Air Force Magazine
Daily Report for Dec. 23, 2019
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Edited by Brian W. Everstine and Rachel S. Cohen
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Editor's Note
The Daily Report will pause for the holidays from Dec. 24 to Jan. 1; we will
return to your inbox on Jan. 2. We wish you a happy and safe season, wherever
you may be, and thank you for reading. See you in 2020!
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Space Force Established as Trump Signs NDAA
By Rachel S. Cohen
President Donald Trump on Dec. 20 established the US Space Force as America’s
sixth military service, one of the most significant changes in Air Force history
and a milestone in America’s exploration and militarization of the cosmos. The
Space Force is the Pentagon’s first branch of the military solely dedicated to
organizing, training, and equipping personnel to operate and protect military
space assets like GPS satellites. It will sit within the Air Force and draw on
much of the service’s existing bureaucracy, while aiming to create its own
culture and structure to prioritize and tackle space in new ways.
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KC-46 Program Downgrades Cargo Lock Issue, Begins Retrofits
By Brian W. Everstine
The Air Force on Dec. 18 downgraded one of the top-level problems facing the
KC-46 program, lifting a three-month ban that stopped the tanker from carrying
personnel and cargo as Boeing began installing new cargo locks on the aircraft.
The redesigned lock has been retrofitted onto four aircraft so far.
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Afghan Stalemate Remains as Pentagon Defends Mission
By Brian W. Everstine
The Afghanistan War remains a “strategic stalemate” 18 years after it began,
the Pentagon's top uniformed officer said Dec. 20, defending the conflict's main
mission as successful from the beginning. “This is a very difficult,
complicated situation," Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley
said during a press briefing. “Our soldiers, sailors, airmen, and Marines who
have given their lives in Afghanistan have not given their lives in vain."
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Northrop Grumman Gets Funding for Hundreds of F-16 Radars
By Rachel S. Cohen
Northrop Grumman will build hundreds of active electronically scanned array
radars for the F-16 fighter jet under a Dec. 19 contract worth more than $1
billion. The contract covers work on up to 372 radars through May 2027. It
modifies an earlier award to finalize the funding.
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USAF Issues Weapon Swarm Research Contract
By Rachel S. Cohen
Atlanta-based Georgia Tech Applied Research Corp. on Dec. 19 received an $85
million contract for the Air Force's "Golden Horde" project that aims to show
weapons can work together in self-directed swarms. The demonstration is one of
AFRL's initial "vanguard" programs that will pull resources from across the lab
to speed development. It replaced the earlier "Gray Wolf" missile swarming
effort to instead network weapons already in the Air Force inventory.
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Boeing Starliner Fails Key NASA Mission as Autonomous Flight System Malfunctions
Boeing’s spacecraft Starliner, developed to fly astronauts, failed to achieve
the goal of its critical flight test for NASA, when it was launched to space on
Dec. 20. Starliner was supposed to fly to the International Space Station,
deliver cargo, and return safely—to demonstrate its capabilities and safety.
But the spacecraft will not dock with the space station after its autonomous
flight-control system misfired shortly after the launch, putting Starliner in
the wrong orbit.
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Senate Confirms Three Senior DOD Officials
The Senate voted the evening of Dec. 19 to confirm three senior Pentagon
officials before the end of the year.
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Pentagon Creates ‘Cadre of Pricing Experts’ to Curb Parts Abuses
The Pentagon has created a “Cadre of Pricing Experts” to identify pricing
trends for spare parts and suppliers that should be monitored to prevent a
continued “assault on the American taxpayers,” according to chief weapons
buyer Ellen Lord.
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Pentagon Announces Plans to Monitor Foreign Trainees' Social Media Posts
The Pentagon has completed re-screening all Saudi students in US military
training programs following a deadly Dec. 6 shooting rampage at NAS Pensacola,
Fla., Defense Department officials announced Dec. 19. No indications of
additional threats have surfaced, they said.
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Nearly 60 Percent of Women Experience Stalking in the Ranks, Study Finds
A new study looking into the prevalence of stalking in the rank-and-file paints
a grim picture of a military already fraught with questions that suggest a toxic
culture. The report from the Journal of Interpersonal Violence, titled “An
Examination of Stalking Experiences During Military Service Among Female and
Male Veterans and Associations With PTSD and Depression,” analyzed responses
by 1,733 veterans in an effort to understand not only the rate of stalking
during military service, but the impact these experiences have on mental health.
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Senate Passes Bill to Ban VA from Signing Settlements with Doctors Fired for Medical Mistakes
The Senate on Dec. 19 unanimously approved a measure that would make it harder
for Veterans Affairs Department doctors disciplined for medical mistakes to get
new jobs, with lawmakers in both parties saying it would bring more
accountability to VA and prevent veterans from receiving poor care.
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One More Thing...
MacDill Releases Plan to Search for Lost African American Cemetery on Base
After learning about a lost African American cemetery on property that existed
before MacDill Air Force Base was built in Tampa in 1939, leaders at MacDill
have released a plan to search for any lost graves that might remain. 10News
research has found dozens of death certificates as well as newspaper articles
that show the cemetery that existed as early as 1902.
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