Air Force | Soldier Systems Daily Soldier Systems Daily

Archive for the ‘Air Force’ Category

Air Force Graduates Final Multi-Domain Warfare Officers, Operational Planning to be Incorporated into all-levels of PME

Monday, June 20th, 2022

The 505th Command and Control Wing graduated the sixth and final class of Multi-Domain Warfare Officers, previously known by the Air Force Specialty Code designator “Thirteen Oscar,” during a live-streamed ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Florida, May 20.

For the eleven students, their graduation marks the culmination of a 20-week journey covering 840 hours of intensive joint academics and 310 hours of complex training exercises, which honed their operational-planning skills.

Reflecting the ever-changing operational environment, no two Thirteen Oscar, or 13O, courses were the same. The five-month training course evolved with every class to ensure leading-edge training focused on preparing the students to lead the operational-planning efforts from competition through conflict. The course’s main focus areas included the command-and-control processes for the air components, employing the joint planning process for air and the joint air targeting cycle, exposure to Agile Combat Employment considerations, development of integrated air and missile defense plans, information operations, non-kinetic operations, and seminars with each joint and functional components.

The Multi-Domain Warfare Officer career field was created in 2019 in response to direction from previous Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Goldfein, to develop dedicated operational-level C2 experts responsible for integrating joint and coalition capabilities across multiple warfighting domains. The short-lived career field made U.S. Air Force-wide impacts, with 151 total force graduates being employed at 23 locations, including nine combatant command air components, in just under three years. The increased capability these high-quality operational-level planners brought to air components across the globe highlighted to the current CSAF, Gen. C.Q. Brown, the need to expand this expertise beyond a singular career field. As a result of the desire to increase the planning proficiency of all Airmen, the USAF decided to transition away from the AFSC and towards a USAF-wide robust training partnership between Air Combat Command and Air Education and Training Command.

“Even though Class 22A graduates were not awarded the AFSC, they still received exquisite training that will benefit them, the Air Force, and other joint services, as they will be able to lead joint, operational and air planning groups,” said Maj. Marvin-Ray Arida, 705th Training Squadron Thirteen Oscar course manager. “For those that return to the tactical- or wing-level organizations, their new understanding of how their efforts affect the operational and strategic levels of war act as a force multiplier in and of itself.”

“The students in 13O Initial Skills Training Class 22A have shown great perseverance and flexibility throughout course execution, and I am very proud of their performance,” said Lt. Col. Eric Farquhar, 705th TRS Thirteen Oscar course director. “The level and depth of training these graduates have received sets them apart from most of their peers in the air component. As a result, they are uniquely suited to lead planning groups and incorporate a vast array of multi-domain capabilities to help solve very complicated problems.”

The 705th TRS continues to work with joint, coalition, and total force partners to expand the ability of the USAF to plan and execute air operations for a wide range of missions from foreign humanitarian aid and disaster relief to peer-threat major combat operations.

“In conversations with air component and functional component commanders throughout the Air Force, the unique skills and diverse backgrounds of the 13Os that we produced provide critical expertise in complex joint planning environments,” said Lt. Col. Marcus Bryan, 705th TRS commander.

The eleven newly-graduated officers will now go forward to fill critical C2 billets in air operations centers, air operations groups, air support squadrons, training squadrons, and other air component staffs across the USAF, U.S. Northern Command and U.S. Forces Korea.

In each class, there were students whose performance warrants special recognition. The distinguished graduate of Class 22A was Capt. Benjamin Durdle; Michigan Air National Guard Capt. Megan Serrano was awarded the Academic Ace Award for the highest academic average in the class.

The Odysseus Leadership Award, based academic performance and excellence in leadership, followership, and overall contributions throughout the course, was also awarded to Capt. Benjamin Durdle.

“Playing a critical role in defining, building, and transitioning the 13O AFSC is a proud lineage for the 505th CCW,” said Col. Adam Shelton, 505th Test and Training Group commander. “To answer the ever-increasing demand from the air components for personnel who can not only plan but also integrate capabilities across all-domains, the 505th CCW is assisting in the evolution of professional military education offerings with AETC/AU [Air University] while also enhancing the C2 Warriors Course as a future capstone offering.”

To learn more about other command and control training, visit the following website: intelshare.intelink.gov/sites/C2/SitePages/Home.

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post | Comments Off on Air Force Graduates Final Multi-Domain Warfare Officers, Operational Planning to be Incorporated into all-levels of PME

First In-Air Refueling Conducted Between KC-46 and Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22

Sunday, June 19th, 2022

CANNON AIR FORCE BASE, N.M. —

One of the most renowned aircraft in the Air Force’s fleet, the CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft combines the vertical flight qualities of a helicopter with the fuel efficiency and speed of a fixed wing plane. This combination makes it the ideal aircraft for conducting infiltration, exfiltration and resupply missions for special operations forces across long distances.

Now, thanks to pathfinding efforts from the 20th Special Operations Squadron and the 349th Air Refueling Squadron, assigned to the 22nd Air Refueling Wing at McConnell Air Force Base, Kansas, CV-22 aircrews across Air Force Special Operations Command can ensure their aircraft’s extended range by calling on Air Force Mobility Command’s newest tanker.

The 20 SOS & 349 ARS brought a CV-22 and KC-46 Pegasus tanker together for in-air refueling training over Cannon, June 1, 2022. The flight was the first time a KC-46 refueled an AFSOC CV-22.

“This being the first time we operationally refueled with a KC-46, we were able to get some good video for training and development,” said Maj. Anthony Belviso, the CV-22 aircraft commander. “We were also able to get some understanding of what it feels like to fly behind the jet, and work on some different refueling techniques and practices”

One of the new capabilities the KC-46 brings to the table is a hose and drogue system in the same centerline position as it’s refueling boom pipe for fixed-wing aircraft.

“This capability allows the KC-46 to the refuel the Osprey and other drogue compatible receiver aircraft without any modification,” said Maj. Benjamin Chase, the KC-46 aircraft commander. “This is important because it enables flexibility in mission planning and limits the amount of maintenance it takes to prepare for air refueling, especially compared to most aircraft in the legacy tanker fleet.”

The KC-46 is not the only aircraft the CV-22 can receive fuel from while flying. However, its advanced refueling, communications and defensive systems, range and large fuel storage capabilities make it an ideal system for getting CV-22s the fuel they need, even in or near contested environments.

“The CV-22 is specifically designed for long range missions, and when you add on top of that an aerial refueling capability you can extend that distance to the point where you’re only limited by how long the crew is able to fly,” said Belviso. “The KC-46 can get enough fuel to get multiple CV-22s that much further both into and out of combat.”

“The 22 ARW has showcased the capability of the KC-46 to operate out of austere locations in recent exercises,” said Chase. “This is unique among tanker aircraft, and replicates the types of environments the KC-46 to operate out of when refueling the Osprey in real-world missions.”

Another advantage of CV-22s being able to refuel from KC-46s is that it allows for faster refueling during real-world missions.

“Normally, an MC-130J aircraft would have to go up to a tanker to get fuel, then fly to us and give us that fuel, and would have to repeat that process several times,” said Belviso. “Because KC-46s can refuel us directly, we can go straight to them and get everything done much more quickly.”

With the successful training mission, both Chase and Belviso said it would provide the data and real-world experience the Air Force’s KC-46 and CV-22 fleets need to ensure the two airframes could work well together for a long time to come.

“The refueling of the CV-22 marks another success in the program,” said Chase. “It really paves the way for support of the Osprey and other aircraft in the future.”

“I’m glad we were able to get the mission done for the CV-22 community,” said Belviso. “I think this new capability will be tremendous for us going forward, so I’m very happy about that.”

By SSgt Max J. Daigle, 27th Special Operations Wing Public Affairs

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post, SOF | 2 Comments »

Air Force Medical Service Launches ‘Nutrition Kitchen’ Series

Tuesday, June 14th, 2022

FALLS CHURCH, Va. (AFNS) —

The Air Force Medical Service is launching “Nutrition Kitchen,” a series of online nutritional cooking classes geared toward service members and their families.

The Nutrition Kitchen’s goal is to inspire healthy meal choices by providing options for service members to make realistic changes to foods they are already eating, while also providing the opportunity to learn the science behind those choices and “level up” their nutrition knowledge.

Each episode introduces different options to “level up” a classic meal, starting with simple ingredient substitutions and ending with a chef-curated recipe option taught by Tech. Sgt. Opal Poullard, chef and culinary instructor at the Joint Culinary Center of Excellence at Fort Lee. Following each cooking episode, Sahra Pak, registered dietician at Travis Air Force Base, California, shares the science behind the nutritional choices made.

“Nutrition has a profound impact on the health, performance and readiness of our active-duty personnel,” said Maj. Gen. Sharon Bannister, Medical Operations director, Office of the Air Force Surgeon General. “Combatting unhealthy weight gain and obesity and the detriment of poor nutrition is obligatory to improving warfighter readiness.”

Beyond maintaining a healthy weight, improvements to physical and mental performance and underlying chronic health conditions are among some of the benefits.

Giving nutrition the spotlight it deserves is a key tenet of the rapidly growing lifestyle medicine field.

“Nutrition Kitchen is lifestyle medicine at its best,” said Col. Mary Anne Kiel, Air Force Medical Home chief, Air Force Medical Readiness Agency, and chair the Lifestyle and Performance Medicine working group. “Food has an enormous potential to harm or to heal, but it’s surprising how infrequently we consider the types of foods we are eating every day. It is time for that to change. It’s time to empower the members of all our military services to upgrade their nutrition by making choices to keep them ready for the mission and to improve their health.”

The Nutrition Kitchen series aims to make the sometimes difficult process of both selecting and cooking nutritious meals more engaging, approachable and fun.

The recipes for this series were developed to be tasty, easy to prepare, and low-cost, all while providing the fuel necessary to “level up” service members’ health.

Service members can look forward to several delicious recipes heading their way over the next few weeks. The chef-curated dishes range from banana pancakes with date syrup to a cauliflower black bean ranchero taco bowl, a favorite among recipe taste-testers.

More conveniently, this series will be available at service member’s fingertips, where they can watch and cook completely on their own time. New episodes are set to release weekly and can be found on the Nutrition Kitchen page or via YouTube.

Air Force Surgeon General Public Affairs

Photo by Cynthia Griggs

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post, Medical | Comments Off on Air Force Medical Service Launches ‘Nutrition Kitchen’ Series

USAF’s ShOC-N Battle Lab Hosts Distributed Command and Control Event

Friday, June 10th, 2022

Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada — The 805th Combat Training Squadron’s Shadow Operations Center – Nellis, or ShOC-N, is the U.S. Air Force’s premier battle lab supporting the development, advancement, and maturation of key technologies and capabilities designed to compress the kill-chain for joint and coalition warfighters.

The ShOC-N accomplishes this mission by utilizing multi-domain, all-domain, and cross-domain solutions spanning all classification levels, working closely with key defense, industry, and sister services such as the Office of the Secretary of Defense, Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, Missile Defense Agency, and the Defense Industrial Base.

In addition to hosting government sponsors and industry partners daily, the ShOC-N is helping to steer and evolve Joint Staff doctrine and guidance for all-domain and cross-domain solutions and capabilities by focusing on defining and developing instrumentation for data, networks, software, and air component-specific command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence, or C4I, warfighting processes.

Working closely with their wide range of mission partners, the ShOC-N is a vanguard unit on the frontlines of next-generation technologies for the USAF and Joint Staff. With key placement and access to Nellis AFB’s unique mission, the ShOC-N is providing a critical venue to advance and refined key technologies and showcase them to U.S. and coalition leadership in a tactically and operationally relevant setting – to see the technology working in a warfighter environment with real-world operators at the helm vice a clean lab with scientists only.

Normally, ShOC-N leverages existing exercises to meet mission requirements. But sometimes, when no other appropriate venue exists, the ShOC-N team will host its own organic event to advance and refine technologies. A recent example occurred at the end of April. The ShOC-N hosted an organic Distributed Command and Control Event simulating Agile Combat Employment utilizing new technologies available at the ShOC-N. The ShOC-N set up an austere location simulating a pacing adversary threat environment for the new technologies and their ability to operate in a degraded setting.

“ShOC-N’s ability to operate in the shadows of operational theaters or large-scale exercises allows us to experiment in the most realistic, operationally relevant ways. Everything we do is nested within the USAF Warfare Center’s Pacing Challenge Campaign Plan. All new technology is vetted against our ability to compete with China,” said Col. Frederick Coleman, 505th Command and Control Wing commander, Hurlburt Field, Florida.

The Air Combat Command C2 Futures Branch’s Tactical C2 Weapon Systems Division leveraged the event to shape Battle Management Command and Control functions requirements, viewing several mobile and rapidly deployable tactical air component C2 systems at work in an ACE environment.

“Major General Slocum, ACC/A3 [director of operations], challenged the staff to rapidly prototype and field a Tactical Operations Center – Light, or TOC-L, capability,” said Maj. Carl Rossini, C2 Futures Branch chief. “[The] ShOC-N enabled us to meet that challenge by quickly bringing together the event, data, warfighters, test organizations, and acquisitions.”

Not only did this event leverage unique ShOC-N capabilities, but it also served as a risk reduction event for the Pacific Air Forces’ Valiant Shield 2022 exercise, along with ACC’s participation in the U.S. Army Futures Command’s Project Convergence 2022 exercise.

Organizations that partnered with the ShOC-N for the TOC-L experimentation included the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense Research and Engineering 5G support team, the Missile Defense Agency, representatives of the ACC staff, the Air Force Joint Test Program Office, the 605th Test and Evaluations Squadron, the 422nd Test and Evaluations Squadron, Lockheed Martin, Raytheon Solypsis, Global C2 Integration Technologies, Lower Echelon Analytics Platform – Tactical, or LTAC, and Novetta Systems.

In addition to external mission partner involvement and success, the ShOC-N employed their organic data scientist team to develop methodologies to measure data latency from various systems, data files, and logs. Their analysis proved successful and demonstrated data scientists’ current and future utility, along with the need to advance and automate instrumentation.

“Collecting and storing mass amounts of data without a plan is of no value. Turning volumes of data into decision quality information is where we show value, and I’m proud of our data science team,” said Lt. Col. David Spitler, 805th CTS/ShOC-N commander.

Instrumentation is a core attribute of the battle lab still under development.

“The analytics shown by our data science team and the LTAC cyber team sparked the imagination of what is possible. However, it also showed how much more investment is needed to truly instrument the battle lab,” said Col. Aaron Gibney, 505th Combat Training Group commander, Nellis AFB, Nevada. “We need to be able to define what we’re measuring and then measure it in an automated, objective, quantitative way.”

When data is collected, classified, labeled, properly tagged, and stored with ontologies, the instrumented data provides the basis for objective evaluation of technical performance in the experimental lab environment. Instrumentation is intended to enable objective methods for A|B comparisons, measuring compression of warfighting processes, data latencies, and the efficacies of prototypes against currently fielded hardware and software. With instrumentation, the ShOC-N will provide objective reviews to inform senior leader decisions for the continued prototyping and/or transition to test to deliver capabilities to the warfighter rapidly.

The Distributed Command and Control Event showed how critical the ShOC-N is as the USAF develops and matures advanced technologies to compress the kill-chain and streamline the decision-making process for warfighters. The ShOC-N was able to showcase key technologies in an ACE environment and will continue advancing its mission to support the warfighter.

“The warfighter ethos is alive and strong in the ShOC-N,” said Coleman.

The 805th CTS reports to the 505th CTG, Nellis AFB, Nevada, and the 505th Command and Control Wing, headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida.

By Deb Henley

505th Command and Control Wing

Public Affairs

Posted in Air Force, Forces Focus, Guest Post | Comments Off on USAF’s ShOC-N Battle Lab Hosts Distributed Command and Control Event

Using VR Through VALOR to Improve Combat Casualty Care

Tuesday, June 7th, 2022

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. —

The 24th Special Operations Wing Surgeon General’s office has implemented the use of virtual reality training devices, in partnership with SimX, throughout special tactics to maintain the critical pararescueman’s skill in an ever-changing operational environment.
“The operational mission is going to continue to grow in complexity in the future fight,” said U.S. Air Force Col. John Dorsch, 24th SOW Surgeon General. “The PJs must be prepared to treat both injury and illness in austere environments for longer periods of time with limited reach-back.”

When looking at what the future operational environment may look like, the 24th SOW SG team must consider the implications to operational medicine. Scenarios PJs face could be in low-visibility areas where they have to keep patients alive for longer periods under possible chemical, biological, radiation or nuclear conditions.

“Preparing PJs medically for the future fight will require an advanced interoperable standard, optimized initial and sustainment training, deliberate tech development and integration, and enhanced performance tracking and feedback,” said Dorsch.
The virtual reality program objectives are to improve realism, increase flexibility and reduce cost. Through more than $10 million in Department of Defense Research and Development Funding and the Air Force Small Business Research Innovation Research program, SimX and the 24th SOW have been able to create more than 80 training scenarios including canine treatment and care, blast injuries, severe gas exposure, and more.
These training devices provide intricate and realistic training scenarios that other methods, such as medical dummies, cannot, and improves the effectiveness of the training.
“By using a flexible piece of equipment, we are able to deliberately and efficiently target specific desired learning objectives based on evolving mission requirements,” said Dorsch. “We now have the time and bandwidth to provide trainees with enhanced real-time feedback from the through the program, which grades the trainee on a point system through data analysis and a performance tracking system.”

Currently, there are 14 sites online using the PJ Tactical Combat Casualty Care curriculum, including Air Force Special Operations Command and Air Combat Command. In the future, they plan to expand access to the existing medical training portfolio across all SOF TCCC responder tiers, broaden capabilities and integrate partner force training.
“The VALOR program has increased the availability of efficient and effective medical training and has allowed us to develop complex decision-making, which will improve survival rates in U.S., coalition and partner force combat casualties in the future fight,” said Dorsch. “VR training is critical for ensuring that the highest level of combat trauma and austere medical care are provided by our special operations ground forces. We have only scratched the surface of its incredible potential.”

Story by Capt Savannah Stephens, 24 SOW Public Affairs

Photos by TSgt Carly Kavish

Posted in AFSW, Air Force, Guest Post, Medical, SOF, Training | 1 Comment »

Air Force, Space Force Announce Next Hackathon at 3 Locations and Classifications, Enabling Government, Industry, Citizens to Build Emergent Weapons System Capabilities

Saturday, June 4th, 2022

WASHINGTON (AFNS) —

Applications are now open for the next BRAVO Hackathon, BRAVO 1 Canary Release, which will kick-off July 18-22 simultaneously at Joint Base Langley-Eustis, Virginia; Patrick Space Force Base, Florida; and Eglin Air Force Base, Florida.

A hackathon is an innovation and software development event commonly employed by technology companies in which teams self-form and urgently develop working prototypes that are later presented to senior leaders. Canary Release takes its name from a data-driven software release technique, leveraged frequently by technology companies where new software is introduced to a sample of users in production for telemetry collection and validation before distributing the software to the remaining population.

BRAVO hackathons gather engineers, data scientists, data visualization and user experience experts, and product and use case owners from industry, academia, government and citizenry to build operationally focused emergent capabilities with mentorship from senior Department of Defense leaders. At BRAVO 0, the first hackathon’s 11 teams focused on challenges such as: jet sensor visualization and playback, target planning and pairing, multi-jet sensor fusion analysis, artificial intelligence-assisted radar sensor failure mitigation, maintenance visualization and automation/artificial intelligence-assisted personnel recovery.

Four months after BRAVO 0, one project’s work has been operationalized to the European theatre, while half have been selected by Air Force organizations for additional development, testing and fielding. BRAVO 0 projects produced capabilities related to Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall’s operational imperatives in areas such as Air Force Joint All-Domain Command and Control, next generation system of systems, post-flight data analysis and readiness.

“A senior DoD official recently referred to the capability to deploy updates to SpaceX Starlink in response to data indicating jamming as ‘eye-watering.’ This shouldn’t be the case. Every big tech company and some nation states have already built automated pipelines that collect, aggregate and fuse data to enable such capabilities,” said Stuart Wagner Department of the Air Force chief digital transformation officer.

“DoD talks a lot about connecting weapons systems but has been too slow to implement groundbreaking, data-driven capabilities. BRAVO hackathons leverage existing Department of Defense technologies to provide hackers the development environment and operational data to rapidly build data-driven kill chains and cognitive electronic warfare capabilities. If you are a cleared or uncleared American citizen with technology skills looking to build national security capabilities during a one-week event, this is your opportunity.”

Unlike other DoD technical environments, BRAVO hackathons allow hackers to bring open-source software and data into the development environment in minutes providing unprecedented software and data collaboration on operational data.

The goals for Canary Release are to: validate rapid development in a cloud-based environment across multiple bases, military departments and classifications on operational use cases; provide a new way for American companies, citizens and government employees to develop DoD capabilities; and generalize the BRAVO development model to enable future scaling to partner military departments, combatant commands, U.S. government agencies, and U.S. partners and allies.

“The first BRAVO hackathon set a record for maximum concurrent users on our AI development environment. We agree that we must increase our digital and AI investments to operational use cases, including those identified and built at BRAVO hackathons. We are evaluating opportunities to scale this innovation model to the DoD and federal government enterprise,” said Greg Little, deputy director of Enterprise Capability at the Chief Digital and AI Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense.

For Canary Release, use cases have been sourced from Air Combat Command, Space Launch Delta 45 and Space Force Chief Technology Information Office. All participants must be American citizens. Participation at the Patrick SFB does not require a security clearance while participation at the remaining bases requires a secret clearance. Companies with employees holding active Special Access Program read-ins are encouraged to apply.

BRAVO Hackathon intends for 60% of hackers to be government employees or DoD contractors with approval of their government contracting officer with the remainder coming from industry, academia and American citizenry.

Canary Release is hosted by various organizations within Air Combat Command, Space Launch Delta 45, Space Force Chief Technology and Innovation Office, DAF’s Chief Information Office, 350th Spectrum Warfare Wing, Chief Digital and Artificial Intelligence Office, CyberWorx, AFWERX, Congressional offices from the Command, Control, Communications, Intelligence and Networks Program Executive Office, Office of the Deputy Chief Management Officer, BESPIN software factory and Morpheus among many others.

About BRAVO hackathon series

The BRAVO hackathon series is named from Project B, a 1921 series of joint Army-Navy target exercises conducted on surplus ships in response to Army Brig. Gen. Billy Mitchell’s claim that bombers sink battleships. This claim undermined the then-current investments and strategy of the then Department of War. The Secretary of War and Secretary of the Navy authorized Project B to disprove and disgrace Mitchell by demonstrating the insignificance of airpower. Mitchell instead directed his bombers to destroy all the test ships, changing military strategy, defense resourcing for aeronautics and aircraft carriers, and ultimately the Department of War by proving the need for a separate Air Force military department.

Styled off Project B, BRAVO hackathons are sponsored by senior DoD leaders to provide technical and cultural innovation environments that enable government, academia, industry and citizenry to test and validate bold ideas on real DoD data.

Application

Department of Defense employees and DoD contractors may apply as either support staff or hackers via Common Access Card login here.

Federal employees outside of the DoD or contractors without a Common Access Card may apply here.

Industry, academia and citizens interested in being considered to participate via Air Force CyberWorx’s Partnership Intermediary, CCTI, can apply here. Selected participants will receive additional details.

Project demonstrations are offered to DoD and federal employees through a science fair. Applications are available here.

Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

Posted in Air Force, Disruptive Tech, Guest Post | Comments Off on Air Force, Space Force Announce Next Hackathon at 3 Locations and Classifications, Enabling Government, Industry, Citizens to Build Emergent Weapons System Capabilities

AFSOC Incorporates Weapon Systems Cyber Defense in Emerald Warrior 22.1

Friday, June 3rd, 2022

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFNS) —

Air Force Special Operations Command recently incorporated defensive cyberspace operations actions, for the first time, into the overall training objectives during Emerald Warrior 22.1.

The exercise fused cyber effects into aircraft operations and employed two mission defense teams, with the cyber defense correlation cell and demonstrated how AFSOC will deploy MDTs to defend weapon systems from cyber-attacks.

The communications and information element within AFSOC developed a realistic scenario to maximize training and awareness of cyberspace threats to aircraft avionics. The identified scenario and events allowed maintainers, cyberspace and aircraft operators, and intelligence and battle-staff members the opportunity to see the impacts of cyber threats to weapon systems, firsthand.

During the exercise, AFSOC staff and MDTs worked with Shift5, a commercial cyber security company, to test and validate a real-time cyber intrusion detection system on an aircraft, and a cyber-incident response software tool within the Cyberspace Vulnerability Assessment/Hunter to assist MDTs in executing cyberspace defense operations.

Shift5’s technology enabled MDTs with the 1st Special Operations Communication Squadron and 27th SOCS, Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico, to test their training, and raised awareness of cyber threats to the operational community.

The MDT with the 1st SOCS included three personnel with the 87th Electronic Warfare Squadron, Eglin AFB, Florida, and two instructors with the 39th Information Operations Squadron. Additionally, the MDT with the 27th SOCS was augmented by three personnel with the 193rd SOCS at Harrisburg Air National Guard Base, Pennsylvania.

The Defense Enterprise Cyber Range Environment for Command, Control and Information Systems provided a realistic training environment which challenged the participating MDT’s technical, analysis and mission-planning skills, while being actively attacked and challenged by a cyber-red team with the U.S. Army’s threat system management office.

Members with the 318th Cyberspace Operations Group, Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, provided a secure data transport between all players and teams on a closed-looped network.

The scenario involved a flying aircraft experiencing a critical event of unknown origins that exercised numerous operational processes, leading to the discovery of a cyber-threat. During the exercise a sortie reported mission computers failures and performed actions enabling the aircraft to “limp home.” When the plane touched down, maintainers with the 901st Special Operations Aircraft Maintenance Squadron executed a cybersecurity checklist and MDTs began to work.

The MDT’s actions saved the maintainers from replacing the mission computers, as well as saving the U.S. Air Force $750,000 for each mission computer that would need to be replaced.

With the realistic training incorporated into Emerald Warrior 22.1, impacts of cyber threats to aircraft, and how those threats affect operations and readiness, ensured aircraft maintainers, MDTs and operators remain ready and relevant to cyber-attacks.

Air Force Special Operations Command Communications and Information

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post, Information Warfare, SOF | Comments Off on AFSOC Incorporates Weapon Systems Cyber Defense in Emerald Warrior 22.1

Air Force Announces New Mustache Policy, Sister Service and Joint Unit Patch Update

Saturday, May 28th, 2022

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) —

The Air Force recently published a memorandum outlining updates to the Department of the Air Force Instruction 36-2903, Dress and Personal Appearance of United States Air Force and United States Space Force Personnel, which include mustache, sister service and joint unit patch wear guidance. The updates are effective immediately for Airmen.

“These changes will allow Airmen additional flexibilities as to how to wear mustaches” said Gwendolyn DeFilippi, acting Deputy Chief of Staff for manpower, personnel and services. “Additionally, allowing Airmen to wear sister-service patches in their current color configuration influences cohesiveness and pride while assigned to joint organizations.”

Mustaches: No portion of the mustache will extend below the lip line of the upper lip. Additionally, the mustache will not go beyond a horizontal line extending across the corners of the mouth and no more than 1/4 inch beyond a vertical line drawn from the corner of the mouth.

Patches: Airmen assigned, attached, detailed, or activated in support of sister-service units or joint organizations can now wear the unit’s patches in accordance with the sister service or joint organizations wear instructions.

The badges or patches can be worn in the sister service or joint organization’s color configuration and will not be converted to the spice brown color.

DAFI 36-2903 takes precedence if a sister service or joint organization wear instructions cause a conflict in Air Force patch configuration guidance, i.e. the wear instruction might switch a patch designated as a “left sleeve” patch to the right sleeve.

These updates were based off feedback provided to senior leaders and the updated DAFI will be published at a later date.

Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post, Profession of Arms | Comments Off on Air Force Announces New Mustache Policy, Sister Service and Joint Unit Patch Update