Arctic Warrior 21

04/23/2021

Snow stirred up by rotor wash clouds the scene as American and Canadian personnel participate in a simulated aerial assault as part of Arctic Warrior 21.

A detachment from the Royal Canadian Air Force’s 450th Tactical Helicopter Squadron, based out of Petawawa, Ontario, joins elements of 1st Battalion, 52nd Aviation Regiment, and 1st Attack Reconnaissance Battalion, 25th Aviation Regiment, both from Fort Wainwright, for the flight.

FORT WAINWRIGHT, AK

02.17.2021

Video by Eve Baker

Fort Wainwright Public Affairs Office

USS Abraham Lincoln Operations in U.S. Third Fleet AOR

04/22/2021

The USS Carl Vinson will go to sea this year with the first operational F-35Cs and CMV-22Bs onboard.

Next up will be the USS Abraham Lincoln.

Currently, Abraham Lincoln is underway conducting routine operations in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations.

These photos provide highlights of the flight operations onboard the ship.

PACIFIC OCEAN

04.15.2021

Photo by Seaman Madison Cassidy 

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN 72)

Arctic Gold 21-2: Working Fifth Gen Agile Combat Operations

The Arctic Gold 21-2 exercise is working the USAF’s approach to what the Navy call distributed operations.

During the exercise this month, airmen are practicing Agile Combat Employment capabilities.

These capabilities allow them to work dislocated operations and to still generated integrated combat power.

In other words, they are working the strategic shift from the land wars to distributed integration operations through kill webs.

As the exercise concluded, a 354th fighter wing story highlighted the exercise.

The earth shakes continuously as a thunderous roar passes overhead. It’s source–rapid mobilization of Eielson’s entire fighter fleet.

F-35A Lightning IIs, F-16 Fighting Falcons, and KC-135 Stratotankers rips through the clouds and as fast as the noise starts, it stops, and silence falls over the flightline.

Arctic Gold 21-2 was a readiness exercise designed to test Eielson’s rapid deployment capabilities alongside the newly implemented Agile Combat Employment strategy.

“This exercise strengthened our ability to mobilize and deploy lethal, expeditionary, fifth-generation airpower,” said Col. David Berkland, the 354th Fighter Wing Commander. “To deliver combat airpower we need the entire fighter wing team. No matter if you support, defend, or deliver airpower, be ready.”

With only half of its F-35A fleet currently, the 354th FW tested its combat tempo during this exercise by demonstrating its ability to rapidly launch, recover, and refuel the F-35A. The wing accomplished its mission and it was a resounding success.

“This is really the first time our combat squadrons are executing a combat readiness exercise of this scale,” said Maj. Lloyd Wright, the 354th Inspector General director of exercises and inspections. “We worked with units across the wing to provide a realistic training environment that really sharpened our edge as a combat wing.”

The IG office has been using their Wing Inspection Team to oversee the efficiency of AG 21-2 procedures. While battling a large snowstorm and a lot of firsts, the 354th FW continues to prove their readiness for combat in the Pacific Theatre.

During the high tempo launches on the runway, Airmen trained on rapid deployment and support capabilities, enhancing the process along the way.

“This exercise provided a glimpse of the formidable combat capability we provide United States Indo-Pacific Command: Two combat-ready F-35A squadrons on call,” Berkland said. “It wasn’t perfect and we learned a lot, but mobilizing 100 percent of our fifth-generation airpower on short notice is a testament to the hard work and excellence of our fighter wing team. Our mission continues to accelerate as the fighter wing changes to a combat culture and we drive on toward full combat capability, fueled by our disciplined, professional, combat-focused Airmen.”

An earlier story published by the USAF on February 22, 2021 highlighted agile combat employment training during the Cope North 21 exercise.

Somewhere above the vast Pacific Ocean, a fighter aircraft has flown for hours, and its fuel supply is running low. Unable to return to its home station for fuel, that’s when Agile Combat Employment (ACE) comes into play. Down below on a small island, three Airmen are waiting to refuel the aircraft and rapidly launch it back into the fight.

“ACE is this warfighting concept that the Pacific Air Forces is trying to operationalize, and we’re doing a pretty good job of it,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Jared Hutchinson, Cope North 2021 exercise director and 35th Operations Group commander at Misawa Air Base, Japan. “The basic concept behind it is that we use our agility to disperse off our main operating bases, and then we execute in a decentralized or more autonomous manner, which allows us to be much more resilient in a contested environment.”

A focal training point for Cope North 21 was to test the ACE multi-capable Airmen concept with our partner nation, Japan.

This concept involves teaching personnel how to complete tasks outside of their assigned Air Force Specialty Code (AFSC). At Cope North, Airmen and members of the Koku-Jieitai were divided into three-person teams, acting as two crew chiefs and a fuels technician. U.S. Air Force Tech. Sgt. Todd Johnson is a standards and evaluations assistant flight chief assigned to the 36th Contingency Response Squadron (CRS) at Andersen Air Force Base, Guam. As a member of the CRS, Johnson could be out the door at a moment’s notice responding to a crisis anywhere in the region, making him a prime candidate for the multi-capable Airmen training.

“If an individual is responsible for completing a task and is unable to do so, it’s very important that the person to his left or right is trained and able to complete the task at hand,” he said. “When you’re on the road, it’s nice to be able to help your counterparts and can become necessary for you to fill their shoes if something unexpected were to happen.”

Unfamiliar at first with the capability, Johnson used a national pastime to explain ACE.

“Think of it like a pit stop in NASCAR. If you have a well-trained and organized team, then a jet will be able to land, get a safety check, get refueled and ready to get back in the sky in just minutes,” he said.

The ACE training consists of three phases: Phase one is classroom academics. Phase two is hands-on training and familiarization with the aircraft. Phase three is real-world execution.

“During academics we covered the requirements for hot-pit refuels including how each area should be set up, the personnel required, skill level and qualifications of each member,” Johnson said. “We also covered both the F-16 Fighting Falcon and F-35A Lightning II hot-pit refuel procedures, danger areas, hand signals and safety measures required to perform the task safely and efficiently.”

Phase 3 took place on Feb. 15 and 16 with Johnson and his team heading out to Northwest Field to put their skills to the test. They hot-pit refueled an F-16 Fighting Falcon and an F-35A, completing all the phases of ACE.

According to U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Dustin Mustach, ACE operations have come a long way in such a short time.

“We are no longer taking baby steps with ACE, we are making leaps proving we can operate anywhere,” said Mustach, an F-16 Fighting Falcon crew chief assigned to the 13th Fighter Squadron at Misawa Air Base, Japan. “This ACE operation is going to be a massive reference point for multiple bases. Future ACE operations will be prepared faster, making goals more attainable, which will eventually lead to ACE having much larger goals.”

As the old saying goes ‘with practice comes mastery,’ and the exercises at Cope North 21 worked towards that goal.

“What we learned is only going to improve with repetition,” said Johnson. “As ACE and MCA continue to develop and find its place in the Air Force, what we’ve accomplished and learned this Cope North is going to help build and pave the road for future MCA.”

Editor’s Note: In considering the F-35 in this role, its ability to fight as a wolfpack is a key unique combat capability. 

In an article by Robbin Laird published on July 26, 2020, how this is done was the focus of attention and such capabilities make ACE operations ever more effective in providing for distributed integrated capabilities.

In the article on “Standing C2 on its Head,” argued that  C2 systems are no longer commodities added platform by platform; they are the operating infrastructure within which platforms find their role within a scalable, tailorable combat force.

But how best to build out such an operating infrastructure based on the force we have, rather than envisaging a new world in 2030?

A key building block in reshaping what C2/ISR can provide for the combat force is how the F-35 is reshaping the combat forces of which it is a part.

In that earlier article. I highlighted how the Marines are experiencing this impact.

“The communications, navigation and identification (CNI) system within the F-35 enables the Marines to not just integrate their F-35s and to work a different approach to knowledge management to inform the maneuver force, but allows Marine Corps F-35s to be integratable with joint and coalition F-35s as well.

“The integration of the F-35 into the Marine Corps and its ability to work with joint and coalition F-35s provides significant reach to F-35 empowered mobile bases afloat or ashore

“In a recent interview which I conducted with Major Brian “Flubes” Hansell, MAWTS-1 F-35 Division Head, we discussed at length what the coming of the F-35 and its integratability capabilities meant for the evolution of the USMC and its role with joint and coalition partners.

“The coming of the F-35 to the USMC has expanded their ability to operate within a broader kill web and to both empower their expeditionary bases as well as to contribute to the broader kill web approach.

“The Marine’s F-35s are part of the broader joint and coalition force of F-35s, and notably in the Pacific this extends the reach significantly of the Marine’s F-35s and brings greater situational awareness as well as reach to other strike platforms to the force operating from an expeditionary base as well as enhancing the kill web reach for the joint or coalition force.

“As Major Hansell put it: “By being an expeditionary, forward-based service, we’re effectively extending the bounds of the kill web for the entire joint and coalition force.”

The F-35 is not just another combat asset, but at the heart of empowering an expeditionary kill web-enabled and enabling force. On the one hand, the F-35 leads the wolfpack. As Major Hansell put it: “During every course, we are lucky to have one of the lead software design engineers for the F-35 come out as a guest lecturer to teach our students the intricacies of data fusion.

“During one of these lectures, a student asked the engineer to compare the design methodology of the F-35 Lightning II to that of the F-22 Raptor.

“I like this anecdote because it is really insightful into how the F-35 fights.

“To paraphrase, this engineer explained that “the F-22 was designed to be the most lethal single-ship air dominance fighter ever designed.  Period.

“The F-35, however, was able to leverage that experience to create a multi-role fighter designed from its very inception to hunt as a pack.”

Simply put, the F-35 does not tactically operate as a single aircraft.

It hunts as a network-enabled, cooperative four-ship fighting a fused picture, and was designed to do so from the very beginning.

“We hunt as a pack.

Future upgrades may look to expand the size of the pack.”

The F-35 is a unique platform, and how the platform operates as well.

It has been designed from the ground up as a low observable platform to operate in contested air space means.

To maintain a low observable signature the aircraft is made from composites and its sensors must be embedded into the skin of the aircraft to ensure that it can operate as a low observable asset.

Anything the aircraft transmits must also be low observable.

This requires the use of low probability to intercept /low probability of detection (LPI/LPD) waveforms and technologies.

The F-35 has been designed from the ground up to be networked within the battlespace.

To do this, it needs low latency communications capabilities that are also low observable.

The F-35 is designed to operate as a networked pack that can then be networked to the rest of the battlespace with the right architecture.

The pack operates at the tactical edge and then enables the entire force throughout the battelspace.

These platform requirements provide the demand side for building the communications system onboard the aircraft.

And given the challenge of combing low latency with low observability, the opportunity to shape in effect a flying smart phone solution was required for the aircraft to fight as a pack.

Given the limited space on any combat aircraft, size, weight, and power (SWaP) must be managed and reduced to improve operational efficiency and logistics, increase mission life, and reduce the total cost of system ownership.

System upgrades are driving added functionality and increased performance, placing additional attention on SWaP.

The solution set worked by Northrop Grumman. the contractor responsible for developing, delivering, and upgrading the CNI system onboard the F-35, provides an ability to use the sensors embedded on the aircraft and to flow that data into a fused system.

In turn, this fused system enables the communication system writ large to both draw upon a network of sensors and to communicate the data fused from those sensors to trusted partners in the battle space.

The system entails an ability to manage the aircraft’s skin and network of sensors through data fusion into a unique box carried onboard the aircraft.

That box holds a series of cards, which enable three functionalities to be fused within the system, namely communications, navigation and identification and that is why it is called the CNI.

The three functions are managed and executed through the CNI system which draws upon the same network of sensors thus providing both low latency transfer of data from the aircraft and effective use of limited space onboard the aircraft.

The box required onboard the aircraft was designed to deal with the data fusion opportunities and the SWAP requirements.

How this box operates and evolves is a key part of the overall Northrop Grumman approach.  Overtime, the box has shrunk in size, and the cards have become more capable as hardware capabilities to operate evolving software have been transformed. The interaction among what the cards can do provides the interactive capability which the CNI manages.

Cards can hold different wave forms to enable various ways to connect to combat assets in the battlespace.

The CNI system on an F-35 can manage 27 different waveforms, including the Multifunction Advanced Data Link (MADL) waveform.

MADL is the unique low latency wave form is used for other low latency assets.

MADL requires low latency to support machine to machine interactions between platforms as well.

In contrast, other wave forms, such as Link 16, for example, can be used to inform higher latency assets via that wave form of key information useful to those assets operating in the wider combat space.

The MADL wave form along with how F-35s process data and manage enables F-35s to operate as an integrated combat package able to collectively fuse data, and to do so within a specific force package which by being interactively fused provides higher levels of accuracy than any one combat aircraft operating by itself could provide.

The current F-35 software configuration allows for combined sensor fusion to be shared and able to work seamlessly through the CNI system, and with the MAD wave form they are able to communicate and share situational awareness and to operate in contested air space and make decisions at the tactical edge.

This capability sets the standards for what being able to operate in a contested environment is all about.

Contested airspace ultimately is the ability to operate within that battlespace and to shape effective decisions about how to disrupt the adversaries command and control and key nodes of combat capability to enable the entire force to be used effectively in shaping escalation dominance.

F-35 Pack Operations moving forward highlights and provides a case study of the importance of shaping a more integrated combat force one which can operate in distributed battlespace but be aggregated at the point of attack as the opportunity and need arrives.

It is about reshaping the combat force to become more integratable and when considering new platforms ensuring that integratability is built into these platforms.

It is also a leverage point into shaping a broader approach of C2/ISR capabilities necessary to enable the kind of combat force which can operate across the spectrum of conflict.

The F-35 is a unique platform, but its build out and operational experience sets a dynamic background against which a broader shift in understanding a way ahead to enhance the integratability of a multi-domain force.

Working Air-Sea Integration: The UK and Netherlands Shape a Way Ahead

04/21/2021

The Dutch and UK Marines operate as a fully integrated force.

With the coming of the new UK Queen Elizabeth carriers, there are expanded opportunities for air-sea integration as well.

According to a March 31, 2021 UK Ministry of Defence story, the UK Carrier strike group will integrate a Dutch Frigate into its deployment.

Royal Netherlands Navy frigate HNLMS Evertsen will join the UK Carrier Strike Group for the duration of its inaugural deployment – from the North Atlantic, through to the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and on to the Indo-Pacific. The strike group will undertake a range of operations and training with allies and partners, including maritime missions with NATO in the Mediterranean and Coalition operations in the Middle East. As an Air Defence Frigate she will provide vital air defence protection to the Carrier and control air missions from her operations room.

Frigate Evertsen joins a squadron of US Marine Corps F35 jets and a US Navy Destroyer as a contribution from our NATO Allies to the 2021 deployment. They will be integral elements of the Carrier Strike Group, showcasing NATO’s first 5th generation Carrier Strike asset and demonstrating NATO’s credible deterrence through joint expeditionary capability.

CSG21 will be an ambitious deployment, covering over 20,000 nautical miles from the North Atlantic, through to the Mediterranean, Indian Ocean and on to the Indo-Pacific.

Defence Secretary Ben Wallace said:

“The Netherlands’ participation adds another dimension to this UK sovereign deployment. Our NATO, JEF and European Ally’s commitment signals the Carrier Strike Group’s contribution to collective defence and credible deterrence.

“This joint deployment will offer a unique opportunity for our forces to integrate and operate together in support of truly shared global defence and security challenges.”

Minister of Defence of the Kingdom of the Netherlands Ank Bijleveld-Schouten said:

“I am very pleased that HNLMS Evertsen participates in the UK Carrier Strike Group. This provides the Royal Netherlands Navy with the unique opportunity to exercise in this type of international setting, in particular with the UK and the US, but also with other partners.

“The UK is a strategic partner and important NATO ally of the Netherlands, also post-Brexit. Participation in the Carrier Strike Group enables the Royal Netherlands Navy to provide a valuable contribution to the NATO alliance in the near future. The Armed Forces of the United Kingdom and the Netherlands have worked together intensively for years. This new combined activity underlines our close ties.”

HNLMS Evertsen is a highly sophisticated air defence frigate, equipped with weapons and sensors that will protect the Carrier Strike Group from hostile aircraft and missiles. She is also capable of conducting maritime security duties, operating either as part of the Strike Group or independently.

The Netherlands have played a significant role in the build up to the deployment through participation in a series of multi-national exercises throughout 2020, most recently Exercise Strike Warrior last October in the North Sea.

The featured photo is of HNMLS Evertsen.

The Osprey as a Cross-Deck Combat Capability: The Case of USNS Mercy

04/20/2021

PACIFIC OCEAN (Apr. 14, 2021)

An MV-22B Osprey assigned to Air Test and Evaluation (HX) Squadron 21 of Naval Air Station (NAS) Patuxent River, Md., landing aboard Military Sealift Command hospital ship USNS Mercy’s (T-AH 19) flight deck for the first time Apr. 14.

Mercy is underway off the coast of Southern California completing Dynamic Interface testing, where the ship’s aviation facilities will be evaluated for compatibility with the V-22 Osprey and MH-60 Seahawk, and establish launch and recovery windows in adverse weather conditions.

Mercy recently returned to its homeport in San Diego from a regular overhaul in Portland, Ore., where improvements were made to its flight deck to support multiple aircraft platforms.

Mercy must be in a five-day-activation status in order to support missions over the horizon, and be ready, reliable and resilient to support mission commanders. (U.S. Navy photo by Mass Communication Specialist 3rd Class Luke Cunningham)

This is a case of the flexibility which the Osprey brings to fleet as it focuses on blue water expeditionary operations.

As noted in an article we published on April 13, 2021:

Carrier Strike Group 4, or CSG-4, runs Carrier Strike and Amphibious Readiness Groups through the final phases of their inter-deployment training cycles to prepare these units for their future deployments.

According to the U.S Navy:

“Carrier Strike Group 4 trains and delivers combat–ready naval forces to U.S. 2nd Fleet (C2F) and U.S. Fleet Forces Command capable of conducting full-spectrum integrated Maritime, Joint, and Combined Operations in support of U.S. National interests. CSG-4 conducts training through exercises that create a realistic training environment and includes academic, synthetic and live training. Groups trained include Carrier Strike Groups, Amphibious Ready Groups and Marine Expeditionary Units, independent deployers and Forward Deployed Naval Forces – Europe (FDNF-E).”

But as the Navy rethinks how to use its aircraft carriers, how to use its amphibious forces and how to use the whole gamut of its surface and subsurface forces to fight as a fleet, an opportunity for change is clear: why not rework how air assets move across the sea bases to provide the Fleet a wider variety of combat capabilities tailored to specific combat scenarios?

Notably, moving helicopters and tiltrotor assets across the Fleet provide for a wider variety of options than simply having a set piece of equipment onboard each class of ship.

To determine how best to do so, Naval Aviation Leaders must begin to focus focus on exercises, fleet battle experiments, and lessons learned during training and real-world operations.

A key enabler for cross-decking is to ensure that all aircraft operating throughout the maritime battlespace have the digital interoperability commanders must have and rely on to ensure mission success. 

With the potential to refocus the amphibious fleet operations on sea control and denial missions such as was evident in last year’s Black Widow exercise with the USS WASP, exercising an integrated carrier and expeditionary strike force with a cross-decking capability would make a great deal of sense towards driving increased innovation as well.

For example, with the Viper attack helicopter becoming Link-16 and Full Motion Video capable, its ability to work with the SH-60R provide ships at sea with a significant self-defense capabilities.

Not only could the Vipers function with a wide array of weapons which they can carry in both anti-air and anti-surface roles, but new roles could be invented for the Ospreys operating throughout the fleet.

With roll on roll off capabilities being used to enhance various mission sets for the Ospreys, new capabilities could be added to this aircraft as well, including both surface and subsurface strike.

The coming of the CMV-22B could provide the Fleet a significant cross deck logistic capability to to deliver mission critical cargo and supplies throughout the fleet.

Put another way, thinking of the deployed sea-bases as a chessboard rather than as scripted task forces built around specific platforms, can expand the capabilities of the Navy in fighting as a fleet.

And with the kind of allied collaboration being pursued by the U.S. Navy worldwide, the redesign of the chessboard by rethinking how new platforms in naval aviation can be mated to a wider variety of at sea platforms would significantly the Navy’s operational reach and capability.

In short, we are at the cusp of a significant redesign of how the fleet can operate and the future of naval aviation, which will be further enabled as additional capabilities come to the force with teaming of manned and unmanned systems, will play a leading role in how the fleet operate in the future.

By reworking the template now, it will facilitate a more intelligent and synchronized use of unmanned systems as they mature, become available to the fleet, and provide for an effective family of systems with future and innovative manned aircraft.

Japan-U.S.-France Trilateral Naval Exercise

From December 15 to 17, the JMSDF conducted a trilateral exercise with the U.S. Navy and the French Navy around Okinotorishima Island.

JS Hyuga from the JMSDF participated in this anti-submarine warfare exercise alongside the U.S. Navy destroyer USS John S. McCain and P-8A aircraft as well as the French Navy’s submarine FS Émeraude.

Through the training, the JMSDF has improved its tactical skills and mutual understanding with the U.S. Navy and the French Navy, and the cooperation and unity among the three countries under the vision of a “Free and Open Indo-Pacific” were demonstrated.

Story from MoD Japan

Israel and the CH-53K Decision: Re-Baselining Heavy Lift Helicopters for Strategic Uncertainty

By Robbin Laird

Recently, the IDF selected the CH-53K to replace its legacy CH-53s.

In my last article on this subject, I highlighted one key factor in the decision, namely, the importance of having a new aircraft which reduced pilot training and operational load for reserve pilots.

As I concluded: “If you rely on reserves as a key part of force structure capabilities and rely on mobilization as part of your force augmentation strategy, it is crucial to have platforms which can be re-learned rapidly prior to operating them in an operational situation.

“Even more important, if you have a man-machine capability such as fly by wire, then the capabilities of those pilots who do not regularly operate the aircraft, their own safety, reliability and performance standards go up. And with regard to a heavy lift helicopter, many lives are at stake.”

Another important factor when the IDF looks at its strategic environment today is to build for strategic uncertainty.

The recent Abraham accords have reshaped the Israel strategic environment; but how will that environment evolve and what is next?

In other words, Israel faces a very uncertain strategic environment; what is today’s threat might be part of tomorrow’s solution to yet a very different threat environment.

That is why when looking at an air platform, growthability, and flexibility are key considerations.

What the CH-53K as a software upgradeable platform with new baseline for a heavy lift platform provides is a new baseline from which to shape capabilities for an uncertain strategic future.

Put bluntly, defining operational requirements for a replacement platform based on the past thirty years of experience or the current threat environment is simply inadequate.

What is necessary is to introduce a platform which works seamlessly with today’s IDF, fits into the current concept of operations, but can change over time to anchor changes in those concepts of operations and to deliver capability for tomorrow’s strategic environment.

And the CH-53K is a very different type of heavy lift helicopter, one built with a new baseline for upgradeability.

For example, as I wrote with regard to the CH-53K and its digital cockpit:

The CH-53K is shaping a new paradigm for heavy lift but it is doing so in the context of a new paradigm of warfare as well, or in the context, of a shift from the land wars to full spectrum crisis management.

 Crisis management is evolving significantly.

 And the Marines as the US’s premier crisis management force is evolving along with the changing demand set.

The Marines are reshaping their force structure to enable it to operate as an effective modular force with scalable force capabilities, which can be tailored to a particular crisis.

 The CH-53K is a key part of this modular force.

The aircraft brings new capabilities to the force which are in no way the same as the CH-53E.

One of those capabilities is the new cockpit in the aircraft and how digital interoperability and integration with the evolution of the MAGTF more broadly is facilitated by the operation of a 21st century cockpit.

The cockpits are very different and fit in with a general trend for 21stcentury aircraft of having digital cockpits with combat flexibility management built in.

Because the flight crew is operating a digital aircraft, many of the functions which have to be done manually in the E, are done by the aircraft itself.

This allows the cockpit crew to focus on combat management and force insertion tasks.

And the systems within the cockpit allow for the crew to play this function.

This means that the K and its onboard Marines and cargo can be integrated into a digitally interoperable force.

This means as well that the K could provide a lead role for the insertion package, or provide for a variety of support roles beyond simply bringing Marines and cargo to the fight.

They are bringing information as well which can be distributed to the combat force in the area of interest.

This kind of re-baselining of a heavy lift helicopter was a key part of the Israel decision to buy the CH-53K and to prepare to introduce it into a dynamically changing IDF, one which the CH-53K can make a major contribution to in terms of the dynamics of change for the force as well.