Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Feb. 19, 2021
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Edited by Amy McCullough with Brian W. Everstine, Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory and John A. Tirpak
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Under New Rules, Officer Promotion Boards Will See More Negative Information
By John A. Tirpak
Some negative information that once might have been withheld from Air Force
officer promotion boards will now be seen and evaluated, the Air Force
announced. The new rules comply with the fiscal 2021 National Defense
Authorization Act, which mandates more transparency in promotions. The Air
Force's top personnel officer, however, said it won't end the careers of those
making “one mistake.”
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NATO to Increase Presence in Iraq, Afghanistan Future Unclear
By Brian W. Everstine
NATO will increase its presence in Iraq following the U.S. drawdown in the
country, but its future force size in Afghanistan is still up in the air as
violence remains high. The alliance's presence in Iraq will grow from 500 to
about 4,000, not including the 2,500 American troops now deployed to the
country, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said Feb. 18, following two
days of meetings with member nations' defense leaders. Training activities also
will expand to Iraqi security institutions beyond Baghdad, he added. The future
in Afghanistan is less clear, due to Taliban violence.
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USAF to Continue Large Exercise, Increase Training With Five Arctic Nations
By Brian W. Everstine
The United States and five other Arctic nations will continue one of the
continent's largest air exercises, the Pentagon announced. Acting Air Force
Secretary John P. Roth and the defense ministers of Denmark, Finland, Norway,
and Sweden signed a letter of intent to continue the Arctic Challenge Exercise
this June. The exercise was last held in 2019, and included more than 140
aircraft and 4,000 troops from nine countries. The letter also expands on the
Air Force’s first-ever Arctic Strategy, which called for increased
interoperability with key allies in the region, according to a Feb. 18 release.
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Beale T-38 Makes Gear-Up Landing at Mather Airport
By Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory
A T-38 Talon aircraft assigned to the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale Air Force
Base, Calif., landed at Mather Airport in Mather, Calif., with at least one of
its gears up, causing a fire, the wing announced in a release. No one was
injured in the incident.
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30 Years After Desert Storm: Feb. 19-21
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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The Pentagon Says There’s No Data on Troops Refusing Vaccines. One General Just Proved Them Wrong
“I think our initial look—and this, of course, is very early data—is
acceptance rates are somewhere in the two-thirds territory, and of course it
varies by different groups,” Maj. Gen. Jeff Taliaferro testified before the
House Armed Services Committee. Taliaferro, vice director of operations for the
Joint Chiefs of Staff, is the first defense official to publicly acknowledge
that the military knows how many troops are opting to not get a COVID-19
vaccine.
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‘They Know All About It’: Pentagon Report Details Military Reach of Supremacist Groups
A 59-page Pentagon report that was submitted to members of Congress in October
and obtained by Military.com this week shows the reach some white supremacist
groups have in the military ranks. While the number of overall cases is low, the
report states that the combination of extremist affiliations and military
experience is a national security concern "because of their proven ability to
execute high-impact events."
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Helping Military Children Is ‘Critical to Our National Security,’ Says First Lady
First Lady Jill Biden told a group of educators and advocates that “giving
military kids what they need to thrive is not just a nice thing to do, it’s
critical to our national security,” in another of a series of listening
sessions gathering information about the issues of military families.
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Space Lasers Will Revolutionize Military Communications, If They Work
The Pentagon has ambitious plans to launch hundreds of communications satellites
in the years ahead. But getting them to talk to one another isn’t easy.
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Army Chief To Navy, Air Force: We’ve Got ‘Speed & Range’
“The future is all about range and speed,” Gen. McConville declared, and
longtime Army watchers perked up. With the other services circling for a
prophesied budgetary “bloodletting”, the Army really needs a clear and
catchy argument for its modernization program.
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Space Force Says New Anti-Jamming Upgrade Coming in 2022
The Space and Missile Systems Center completed three virtual tests of a new
anti-jamming capability for satellite communications in the final months of
2020, the center announced Feb. 17. The mitigation and anti-jam enhancement
program will provide advanced anti-jamming support for Wideband Global SATCOM,
which provides satellite communications to American war fighters around the
world. Once operational, the capability will allow the WGS constellation to
pinpoint and mitigate attempts to jam its signal.
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US Space Command to Recommend Investments in Space Infrastructure
The U.S. military over decades has built extensive infrastructure to move troops
and equipment around the world. It may now need to start thinking about
investing in foundation technologies to support future activities in space, said
Lt. Gen. John E. Shaw, deputy commander of U.S. Space Command.
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One More Thing...
Touchdown! NASA's Mars Perseverance Rover Safely Lands on Red Planet
The agency’s latest and most complex mission to the Red Planet has touched
down at Jezero Crater. Now it’s time to begin testing the health of the rover.
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