss Ellen Lord.

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Air Force Projects Halted by Continuing Resolution Now Move Forward
By Rachel S. Cohen

A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain
on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and
construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a
stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on
Oct. 1 to Dec. 27, when former President Donald J. Trump signed a fiscal 2021
funding bill into law. Officials have indicated they will need to work through
the CR's ripple effects with the Biden administration and a new Congress.

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New Paint Job for Air Force One Not on Biden’s To-Do List, Yet
By Brian W. Everstine

Want to know what the next Air Force One Will look like? You’ll have to wait.
Deciding on the color scheme for the VC-25B, which is under development to
replace the current VC-25As that serve as Air Force One, is not on the immediate
to-do list for President Joe Biden. Former President Donald J. Trump in June
2019 displayed a proposed new livery for the next Air Force One, which would
replace the famous white, gold, and light blue with a red, white, and blue
scheme. “The President has not spent a moment thinking about the color scheme
of Air Force One,” White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said in a Jan. 22
briefing, adding that “certainly, we’re aware of the proposal.”

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30 Years After Desert Storm: Jan. 23-25

In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, Air Force
Magazine is posting daily recollections from the six-week war, which expelled
Iraq from occupied Kuwait.

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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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Defense Chief Orders Review of Military Sex Assault Programs

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in his first directive since taking office, has
given his senior leaders two weeks to send him reports on sexual assault
prevention programs in the military, and an assessment of what has worked and
what hasn’t. Austin’s memo, which went out Saturday, fulfills a commitment
he made to senators last week during confirmation hearings. He had vowed to
immediately address the problems of sexual assault and harassment in the ranks.

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‘Packed Us Together Like Sardines’: Guard Deployed to Capitol Struggles to Contain COVID-19

Hundreds of Guard members who poured into Washington after the Jan. 6 assault on
the U.S. Capitol have tested positive for Covid-19 or are quarantining in nearby
hotels.

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Hackers Hijacked Cloud Accounts of High-Tech and Aviation Firms, Hid in Systems for Years

A sophisticated threat actor gained illegal access into the networks of
high-tech and aviation companies by initially hacking into their cloud-based
services. Attacker dwell time on the secretly infiltrated networks sometimes
lasted as long as three years. In a recently released report, the NCC Group and
its subsidiary Fox-IT said researchers encountered this threat actor during
numerous incident response engagements between October 2019 through April 2020.
But the initial infections preceded this timeframe, in at least one case dating
back to 2017.

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Coronavirus Kills Reserve Sailor and National Guard Airman

Petty Officer 2nd Class Abdigafar Salad Warsame, 52, was a Navy Reserve
logistics specialist assigned to Navy Operational Support Center in Columbus,
Ohio, when he died Jan. 8 at a local hospital due to complications associated
with the coronavirus, Cmdr. Ben Tisdale, a Navy Reserve Force spokesman, said in
a statement on Jan. 21. The other service member who died from the virus was a
member of the New York Air National Guard, according to the Pentagon. Due to the
wishes of the airman's family, the Guard will not release any information about
the service member, said Eric Durr, a spokesman with the New York National
Guard.

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Sheppard Air Force Base Main Gate Closed After Airman Found Dead on Base

The main gate at Sheppard Air Force Base is closed to inbound and outbound
traffic until further notice. An Airman was found dead on base and an
investigation is underway.

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National Guard Identifies 3 Soldiers Killed in Helicopter Crash in New York

The New York Army National Guard has identified the three soldiers who died in a
helicopter crash in upstate New York as Chief Warrant Officer 5 Steven Skoda,
Chief Warrant Officer 4 Christian Koch, and Chief Warrant Officer 2 Daniel
Prial. The three men were flying in a UH-60 medical evacuation helicopter on
Wednesday during a routine training mission when the aircraft went down in
Mendon, New York.

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PODCAST—Flying the Missions: The Desert Storm Air Campaign 30 Years Later.

In the third installment of the Mitchell Institute’s Aerospace Advantage
podcast retired Lt. Gen. Bruce “Orville” Wright, AFA’s president and a
former F-16 pilot; B-52 pilot retired Lt. Gen. Michael R. Moeller; F-117 pilot
retired Maj. Gen. Gregory A. Feest; F-15C pilot Col. Rico Rodriguez; Air Force
Special Operations retired Col. Randy O’Boyle; and Dale Burton, who was the
technical lead for JSTARS, discuss their role in the Gulf War. Each brings
unique experiences to the conversation, ranging from Feest, who dropped the
first bomb in Iraq from an F-117, or Rodriguez, who scored multiple air-to-air
kills against Iraq MiGs.

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Hyten: U.S. Space Force is ‘On Solid Ground’ Despite Speculation

President Biden is not expected to make abrupt changes to U.S. national security
programs but there is particular uncertainty surrounding the Space Force because
it was so actively championed by the Trump administration.

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Aerospace Nation: Never Mind We’ll Do it Ourselves—Book Launch

The Mitchell Institute hosts an Aerospace Nation event with the authors of the
new book, Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves: The Inside Story of How a Team of
Renegades Broke Rules, Shattered Barriers, and Launched a Drone Warfare
Revolution. Retired USAF Col. Mark Cooter, former CIA case officer Alec
Bierbauer, and co-author Michael Marks provide an inside-look into the story
behind the armed Predator program and the dawn of unmanned aerial warfare.
Listen to the discussion as we look at how RPAs became a critical airpower
asset. Never Mind, We'll Do It Ourselves: The Inside Story of How a Team of
Renegades Broke Rules, Shattered Barriers, and Launched a Drone Warfare
Revolution will be available on Amazon on Jan. 26.

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As 5G Auction Continues, Pentagon Turns to Safety Planning

The Defense Department will focus on preventing interference to aviation
instruments rather than trying to stop the Federal Communications Commission
from auctioning C-band spectrum used for 5G communication, officials tell
Defense News.

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One More Thing...
‘The President Threw Us Under the Bus’: Embedding with Pentagon Leadership in Trump’s Chaotic Last Week

Throughout the final, frenzied days of the Trump administration, a reporter rode
shotgun with the outgoing acting defense secretary, Christopher Miller, the man
who, under the distracted eye of his commander in chief, became America’s de
facto guardian.

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