Having successfully used “digital twinning” to design and prototype its latest jet trainer aircraft, the Air Force is moving to use the new technology to develop and test weapons, too—building an online Colosseum in which vendors’ systems can virtually fight each other. Col. Garry A. Haase, head of the Munitions Directorate at the Air Force Research Lab, said AFRL plans to stage regular competition events in the Colosseum, each dealing with a different technology area.
The Pentagon could save a lot of money on personnel and increase force structure with expanded use of “remotely crewed” systems, but the diversity of size and application of such systems demands specialized thinking, rather than just lumping them together as “drones,” according to experts at a virtual Center for Strategic and International Studies event March 26.
The Pentagon expects the broad military population to have access to a COVID-19 vaccine by May 1, with the entire Defense Department vaccinated by July. Defense Health Agency Director Lt. Gen. Ronald J. Place, in a March 26 briefing at the Pentagon, said the DOD has vaccines underway at 343 sites, in addition to the 3,000 military personnel working at Federal Emergency Management Agency mass vaccination sites as part of the country-wide push to ramp up COVID-19 vaccinations. So far, the DOD has administered 1.8 million doses of the shots to 1.1 million military members, families, civilians, contractors, and retirees. Of that total, about 600,000 service members have received a shot—about 30 percent of the force, Place said.
B-1s and B-2s wrapped up a bomber task force deployment on March 25, which included several firsts in the Arctic and across Europe. B-2s from Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., flew the final sortie of the task force deployment out of Lajes Field, Portugal. While the B-2s were in the Azores, B-1Bs from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, were deployed to Orland Air Base, Norway, for the first time. During the deployment, the B-1s flew nine sorties, including training with Norwegian F-35s, Swedish JAS-39 Gripens, Danish and Polish F-16s, and German and Italian Eurofighter Typhoons, according to U.S. Air Forces in Europe. The B-2s deployed to Lajes Field on March 16, and flew four missions, including flights with the B-1s and Norwegian F-35s in Iceland.
U.S., Canadian, and NATO aircraft trained together during Exercise Amalgam Dart to quickly position aircraft and protect the northern airspace as the Arctic becomes increasingly important. A total of 27 aircraft and about 500 personnel trained together at multiple bases in Canada, Greenland, and the northern U.S. for a “multi-domain approach to Arctic security,” the Canadian NORAD region said in a statement.
