This Special Report focuses on how the US Navy is reshaping its capabilities for the 21st century fight and the key role which Naval Aviation is playing in this transformation.
The 21st Century Fighting Navy: Shaping a Way Ahead
02/12/2020
Aero Med Evacuation History
Achievements in aerospace medical capabilities and advances in aeromedical evacuation have transformed the Air Force Medical Service into a world-class operation for service members ill or injured in wartime.
See the major milestones throughout the evolution of aeromedical evacuation and the impact each has made in advancing wartime medicine and caring for patients.
01.02.2019
Video by Josh Mahler
Air Force Medical Service
12 Years and Counting: Still No Operational New Tanker for the USAF
02/11/2020
In a story published on February 29, 2008. the award of the new tanker contract to Northrop Grumman was highlighted by a USAF article.
WASHINGTON (AFPN) — Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne and Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. Duncan J. McNabb announced the selection of Northrop Grumman as the winner of the KC-X competition for development and procurement of up to 179 tanker aircraft for approximately $35 billion.
The initial contract for the newly named KC-45 is for the system design and development of four test aircraft for $1.5 billion. This contract also includes five production options targeted for 64 aircraft at $10.6 billion.
“The tanker is the number one procurement priority for us right now,” General McNabb said. “Buying the new KC-45A is a major step forward and another demonstration of our commitment to recapitalizing our Eisenhower-era inventory of these critical national assets. Today is not just important for the Air Force, however. It’s important for the entire joint military team, and important for our coalition partners as well. The KC-45A will revolutionize our ability to employ tankers and will ensure the Air Force’s future ability to provide our nation with truly Global Vigilance, Reach, and Power.
“It is the first step in our critical commitment to recapitalize our aging fleet to move, supply and position assets anywhere. In this global Air Force business, the critical element for air bridge, global Intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance and global strike is the tanker,” he said.
The KC-45A will provide significantly greater air refueling capabilities than the current fleet of Eisenhower-era KC-135 Stratotankers it will begin replacing. For example, it will be able to refuel Air Force and Navy aircraft on every flight. These aircraft have different systems for receiving fuel and today, KC-135s must be set up for one or the other before takeoff.
The KC-45A will be equipped for both systems on every flight and also will have connections for wing pods. When wing pods are installed, it can refuel two probe-equipped aircraft, such as those flown by Navy and many allied aircrews, at the same time. The KC-45A can even be refueled in flight by other tankers.
The KC-45A also will have defensive systems that allow it to go into dangerous environments that tanker aircrews currently have to avoid. It will also supplement the airlift fleet by carrying cargo, passengers and medical patients in a secondary role.
The KC-X source selection used a “best value” determination to select a winner based on five factors: mission capability, proposal risk, past performance, cost/price and an integrated fleet air refueling assessment — performance in a simulated war scenario. These five factors were developed after consulting with industry and were finalized prior to starting the competition. Considered together, these grading criteria ensured the Air Force maximized the capability delivered to the warfighter while optimizing the taxpayers’ investment.
Air Force officials followed a carefully structured process, designed to provide transparency, maintain integrity and promote fair competition. Air Force officials met with offerors on numerous occasions to gain a thorough understanding of their proposals and provide feedback on their strengths and weaknesses. Officials also provided insight into government cost estimates throughout the process instead of waiting until the post-decision debrief. The competitors indicated they’ve been very pleased with the degree of communication.
The evaluation team comprised experts covering a broad spectrum of specialties from acquisition to operations and was hand-picked from across the Air Force and other government agencies.
As part of the process, Air Force officials will now provide a written notice to both the selected and not-selected and offer to provide a debrief on their bid proposals. To maintain the integrity of that process, officials will be unable to provide additional information about the proposals and contract.
“Today’s announcement is the culmination of years of tireless work and attention to detail by our acquisition professionals and source selection team, who have been committed to maintaining integrity, providing transparency and promoting a fair competition for this critical aircraft program,” Secretary Wynne said. “Through these efforts, we believe we will provide a higher-value resource to the warfighter and the taxpayer.”
That was then and after various tanker acquisition dynamics, here we are 12 years later and no new tanker.
Not only that, we will have to wait THREE MORE YEARS for the delivery of the new tanker to the operational USAF.
In an article by Brian W. Everstine published on February 10, 2020, we learn that the USAF will further reduce its tanker fleet while waiting for the troubled Boeing tanker.
The Air Force wants to retire 28 legacy tankers, even though the KC-46 is years away from operational capability.
“The bottom line is: To try ensure we have the capabilities we’re going to need in the future, we’re going to have to take some risk,” Maj. Gen. John Pletcher, the Air Force deputy assistant secretary for budget, said in a Feb. 10 briefing. “We can’t continue to fund everything … that we have in our force today without eventually having to make some tough choices, so this budget does that.”
The Air Force’s budget request calls for retiring 16 KC-10 Extenders from the Active Duty fleet, eight KC-135s from the Active Duty, and five KC-135s from the Reserve. These tankers will be the oldest and least capable, according to the Air Force. At the same time, the service plans to spend about $2.85 billion on 15 new KC-46s, along with $24 million in modifications and $106.3 million in research, development, test, and evaluation.
The KC-46 fleet has been plagued by problems, especially with its Remote Vision System, which links the boom operator to the refueling system. Air Force leaders have said the problems with the RVS and Boeing’s slow progress toward fixing it means the KC-46 will not be deployable for at least three years.
Lest you were wondering, many of our allies do not have this problem as they are operating the advanced Airbus tanker, and in the case of the RAAF, for many, many years.
Collectively, the global fleet of Airbus tankers has logged more than 125,000 flight hours and has been acquired by eight customers worldwide. The first KC-30A aircraft was accepted by the RAAF in June 2011 and the maiden flight was performed in September 2011, The RAAF took its second KC-30A in September 2011 and its third in November 2011.
KC30A Over Iraq from SldInfo.com on Vimeo.
Let us see.
The USAF selected its variant of the A330MRTT in 2008, 12 years ago.
The RAAF RECEIVED its new tanker sin 2011.
And the USAF is projected to get their new Boeing air tanker in 2023.
Not exactly agile contracting and delivery.
The featured photos shows an Australian KC-30A Multi Role Tanker Transport (MRTT) from 33SQN, operated by the Aircraft Research and Development Unit, conducts aerial refueling compatibility flight testing over the Atlantic Ocean with a United States Navy P-8A Poseidon from Air Test and Evaluation Squadron Two Zero.
The featured video shows AIRMSHL Geoff Brown joining KC-30 flight over Iraq
Air Marshal Geoff Brown, then AO, Chief of Air Force talks about Air to Air refueling operations in the Middle East Region.
He highlighted the significant reliability of the tanker and its contribution. The Aussies have been operating 1 tanker from 33rd squadron and it has delivered more than 20 million pounds of fuel over its 6-7 months in the Iraq operations. While Brown was onboard, the Aussie tanker is seen refueling USMC hornets from VMFA-232, the “red devils: based at Miramar.
Australia’s Air Task Group (ATG) as part of Operation OKRA comprises six RAAF F/A-18A Hornets, an E-7A Wedgetail Airborne Early Warning and Control aircraft and a KC-30A Multi-Role Tanker Transport aircraft.
Nearly 400 personnel have deployed to the Middle East as part of, or in direct support of the ATG.
Operation OKRA is the Australian Defence Force’s contribution to the international effort to combat the Daesh terrorist threat in Iraq. Australia’s contribution is being closely coordinated with the Iraqi government, Gulf nations and a broad coalition of international partners.
6/25/15
Credit: Australian Ministry of Defence
The KC-30A and the Airbus tankers of three other allied air forces have made major contributions to supporting the air forces engaged in the operations in Iraq and Syria.
The video is from 2015, which would then make it only eight more years until the USAF has its own new tanker.
Fifth Gen Aircraft Arrive for Singapore Air Show
Two F-22 Raptors from the Hawaii Air National Guard and two F-35B Lightning II’s with Marine Fighter Attack Squadron 121 land at Changi Air Base East, Republic of Singapore, Feb. 5, 2020.
The aircraft will participate in the Singapore Airshow 2020, the largest defense exhibition and biennial international tradeshow in the Pacific.
SINGAPORE
02.05.2020
Video by Senior Airman Johnathon Wines
Pacific Air Forces Public Affairs
Information Architecture Enabling National Security: MCIS 2019
02/10/2020AVM John Blackburn (Retired) and Ian McDonald describe the importance of a national information architecture as a key enabler for the national security apparatus.
John Blackburn and his colleague Ian McDonald have been working on the importance of rethinking the nature of defense strategy within Australia, one which is very relevant to other democracies.
Information upgrades simply to the operating defense forces is really too limited a consideration when discussing the defense of the nation.
It is necessary to focus on the wider national information architecture.
Such a perspective certainly puts in focus the importance of building a 5 G system which takes clear account the need for national security in shaping such a system going forward.
The video is credited to ADBR TV.
See the following articles by Blackburn and McDonald which highlights a way ahead:
CMV-22B is on Its Way: Visiting Amarillo
By Robbin Laird
Last Friday, the US Navy and the Bell-Boeing team hosted an event in which the CMV-22B was rolled out.
The ceremonial delivery was held on February 7, 2020, but the week before the first aircraft had landed at Pax River for its final round of testing before going to the fleet next week.
The first CMV-22B deployment is less than a year from the initial delivery of the aircraft which means that from the 2015 initial funding for design work to the 2018 production contract, the aircraft will be operational within six years from contract to delivery.
Obviously, this means that the Navy has leveraged the many years of experience of the USMC and the USAF in operating, maintaining and upgrading the aircraft, to leverage a common asset, to get a new combat capability.
The aircraft is replacing the venerable C2 aircraft in the carrier onboard delivery role, but from the outset is designed to provide a wider set of roles, including search and rescue and support for Naval Special Warfare.
But this is just the beginning.
In a visit to San Diego the week before the ceremony, I had a chance to sit down with Vice Admiral Miller, the Navy’s Air Boss, to discuss the way ahead with naval aviation.
We will publish that full interview soon, but the Air Boss highlighted a significant shift from a focus on the integrated air wing to the integratable air wing.
The US Navy over the next decade will reshape its carrier air wing with the introduction of a number of new platforms. If one lists the initial operating capabilities of each of these new platforms, and looked at their introduction sequentially, the air wing of the future would be viewed in additive terms – what has been added and what has been subtracted and the sum of these activities would be the carrier air wing of the future.
But such a graphic and such an optic would miss the underlying transformation under way, one which is highly interactive as well with the transformation of its core sister service the USMC or of the multi-domain drive being pursued by the USAF. And one would totally miss the interactivity of the transforming air wing with the transformation of our core allies.
One clearly needs a different optic or perspective than simply taking an additive approach.
And in effect, what is underway is a shift from integrating the air wing around relatively modest and sequential modernization efforts for the core platforms to a robust transformation process in which new assets enter the force and create a swirl of transformation opportunities, challenges and pressures.
How might we take this new asset and expand the reach and effectiveness of the carrier air group?
How might it empower maritime, air and ground forces as we shape a more effective integratable force?
To give an example, the U.S. Navy is replacing the C-2 with the CMV-22 in the resupply role.
But obviously, with what the USAF and USMC have done and are doing with the Osprey, the Navy would be foolish indeed simply to think in terms of strictly C-2 replacement lines and missions.
So how should the Navy operate, modernize and leverage its Ospreys?
For Miller, the initial task is to get the Osprey onboard the carrier and integrated with its initial air wing operations.
But while doing so, it is crucial for the Navy to work the integratable piece, namely, what can an expanded aperture for the Osprey working within the CAG provide for the integratable air wing?
For Vice Admiral Miller, he is looking for the first five-year period in operating the CMV-22 for the Navy to think through the role of the Osprey as a transformative force, rather than simply being a new member of the carrier air wing.
Hence, one can look at the CMV-22 innovation cluster in the following manner:
Such an approach is embedded in the rethink from operating and training an integrated air wing to an integratable air wing.
The aircraft itself is modified from the Marine Corp and Air Force versions with an enhanced fuel capacity which required some wing modifications as well to deal with the enhanced weight. The photo below shows off the fuel blister that provides this variant extra range and endurance.
There is another key aspect as well.
The CMV-22 unlike the C-2 can carry an F-35C engine onboard a carrier.
And in 2015, I was onboard the USS Wasp when the Osprey brought an engine onboard the ship to support F-35B operations onboard the ship.
This experiment done in 2015 was obviously successful, and not by chance, the US Navy signed its first contract to launch the CMV-22 program the same year.
And perhaps not by chance, a cutting-edge F-35B pilot is now head of the Osprey program at Pax River.
I Interviewed Colonel Matthew “Squirt” Kelly in his office at Pax River last Fall. In that interview we talked about the state of play for the “Osprey Nation,” and the impact of the broadening set of users of the aircraft.
“There is no other air platform that has the breadth of aircraft laydown across the world than does the V-22.
“And now that breadth is expanding with the inclusion of the carrier fleet and the Japanese.
“We currently have a sustainment system which works but we need to make it better in terms of supporting global operations.
“With the US Navy onboard to operate the Osprey as well, we will see greater momentum to improve the supply chain.”
Then Lt. Col. Kelly after landing onboard the USS Wasp with his F-35B. Credit Photo: Second Line of Defense
And during my visit to Amarillo, a key point about the reach of Osprey Nation and the nature of the community supporting it was driven home to me.
During the visit to the Final Assembly line, Japanese Ospreys were being prepared for delivery to the Japanese military.
In 2015 when the Japanese Ministry of Defence was preparing for the transformation of its defense force to deal with the new challenges in the region, they released a video in which they showed how Japan would enhance its capability to defend its perimeter.
Yet the Japanese had not yet committed to buying Osprey.
And underlying that final assembly line where I saw the Japanese Ospreys being built for delivery was the highly skilled worked force working in that Bell factory.
As one navy speaker noted at the ceremony: “I would like to first acknowledge the artisans that put this fine machine together. I visited the Bell factory on Wednesday and had a brief walk through of this factory yesterday. This is an incredibly complex machine that you have built and I am in awe of your precise talent and even more inspired by the magic that makes it fly.”
By chance, the Mayor of Amarillo, Ginger Nelson, sat next to me at the ceremony and graciously agreed to meet with me later that afternoon at her office.
I asked her directly: “Why Amarillo?”
She answered that we are community committed to excellence and to training workers both responsible to deliver quality and to train those workers.
She noted that the local government and community colleges were working to shape training opportunities for local residents to be able to support the Bell operation as well as the agricultural industry in the area.
“Our values and are commitments to excellence are at the heart of what the Amarillo community is all about,” she said.
Going from the delivery to Japan for its latest aircraft to Amarillo, that is what I would call deterrence in depth.
And for the Chinese government, I would warn you to not mess with Texas.
For an abbreviated version of this article published by Breaking Defense on February 10, 2020, see the following:
C17 Maintenance
Joint Base Charleston C-17 Globemaster IIIs perform several missions throughout the world to include combat and presidential support, training and humanitarian missions. As time goes on, aircraft need to be inspected and repaired for structural integrity, internal cracks, painting and exterior damage. The 437th Maintenance Squadron, Fabrication Flight is responsible for fixing and identifying such issues to ensure mission readiness.
The fabrication flight has three main sections: corrosion control and structural repair, metals technology and nondestructive inspection with over 80 civilian and military personnel supporting the various disciplines. The flight completes approximately 5,900 C-17 repairs.
“The most rewarding part of this job is the people I work with,” said Lieutenant Brian Jung, 437th Fabrication Flight officer in charge. The pride and hard work people display on a daily basis to generate missions inspires me to come to work every day and serve them the best way I can. Every person has a story and I love spending time with the people in my flight to get to learn their story. Moreover, I enjoy highlighting the work of others so that they can achieve personal recognition for their hard work.”
Each member must be trained in 212 job skill tasks in order for them to be proficient at their craft, and they spend one – two months training on the particular skills in that area. It takes about four to six months before they are upgraded to five-level Journeyman.
“I enjoy spraying the aircraft during the paint process,” said Tech. Sgt. Richard Bazen, 437th MXS NCO in charge. I think it’s a good skill that can be utilized outside of the military.”
Bazen oversees the entire process which includes pre-masking, sanding, de-masking and painting. Around 12 aircraft go through the corrosion control repair section annually, it takes approximately two weeks complete each C-17.
The Nondestructive section uses noninvasive methods to inspect the insides of metal objects to identify possible defects in systems and equipment before problems before they occur using electrical, magnetic, X-ray and fluorescent technologies.
11.08.2019
Video by James Bowman
Joint Base Charleston Public Affairs
French Minister Sees German Approval Soon for Fighter Jet Project
02/09/2020
By Pierre Tran
Paris
French armed forces minister Florence Parly recently highlighted the decisive role of the German Bundestag parliament in launching a Franco-German project for a technology demonstrator for a next-generation fighter.
Their votes for the project would be, in her view, a sign of political support for European defense.
“Parliamentarians of the Bundestag, your vote in the next few days on the FCAS demonstrator will have decisive importance and send a strong political signal on the determination of our two countries to build European defense,” she told French and German members of parliament in Strasbourg, eastern France.
That fighter will be a key element in the Future Combat Air System, a project which brings Spain into the European FCAS club with France and Germany.
Meanwhile, in a Feb. 7 keynote speech on French nuclear weapons policy, president Emmanuel Macron said Brexit “hasn’t changed anything” in terms of cooperation between Paris and London.
The head of state was speaking at the War College, one week after the departure of Britain from the European Union.
Berlin requires that Bundestag approval to a long-awaited contract for a study of the next-generation fighter, with each of the two partner nations paying €77.5 million ($85 million), German daily Handelsbatt reported.
The overall budget for the demonstrator could be €8 billion, with further contracts signed late next year or in 2022, after German elections, the daily reported.
On the British side of the Channel, London is leading the Tempest project, with Sweden and Italy signed up to work on a concept and partnership model for an unmanned combat air vehicle, and other platforms. systems or capabilities which can be leveraged from the Eurofighter-F-35 foundation being built in the RAF and Royal Navy.
Parly spoke of the political commitment of France and Germany to pursue European defense alongside NATO membership, with her German counterpart, Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer, at her side. The two ministers were attending the third Franco-German parliamentary assembly of 100 MPs, with 50 from from each nation.
French industry had hoped for the demonstrator project to be launched last June, with the signing of the studies contract slipping to end of 2019, and then to the end of January.
That contract hangs on the timetable of the Bundestag budget committee, which reflects the importance of German parliamentary oversight over central government and industrial policy.
“There is an awareness in Germany for the need for defense industrial policy,” said Gaëlle Winter, associate researcher at think tank Fondation de Recherche Stratégique, based in Paris.
That policy will partly be based on stricter supervision by the Bundestag, with the budgetary committee reviewing military acquisition contracts worth more than €25 million.
This close parliamentary approval dates back to September 1981, due to overspending on the “cooperative” Tornado fighter jet program that sparked grave concern in Germany, she said.
Britain, Germany, Italy pursued the costly Tornado program.
That need for parliamentary approval means arms acquisition is based on “co-decision” principles between federal government and the Bundestag, she said.
Some 44 parliamentarians sit on the budget committee, which has taken special interest in arms programs rather than simply fiscal oversight.
That close parliamentary scrutiny also reflects electoral interests of MPs, some of whom sit in constituencies with strong industry presence, she said. There is a move of the German state, including the länder regions, toward a greater “interventionist” approach, she said.
Meanwhile, future ties between Rheinmetall and KNDS continue to “poison the well” on FCAS, she said.
Rheinmetall’s efforts to ensure a share of work on the Main Ground Combat System (MGCS) has stalled work on the project to build a new tank and connected manned and unmanned vehicles.
KNDS is a Franco-German joint venture between Krauss-Maffei Wegmann of Germany and Nexter of France.
In France, there is a view the German authorization process is complex, which slows down the procurement of equipment.
“Cooperation with Germany is complicated on the operational level,” Army Gen. François Lecointre, joint chief of staff, told Nov. 6 the foreign affairs committee of the lower house National Assembly.
“I have discovered that the German decision-making system is more bound by the silos approach than ours, making it difficult for heads of central administration and ministerial representatives to reach agreement,” he said.
There is the importance of the Bundestag, he said, referring to a French MP’s question, while cooperation is marked by German industry’s determination to hold on to its work.
Britain’s departure from the European Union will break up the “E3” group, namely France, Germany and the UK, in which the former had a strong operational partner with the latter, while there was a “strong industrial partner” with Germany, he said.
On industrial cooperation, “the departure of the British will not be good for them, even if the One MBDA initiative remains, which will allow the pursuit of interesting cooperative projects,” he said.
The complexity of German procedure left France in a “complicated situation” in two major arms projects, he said.
The great technological leap — and the operational superiority that delivers — of the FCAS project is based on the “connectivity” of all the platforms.
“That will lead to, even if that will take time, first operational capability by 2038, which is to say tomorrow morning,” he said.
On the second major project, MGCS land system, he said, “I am rather worried about cooperation on the future tank, a Franco-German project which is moving too slowly.”
Parly told the French and German MPs an architecture study for MGCS was expected to be launched “very soon this year.”
While there was no choice but to pursue industrial and technological cooperation with Germany, Lecointre evoked an “existentialist crisis” in the light of Brexit, as “we have no choice but to absolutely maintain our operational cooperation with the United Kingdom….”
Both the British and French armies shared “the same intervention culture,” he said.
Parly said there would be a fair share in industrial cooperation on FCAS and the future tank.
“These are industrial projects worth billions of euros, tens of thousands of jobs, with export prospects,” she said.
“But these are first and foremost political projects: and we have collectively a responsibility, which is to build this European defense, which our two countries call for.”
The meeting of French and German MPs was the third formal assembly of the 100 parliamentarians since Macron and chancellor Angela Merkel signed a treaty of cooperation at Aachen in January 2019, seeking to bind Berlin and Paris close in economic, foreign and defense policy.
In France, that city is known as Aix-la-Chapelle.