Global Strike Grounds All B-1s After Finding Ejection Seat Flaws

Air Force Global Strike Command on Thursday grounded its entire B-1B Lancer fleet, including those deployed to the Middle East, because of ejection seat issues discovered during the investigation of a recent emergency landing. This is the second time B-1 units stood down for safety within about one month after May’s USAF-wide safety review. Read the full story by Brian Everstine.

Warriors for Life

The Air Force-led 2018 Warrior Games in Colorado Springs, Colo., came to a close on Saturday. In Amy McCullough’s story, Warriors for Life, which will be in the September issue of Air Force Magazine, we take a look at what it takes to host such a massive event, and the impact the games have on the athletes who participate.

Air Force Moves Cyber Responsibilities to Air Combat Command

The Air Force is moving cyber functions from the Air Force Space Command to Air Combat Command, the service announced. The change, Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson said, will realign cyber operations and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions within the same command. The move, set to occur this summer, designates ACC as the lead command for organizing, training, and equipping Air Forces to conduct full-spectrum cyber missions and operations. Realigning units include the 24th Air Force and subordinate units, the Cyber Support Squadron, Air Force Network Integration Center, and the Air Force Spectrum Management Office, which now directly report to the AFSPC. Gen. Jay Raymond, head of the AFSPC, described integrating cyber operations with intelligence in cyber capabilities in the same command as a major step toward improving capabilities for multi-domain operations. Meanwhile, ACC Commander Gen. Mike Holmes described Air Force cyber capabilities as “intertwined with the intelligence, command and control, air superiority, personnel recovery, and precision attack missions that we are responsible for.” He said the move “streamlines how the Air Force presents forces to joint commanders, and it improves our ability to integrate cyber and air operations to improve our effectiveness in multiple domains.” —Steve Hirsch

At CyberWorx, Airmen Ask Airmen How to Fix the Air Force

If you ask Lt. Col. Michael Chiaramonte, a decades-long cyber warrior and acting director of CyberWorx, collaboration is the centerpiece of his innovation lab. Operating out of the Air Force Academy, the center researches opportunities for USAF innovation through design thinking, keeping front and center input from the airmen who interact with the applicable systems. One of the center’s most significant projects, a digital dashboard informing operators of cybersecurity risks, this week survived a proof of concept presentation. Read the full story from Gideon Grudo.

Time to End “Industrial Age” Model, SMC Commander Says

Lt. Gen. John Thompson, head of the Space and Missile Systems Center, said on Friday that as SMC restructures, it is time to get rid of what he called its current “Industrial Age” model. Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson told the 34th Space Symposium in April that Thompson was leading a restructuring of the center aimed at getting rid of stovepipes and making other changes. Speaking at an AFA Mitchell Institute breakfast in Washington, Thompson said the restructuring includes a number of pilot programs in areas such as cooperation with a “key” international ally and next-generation missile warning. “We cannot manage our space environment like an old Soviet tractor factory,” he said, “We’ve got to be more like a Silicon Valley, modern business, and particularly in this mission area, where our adversaries are beginning to threaten our Industrial Age systems, … we have got to have a decision-making framework and an organization that is responsive to those kinds of threats.“—Steve Hirsch

RADAR SWEEP

—The Marine Corps will use Air Force Reapers to train in preparation for fielding its own ship-based UAV in the 2020s: USNI News.

—Harris Corp. has provided Lockheed Martin the fifth out of 10 payloads for the Air Force GPS III satellite program. The payload includes a mission data unit that allows for signals three times as accurate than those on current GPS satellites, the company said: GPS World.

—AT&T and the Air Force Academy are cooperating on advanced technologies under a five-year cooperative research and development agreement designed to increase Air Force use of modern technology at a rate closer to that of the commercial sector: Your Industry News.