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How women made a difference

Women would also play a key role during and after the war. More than 1,000 Women Airforce Service Pilots, known as WASPs, were stationed at 122 air bases across the United States. Though limited by the sexism of the time, and barred from front-line roles, they still flew more than 60 million miles in almost every type of aircraft flown by the US Army Air Forces. By testing and delivering aircraft, these women flew thousands of aircraft to the front lines, where they would be flown by their male counterparts in combat. WASPS fought for decades for recognition despite their courageous service; 38 WASPs lost their lives during the war.

After World War II, the military's stark lack of diversity would hinder the nation's efforts during the Cold War. The Soviet Union had leapt ahead in space exploration with the surprise launch of Sputnik and cemented their dominance when Yuri Gagarin became the first human in space. Perhaps it wasn't a coincidence that the American space program supplanted the Soviets after female and African-American mathematicians and engineers were integrated into the workforce.

In an era in which gay Americans in all walks of life frequently remained in the closet, Technical Sgt. Leonard Matlovich became the face of the still nascent gay rights movement when he appeared on the cover of TIME magazine in 1975, in his uniform, under the banner "I Am a Homosexual."

His activism and courage in the face of social injustice was laudable, but his actions on the battlefields of Vietnam earned him the Bronze Star and Purple Heart. Matlovich made our military better for his talents and for his courage both on the battlefield abroad and in our community at home.

In every aspect of our humanity, there have been airmen contributing their unique talents to the nation's defense. John Levitow, a Jewish airman, was a loadmaster on an AC-47 "Spooky" gunship. Although Levitow's religion did not restrict him from service in the same ways as Matlovich's sexuality, the Tuskegee Airmen's race, or the WASPs' gender, his story highlights that heroes may be of any faith, including those of no faith.

On February 24, 1969, Levitow's gunship was supporting an Army unit when his airplane was hit by mortar fire. The shrapnel damaged the plane and injured the crew, including Levitow. It also caused the airplane's gunner to drop a lit flare inside the aircraft, where its fuse burned next to 19,000 rounds of ammunition.

Despite his injuries, Levitow dragged the burning fuse to an open door and dropped it out of the plane seconds before it ignited. He saved the aircraft and crew, and was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. That gunship and the soldiers it was supporting survived that day because of the diversity Levitow brought to the fight.

An infinitely more complex world

I grew up in a military family and have worn our nation's uniform for 36 years. I have traveled the world, served in leadership roles from California to England, and commanded some of our nation's finest men and women in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. As the Air Force Academy's superintendent, the bottom line is simple: I need to prepare these young men and women to defend our freedoms and defend our nation, even if it means making the ultimate sacrifice.

Over the course of my career, waging war and preserving peace has grown infinitely more complex. Today, the leaders we prepare must be able to understand ideas, languages and customs that span continents and cultures as they never have before. Furthermore, they must be able to harness the unique talents of the airmen they will lead.

Embracing, celebrating and striving for diversity isn't just the right thing to do, nor is it just a sensitive and politically correct, knee-jerk response. It is the application of our collective intelligence -- our uniqueness coming together to fulfill our duty to provide the nation with the most effective and lethal fighting force we have the capacity to employ on the battlefield. To put it in the terms of a military leader: Diversity is a force multiplier. We must do this together -- all ranks and ages, races and religions, sexual orientations and identities — all of us.
 
Sunday at 9:03 AM
Friday at 8:13 PM
and Air Force to kill JSTARS recap program for new battlefield management plane
source is DefenseNews
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now JSTARS replacement cancelled in new USAF budget plan
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The US Air Force’s has decided to retire its primary aerial ground surveillance platform in the mid-2020s and replace it with a network of existing and new sensors linked to a ground-based command and control system.

The decision announced in the Trump Administration’s budget request for Fiscal 2019 would terminate the Northrop Grumman E-8C JSTARS and cancel a three-way competition to replace the platform with a large business jet or a Boeing 737.

The funding for the JSTARS recapitalization programme will be diverted to pay for development of an advanced battle management system, but details remain scant.

As the E-8C enters retirement in the mid-2020s, the Air Force plans to have the first increment of the advanced battle management system operational, but offered few details.

“We’ll be taking sensors that exist today and maybe putting them on additional aircraft like maybe the MQ-9, and fusing the different sensors from all the areas that exist today,” says Maj Gen John Pletcher, the Air Force’s deputy assistant secretary for Budget.

But the Air Force has not explained how the first increment of the advanced battle management system will replace the aerial ground system on the E-8C. The 7.3m (24ft)-long APY-7 radar is too long to be carried on the General Atomics Aeronautical Systems MQ-9.

The advanced battle management system concept emerges after the USAF twice reneged on attempts to replace the E-8C fleet. The Air Force cancelled the 767-400ER-derived Northrop Grumman E-10A in the 2007 budget.

Eight years later, the Air Force launched the JSTARS recapitalization programme, hoping to reduce operating costs by down-sizing the platform to a 737, Gulfstream G650 or Bombardier Global 6000. All three competitors – Northrop, Boeing and Lockheed Martin – planned to integrate a new wide area surveillance radar developed by Northrop. The status of that radar development project remains unknown under the air force’s new proposal.

By switching from a platform to a network of systems for the JSTARS missions, the Air Force’s proposed strategy echoes a decision by the US Navy three years ago. Faced with a replacement bill for the Lockheed EP-3E ARIES electronic surveillance fleet, the Navy decided to break up the mission into a network of existing aircraft and sensors, including the Northrop MQ-4C Triton, Northrop MQ-8C Fire Scout, and Boeing P-8A Poseidon.
 
the first time I've heard of “Air Superiority Family of Systems” is now:
Air Superiority Account a Placeholder for Family of Systems
2/12/2018
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The Air Force has created a new account in its fiscal year 2019 budget request for technologies that will enable future control of the air. It’s called “Air Superiority Family of Systems” and the service is asking $550 million for this work in FY ‘19, up from $335 million in FY ‘18.

The new account largely funds the completion of an analysis of alternatives on Next-Generation Air Dominance, or NGAD concepts, said Maj. Gen. John Pletcher, USAF assistant secretary for budget, at a Pentagon budget briefing. The AOA was begun in the spring of 2017 and is looking at what comes after the F-22 and F-35 in the role of air superiority, but also includes ideas such as unmanned aircraft, the so-called “Arsenal Plane” concept, and new air-to-air munitions, as well as how “legacy” fighters such as the F-15 and F-16 will complement the F-22 and F-35. However, line items for improvements to those aircraft are funded separately and individually.

The AOA will determine, “What exactly will be included in that family of systems,” Pletcher said. Budget documents suggested early products from those decisions could come along in as little as five years.

Air Force leaders have discussed a platform notionally called the
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in recent years, but Carolyn Gleason of USAF’s comptroller office, briefing reporters along with Pletcher, said “as far as the PCA, a decision has not been made. We’re not wed to any platform.”

Program documents said the Air Force is requesting $867 million in Fiscal 2019 for F-22 improvements, up from $915 million in FY ‘18 and $662 million in FY ‘17. Upgrades underway include adding the AIM-120D and AIM-9X missiles to the F-22, additional electronic protection and improved geolocation, as well as Increment 3.2B modernization, which includes upgrades to communications, navigation, and sensors. It also begins a separate sensor enhancement program.

The F-15 fleet is requested to receive $1.067 billion in improvements in FY ‘19, ranging from active electronically scanned array (AESA) radars, reliability enhancements, and the EPAWSS (Eagle Passive/Active Warning Survivability System) to improve the jet’s survivability, along with continued development of an Infrared Search and Track system (IRST). The F-15 program previously requested $963.1 million in Fiscal ‘18 and $780.6 million in FY ‘17 for upgrades.
 

timepass

Brigadier
Navy updates Sikorsky contract for CH-53K aircraft....

Navy-updates-Sikorsky-contract-for-CH-53K-aircraft.jpg



"Sikorsky has been awarded a contract for the initial production of seven Lot III CH-53K King Stallion aircraft, a large heavy-lift cargo helicopter.

The deal, announced Tuesday by the Department of Defense, is valued at $126.5 million and is a modification to a previous award under the terms of a fixed-price-incentive-firm target, cost-plus-fixed-fee contract."

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... the XM2001 Crusader ...
... sorta coming back:
"In nominating Fahey, the White House is bringing back to the Pentagon an engineer who helped develop the Army's $11 billion Crusader self-propelled howitzer program that was canceled by then-Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld in a still-controversial decision."
Nominee for Key Weapons Buyer Post at DoD Passes Senate Hurdle
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Yesterday at 9:08 PM
Sunday at 9:03 AM
now JSTARS replacement cancelled in new USAF budget plan
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related (actually quite interesting read):
Air Force Kills JSTARS Upgrade
The
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will not move forward with an
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replacement aircraft, officials confirmed.

The service on Monday announced that the current JSTARS fleet -- capable of developing, detecting, locating and tracking moving targets on the ground -- will fly into the mid-2020s, but as officials carve out future battle management plans, a new JSTARS aircraft won't be necessary, officials said during the
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briefing.

"Instead of recapitalizing JSTARS, a platform which is not viable in contested environments prioritized in the National Defense Strategy, this budget reallocates that funding to achieve an advanced battle management system for the future through a new incremental approach," said Air Force Deputy Assistant Secretary for Budget Maj. Gen. John M. Pletcher.

The new effort will capitalize on new and emerging sensor technologies from air, space, sea and land systems and will take the information in a fused-data direction, Pletcher said. The move was first reported by Defense News over the weekend.

For the first phase, the Air Force is exploring expanding its sensor suite by adding the technologies to platforms such as the
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. Depending on how influential the data is, the Air Force could either expand the practice to other fleets, or it may look to another aircraft altogether, Pletcher said.

"It may or may not be a platform," he told reporters during the briefing at the Pentagon. "It's really about taking all the sensors that exist across the domain -- fifth generation aircraft today, unmanned aircraft, space, ground sensors, pulling all that together, which includes sensors that aren't necessarily developed today."

If its a new plane, "it's got to be survivable," Pletcher said. "The point of the
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discussion, if we recap the current JSTARS, we will have an aircraft that still can't do anymore than it can today … probably [even] less because it will be in a more competitive, contested environment" in the future, he said.

Fusing more systems instead will "enable faster and smarter decisions that will give us the winning edge," Pletcher said.

In December 2016,
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a $6.9 billion Request for Proposal for the engineering, manufacturing and development phase of the upgraded aircraft. It had planned to buy 17 new aircraft.

But months later, two lawmakers discovered the service may forgo the JSTARS replacement plan and seek out other aircraft alternatives for the mission.

Georgia Sens. Johnny Isakson and David A. Perdue in August said they were "alarmed" to find out in August that the Air Force may pursue "alternative intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance platforms" instead of procuring a JSTARS replacement.

Responding to the criticism, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said the service would decide whether it would pursue the recap program in October. That date was then pushed back to coincide with the latest budget request.

"JSTARS is about battlefield command and control," Wilson said during a speech in early October.

But there has been a capability gap, she said.

"They're very important to people on the ground to get air support where they need it -- but they're only meeting 5 percent of the [combatant commander] requirement. They have to go back and refuel; there are only a limited number of airframes," she said.

Over the Islamic State battlefield in Iraq and Syria, for example, there are a variety of space assets, fighters, "unmanned aircraft, seaborne radars, ground-based radars and we have the ability to integrate information we didn't have in 1991," Wilson said, referencing the Gulf War.

She added, "Can we pull all that information to give a better picture of command and control, and be putting that on the ground instead of in the back of an airplane?"

The airborne command and control plane, a modified Boeing 707-300 series commercial airframe that can fly as high as 42,000 feet, is "extensively remanufactured and modified with the radar, communications, operations and control subsystems," including a prominent 27-foot bathtub-like radome under the fuselage.

The radome "houses the 24-foot long, side-looking phased array antenna," according to the Air Force.

In an
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, "Rethinking Radar Plane Recap: Will The Air Force Let Down The
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Again?," Forbes columnist Loren Thompson last year wrote divesting JSTARS would leave the Army -- which relies on the plane's real-time reconnaissance -- high and dry and directly in harm's way on the battlefield.

The Air Force "wants to conduct an 'analysis of alternatives' to determine whether there are better ways to do the mission," said Thompson, who writes about on the strategic, economic and business implications of defense spending for the publication.

Thompson went on to say, "That might sound reasonable if the service hadn't already conducted five such analyses that led to the current replacement program. A sixth review of options would come to the same conclusion, which means what's really going on is the Air Force is trying to jettison the capability entirely.

"Whatever highfalutin' rationale the Air Force may advance for this unfolding debacle, the bottom line is that it just doesn't value Army needs as highly as its own operational priorities," he said.

Currently, 16 E-8 aircraft are headquartered at
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, Georgia.
it's
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wow PSYOPS
Future Marine Infantry Units May Have PSYOP Capabilities, More Snipers
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The infantry unit of the future is sophisticated, with electronic warfare capabilities, robust intelligence and reconnaissance capabilities, and the ability to conduct local influence operations.

And the future is now.

When
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Commandant Gen. Robert Neller named an experimental infantry unit, 3rd Battalion, 5th Marines, in early 2016, much of the
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: testing out unmanned systems, vehicles, and weapons for use by the force. But, more than a year later, many of the recommendations coming out of the experiment have to do with enhancing the skill set inherent in the infantry battalion, not just the gear the unit carries.

Brig. Gen. Christian Wortman, the commanding general of Marine Corps Warfighting Lab, told reporters at the Pentagon Tuesday that some new capabilities expected to arrive for infantry battalions include an increased sniper platoon, to enhance surveillance and reconnaissance; tools to manage and monitor the signature the unit creates; and new positions focused on information and effective communication with adversaries and local populations downrange.

"At the battalion level, we gave [the Marines] some tools to support military information operations, to be able to support our influence efforts in a contested [area of operations] and to work to gain the support of local populations and discourage the efforts of potential adversary forces," Wortman said.

Military influence support operations, or MISO, is a field better known to the public by a name the
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still uses: psychological operations, or PSYOP.

The terms cover a range of activities from direct communication with local civilians by use of leaflet or radio broadcast, to deception strategies aimed at the enemy -- all intended to influence emotions, motives, and decision-making in favor of a particular objective.

"At the battalion level, we want them to be part of the equation for effectively engaging local populations, engaging adversary forces," Wortman told Military.com.

"The means of delivery have changed a lot. Being able to reach people on their phones with texts or other types of capabilities to deliver messages, those are the types of tools that we want to be able to provide down to the battalion level," he continued. "It just hasn't been part of the battalion fight up to this point."

In experimentation, the unit was given "enhanced situational awareness tools," including radios that can interface with tablets equipped with battlefield visualization software designed to enhance awareness of what's happening in the region with friendly forces, enemies, and any local civilian population, Wortman said.

Recommendations for unit improvement after the experimentation included adding an information environment operations officer and an information management officer, as well as an additional forward air controller at the battalion level.

As for the addition of more scout snipers, that will also improve battlefield awareness, Wortman said. He said the Marines are looking to add eight additional snipers to the existing scout sniper platoons inside infantry battalions.

"[It's] just recognizing the demand of being able to operate with high levels of awareness of what our adversary might be doing and then to be able to engage with precision in a complex environment that potentially involves civilians," Wortman said. "We recognize that scout snipers enable us to achieve a lot of that."

All of these changes in some way reinforce a key takeaway of the Marines' infantry experiment: that the service is in "an age of strategic competition," requiring key capability changes to better accomplish the mission.

"We're locked in to a competition for the support of the local population. And in a counterinsurgency kind of environment, there's a premium on gaining that kind of support," Wortman said. "But even in an age of strategic competition, we want to ensure that we've got the right tools to reach out to civilian populations so they understand the nature of our operations ... So we want to have tools to support the strategic message at the tactical edge so that we're able to reinforce that and communicate that effectively."
 
OK Navy Admirals: Effectiveness, Not Efficiency, Is the Hallmark
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Efficiency is necessary, but effectiveness reigns supreme as the measure of a successful Navy, a pair of active and naval retired officers said.

“The hallmark of our military force has always been not its efficiency but its effectiveness,” retired Vice Adm. Phillip Balisle, former commander, Naval Sea Systems Command, and author of a report on ship readiness known as the Balisle Report, said Feb. 14 at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “We created a group of standards that established what was effective, and those standards became our Bible. We never hesitated in what was right or wrong. We had to reach that goal.”

Balisle said the old standard was for a ship never to get underway with a major piece of equipment inoperative.

“The goal was to go CASREP [casualty report]-free,” he said. “When the budget gets tight, people start to make well-meaning discussions about, ‘maybe we need to go good for what we’re going to be doing. When we start talking efficiency, we’re moving that standard down that continuum of effectiveness toward efficiency. When that target starts to change, you’re sending messages to all your Sailors, and they are trying to figure out what we’re trying to achieve today. It becomes difficult to sort out what that goal really is.”

Balisle said the Navy must protect its cultural standards at all costs.

Vice Adm. Richard A. Brown, the new commander, Naval Surface Forces/commander, Naval Surface Force, U.S. Pacific Fleet, agreed that effectiveness can fall victim to efficiency, and that the commanding officer of a ship is the key to maintaining the standards that lead to effectiveness.

“We’ve become so efficient [that] we’ve lost flexibility in the force,” Brown said. “There is a trade-off between efficiency and effectiveness — what I’ll also call flexibility — and perhaps we’ve lost some of that flexibility over a number of years as we became very, very efficient. But we had to become efficient in the face of nine years of continuing resolutions and downward trends in the budgets.”

Brown said, “there is a difference between ‘must do and can do.’ There are things in the U.S. Navy that we must do. That’s the reason why the U.S. Navy exists. The question that we need to start asking is, ’should we do what we’ve just been asked to do?

“The answer has to be, ‘if it’s a must-do, then, yes, we should go do it.’ If it’s not a must-do, and if we’re going to sacrifice safety or standards or use up our readiness to go do that, then perhaps there is a different answer.
 
Tuesday at 8:27 AM
"... the Air Force has formally announced it will be retiring the B-1 and B-2 bomber fleets once the B-21 — which will be dual-capable for both conventional and nuclear missions — starts to come online in the mid-2020s."
US Air Force requests $156.3 billion in FY19, plans to retire B-1, B-2 fleets
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related:
USAF 'Bomber Vector' revealed — B-52 to be upgraded, B-1 and B-2 to be scrapped
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The US Air Force looks set to retire its B-1B Lancer and B-2A Spirit fleets as the new Northrop Grumman B-21 Raider comes online. The Fiscal Year 2019 budget request will see the USAF allocating funding to upgrade its B-52H fleet under its so-called ‘Bomber Vector’, which includes the sundown of the B-1 and B-2, which were previously expected to remain in service until 2040 and 2058 respectively.

The decision-making appears to have been based on mission capable rates, cost of maintenance and spares supply chains — the B-52 has a lower operating and less complex operational cost than its stablemates.

It seems the USAF has chosen to retain the B-52 because of its versatile payload and its ability to carry the new Long-Range Standoff cruise missile. Around 75 B-52s will remain in service until at least 2050, with $22 billion package of upgrades including new engines, plus at least 100 B-21s.

The ‘Bomber Vector’ draft plan, revealed by Air Force Magazine, says the B-2 will be retired ‘no later than 2032’ and the B-1 ‘no later than 2036’.

If Air Force Global Strike Command (AFGSC) retained all of its platforms it would have swelled to 257 aircraft, which the USAF says is unsupportable. Retiring the B-1 and B-2 will also reportedly save sufficient funds to cover the cost of base infrastructure upgrades to accomodate the B-21.

The new plan is based around a ‘force-neutral manning structure’, which means the USAF will man the B-21 squadrons with personnel coming from the B-1 and B-2 communities as they are retired, although the bomber force will grow overall from the current 157 aircraft today to at least 175.
 
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