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Special Warfare Training Wing: First USAF Organization to Host a Special Operations Forces Training “Shura”

Saturday, November 6th, 2021

Joint Base San Antonio – Chapman Training Annex, Texas —

The Special Warfare Training Wing is the first U.S. Air Force organization to host a Special Operations Forces Training “Shura”, a gathering of senior leaders from SOF-generating commands under U.S. Special Operations Command and its allied counterparts around the world held Nov. 2-4, 2021 at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland.

Over the years, senior leaders of SOF-generating commands have routinely held SOF Training “Shuras” to cross-pollinate best practices and to build lethal SOF warriors capable of solving the nation’s most complex problems in austere environments.

For the SWTW, hosting this iteration of the SOF Training “Shura” represents a natural evolution stemming from decades of its predecessor organizations training Special Warfare Airmen for service in special operations around the world, a critical mission set that has not stopped and is now more important than ever in the age of strategic competition.

“Our relationship with the special operations community is important for the SWTW,” said Col. Mason Dula, SWTW commander. “A third of our graduates are destined for service inside a USSOCOM component, and learning from our SOF-training counterparts helps reinforce the imperative that our Special Warfare graduates will be expected to seamlessly interoperate with joint special operations forces, the day they graduate from our pipelines.”

Members attending the SOF Training “Shura” discussed a wide variety of topics affecting the SOF world, including pre-accessions, recruiting and development, training pipeline standards and more, while reinforcing partnerships to ensure a unified approach towards the USSOCOM SOF Operating Concept 2030, aimed at preparing SOF operators for the future fight.

Two widely discussed topics included the various Assessment and Selection models that different SOF-generating commands utilize and the integration of human performance technology as SOF warriors of the future are built – both of which the SWTW has been accelerating change in since its inception in Oct. 2018.

In Jan. 2019, the SWTW instituted its very own 4-week Assessment and Selection (A&S) to carefully select potential Air Force SW operators based on character and attributes, replacing the previous Indoctrination course that focused primarily on physical attributes.

“Many people think that A&S is just about selection, when in reality, it promotes a learning culture,” said Col. Robert Taylor, Special Warfare Training Group commander. “A&S focuses our cadre, training, and operational forces as best we can on the core attributes of an individual.”

Interwoven in the A&S model of the SWTW and every other aspect of the wing’s imperative to build SW Airmen of the future is its Human Performance Support Group, the first of its kind in the USAF, which fuses cutting-edge science and technology into each step of the process as SW Airmen are built from the ground up at the SWTW.

“We instill human performance principles that SW Airmen can apply throughout the duration of their careers and beyond,” said Col. George Buse, Special Warfare Human Performance Support Group commander. “Our team helps set the foundation for building resilient warriors who are physically harder, mentally sharper, and spiritually stronger.”

At the end of the SOF Training “Shura”, all parties left with new knowledge that will go on to affect the kinetic battlespace of the future.

“Hosting the SOF Training ‘Shura’ is important for SW culture because we are a learning organization,” said Col. Dula. “Like the operational forces inside Air Force Special Operations Command, the SWTW has a responsibility to ensure that we understand and anticipate changes inside the joint SOF community and adjust our training pipelines accordingly to produce graduates ready to execute the nation’s special operations immediately upon arriving to operating forces.”

Members of the Special Warfare Training Wing provide initial training for all U.S. Air Force Special Warfare training AFSCs, to include, Combat Controllers, Pararescue, Special Reconnaissance, and Tactical Air Control Party Airmen.

To learn more about SW Airmen or other U.S. Air Force Special Warfare career opportunities, go to: https://www.airforce.com/careers/in-demand-careers/special-warfare.

By 1st Lieutenant Xiaofan Liu, Special Warfare Training Wing

Posted in AFSW, Air Force, Guest Post, SOF | 3 Comments »

Multi-Domain Warfare Students Observe real-time C2 of AFSOUTH Operations, Get a Taste of Multi-Domain Operational Planning

Thursday, November 4th, 2021

The Multi-Domain Warfare Officer Initial Skills Training class 21B visited the 612th Air Operations Center at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Arizona, to observe real-time operations, Sept. 27-28.

The 612th AOC’s mission is to “plan, command, control, execute, and assess air, space, and information operations to meet Secretary of Defense, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Commander, United States Southern Command’s taskings across the full spectrum of military operations.”

Davis-Monthan AFB was the third of a four-leg trip for the Multi-Domain Warfare Officer, or 13O, students traveling to geographic and functional operations centers. The 13Os had just visited the Shadow Operations Center – Nellis, or ShOC-N, at Nellis AFB, Nevada, as well as the Combined Space Operations Center at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California. Their next and final stop will be the 616th Operations Center at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.

“When the class arrived, they received a brief about how 13Os have been used in AFSOUTH [Air Forces Southern] and some of the unique characteristics of the command and AOC,” according to Maj. Nathaniel “Crowbar” Butler, a 13O Class 20A graduate, assigned to the 612th AOC Strategy Division. “We then provided them with initial data and assumptions to begin planning for a strategic deterrence mission. We were able to provide real-world lines of effort, priorities, and constraints to shape their planning.”

The training exercise provided the students with real-world exercise planning experience using real-world products that were not derived in an academic environment.

Butler continued, “Their deliverable was a brief that demonstrated how they would employ a task force, with a synchronized IO [information operations] plan, to build partnership in our AOR [area of responsibility] and reinforce the message that the U.S. is the ‘Trusted Partner’ in South America.”

Both teams successfully met the air component’s intent and demonstrated an ability to use their training in a competition environment scenario.

“It’s just amazing to witness how far we’ve come as a brand new career field. When I graduated as part of the very first 13O class, we were still an experiment in almost every sense of the word,” weighed in Lt. Col. Marcus “Troll” Bryan, 705th Training Squadron commander/leader of the 13O schoolhouse, Hurlburt Field, Florida.

Bryan continued, “The first 13O graduates didn’t know what to expect when we left the schoolhouse nest. In many instances, AOCs were a hodge-podge of various career fields where organizational culture was dependent on command climate. Now we have 13O students visiting 13O graduates, executing real-world 13O planning events as part of their training, and most importantly building a culture of operational C2 expertise across the globe!”

Lt. Col. Benjamin “Dragon” Lee, 705th TRS director of operations and 13O graduate, seconded that view. “By the time this class graduates, they’ll know where their first follow-on assignment will be, and most (if not all) of those assignments will be to Air Components like they saw on this TDY. This world-wide 13O network and culture is one of many 13O career field milestones that will help the USAF lead the joint force in an era of strategic competition.”

The demand signal from the air components for confident operational command and control experts capable of integrating multiple domains is stronger than ever. The 20-week AFSC [Air Force Specialty Code]-awarding course is the most rigorous operational-level planning course in the USAF, preparing 13Os to lead operational planning within the air component from day one.

To learn more about 13O training and the Multi-Domain Warfare Officer career field, visit the following websites: intelshare.intelink.gov/sites/C2/13O/SitePages and www.milsuite.mil/book/groups/13O.

The 705th TRS reports to the 505th Test and Training Group and 505th Command and Control Wing, both are headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida.

By Deb Henley, 505th Command and Control Wing, Public Affairs

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post, Profession of Arms | 1 Comment »

AF Supports Historic Army Warfighter Exercise, V Corps Becomes America’s Forward-Deployed Corps in Europe

Tuesday, November 2nd, 2021

The 505th Command and Control Wing supported the U.S. Army’s Mission Command Training Program resulting in the validation of Victory Corps as a European Command allocated corps headquarters during the execution of Warfighter exercise 22-1 at Grafenwoehr, Germany, Sept. 27-Oct. 5.

The multi-component exercise, which had the main command post at Grafenwoehr, Germany, a rear command post at Fort Riley, Kansas, and a U.S. Air Force Air Component and Air Operations Center replication cell at Hurlburt Field, Florida, tested the V Corps’ ability to mission command large-scale combat operations, or LSCO, in a multi-national environment.

The mission command proficiency of 1,402 joint service personnel including Soldiers from U.S. Army Europe and Africa, V Corps, 3rd Infantry Division, 34th Infantry Division, and their respective subordinate units were tested and honed during the execution of WFX 22-1.

Warfighter exercises are distributed, simulation supported, multi-echelon, tactical command post exercises fought competitively against a live-thinking regional adversary in a complex environment to prepare units for future LSCO.

“The warfighter [exercise] is rigorous, complex, and very time-intensive. It is a nine-day sprint in large-scale ground combat operations. It’s the only time our corps and divisions are collaboratively immersed against a near-peer competitor, where they’re forced to really understand and improve their wartime mission,” said U.S. Army COL. Robert Molinari, chief of operations Group A, Mission Command Training Program, U.S. Army Combined Arms Center.

A substantial part of any Warfighter exercise is replicating the air component; this mission is the responsibility of the U.S. Air Force’s 505th CCW, Detachment 1, based at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. This total force integrated unit’s mission is to provide airpower expertise and exercise support to the U.S. Army’s MCTP and act as the U.S. Air Force’s Air Warfare Center liaison to the U.S. Army’s Combined Arms Center.

“This was probably the most significant air component replication for a WFX that we’ve done to date,” said U.S. Air Force Col. Michael Goodman, 505th CCW, Det 1 commander. “Most WFX events utilize a corps to role-play the Combined Forces Land Component, but GEN. Cavoli, the U.S. Army Europe and Africa commander, took the opportunity to train V Corps, his assigned subordinate unit, directly as the CFLCC.

Goodman continued, “The entire USAREUR-AF staff participated and imposed a level of discipline and realism that we’ve never seen during the WFX. It was impressive and helped ensure that the aligned Airmen got the most realistic we’ve seen to date.”

For WFX 22-1, 505th CCW, Det 1 members forward-deployed globally to multiple exercise locations integrating into the exercise control group, standing up the exercise’s replicated AOC, and acting as observer, coaches/trainers providing subject matter expertise in areas that include intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance, airspace management, tactical air control, and joint all-domain operations.

“V Corps did a great job. They gave 110% daily. They were receptive to coaching and observations and every single day, across the board, they got better,” said Molinari. “So, I think it was a fantastic opportunity for V Corps to really see themselves, to improve on, and to prepare for what the Army might ask of them.”

“Our purpose is to ensure we coach our tactical air control party, or TACP, members to improve not just their technical proficiency, but also their overall integration with their supported Army maneuver unit command teams and planners.” U.S. Air Force Maj. Thomas Hopkins, 505th CCW, Det 1 chief observer and coach, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. Hopkins made sure his team of coaches/trainers did not lose sight of their larger purpose during the event.

Hopkins continued, “The bottom line is that we do everything we can to assist the Army’s MCTP in providing a training environment which enables the TACP units to leave the exercise a more ready and lethal enabler than when they arrived.”

The 505th CCW, Det 1’s main U.S. Air Force training audience were the Airmen assigned to the 4th Air Support Operations Group, Wiesbaden, Germany, and their subordinate units in the exercise.

“The men and women at the 4th ASOG did a phenomenal job under the leadership of Col. Dustin Dupuis, the 4th ASOG commander and also the V Corps air liaison officer,” said Goodman. “Col. Dupuis and his team made significant gains validating new capabilities and authorities that will enable increased lethality of the joint force in LSCO. It was huge win for the joint force and they made it happen.”

A team of 47 Airmen from the 505th Combat Training Squadron, Hurlburt Field, Florida, provided AOC replication during WFX 22-1 in coordination with the forward-deployed exercise control group from the 505th CCW, Det 1, and this team represented a full-spectrum air component replication to the U.S. Army training audience.

The 505th Communication Squadron configured and maintained command, control, communications, computers, and intelligence, or C4I, and models and simulations, or M&S, systems, in addition to collaborative tools (chat, voice, email, etc.).

“The support provided by the 505th CS allowed the AOC controllers to push real-time updates for air tasking orders and airspace control orders to theater representatives and ensured a valid common operating picture was in play,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Veronica Williams, 505th CS commander, Hurlburt Field, Florida.

WFX 22-1 was a crucial exercise for V Corps in that it marked the final event in a yearlong effort to become a fully certified, operational, and combat-capable warfighting headquarters after their reactivation as a corps in October 2020.

“The success of WFX 22-1 has provided the European region and our NATO allies a forward-deployed Corps ready and equipped to meet the demands of a near-peer conflict,” said U.S. Air Force Capt. Darrin Nottingham, 505th CS operations officer, Hurlburt Field, Florida. “The 505th CS performed admirably while upholding their squadron’s three main objectives: train, innovate, and communicate.”

Providing air component replication to the joint force is one of the primary mission capabilities of the 505th Combat Training Squadron at Hurlburt Field, Florida.

“As our strategic competitors present increasingly complex problem-sets, it is more vital than ever that our joint partners have a full understanding of the capabilities of airpower and the role of the air component in tackling emerging challenges,” said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Michael Power, 505th CTS director of operations.

Power continued, “The professionals at the 505th Combat Training Squadron are uniquely positioned to combine a deep experience in Air Force command and control procedures with a keen understanding of developing concepts to replicate the air component and provide an exceptionally realistic operational-level training environment.”

During the 8-day exercise, the 505th CTS’s team facilitated 232 sorties to present full-spectrum airpower, produced over 19 thousand airspace control measures, and published 43 air component planning documents to inform U.S. Army planners.

WFX 22-1 exercised the people, processes, and procedures to ready the joint force for LSCO against near-peer adversaries.

V Corps will assume enduring mission requirements in support of U.S. Army Europe and Africa as a split-based headquarters with locations at Fort Knox, Kentucky, and Poznan, Poland. The return of the Victory Corps to Europe enhances security in the region and reassures our NATO and partner nations of the United States’ commitment to our European allies. WFX 22-1 was V Corps’ final certifying exercise in becoming the U.S. Army’s fourth corps headquarters and America’s forward-deployed corps in Europe.

The 505th CTS and 505th CS, Hurlburt Field, Florida, report to the 505th Combat Training Group, Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, and the 505th CCW, Det 1, Fort Leavenworth, Kansas, report to the 505th CCW which is headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida.

Story by Deb Henley, 505th Command and Control Wing

Photos by PFC Devin Klecan

Posted in Air Force, Army, Guest Post | Comments Off on AF Supports Historic Army Warfighter Exercise, V Corps Becomes America’s Forward-Deployed Corps in Europe

AFCLC Launches Updated Culture Guide App, Introduces New Educational Course with Certificate

Saturday, October 30th, 2021

MAXWELL AIR FORCE BASE, Ala. (AFNS) —

Airmen now have at their fingertips the opportunity to receive credit for learning about another country’s culture while simultaneously responding to the Air Force chief of staff’s action order to understand the nation’s strategic competitors.

This can be achieved by accessing the latest version of the Air Force Culture and Language Center’s Air Force Culture Guide app.

Howard Ward, AFCLC director, unveiled version 2.0 of the app to a virtual audience Oct. 15, the last day of the 2021 Virtual Air University Language, Regional Expertise and Culture Symposium.

Ward described the updated app as a one-stop shop for accessible, relevant and impactful curriculum in addition to culture field guides.

“It’s a delivery method that can deploy curriculum at enterprise scale, untethered from the constraints of government systems, which is especially great for total force Airmen, and it’s designed to accelerate learning for strategic competition by putting AFCLC’s ‘Global Classroom’ right in your pocket,” he said.

Shortly after its initial release in 2017, The Wall Street Journal recognized the original version as one of the six indispensable apps for business travelers.

The changes to the original app include:

Enhanced accessibility to AFCLC’s Expeditionary Culture Field Guides – Users no longer need to download one of the 69 guides to view their content. Touch the block containing the name of the guide for it to open. Plus, there are seven new ECFGs on the way.

Accelerated learning for strategic competition – Touch the Courses button at the bottom of the screen to view the first new course. Developing Cultural Competence is designed to baseline the user on what culture is, why it matters and how users can learn more as their career progresses. Two more courses will be released soon. These courses will allow each service member to achieve Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. CQ Brown, Jr.’s Action Order C: Competition individually by learning the fundamentals of culture for adversary understanding. Upon completing these courses, users will receive a certificate ready to upload to their learning record, as applicable.

A video library will be coming soon to further enhance learning capabilities on the go.

The app is available through the App Store and Google Play, and it’s safe for Department of Defense mobile devices. More than 20,000 individuals are already utilizing the app, and for those individuals, an automatic update to Version 2.0 is now available.

By Lori M. Quiller, Air Force Culture and Language Center Outreach Team

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post, Profession of Arms | Comments Off on AFCLC Launches Updated Culture Guide App, Introduces New Educational Course with Certificate

Hurlburt’s Multi-Domain Warfare Students Learn More about Peer Threats and JADC2 Emerging Technologies at Nellis

Friday, October 29th, 2021

The Multi-Domain Warfare Officer Initial Skills Training class 21B visited the 805th Combat Training Squadron’s Shadow Operations Center at Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada, also known as the ShOC-N, to observe the experimentation and incubation of new command and control technologies and development of C2 tactics, techniques, and procedures, Sept. 23-24.

Nellis AFB, Nevada, was the second of a four-leg trip for the Multi-Domain Warfare Officer, or 13O, students traveling to geographic and functional operations centers. The class’ destinations included the Combined Space Operations Center, or CSpOC; Space Delta 5, at Vandenberg Space Force Base, California, the 612th Air Operations Center, Davis-Monthan AFB, Arizona, and the 616th Operations Center at Joint Base San Antonio, Texas.

The 19 students of class 21B also toured ShOC-N’s downtown Las Vegas site, the Howard Hughes Operations, or H2O, facility. AFWERX briefed the 13Os about their latest efforts to discover innovative opportunities within industry and Department of Defense partners for delivering tangible capabilities to warfighters.

In 2019, the Joint Chiefs of Staff tasked the ShOC-N to become the U.S. Air Force’s Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or JADC2, Battlelab. Part of this task as recently evolved to make the ShOC-N the primary location for data gathering and sharing to further enable the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System Battlelab ecosystem.

The 13O students’ Nellis training concluded with peer adversary Integrated Air Defense Systems and threat emulation briefings from the 547th Intelligence and 57th Information Aggressor Squadrons, respectively.

“Our adversaries’ threats and capabilities are real; within months, these 13Os are going to be the multi-domain operational planning experts that senior leaders look to for COAs [courses of action] on what to do, how to do it, the risks involved, and how to effectively mitigate those risks,” according to Lt. Col. Joe “DACO” Thompson, 705th Training Squadron operational warfare training flight director.

Thompson continued, “13Os can’t provide COAs without knowing who is doing what and where. A lot of ‘what and where’ is on the ground at Nellis, but there’s also a lot of ‘what and where’ within our sister services’ components and non-air domains. We teach them that, and this TDY [temporary duty] reinforces that critical 13O mindset.”

The 705th Training Squadron’s Multi-Domain Warfare Officer Initial Skills Training course is taught at Hurlburt Field, Florida. The 13O course deliberately develops a multidisciplinary force skilled in operational art and design across all domains. 13O graduates will be operational planners versed in the joint planning process, representing the U.S. Air Force’s equity in the joint planning environment, affecting Joint All-Domain Command and Control, or JADC2, and Joint All-Domain Operations in a high-end, near-peer conflict.

To learn more about 13O training and the Multi-Domain Warfare Officer career field, visit the following websites: intelshare.intelink.gov/sites/C2/13O/SitePages/Home and www.milsuite.mil/book/groups/13O.

The 705th TRS reports to the 505th Test and Training Group and 505th Command and Control Wing, both are headquartered at Hurlburt Field, Florida.

Deb Henley

505th Command and Control Wing Public Affairs

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post, Profession of Arms | 1 Comment »

Lightning Challenge 2021 Showcases TACP Capabilities for the Future Fight

Thursday, October 28th, 2021

MOODY AIR FORCE BASE, Ga. —

The 93d Air Ground Operations Wing hosted Lightning Challenge 2021, a world-wide Tactical Air Control Party (TACP) competition, at Camp Butner, North Carolina, Oct. 18-22, 2021.

Most people think TACP Airmen are solely responsible for communicating with pilots through a handheld radio, however Lightning Challenge demonstrated otherwise.

Teams of two TACP specialists from Air Support Operations Squadrons (ASOS) across the globe assembled at Camp Butner, North Carolina, to put their vast range of expertise to the test. They were tested through challenges of agile combat employment, physical strength, and marksmanship skill, in order to identify the most outstanding multi-capable Airmen in the world.

“The last four days have been not just grueling physical and mental tests, but it is a glimpse of what we are going to be doing in the future,” said Col Danielle Willis, 93d Air Ground Operations Wing Commander. “We know that our focus is pivoting to great power competition and what we need in the force is to have Airmen who can go out and execute.”

The TACP Weapon System does not just de-conflict, but integrates Airpower with ground force maneuver elements to achieve multi-domain superiority in combat. TACP Airmen are the critical node in the tactical implementation of Joint All-Domain Command and Control, which is necessary to prevail in future contested and congested environments.

“There is some expectation here for every single one of you [competitors], and that is what is going to happen in the near-future,” said SEAC Ramón Colón-López, Senior Enlisted Advisor to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. “The reputation of America really is in your hands because your actions are going to have strategic effects…at the end of the day, you are going to be the lethal arm of everything that we do for the nation.”

Sharpening lethality was a key theme in this year’s competition, along with highlighting TACP skills, joint competencies, and geographically integrated capabilities through events fully focused on hastening adaptability, applying Dynamic Force Employment, accelerating threat-based execution from combatant command requirements and facilitating contested degraded environment operations.

“The tests this week were not just designed to challenge your physical prowess and physical strength, but your mental ability to figure out problems,” said Willis. “To think critically and to get stuff done when it needs to happen is the absolute value and heart of the TACP weapon system.”

On a larger scale, Lightning Challenge exemplified four of the five key requirements of a modern near-pear fight according to Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown’s “Accelerate Change or Lose” action orders: warrior culture, credibility, capacity and capability. The capabilities displayed at Lightning Challenge prove the value of the TACP weapon system to not only the Air Force, but the joint force as a whole.

SEAC Colón-López expanded on the role of TACP in the modern near-peer fight and the advantage that TACP brings to future conflicts. “You had a great time conducting this exercise, you had a great time showing your peers on how far you are willing to go to be the best of the best, but every single one of you will get that opportunity to show the enemy exactly who they are messing with,” said Colón-López. “It will be you going forward to carry on this fight.”

This year’s champions are Staff Sgt. Benjamin Conaway and Senior Airman Seth Gaines from the 15th Air Support Operations Squadron, located at Fort Stewart, Georgia. They embody the capabilities and expertise that TACP brings to the Air Force and joint force overall. As the battlefield evolves, TACP is ready to adapt alongside it. “We know that this capability in the TACP weapon system is absolutely vital to how we are going to fight our wars in the future,” said Willis.

For more information and visuals about Lightning Challenge visit: www.dvidshub.net/feature/lightningchallenge2021

And follow us on social media at:

Instagram= @93d_agow

Facebook= @93d Air Ground Operations Wing

For information about previous year’s Lightning Challenge visit:

www.dvidshub.net/feature/LC2020

www.mcchord.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1920753/1-asog-hosts-tacp-lightning-challenge

www.eielson.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/1926391/2019-lightning-challenge-tacps-finish-strong

Story by 1st Lt Katie DuBois Tamesis, 93d Air Ground Operations Wing

Photos by SSgt Charlye Alonso

Posted in AFSW, Air Force, Guest Post | Comments Off on Lightning Challenge 2021 Showcases TACP Capabilities for the Future Fight

The Air Force Partners with Twelve, Proves it’s Possible to Make Jet Fuel Out of Thin Air

Wednesday, October 27th, 2021

ARLINGTON, Va. (AFNS) —

What if you could access fuel from anywhere on the planet, at any time, no tanker required? The Air Force thinks it’s possible with ground-breaking carbon transformation technology.

Separate from carbon capture and storage or carbon utilization, carbon transformation can turn carbon dioxide from the air into nearly any chemical, material, or fuel, including jet fuel.

In 2020, Air Force Operational Energy endorsed the carbon transformation company, Twelve, to launch a pilot program to demonstrate that their proprietary technology could convert CO2 into operationally viable aviation fuel called E-Jet.

The project hit a major milestone in August of this year when Twelve successfully produced jet fuel from CO2, proving the process worked and setting up the conditions to create the synthetic carbon-neutral fuel in larger quantities. The first phase of the project is scheduled to conclude in December with a report detailing the process and findings.

For the Air Force, the implications of this innovation could be profound. Initial testing shows that the system is highly deployable and scalable, enabling the warfighter to access synthetic fuel from anywhere in the world. Reliable access to energy and fuel is paramount to military operations. Recent joint wargaming and operational exercises have underlined the significant risk that transporting, storing, and delivering fuel poses to troops – both at home and abroad.

At the height of the war in Afghanistan, attacks on fuel and water convoys accounted for more than 30% of casualties. Yet, fuel demand is only expected to increase as advanced weapon systems and operations require increasing levels of power.

“History has taught us that our logistics supply chains are one of the first things the enemy attacks. As peer-adversaries pose more and more of a threat, what we do to reduce our fuel and logistics demand will be critical to avoid risk and win any potential war,” said Roberto Guerrero, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for operational energy.

Currently, the Department of the Air Force relies on commercial fuel to operate, both domestically and abroad. The Air Force must use a combination of trucks, aircraft, and ships to ensure fuel is delivered to meet warfighter demand. However, many areas of operation cannot always easily reach traditional access points of the supply chain, particularly during conflict.

Twelve’s carbon transformation platform could allow deployed units to create fuel on demand, without the need for highly skilled fuel experts on site. The Air Force sees the opportunity for the technology to provide a supplemental source to petroleum-based fuels to decrease demand in areas that are typically difficult to deliver fuel to.

“With carbon transformation, we are untethering aviation from petroleum supply chains. The Air Force has been a strong partner in our work to advance innovative new sources of aviation fuel,” said Nicholas Flanders, Twelve co-founder and CEO.

Most synthetic fuels, which are created by a mix of carbon monoxide and hydrogen known as syngas, are produced through burning biomass, coal, or natural gas. Twelve’s technology eliminates the need for fossil fuels, producing syngas by recycling CO2 captured from the air and – using only water and renewable power as inputs – transforming the CO2.

The process of converting syngas into liquid hydrocarbon fuels is not new. Known as Fischer-Tropsch synthesis, the multistep method was created in the 1920s by German scientists and aided the German war effort during World War II.

Today, it is widely used to produce liquid fuels for transportation. Fischer-Tropsch certified synthetic fuels are approved as a ‘drop-in’ fuel for each specific aircraft, first commercially, and then by the U.S. military and the aircraft’s associated system program office. The highest blend currently certified is a 50/50 blend of FT synthetic fuel and petroleum fuel. Twelve’s system produced FT-Synthetic Paraffinic Kerosene, which can be blended with petroleum – up to a maximum blend of 50%.

Once the first phase of the program concludes at the end of 2021, the Air Force Operational Energy office will look to the next phase of scaling the technology to produce synthetic fuel in larger quantities. If brought to scale, the platform would enable more agile operations and decrease dependence on foreign oil, while having the added benefit of mitigating carbon emissions – a Department of Defense key priority under Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin III.

While there remain a number of unanswered questions to make this technology operational, such as how to power the production of the syngas in remote areas and where water sources for the necessary hydrogen will come from (Twelve notes that water for the process can also be captured from the air), the team sees this is a positive first step in a truly innovative program.

“My office is looking at a number of initiatives to not only optimize aviation fuel use for improved combat capability, but to reduce the logistics burden as well,” Guerrero said. “We’re excited about the potential of carbon transformation to support this effort and Twelve’s technology – as one of the tools in our toolbox – could help us get there.”

By Corrie Poland, Air Force Operational Energy

Posted in Air Force, Guest Post, Power, Research | 8 Comments »

Air Force Installation Contracting Center Acquisitions Bolster EOD Readiness for FY21, Beyond

Tuesday, October 26th, 2021

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. (AFNS) —

EOD robot upgrade The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center is acquiring new base support robots for Explosive Ordnance Disposal flights Department of the Air Force-wide. The new T7 Robotic system replaces the 20-year-old Andros F6A. (U.S. Air Force graphic by Greg Hand)

The success of implementing new explosive ordnance disposal technology in fiscal year 2021 has the Air Force Civil Engineer Center looking forward to FY22.

“Our Airmen conduct high-risk operations in support of the mission, and we ensure they have the tools and resources they need to perform their jobs safely, efficiently and effectively,” said Col. John Tryon, AFCEC Detachment 1 commander. “It’s our duty to identify civil engineering needs and advance Air Force capabilities through research, development, test and evaluation, and we take that very seriously.”

AFCEC’s Readiness Directorate partnered with the Air Force Installation Contracting Center to use more than $41 million for new EOD equipment, such as a new base support robot to clear unexploded ordnance from airfields, during the past year.

In July, the AFICC awarded an $85 million, 10-year, indefinite-delivery, indefinite-quantity contract for the T7 Robot System to replace the Andros F6A robot, which has been used by the Air Force for two decades. The T7 offers a suite of new and enhanced capabilities, including a more modular design that allows users to repair it by swapping subassemblies rather than individual parts — an issue that plagued the previous robot.

“This system will move robotics forward 20 years,” said Dennis Carson, EOD robot product manager. “It enhances warfighter readiness with its ability to resolve hazardous threats and missions remotely, allowing Airmen freedom of movement at any location.”

AFCEC will begin distributing the first of the T7s in May 2022 — 56 of the 170 inventory objective of T7s were funded at contract award. The remaining requirement will be purchased this fiscal year.

The T7 is the second of two new robotic systems AFCEC is upgrading for the EOD career field. A year ago, the directorate delivered the first of the Man Transportable Robot System Increment II to the 325th Civil Engineer and the 823rd Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadrons.

To date, the readiness directorate has distributed 129 MTRS IIs and provided system training to 49 EOD flights. The directorate expects to distribute the remaining 202 systems by January 2023.

The second wave of new technology deliveries took place in July when the AFCEC team debuted the Vidisco Guardian 12 Digital Radiographic X-ray system, a $27 million procurement package, at Eglin AFB, Florida, and Hill AFB, Utah.

“This new system is essentially everything old wrapped into a new package with the addition of digital technology enhancements,” said Dave Hodgson, EOD logistics lead for AFCEC. “Compared to the previous analog models, this new system gives Airmen clear and concise images, which reduces the amount of time they have to spend analyzing the images.”

To date, the AFCEC team has distributed 36 X-ray systems, with the remaining 15 base support systems to be distributed in 2022 and mobility configurations through 2026.

Just as FY21 came to a close, AFICC awarded a $24 million contract for the Large Clearance Blade Assembly, or L-CBA. Attached to armored front-end loaders, the equipment is used for rapid clearance of unexploded ordnance from airfield surfaces after an attack.

Because it’s mounted to an armored front-end loader, the paired capability will dramatically reduce clearance times, Hodgson said.

AFCEC plans to begin blade deliveries to bases in the European and Pacific theaters and some training sites in mid-October. Full fielding will run through 2026. The contract enables the Air Force to obtain more than 70 large blades needed to support the Rapid Mass Mechanical Clearance program over the next several years.

The directorate also executed a Life Cycle Sustainment order for bomb suits. The suits are designed to protect EOD personnel responding to scenarios with potential explosives. The $2.2 million annual acquisition provides 76 suits to replace one-seventh of the current inventory.

“When EOD technicians have to make that long walk down range to manually perform procedures, this suit — the EOD 10E — provides the best possible protection if an explosion occurs,” Hodgson said.

Rounding out FY21 EOD funding executions, AFCEC’s EOD modernization program is seeing its work pay off as the Air Force prepares to take the next steps in bringing the Recovery of Airbases Denied By Ordnance, or RADBO, system to the Air Force EOD suite of tools.

EOD robot upgrade The Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center recently contracted for the delivery of new explosive ordnance disposal base support robots for the Department of the Air Force enterprise. This chart shows a comparison of the 20-year-old Andros F6A to the new T7 Robot System. (U.S. Air Force graphic by Greg Hand)

AFCEC funded a $3.9 million effort in FY21 to convert the state-of-the-art ground-based laser prototypes to the final production configuration. The system will be delivered to Nellis AFB, Nevada, in December to support career field training as well as tactics, techniques and procedures incorporating the RADBO system, L-CBA, the prototype design completion on the Small Clearance Blade Assembly and an unmanned system application for Rapid Explosive Hazard Mitigation and Rapid Airfield Damage Repair vehicles.

By David Ford, Air Force Installation and Mission Support Center Public Affairs

Posted in Air Force, EOD, Guest Post, Robotics | 2 Comments »