BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine

Page created by Ruby Alexander
 
CONTINUE READING
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
AFA’s Air, Space         USSF’s Saltzman 12 | ABMS Gains Traction 40 | Building to War in Vietnam 52
& Cyber: The
Outbrief
12

                                                     BUFF
                                                     UP
                                                                        Nose-to-Tail Upgrades
                                                                        Will Keep B-52s Flying
                                                                        for Another 30+ Years
                                                                        | 36

                                                                                    October 2020       $8

   Published by the
 Air Force Association
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
STAFF
                                                                                                                                                                                 Publisher
                                                                                                          October 2020. Vol. 103, No. 10                                         Bruce A. Wright
                                                                                                                                                                                 Editor in Chief
                                                                                                                                                                                 Tobias Naegele

                                                                                                                                                                                 Managing Editor
                                                                                                                                                                                 Juliette Kelsey
                                                                                                                                                                                 Chagnon
                                                                                                                                                                                 Editorial Director
                                                                                                                                                                                 John A. Tirpak
                                                                                                                                                                                 News Editor
                                                                                                                                                                                 Amy McCullough
                                                                                                                                                                                 Assistant
                                                                                                                                                                                 Managing Editor
                                                                                                                                                                                 Chequita Wood

                                                                                                                                                Tech. Sgt. Cory D. Payne
                                                                                                                                                                                 Senior Designer
                                                                                                                                                                                 Dashton Parham
                                                                                                                                                                                 Pentagon Editor
                                                                                                                                                                                 Brian W. Everstine
                                                                                                                                                                                 Digital Platforms
DEPARTMENT                    FEATURES                                                                                   A “robot dog”                                           Editor
                                                                                                                         provides secu-                                          Jennifer-Leigh
  2 Editorial:                 12 Q&A: Space Ops 101                                                                     rity at a simu-
    Inflection Points                                                                                                                                                            Oprihory
    By Tobias Naegele             Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, Space Force Deputy Chief                                  lated austere
                                                                                                                                                                                 Senior Editor
                                  of Space Operations for Operations, Cyber and Nuclear,                                 base during the
  4 Letters                                                                                                              Advanced Battle                                         Rachel S. Cohen
                                  speaks with Rachel S. Cohen about Space Force. planning.
                                                                                                                         Management                                              Production
  6 Index to
    Advertisers
                              36 BUFF Up                                                                                 System exer-                                            Manager
                                                                                                                         cise on Nellis                                          Eric Chang Lee
                                 By John A. Tirpak                                                                       Air Force Base,
 11 Verbatim                                                                                                                                                                     Photo Editor
                                 Another decade of enhancements will give the B-52                                       Nev., Sept. 1.                                          Mike Tsukamoto
 14 Strategy & Policy:           three more decades of power.                                                            See “Moving
    China’s Expanding                                                                                                    From Situational
    Military Power            40 Moving From Situational Awareness to C2                                                 Awareness to                                            Contributors
                                                                                                                         C2,” p. 40.                                             Lt. Col. Price T.
 16 Airframes                    By Brian W. Everstine                                                                                                                           Bingham, USAF
 22 World: USAF                  The second ABMS on-ramp experiment offers a peek                                                                                                (Ret.), John T.
    acquisition chief                                                                                                                                                            Correll, Robert S.
                                 into the future of JADC2.                                                                                                                       Dudney, Jennifer
    Will Roper on
    the digital future;                                                                                                                                                          Hlad
                              44 Move Out!
    USAF’s vanguard
    programs; diversity          By Rachel S. Cohen
    and inclusion in             Relocating is hard for everyone, but for service
    USAF; and more ...           members, it’s a way of life. COVID-19 challenged even
35 Faces of the Force            the pros.
                                                                                                                                                                                 ADVERTISING:
61 Airman for Life            48 The Air Base: The Air Force’s Achilles’ Heel?
   AFA 2020; AFA                                                                                                                                                                 Kirk Brown
   National Election             By Lt. Col. Price T. Bingham, USAF (Ret.)                                                                                                       Director, Media
                                                                                                                         ON THE COVER                                            Solutions
   results; Recognizing          History shows the Air Force needs a new approach to
   WWII veteran                                                                                                                                                                  703.247.5829
                                 forward basing.                                                                                                                                 kbrown@afa.org
   Lt. Col. Thomas
   Vaucher; Teacher of        52 The Air Force Enters the Vietnam War                                                                                                            SUBSCRIBE
                                                                                                                                                Airman 1st Class Gerald Willis

   the Year 2020; ...
                                 By John T. Correll                                                                                                                              & SAVE
64 Namesakes:                                                                                                                                                                    Subscribe to
   Peterson
                                 Under cover of secrecy, the “training” mission turned
                                 to “advice in combat” and then into “combat training                                                                                            Air Force Magazine
                                 sorties.”                                                                                                                                       and save big off
                                                                                                                                                                                 the cover price,
                              58 Outstanding Airmen of the Year 2020                                                     Two B-52H Strato-                                       plus get a free
                                 Compiled by Chequita Wood                                                               fortress bombers                                        membership
                                                                                                                         fly over the Pacific                                    to the Air Force
                                 The program annually recognizes 12 enlisted members                                     Ocean. See “BUFF                                        Association.
                                                                                                                         Up,” p. 36.
                                 for superior leadership, job performance, community                                                                                             1-800-727-3337
                                 involvement, and personal achievements.

Air Force Magazine (ISSN 0730-6784) October 2020 (Vol. 103, No. 10) is published monthly, except for two double issues in January/February and July/August, by the Air
Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Phone (703) 247-5800. Periodical postage paid at Arlington, Va., and additional mailing offices. Membership
Rate: $50 per year; $35 e-Membership; $125 for three-year membership. Subscription Rate: $50 per year; $29 per year additional for postage to foreign addresses (except
Canada and Mexico, which are $10 per year additional). Regular issues $8 each. USAF Almanac issue $18 each. Change of address requires four weeks’ notice. Please
include mailing label. POSTMASTER: Send changes of address to Air Force Association, 1501 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA 22209-1198. Publisher assumes no responsibility for
unsolicited material. Trademark registered by Air Force Association. Copyright 2020 by Air Force Association.

                                                               OCTOBER 2020             AIRFORCEMAG.COM            1
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
EDITORIAL
                                                              By Tobias Naegele

                                        Inflection Points
R
         ussian aircraft probe U.S. defenses in Alaska and Europe,              The so-called frozen middle—those mid-career Airmen and civil-
         and its cyber instigators prowl the Internet, fueling hate and     ians whose embrace of rules and regulations shrouds that underlying
         discontent on social media, driving wedges into the cracks         discomfort with change—slow-rolls innovation and dampens the en-
in our oft-divided nation. Confidence in our institutions continues to      thusiasm of their subordinates. Worse, they drive away the innovators.
wane. Further south, China flexes its muscles, emboldened by what               “‘Leadership without risk is called management,’” Brown said,
it wishes to believe: that America is atrophying, fading from preemi-       quoting retired Lt. Col. Rich Cole, whose father was Jimmy Doolittle’s
nence, and that America’s decline clears the way for China’s ascent.        copilot for the famous Doolittle Raid. “We don’t need more managers
After sending combat jets into Taiwanese airspace last month, China         in the Air Force. We need more leaders. I plan to lead change. And
circulated an ominous Internet video depicting Chinese bombers              by leading change, we’re going to have to take some risks.”
destroying a U.S. base in Guam.                                                 Airmen can’t be afraid to speak up in meetings, holding their com-
    No wonder Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. keeps      ments for the “meeting after the meeting.” That’s a leadership problem.
saying, “Accelerate change—or lose.”                                        “We must have ‘the meeting after the meeting’ in the meeting,” Brown
    “We’re at an inflection point, and we can’t defer change,” Brown        said. Get the ideas on the table. Invoking former Defense Secretary
said in his first major address as Chief, a statement of intent at the      and Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, Brown’s boss years ago in U.S.
Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber Conference last          Central Command, he advocated Mattis’ concept of command and
month. “We have a window of opportunity, a window of opportunity            feedback as opposed to command and control. “It’s the dialog that
to change, to control and exploit the air domain to the standard our        happens between different levels of command,” he said.
nation expects and requires of its Air Force. If we don’t change, if we         Commanders in the field need not wait for direction from above.
fail to adapt, we risk losing.”                                             “In some cases,” Brown said, “you need to figure out what to do on
     Brown’s predecessors prepared the way, he                                                    your own.”
said, but now the pace of change must quicken.           “Leadership without risk                    So, do what Brown does: Tell your boss what
War may not be imminent, but the rising risk is called management. We you intend to do. Wait for a response. If the boss
must be seen for what it is: a call to action. As a
                                                        don’t need more managers doesn’t say otherwise within a couple of days,
past commander of Pacific Air Forces, he knows                                                    act. Afraid that’s no way to get promoted? It’s
the U.S. can’t compete with China numerically.                  in the Air Force.”                how Brown made Chief of Staff.
Capability, ingenuity, speed, and talent are our         —CSAF Gen. Charles. Q. Brown Jr.            “That’s the same kind of approach I think our
differentiators.                                                                                  Airmen need to take,” Brown said. “They need
    China’s rise, the birth of the Space Force, and even the COVID-19       to be thinking about what they’re doing, communicating what their
pandemic are all forcing functions that can help shake up today’s           intent is, and then wait a little bit of time, give their supervision a
mature bureaucracy and awake it from its lethargy.                          chance to respond. And if they don’t respond, they need to move.”
    “We have two options,” Brown said. “We can ‘admire’ the problem             Brown himself is moving out on plans for a new deployment model
and talk about how tough it’s going to be, how hard the decision will       and on finding ways to pay for essential modernization. Weapons
be to make, or we can take action. I vote for the latter.”                  and systems that won’t make the Air Force better and more effective
    Airmen take note: This is the example he wants you to follow.           in a high-end fight against a Chinese force that will dwarf the U.S.
The American way of war has long leveraged the independent                  numerically shouldn’t be part of that equation. They’ll need to go.
creativity of individual commanders. Ours is a matrixed military in         Excess bureaucracy that doesn’t add to the force’s lethality should
which commanders are supposed to have leeway to apply judg-                 go, as well. There are lessons in what Gen. John W. “Jay” Raymond is
ment. In recent years, however, that philosophy has atrophied. Trust        doing with his leaner Space Force, Brown says. Maybe the Air Force
in subordinates waned. If your boss doesn’t trust you, you won’t            can borrow from that model.
trust those beneath you, and they won’t trust their subordinates.               Will Roper, the department’s chief acquisition executive, is likewise
The result is paralysis.                                                    aligned. He’s aiming to accelerate acquisition and to deliver supreme
    American forces are better trained, better educated, and gener-         connectivity to the Joint Force—to create a secure “Internet of Military
ally better equipped than their peers. They must likewise be better         Things” that extends to the edge of the combat cloud.
trusted. Subordinates must be confident in their ability to make                Roper’s vision for the Advanced Battle Management System is a
decisions and take action—and yes, to make mistakes. We learn               network that connects the Joint Force in real time, worldwide. It’s not
more from our failures than our successes, but only if we survive to        easy. F-35s struggle to communicate with F-22s. But it’s a workable
face a similar decision in the future. If every failure kills a career, no  problem. He’s also accelerating the development and engineering of
one learns a thing.                                                         new systems and platforms through the service’s embrace of digital
    This goes back to the very root of the Air Force and the leaders who    engineering. Like Brown, accelerating change.
put their careers and their lives on the line as they invented air power.       ABMS is to military systems what better communication is to
Pioneers such as Billy Mitchell and Jimmy Doolittle embraced risk           Airmen in any fight: a key to faster, better informed decision-making.
in ways we can barely imagine today, betting it all on their instincts.     It is the digital analog to the human collaboration Brown seeks to
    Now in its eighth decade, the Air Force’s risk aversion is as great a   unlock by empowering Airmen to speak up and think for themselves.
threat as China and Russia. “Folks don’t want to change once they’re            Not every new idea will be met warmly. Not all will be successful
in their comfort zone,” Brown told me in an interview following his         or even worth pursuing. But that isn’t a failure. Trying and failing is
talk. “You’ve got to have a forcing function that drives change.”           better than not trying at all.                                          J

                                                2    OCTOBER 2020         AIRFORCEMAG.COM
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
EXTE N D I N G T HE
             POWE R OF A LEGEN D

             Image courtesy of www.af.mil

             Maximum B-52 readiness with                                    C O LLI NS NAC E LLE S AN D STRUTS

                                                                            • Modernized for new engines
             reduced maintenance
                                                                            • Proven nacelle technology

             For nearly 70 years, every B-52 variant has flown with our     • Maximum fleet readiness
             proven technology. And today, our modernized nacelles and      • Reduced maintenance
             struts are more capable than ever – protecting engines and
                                                                            • Demonstrated on every B-52 variant
             optimizing airflow – with reduced maintenance. Nobody knows
             B-52’s nacelles and struts better than Collins Aerospace and
             we stand ready to support this legend for decades to come.

             Learn more by visiting collinsaerospace.com/b-52

             © 2020 Collins Aerospace

CA_8528_B-52_Aero_PowerofaLegend_AirForceMagazine.indd 1                                                      9/18/20 4:31 PM
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
LETTERS
                                                                                               Air Force Association
Look in the Mirror, AFA                         Well, That Makes No Sense                      1501 Lee Highway • Arlington, VA 22209-1198
  You have a cover story in the July/              Reading the article about the next
                                                                                               afa.org
August 2020 edition titled, “Black and          Chief of Staff of the Air Force’s top
Air Force Blue. ” You then dedicate             priorities and his measures to boost           Telephone: 703.247.5800
nine of 64 pages to the race issue              USAF readiness [June, p. 25], I became         Toll-free: 800.727.3337
in USAF, yet you can only muster 13             confused when I read that the Heritage         Fax: 703.247.5853
White men as AFA Nominees for the               Foundation’s suggestion to “re-estab-
National Office and Board of Directors          lish standing operational readiness in-        AFA’s Mission
[“Airman for Life: Nominees for AFA             spection (ORI) teams.” Did we disband          Our mission is to promote dominant U.S. Air
National Officers”]. Do you even bother         ORIs from the duties of our Inspector          and Space Forces as the foundation of a
reading your own stories? Is AFA that           General teams? The article goes on:            strong national defense; honor and support
monochrome and homogeneous? This                Individual squadron readiness assess-          our Airmen, Space professionals, and their
certainly does not represent the USAF           ments throughout the Air Force are             families; and to honor and respect our
that I served in.                               now conducted by the unit’s squadron           enduring heritage.
          Col. James “Mookie” Sturim,           commanders themselves.
                           USAF (Ret.)             Are you kidding me? This is like put-       To accomplish this, we:
                             Burke, Va.         ting the fox in the hen house. I believe       ■ Educate the public on the critical need
                                                it is this kind of lapse in judgment and         for unrivaled aerospace power and a
  I found the cover article “Leveling           decision-making that led to the Minot            technically superior workforce to ensure
the Field” as well as the article im-           [Air Force Base, N.D.,] to Barksdale             national security.
mediately following it “Black Airmen            [Air Force Base, La.,] nuclear fiasco a        ■ Advocate for aerospace power, and
Speak Out ” to be well-written and              few years ago. Whatever happened to              promote aerospace and STEM education
very eye-opening, which is why I was            the no-notice Phase I ORI and the fol-           and professional development.
stunned when I reached p. 60 and saw            low-on Phase II ORI? A commander’s
                                                                                               ■ Support readiness for the Total Air and
the nominations for the 2020-2021               career depended on what the IG team              Space Forces, including Active Duty,
Board of Directors, all of whom are             reported, and some were relieved of              National Guard, Reserve, civilians, families
older white males!                              command based on what we used to                 and members of the Civil Air Patrol.
  Might I suggest that you go back and          call “less-than” performance.
revisit that nomination process to help            I spent two years on the USAFE IG           Contacts
address some of the issues you raised           team, from 1986-88, and a couple more          CyberPatriot  . . . . info@uscyberpatriot.org
in the cover article?                           on the NATO TACEVAL [Tactical Eval-            Field Services . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . field@afa.org
              Patricia A. Thomas-Fuller         uation] team from 1996-99, and I can           Government Relations  . . . . . . . .  grl@afa.org
                          Hudson, Mass.         tell you doing inspections the way we          Insurance  . . . . . .  afa.service@mercer.com
                                                did resulted in a much better readiness        Membership . . . . . . . . membership@afa.org
  Thanks for advancing the conver-              to support our mission. We saw some            News Media . . .  communications@afa.org
sation on race relations in the July/           commanders relieved, but others really         StellarXplorers . . . . . . . . . STLX_info@afa.org
August edition; this is long overdue. In        were meeting or exceeding require-
the same edition, I noted that all nom-         ments. Also, our reports were shared           Magazine
inees for National Office and Board of          across the command so others could             Advertising . . . . . . . . . . . . . .  kbrown@afa.org
                                                                                               Editorial Offices . . . . . . . . . . . . afmag@afa.org
Directors share three characteristics:          learn from the errors, and be better at
                                                                                               Letters to Editor Column . . . letters@afa.org
old, white, and male.                           what they do.
               Lt. Col. Dennis W. Butler,          Please tell me I am missing some-
                                                                                               Change of Address/Email
                             USAF (Ret.)        thing in reading this article.                 In an effort to stay connected with AFA
                          Oakland, Calif.                                 Col. Frank Alfter,   and your local chapter, please update your
                                                                               USAF (Ret.)     mailing and email addresses. Change of
            WRITE TO US                                                Beavercreek, Ohio       address requires four weeks’ notice.

 Do you have a comment about a current          Time to Speak Up                               To update your contact information:
 article in the magazine? Write to “Letters,”     While the loss of two aviators in            ■ Email: membership@afa.org
 Air Force Mag­a­­­­­zine, 1501 Lee Highway,    the T-38 crash last November was
                                                                                               ■ Visit: The Members Only area
 Arlington, VA 22209-1198 or email us at        devastating and condolences go out               of our website, afa.org
 letters@afa.org. Letters should be concise     to their loved ones, one of the worst
 and timely. We cannot acknowledge receipt      “lessons to learn” is the wrong one            ■ Call: Our Membership Department
 of letters. We reserve the right to condense   [“World: Air Force Halts T-38 Forma-             at 1-800-727-3337
 letters. Letters without name and city/base    tion Landings,” June p. 31]. Almost 15         ■ Mail your magazine label, including your
 and state are not acceptable. Photographs      million flight hours in the past 50-plus         first and last name, to our Membership
 can­­not be used or returned.                  years, and an average Class A mishap             Department at 1501 Lee Highway,
                                                rate of less than 1.5 per 100,000 flying         Arlington, VA 22209-1198.
                                                4   OCTOBER 2020         AIRFORCEMAG.COM
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
PW800
            A LEGENDARY BOMBER.
            AND THE ENGINE THAT TAKES IT FURTHER.
             FOR THE USAF AND THE B-52, THE FUTURE BEGINS NOW.
             Pratt & Whitney’s revolutionary PW800 changes the game for the United States Air Force — and creates new possibilities
             for what its B-52 can accomplish. With unmatched fuel efficiency — and significantly lower maintenance costs —
             the PW800 will take the B-52’s capabilities to new heights for decades to come.

             EXPLORE THE FUTURE OF FLIGHT AT PRATTWHITNEY.COM/B52

PW_ME_22435_B52LegendaryBomber_AirForceMagazine.indd 1                                                                                9/17/20 4:25 PM
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
LETTERS

hours makes the T-38 one of the safest                                            Mostly they come in one week a month,        the Air Force. As a first sergeant and
airplanes in the Air Force. It’s time for                                         fly twice a day or three days with           senior enlisted airman, I sat on lots of
a 1,000-plus hour T-38 Instructor Pilot                                           whichever students are available, once       selection boards in the ’80s [and] early
(IP) to speak up.                                                                 on the other two days, and then they         ’90s. I realized that the young women
   One of the easiest things in the                                               are gone until next month. They don’t        were outshining the guys. They were
T-38 syllabus is “leading” a formation                                            get to recognize a “good” student’s          laser-focused, well-spoken, and very
landing. It is a “straight-in” landing,                                           “bad” habits like their regular IPs do,      competitive. I told the guys, to be
except you land on one side of the 150                                            so they aren’t ready to “grab the stick”     competitive they would have to step it
foot wide runway, three times as wide                                             as soon as they should and take over         up. If they didn’t, the girls were going
as the T-38. At Vance [Air Force Base,                                            when flying with a “good” student who        to win it all.
Okla.,] with a 9,000-foot long runway,                                            is starting to go “bad.”                       Well, they just did.
there is plenty of room to “roll out to                                              In my T-38 flight room we had a photo                            CMSgt. L.T. Jarrett,
100 knots” before aero-breaking, giving                                           over the door of a crashed T-38 at the                                     USAF (Ret.)
the trailing wingman a little extra room                                          end of some runway with the caption:                                     Surprise, Ariz.
to get stopped. Since the landing was                                             “ Aviation in itself is not inherently
“straight-in” there were miles on ap-                                             dangerous … unless you get low and           Different Times in Service?
proach to establish runway alignment,                                             slow! Don’t!”                                   There is another letter immediately
glide-slope, and power settings.                                                                             John Conway,      following mine from a Lt. Col. David
   To blame the T-38 for acting with its                                                                      Jackson, N.J.    J. Wallace [“Letters: Minuteman and
predictable aerodynamic characteristics                                                                                        Service People,” June, p. 6] that con-
after “flying” it back into the air (touch-                                         I am here today because I had been         tains some questionable information. I
down should have been around 150                                                  trained to make formation landings.          served all of my 20 year career in SAC
knots) at very low speed (premature                                                 In 1975, I was the squadron command-       (Strategic Air Command), including 19
aero-braking), turning the short wings                                            er of the 75th Tactical Fighter Squadron     years in Minuteman operations and
into “speed brakes” by further raising                                            at England Air Force Base [La.,] (an         maintenance. Five of those years were
the nose (loss of lift = high drag), ap-                                          A-7 unit). We were going to deploy to        at higher headquarters and on the SAC
plying 30 degrees of rudder and then                                              Panama and needed to brief the 9th           IG team. I consider myself to be well-
not expecting bad things to happen is                                             AF commander on our plans. The wing          versed in early Minuteman operations
not the fault of the T-38. The student                                            commander and I planned to fly to Shaw       and feel it necessary to challenge some
“holding right rudder” input was not                                              [Air Force Base, S.C.,] in A-7s for the      of the statements made by Wallace.
something that would have allowed the                                             briefing. When we got ready to penetrate        I have never heard that the Minute-
T-38 to “save” the developing situation.                                          at Shaw, the weather had gone bad,           man system was envisioned as auto-
Recovery procedure, by the IP if neces-                                           and my flight lead (wing commander)          mated to the point of not requiring a
sary, should have been lowering the nose                                          asked if I wanted to make a formation        crew. Gen. Curtis E. LeMay was never
and relanding the T-38 straight-ahead                                             approach and landing on his wing. I said     at SAC during the lifetime of Minute-
(little/centered rudder) or applying af-                                          yes, and we started down.                    man. He left SAC in 1957 to serve as Air
terburners and doing a “lead aircraft                                               The clouds were so thick that I had        Force Vice Chief of Staff. He was made
go-around” for another landing. The                                               to overlap wing tips in order to keep in     Chief of Staff in 1961 when Minuteman
wingman would then transition to a                                                formation. As we let down, I noticed out     was being constructed and made op-
single aircraft landing. Sadly, this was                                          of the corner of my eye that my flight       erational. In fact, a lot of his history is
an avoidable “landing” accident not a                                             instruments were spinning, but could         centered on some of his questionable
“formation” accident.                                                             not divert my attention to check because     demands during the Cuban Missile
   While on it, the T-38 Reserve IP                                               of the thick clouds. We broke out about      Crisis in October 1962, and it was at
program deserves another look. Un-                                                300 feet and a quarter-mile and made         this time that the first Minuteman wing
doubtedly they all have “impeccable                                               our formation landing. Then, I checked       at Malmstrom Air Force Base, Mont.,
reputations,” but that’s not the point.                                           my instruments and realized my platform      was rushed to partial operational sta-
                                                                                  had dumped due to an electrical problem,     tus to serve as a national defense, if
                                                                                  and I only had air speed and altitude. If    necessary. So, I am also doubtful that
      INDEX TO ADVERTISERS                                                        I had not made a formation approach          General LeMay selected the first crew
                                                                                  and landing, my best option would have       members from aircrew members or
American Hearing Benefits . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9                     been to bail out. Formation landings do      gave spot promotions to those who
Bradford . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63   require good formation flying, but if done   achieved “S” (Select status). I never
Collins Aerospace. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3            correctly can be beneficial.                 met any of those people. I was on the
Colony Club. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7                        Col. George Kennebeck,     first combat-ready crew at Ellsworth
Lockheed Martin . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover IV                                                  USAF (Ret.)    Air Force Base [S.D.,] Wing II, and my
Meggitt Defense . .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 35                                          Austin, Texas   crew was the one to accept the first
Mercer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 57                                                Minuteman flight made operational in
Pratt & Whitney. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5        Welcome to the New Team                      early July 1963.
Rolls-Royce . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover II            Congrats Chief [JoAnne S.] Bass for           Wallace also states that, “Soon, the
USAA. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Cover III     working hard and being good enough           monotony and apparent simplicity
vASC Videos on Demand . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31                      to be selected Chief Master Sgt. of          caused boredom in the crew force—it’s
                                                                                  6   OCTOBER 2020       AIRFORCEMAG.COM
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
not fun, like flying. Aircrew members       as the newer sites were opened with           There is much more I could disagree
soon returned to the cockpits, never        improved security equipment.               with, but I realize that Wallace was
more to burrow underground in missile          The missiles themselves gave us var-    probably in the force much later than
launch capsules.”                           ious alarms that required maintenance      I was (I retired in 1981), so I did want
  Wow, talk about 180 degrees wrong!        response, and it was not unusual for       to object to his characterization of the
The Minuteman Education Program I           a control center to have three to five     early days of Minuteman and set the
described in my letter was supposed         maintenance teams working in their         record straight for those of us who
to be the solution to all that planned      flight of 10 sites and requiring commu-    lived through and experienced early
monotony. But the monotony NEVER            nication almost constantly. The point is   Minuteman.
arrived, nor did the simplicity. Crews      that things were hectic, and certainly                        Lt. Col. Bill Norwood,
working 24-hour shifts in the launch        not monotonous. Our schoolwork did                                       USAF (Ret.)
control center barely had time to do        not get done on duty as was planned,                                       Ozark, Mo.
any study and were happy to get a few       so we did all that at home on our off
hours sleep. Otherwise, alarms were         days, when we also attended classes.       A Disaster, Certainly
constantly going off and the security          Crew members seldom left crew duty         General [Douglas] MacArthur’s de-
system on the missile sites themselves      before three or four years in order to     feat in the 1941-42 Battle of the Phil-
(each 3 to 5 miles apart) was so poor       complete their master’s degree re-         ippines is one of the most ignoble
that they had to be manned 24/7 by          quirements, and, by then, more young       chapters in American military history.
armed guards. Usually, four guards          officers had been brought in while the     You are so right in “Disaster in the
per site were required, so that two         original crews had gained experience,      Philippines” [November 2019, p. 46]
could be in rest status. The two-man        and the once younger crew members          that Short and Kimmel were hung out
policy required two be on duty at all       were now much more experienced             to dry after Pearl Harbor. The surprise
times. These people had to be rotated       and capable of commanding a two-           attack on Pearl Harbor should have
and fed while on duty, and that fell to     man combat crew. So, while captains        been detected, and there were a dozen
our Mobile Strike Team whose primary        and majors were frequent crew com-         errors made that could have placed the
duty was to investigate alarms from         manders initially, it gradually became     islands in a better posture to defend
unmanned missile sites. But, with so        captains and lieutenants who were          itself. It was different for the attack on
many manned, the team did little more       well-experienced. But, one thing that      the Philippines. MacArthur had a full
than act as a taxi service and meal         Wallace seems to have overlooked is        10 hours warning—that actually was
delivery team. As best I can recall, that   that personnel picked for crew duty        days, given the Japanese attacks on
went on for several months. But, not        had to have the requirements to fit        Singapore and targets up and down
all of the sites were yet operational,      into the education program at the base     the Asia coast.
so it did become somewhat better            where they were assigned.                     It seems the general felt he knew

                                               OCTOBER 2020       AIRFORCEMAG.COM      7
BUFF UP Nose-to-Tail Upgrades - Air Force Magazine
LETTERS

better, and waved off the warnings.          candidate), sanitize the promotion file         will be able to say that the only im-
Discord among the branches also did          [“Leveling the Field,” July/August, p.          portant color in our Air Force is Blue.
not help. MacArthur detested the Navy        28]. Promote a “random number” vs.                               MSgt. James W. Roosa,
at Cavite, who in turn ignored him.          a person’s name. Just as the Air Force,                                     USAF (Ret.)
The Navy was already making plans            and soon the Army, no longer require                                     Waterbury, Ct.
to pull out even before the attack. In       one’s picture—to prevent “name and
the case of Air Force General Brereton,      gender bias, ”(either for or against),             I abhor racism, and recognize the
I think the main stumbling block was         the Air Force should also scrap names.          need for equal opportunity for—and
MacArthur’s chief of staff, Sutherland,         Assign a random seven-digit numeric          treatment of—women and minorities,
who discounted the Air Service and by        code to each file. The first three digits       and assiduously attempted to apply
not letting Brereton brief the general       are the AFSC and the last four digits           that throughout my career.
sealed the final fate of the Philippines.    are random. The candidate is then                  However, I cannot help but note that
   I have read both War Plan Orange          evaluated against other seven-digit             “targeting” specific groups for special
(WPO) and Rainbow 5, and they are            numbers and let the better candidate            attention and awarding privileges to
indeed “offense” plans and, as a last        be promoted. This would remove ALL              attempt to redress the imbalance is
resort, then go on the defensive. The        doubt of who presents the better pack-          part of the problem as that, in itself, is
plans were there, but not the will to        age and deserves promotion.                     ‘reverse discrimination’!
implement. It seems that MacArthur,             Scrub all officer performance reports           Until those exhibiting racism and mi-
high atop his suite at the Manila Hotel,     of name and gender and send up the              sogyny are weeded out, and individuals
might have held out some dream that          files for a truly unbiased promotion            are recognized, judged, and accorded
the Japanese would declare Manila            board.                                          their positions on merit—i.e., by their
an ‘open city’ and bypass the Philip-           No discrimination, no bias, no quotas.       abilities and the content of their char-
pines. No way. The Imperial Army’s           A totally fair and unbiased board.              acter (to paraphrase Dr. Martin Luther
aggressive actions in China was a clear         Problem solved, unless of course the         King Jr.)—to do otherwise is mere
indicator that a scorched earth policy       powers that be actually want a biased           ‘tokenism’ which only fosters more
was the rule of the day.                     board—and there’s two sides to that             resentment in the ranks.
   And when MacArthur ordered the            as well.                                           Easier said than done, I know.
Christmas Eve evacuation to Bataan,                              Lt. Col. Dano Cotton,                               Col. Ken F. Smith,
the disaster was only compounded as                                        USAF (Ret.)                                     USAF (Ret.)
a large number of troops were nearly                                          Phoenix                                        Honolulu
cut off at San Fernando and Lubao.
If WPO was deemed a defensive ops               I served as an enlisted Airman from             The article was based on single
order, then they failed to read the fine     1968 to 1988, and I do remember see-            source data provide by the Air Force.
print because this withdrawal was            ing many examples of overt racism               Based on what I read, USAF is in for
equally as disastrous. Lines of empty        early in my career. Toward the end of           another round of social engineering. ...
Army trucks pulled out of Manila for         my career this seemed to have mor-              Bless your hearts.
Bataan, leaving behind warehouses            phed into more of a covert bigotry. I              If done internally, it will probably
full of critical ammunition, food, and       remember that as a staff sergeant in            be about as productive as General
supplies.                                    the late 70s, I was asked by a senior           [Merrill] McPeak’s [Total Quality Man-
   As the commanders of Pearl Harbor         NCO to recommend a replacement to               agement] and bicycle projects. General
were grilled, MacArthur was appearing        fill a position on a four-man team. The         [Larry O.] Spencer’s comments may
on the cover of Time magazine and            Airman I recommended was Black and              have said it all. Apparently, his superi-
receiving the Medal of Honor (MOH).          the SNCO balked because this would              ors told him that to get ahead he would
In one last footnote to history that is      create an all-Black team. I insisted,           have to work harder than his peers.
hard to explain, the general twice scut-     the SNCO relented, the Airman joined            When I was a lieutenant, that is exact-
tled attempts to award the defender of       the team, and the team continued to             ingly what my squadron commander
Corregidor, Gen. Jonathan Wainwright,        perform their mission successfully. I           told me. In fact, my Dad also told me
the MOH. After returning from POW            always thought back then it was people          that at an early age. I’m sure many got
camp in China in late 1945, Wainwright       who were racist and bigoted, but the            the same advice. General Spencer and
was called to the White House, and           Air Force as a whole was committed              I took it, and some didn’t. As far as
without asking MacArthur, awarded            to equality.                                    having mentors, the AFMyVector and
the Medal of Honor by President [Harry           Yet, here we are, 32 years later, and       other online programs “aren’t bearing
S.] Truman.                                  equality is still just a goal, not a reality.   as much fruit as the Air Force would
   MacArthur may have had some bril-         Was I really that naive back then? May-         like.” That may say more about the
liant military moments, but Philippines in   be so. My Air Force, our Air Force, must        individual than the program. Back in
late 1941-early 1942 was not one of them.    do better and can do better. General            Texas they say, “You can lead a horse
                             John Adams      Brown and Chief Bass have their work            to water but you can’t make it drink.”
                          Wellborn, Texas    cut out for them. From what I have read         Anyone who doesn’t work harder than
                                             and seen so far; I think they are both up       his peers and take full advantage of
On Race, Unrest, and USAF                    to the challenge. Our 75th anniversary          every opportunity offered just might
  If we want merit promotions with-          is just two years away. Let’s hope that         not get promoted. There is a lot more
out any bias (either for or against the      long before our 100th anniversary we            to selective promotions than just doing
                                             8   OCTOBER 2020         AIRFORCEMAG.COM
a good job, and to blame lack of pro-        Are the opportunities for promotion                           I’m a 30-year Black retired Security
motions on race seems like a stretch.        equal regardless of race? No way to                        Forces (air police, security police)
Individuals also need incentives, so         tell from the few anecdotal interviews                     Chief Master Sgt. (1966 to 1997), com-
taking away early promotion is really        that accompanied the promotion data.                       pelled to respond for the first time.
dumb! That will certainly level the field.   Is the Air Force goal really to level the                     As a 43-year military and civilian
  If the Air Force really wanted the an-     outcome as stated by Lt. Gen. [Brian                       law enforcement officer, no one is
swer to promotion disparity, they would      T.] Kelly? Better to ensure the op-                        more dispirited than I am by the police
contract an independent (outside) firm       portunities are equal rather than the                      actions seen in the Minneapolis video
to study all the data and provide an         outcomes.                                                  involving the death of George Floyd, no
unbiased report on the issue ... then                            Col. Dennis Beebe,                     matter the final investigation and legal
we would see if the system is broken                                      USAF (Ret.)                   outcome. However, the succeeding vio-
or needs to be social re-engineered to                                 Solvang, Calif.                  lence, looting, and murder is just as ab-
level the field.                                                                                        horrent and counterproductive. As the
                 Col. Quentin M. Thomas,        The enlisted promotion data graphs                      widow of retired Black police Captain
                              USAF (Ret.)    are misleading because it does include                     David Dorn stated, “Looting, destruc-
                          Woodstock, Ga.     the percentage of women promoted in                        tion, and mayhem doesn’t save Black
                                             their respective races. The Average En-                    lives, it destroys Black lives.” Rev. Dr.
  I don’t think you told the complete        listed Promotion Rates: 2009 to 2019,                      Martin Luther King Jr. understood and
story. Most of the article was summary       for senior master sergeant are 10.5                        later Malcolm X came to understand
statistics of promotion rates for the        percent White and 13 percent Black.                        that these acts of violence, destruction,
past decade, presumably some sort            To know how many women factored                            and murder were counterproductive.
of averages from 2009 to 2019. But, no       into the equation is valuable to see if                       Furthermore, I resent the implication
data were presented to indicate how          more disparities exist. For example, if                    that racism is systemic in America’s
we are doing over time. For example,         10.5 percent are White and 5 percent                       police force. I know from personal
what were these averages during the          of those promoted are female, this is                      experience that the majority of law
previous decades? Has the Air Force          a huge disparity considering women                         enforcement officers are noble, val-
improved? What trends have we mea-           are 20.6 percent of the enlisted force.                    iant, and honorable. Their courageous
sured over the past decade? Have the         Without this data in the equation, you                     and humanitarian deeds exponentially
promotion percentages for minorities         are painting an incomplete picture of                      eclipse isolated unfavorable incidents.
improved or not?                             the data presented.                                           The perception that systemic racism
   Also, choosing a parameter like past                  SMSgt. Michael J. Nichols,                     exists in the Air Force is also an insult
promotions is choosing to track the                               Deputy Fire Chief,                    to the many senior leaders who strive
outcome, rather than the opportunity.                       Kadena Air Base, Japan                      to uphold the laws of equality, oppor-

         Take advantage of your AIR FORCE ASSOCIATION Member Discount

                                                                  You and your family members are eligible
                                                                  for discounts on hearing aids and services
                                                                  through American Hearing Benefits.

                                                                  PROGRAM BENEFITS:
                                                                   • Over 3,000 network providers nationwide
                                                                   • Free Annual Hearing Consultations
                                                                   • Discounts up to 48% on the latest technologies
                       "Until I got my hearing aids,
                                                                       -   Healthable hearing aids (activity tracking)
                        I had no idea what I had
                                                                       -   Hearing aids with tinnitus technology
                        been missing." - Paul B.
                                                                       -   Smartphone compatible hearing aids
                                                                       -   Rechargeable hearing aids
       Call Us Today at (888)            809-7786                  • 60-Day Trial Period*
                    to find out more
         www.americanhearingbenefits.com/partners/AFA                         *Professional service fees may apply. ©2020 Starkey. All Rights Reserved. 4/20 TJAD3133-00-EE-HB

                                                OCTOBER 2020        AIRFORCEMAG.COM                 9
LETTERS

tunity, freedom, and justice. Every mil-     his 18-year old son rode off one night for      When some students in my school
itary individual has the same avenues        a Black Lives Matter protest in Washing-     opposed standing during the Pledge
for redress of grievance as their civilian   ton, D.C. I encourage General Clark to ex-   of Allegiance or reciting Christian
counterparts. Where there is racial or       plain to his son the distinction between     prayers based on their religious be-
other injustice, there is an absence or      supporting “Black Lives Matter” for          liefs, we respected them without bias
neglect of leadership.                       legitimate, positive change and support-     or condemnation. However, we didn’t
   During my career, I met two of the        ing the BLM, a movement aided by an          eliminate the Pledge of Allegiance or
original Tuskegee Airmen: Lt. Gen.           embedded terrorist organization, Antifa.     ban prayers, nor modify the education
Benjamin O. Davis Jr., 13th Air Force        Both are avowed Marxist organizations        curriculum or standards of conduct
Commander, while controlling entry           with cleverly crafted names to deceive       to accommodate them. People of the
to his command center on Udorn               the public, yet are fomenting hate, chaos,   Muslim/Islamic faith believe in Sharia
RTAFB, Thailand, 1968-69, and later          and destruction. Their charter is dedicat-   Law. However, we do not change our
years, stateside, hearing Gen. Daniel        ed to the destruction of the traditional     laws or Constitution to accommodate
“Chappie” James Jr. during one of his        American values: the nuclear family;         their faith or Islamic laws.
speeches on Americanism and patrio-          religious institutions; American histo-         Today, military leaders are stifled
tism (subjects very dear to me). I later     ry; and independence. Their goal is to       and even paralyzed by a multitude of
met the first Black Chief Master Ser-        erect a Communist Utopia (all confirmed      other social experiments thrust upon
geant of the Air Force, Chief Thomas         by Homeland Security Congressional           them by an ideological driven alliance
N. Barnes, during his visit to Griffiss      testimony). Amazingly, many American         of media, politicians, and educators.
Air Force Base, N.Y. While I was proud       corporations and notable celebrities         Leaders should be protected from
of these Black military leaders, I was       contributed to their own demise by do-       these distractions in the interest of
also proud of the many other senior Air      nating hundreds of millions of dollars to    military readiness.
Force commanders and noncommis-              these groups, creating a revolving door         Therefore, it is impossible to suffi-
sioned officers of all races who inspired    for arrested criminals to continue the       ciently address racism in our military
me through their demonstrative faith,        destruction of our communities.              and civilian culture today unless we
leadership, and love of country. They            I educated myself on the national        address the ramifications of politically
taught me that when subordinates             media coverage of racial incidents           correct bias and ideological hatred
understand the standards expected of         while serving in Thailand and Vietnam,       pervasive today in politics, education,
them and are given the opportunity to        1968-1971. Today ’s media coverage           and the media.
achieve and exceed those standards           is very much like the agenda-driven                           CMSgt. James Fullwood,
through common sense techniques of           coverage of the Vietnam War protests,                                     USAF (Ret.)
leadership and management (training,         embedded with radical leftists such                                   Puyallup, Wash.
counseling, and follow up), then most        as Students for a Democratic Society
subordinates will feel respected, excel,     (SDS), Symbionese Liberation Army
and earn promotions and commenda-            (SLA), Black Panthers, and several              Correction: In the September issue,
tions, no matter their race. I credit my     other anti-American organizations.            two letters to the editor were inadver-
successful and decorated career to              I was born and raised extremely            tently combined. Below is the correct,
programming others to succeed.               poor in a segregated South in late            complete letter submitted by Col.
   General [Anthony J.] Cotton men-          ’40s through the mid-’60s. Despite            David R. Haulman, USAFR (Ret.). We
tioned “Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor,       the racism and poverty, our faith and         sincerely regret the error.—THE EDITORS
George Floyd, and Rayshard Brooks—           the family values of our community,
and the list goes on ...” suggesting         churches, and schools instilled in us a         I’m both encouraged and im-
that murder by White police officers         sense of self-worth, taught us absolute       pressed by the superb credentials
is systemic and commonplace. That is         rights and wrongs, and encouraged             identified for each of the AFA
not true, and I would encourage him to       us to be positive and always judge            candidates for National Office and
research the FBI and NCIC (National          other people individually by their mer-       the Board of Directors. I can’t help
Crime Information Center) statistics,        its. Most Black Americans share the           but wonder, though, what a lot of
and he will find the numbers do not          same core values of faith, patriotism,        others of us might be thinking:
support his claim. The mainstream            freedom, and respect for the rule of          How can AFA get more former Air
media purposely distort and outright         law—values that guide our progress            Force pilots involved at the highest
lie about the circumstances of many          toward equality, tranquility.                 levels of the AFA? It appears that
racial incidents to incite racial tension,      However, the curriculum in schools         only one of the thirteen nominees
and too many Black people have overre-       and colleges today is embedded with           ever piloted Air Force jets. Our
acted or fallen prey, during my lifetime.    “social justice” issues guided by a po-       AFA founder, Gen. Jimmy Doolittle,
Cases in point include Florida’s George      litical agenda filled with anti-American,     might have wondered the same
Zimmerman/Trayvon Martin, Missouri’s         anti-military, and anti-religious bias        thing.
Michael Brown/ Officer Darren Wilson,        and hate. I was inspired to join the Air                     Col. David R. Haulman,
Baltimore’s Freddie Gray/six police offi-    Force when a recruiter visited our high                                USAFR (Ret.)
cers, Atlanta’s Rayshad Brooks/Garrett       school. Many schools and colleges                                  Ridgeland, Miss.
Rolfe, and Houston’s Jazmine Barnes.         today have banned military recruiters
   General [Richard M.] Clark mentioned      and ROTC programs.
                                             10   OCTOBER 2020      AIRFORCEMAG.COM
VERBATIM

 Voice
Lessons                                                                                                                                              Chill
“None of you will
be left out of the                                                                                                                                    Out,
                                                                                                                                                     China
   conversation.
    None of you
  will be treated
  like a number.
                                                                                                                                                     “Those who play
None of you will
                                                                                                                                                      with fire will get
face times when
                                                                                                                                                          burned.”
   you’re not in-
 cluded. None of                                                                                                                                      —Col. Ren Guo-
 you is more im-                                                                                                                                         qiang, Chinese
portant than any                                                                                                                                        defense spokes-
                                                                                                                                                     man, explaining why
other. Nobody in                                                                                                                                     China sent jets into
the Space Force                                                                                                                                      Taiwanese airspace
   has a reason                                                                                                                                       during an exercise.
 to sit back and                                                                                                                                        He accused the
    be unheard.                                                                                                                                      U.S. of trying to use
                                                                                                                                                       Taiwan to “control
  Nobody in the
                                                                                                                                                     China,” while Taiwan
Space Force has

                              Subordinate’s Intent
                                                                                                                                                     relies on “foreigners
 an opinion that                                                                                                                                      to build [itself ] up.”
  I don’t want to                                                                                                                                      The flights were a
know. This really                                                                                                                                      protest against a
 is your service,                                                                                                                                       senior U.S. State
                    “One of the things I’ve always done as a senior leader and as a command-                                                            Department offi-
and our size and     er…[regarding] asking for permission … [is tell the boss] ‘Here’s what I’m                                                      cial’s attendance at
  scale gives us   planning on doing. And here’s when I’m planning on moving out.’ So I don’t                                                        a former Taiwanese
 an advantage, a   have to wait for a response. If they don’t respond—I’d give them at least 48                                                         leader’s funeral.
level of intimacy    hours—if they didn’t respond, I was going to move out. That’s the same
                                                                                                                                                      Howling
that nobody else kind of approach I think our Airmen need to take. … Communicate what their
     can have.”    intent is, and then wait a little bit of time, give their supervision a chance to
    —Space Force                respond. If they don’t respond, they need to move.”
                                                                                                                                                       at the
                                                                                                                                                       Moon
  Senior Enlisted
Adviser Chief Master      —Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr., USAF Chief of Staff, speaking with Air Force Magazine Editor in
                          Chief Tobias Naegele after his speech at the Air Force Association’s virtual Air, Space & Cyber

                                                                                                                                                                                NASA/GSFC/Arizona State
   Sgt. Roger A.
Towberman at vASC.                                       Conference (vASC) in September.

                                                                                       An Offer You Can’t Refuse . . .
                                                                                       “The only thing that’s going to be worse than

                                                                                                                                                                                University
                                                                                         fighting against AI is fighting without it.”

                                                                                         —Will Roper, Air Force acquisition executive, on the
                                                                                        imperative to employ artificial intelligence to accelerate     “If you look at
                                                                                                  decision-making in future conflict.                the orbits of the
                                                             Tia Dufour/White House

                                                                                                       AI in Action                                  stuff that’s going
                                                                                                                                                         around the
                                                                                        “You’re not supposed to be able to shoot                      Moon, it looks
                                                                                       down a cruise missile with a tank. But, yes,                   like a drunken
                                                                                       you can, if the bullet is smart enough, and                    sailor wander-
                                                                                       the bullet we use for that system is excep-                     ing around as
                                                                                                      tionally smart.”                               compared to the
             Peace Portal                                                             —Will Roper, telling reporters about the Air Force’s most
                                                                                       recent Advanced Battle Management System on-ramp
                                                                                                                                                     orbits that we’re
                                                                                                                                                     used to describ-
   “This could lead to peace, real peace in the                                                                                                      ing closer to the
                                                                                                      held in early September.
 Middle East for the first time. … We’ve taken a                                                                                                            Earth.”
  very different path. You could say it’s a back-
                                                                                                                                                       —Col. Eric J. Felt,
 door, but I call it a smart door, not a backdoor.”                                                                                                     head of Air Force
                                                                                                                                                      Research Laborato-
—President Donald J. Trump after signing the Abraham Ac-                                                                                              ries Space Vehicles
cords with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and the                                                                                           Directorate on the
 foreign ministers of the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain,                                                                                           challenges of defin-
entering into the normalization pact with Israel and regarding                                                                                        ing routine cislunar
 how the Palestinians may now also negotiate a peace deal                                                                                                  operations
                       [Politico, Sept. 15].                                                                                                                [Sept. 21].

                                                       OCTOBER 2020                               AIRFORCEMAG.COM          11
QUESTIONS & ANSWERS

                                                Space Ops 101
   Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, USSF
deputy chief of space operations for oper-
ations, cyber and nuclear, is the first chief
operations officer of the new service. He
spoke with Air Force Magazine Senior
Editor Rachel S. Cohen about Space Force
planning. This conversation has been ed-
ited for length and clarity.

    Q: What does your job entail?
    A: That portfolio includes traditional
space operations, cyber operations, and
our nuclear operations, … our role in
providing capabilities that add to our
strategic deterrence. … What we’ve de-
cided to do is designate that position a
little bit like the corporate C-suite. So

                                                                                                                                        Eric Dietrich/USAF
I’m the chief operations officer, and
that’s another one of those innovative
twists that we’re trying to bring to the
military mindset. ... That name change is
a reminder to me to not just fall into into
old military staff habits, if you will, but to Lt. Gen. B. Chance Saltzman, shown here as a two-star, is Space Force deputy
look through a different lens and see this chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, effectively the
as an integrated approach to operations. Space Force’s chief operations officer.

   Q: What role do cyber and nuclear operations play in              adding value” [list] is to remove barriers that are slowing
your job?                                                            us down. There’s a number of those. Some of them are just
   A: Space operations cannot happen without cyber, ... the          bureaucratic. Some of them are lack of resourcing and focus.
networks, data transport, data management, the electromag-           Some of them are training- and readiness-related. I’m trying
netic spectrum, the ability to link to satellites 23,000 miles out   to first assess and do some root cause analysis of what those
in geosynchronous orbit and return mission data in real time.        key barriers are, and then figure out mitigation strategies and
… We are tightly integrating that by being under that chief          start ticking them off.
operations officer.
   One of the most valuable contributions to our nation for             Q: Are there any reports you have due soon?
strategic deterrence is our missile-warning capability provided         A: We have an opportunity to now, as a service, look at how
by space, not to mention the ground assets that also do the          we describe and assess our readiness level. ... A lot of times,
missile warning role. … What adversary would launch a missile        readiness is described as preparing to deploy or preparing to
at us, knowing that we will see it in plenty of time to respond?     accomplish your mission at some point in the future, and so
They have to make the calculus of, what city are we willing to       you do training, you perform maintenance activities, all to
trade to launch an ICBM at the United States? … The power            establish a level of readiness so that if called upon, you can
of being able to see and attribute any kind of attack like that      do your mission at a high level. But, if you think about it, our
truly creates a strategic deterrent effect.                          space assets are largely doing their wartime mission on a day-
                                                                     to-day basis, and so we have to perpetually be ready. … For
   Q: What are some of your top priorities and action items          us, determining exactly how we assess, describe, and report
right now?                                                           our readiness levels, so that it has meaning to us as a Space
   A: [My whiteboard] says “start adding value.” This is an im-      Force is one of those things at the top of my list.
perative for us in the Space Force. … We have to assess what
are the most critical shortfalls, what are the best opportunities       Q: How are you focusing resources differently as part of
to enhance our position, and how do we focus those resources         the fiscal 2022 budget request?
where things that matter require those resources? That’s at             A: How do we need to posture ourselves to protect U.S.
the top of my list. Right behind that is, we’ve got to go faster.    interests in space? How do we make sure that we deter any
The security environment that we’ve been put into, both in           activities or aggression in, from, and to space? And then, how
the space domain and, really, across the globe—we’ve got             do we continue to provide that warfighting capability that the
to play catch up a little bit. The other sub-bullet on my “start     joint force has come to just assume is there? … That’s really
                                                12   OCTOBER 2020    AIRFORCEMAG.COM
what the resourcing team has focused on.                              the Army and those models where you have these stovepipes
   My job is also to identify where I’m struggling in my oper-        of subject-matter experts that attend to things in that realm.
ations, so that they have a good set of requirements moving           I’m trying to break that up. … Those subject-matter experts are
forward. I have not really looked at it yet in enough detail to       going to be mixed across divisions in a unique way.
answer the question in that regard. That’s a part of that read-          The three buckets that I’ve been putting people in, very col-
iness and assessment that we’re trying to get after early on.         loquially, I describe as the “what,” the “so what,” and the “what
                                                                      next?” … The “what” bin, they’re the ones that are collecting
    Q: What role did space play in your time as deputy com-           all the information. What’s going on in the world? What are
mander of Air Forces Central Command?                                 the conditions that are affecting us? What’s the environment
    A: [At AFCENT, my learning opportunity was,] how much             look like? What missions are going on? What are the people
data can I get my hands on? How fast can I make sense of it,          doing? What’s the adversary doing? ... So we have situational
and how tight can I make my decision loop so that I can always        awareness about all of the activities that affect the Space Force
provide guidance, provide direction to the forces, so that they       and its mission. Then the “so what” is making meaning out of
can be in front of an adversary? This is the nature of competi-       that. What are the impacts? If the Russians are conducting this
tion. It’s not nice, discrete battles anymore. It’s about, they’re    exercise, what does it mean for the Space Force? What does it
trying to do something to achieve a strategic advantage, and          mean for the joint force? If there’s an environmental condition,
we’re trying to prevent them from achieving that strategic ad-        whether it’s a hurricane or whether it’s space weather that’s
vantage. … The best way to mitigate an adversary from getting         affecting us, how is it affecting us? ... The “what next” team [are]
a strategic advantage is to rapidly see what they’re trying to        the ones developing courses of action, looking at mitigation
do, and then frustrate those efforts with our own activities. …       strategies, determining through crisis action planning and bet-
It’s really not about space or air independently, as much as it       ter force management propositions—how can we both address
is about how we provide all that capability in an integrated,         the shortfalls that we’re seeing and leverage opportunities to
synchronized, and operationally fast way.                             do better? I’m not looking at the badges they’re wearing or
                                                                      what job they had before they came to the staff. I’m taking all
   Q: Can you give an example of a time when space was                of that expertise and dividing them along those three lines.
critical in Middle East operations?
   A: The Russians have done some things on orbit that have              Q: You developed the initial multi-domain command
been very aggressive in the past. We would have maybe col-            and control concept for the Air Force. What do you think
lected [intelligence] on those and kept those in super dark,          of the Pentagon’s work on joint all-domain command and
secret channels and never really attributed what we knew              control (JADC2) so far?
about it. We recognize that there [are] capabilities that our            A: I’m such a proud father. … They’ve taken all of that very
adversaries have, that the other powers have, and our ability to      small contribution that we made, basically creating that vo-
see it and let them know that we see it, I believe has a deterrent    cabulary, and they’re running with it. There’s tangible products
effect. I saw the same thing overseas. ... I can’t tell you exactly   that are being produced. There’s prototypes that really get
what systems I’m talking about, but space-based capabilities,         after the principles that we laid out. ... The root cause of any
collecting on the maneuver of our adversaries, allowed us to          of our challenges came back to how we managed our data.
then position forces that mitigated what they were trying to do,      We were very loud about that, I thought, and I see that thread
frustrating them. They thought they could move down a road            continuing through the JADC2 effect—cloud-based, accessi-
unimpeded, and suddenly we’re there. Why are we in their              ble data; universal contribution to a library of data that then
way? Well, because we knew what they were doing. We didn’t            technology and artificial intelligence can pull from to help
have access to those areas via air or via ground-based sensors.       decision-makers make better decisions faster, and then use
The only way to see those movements is that persistence that          technology to link to the shooters on a real-time basis. … Space
we provide to those conflicted areas via space.                       is right there, because we are contributors of the data, we are
                                                                      users and consumers of the data. We make critical decisions
    Q: What will Space Force deployments look like in the             at orbital-velocity speed. So we have to be very loud and vocal
future?                                                               proponents and customers of the JADC2 products.
    A: I’m not sure it’s going to change too dramatically. Right
now, with our current capabilities, it’s just one of our mission         Q: What needs to be done to best support U.S. Space
sets, or just a small handful of our missions that we actually        Command and the other combatant commands?
need to go overseas to perform. The vast majority of the capa-           A: We have the unique position of being a service focused
bilities, we can do from our garrison locations. ... Because the      on a domain that can work tightly with a combatant com-
numbers are so small, we don’t have to go through a radical           mander that’s focused on the domain, and I’m not sure that
shift in how we deploy. We still leverage the Department of the       relationship exists anywhere else in the department. ... We are
Air Force capabilities for assigning and determining what are         going to be in close formation linked tightly with [U.S. Space
the requirements, and then we deploy people as necessary,             Command boss Gen. James H. Dickinson] and his entire staff.
if they have to go to a forward location to accomplish their          I’m going to talk to the [Joint Staff operations director] next
mission. ... As our capabilities grow over time, we might need        week. I’m going to talk to him every day, probably, to make
a new force-presentation model.                                       sure that there’s this nice yin and yang, if you will. What you
                                                                      need is what we’re working on. The training your team needs
  Q: How are you planning on bringing people from differ-             is the training I’m providing. My assessment is going to be
ent specialties together in new ways?                                 based on his feedback on what he’s trying to accomplish. This
  A: When I started talking about space operations, cyber             is a great hand-in-glove kind of a relationship that we have an
operations, nuclear operations, the tradition would be, I es-         opportunity to take advantage of, and we’re not going to miss
tablish an S3, an S6, and an S10, and I copy the Air Force and        that opportunity.                                             J

                                                   OCTOBER 2020       AIRFORCEMAG.COM        13
You can also read