AFSOC Turning to a New Heading

BY DAVID C. ISBY

U.S. AIR FORCE SPECIAL OPERATIONS COMMAND (AFSOC) has roots going back more than 75 years, to the Air Commandos of World War II. Since then, it has faced conflicts, changes in national strategy, and the rise and fall of threats. In 2018, the new “National Defense Strategy” (NDS) made readiness for great power conflict the top priority. Yet at the same time, as AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. Marshall B. “Brad” Webb said in Washington on Sept. 17, 2018, “The NDS stresses that we must maintain irregular warfare as a core competence.” On Oct. 29, 2018, the Department of Defense (DOD) and U.S. Special Operations Command (SOCOM) announced that they would jointly carry out two congressionally mandated reviews to “find the right balance between continuing to challenge terrorist organizations while simultaneously addressing growing irregular warfare threats posed by nation-states.” The events of 2018 will shape the future of AFSOC for decades to come.

Air Force Special Operations Command’s first Block 30 AC-130J Ghostrider gunship arrives at Hurlburt Field, Florida, March 6, 2019. This is the first Block 30 AC-130J for the 4th Special Operations Squadron at Hurlburt, and will replace the AC-130U Spooky gunship as it retires from service after more than 20 years of operation.

In 2018, AFSOC was six years into a program to recapitalize its fleet; more new-production aircraft are on its flight lines. Older aircraft are being upgraded. But to meet the full spectrum of potential future threats – bookended by those of great powers and irregular warfare – the Air Force thinks that its forces, including AFSOC, need to be bigger. An additional seven AFSOC operational aircraft squadrons would have to be added to the current 20. In addition, other AFSOC special operations forces (SOF) remained committed to combat operations in 2018. The Combat Control, Pararescue Jumpers, Tactical Air Control Parties, Special Operations Weather, and Special Operations Surgical Teams are part of SOCOM’s efforts. Worldwide operational commitments and intensive international training and exercises – more than one a week – make AFSOC airplanes and personnel in demand by America’s combatant commanders.

“Everybody wants a gunship,” Chief Master Sgt. Corey Fossbender told Air Force Times in 2018. “Before, in the wars, a gunship was called in if needed. Now the missions don’t go without a gunship. We’re good at what we do.” The big four-turboprop Lockheed Martin AC-130 gunships are the symbol of AFSOC the way, a century ago, dreadnought battleships were for the Navy (and pack broadside firepower to match). AC-130s provide unmatched day or night situational awareness, extensive communications, and accurate firepower, especially in “danger-close” situations where there is a risk of lethal collateral damage. Gunships have proved decisive on the battlefield, time and time again, especially in support of special operations forces teams that have to operate without weight of numbers or heavy firepower.

By the end of 2018, AFSOC had 13 AC-130J Ghostriders. These achieved initial operational capability (IOC) in 2017 and will reach full operational capability (FOC) in 2025. AFSOC will start deploying AC-130Js operationally in 2019. The AC-130Js joined 15 AC-130U Spooky aircraft and nine AC-130W Stinger IIs, each with a different fit of weapons, communications, and sensors. When all 37 AC-130Js are delivered by the mid-2020s, they will replace the earlier AC-130Us.

The first AC-130Js were delivered in Block 10 configuration, their largest gun a 30 mm GAU-23/A, although also able to carry the GBU-39B Small Diameter Bomb and the AGM-176 Griffin air-to-ground missile. In mid-2017, AC-130Js started being delivered in Block 20 configuration, with a 105 mm howitzer and improved infrared countermeasures systems. These aircraft successfully completed initial operational testing and evaluation (IOT&E). In 2018, new AC-130Js were delivered as Block 20+ aircraft, with improved software for the guns and provision for future upgrades that will bring the fleet to Block 30 configuration.

Preparation was underway for AC-130 upgrades providing new, rapidly modifiable, electronic warfare systems (these went through risk-reduction testing in 2018) and expanding the capability to use underwing racks for Lockheed Martin AGM-114 Hellfire missiles and other munitions. In 2018, an AC-130 demonstrated the Thales I-Master turret-mounted synthetic aperture radar (SAR). The All-Weather Engagement (AWE) program, to allow AC-130s to engage ground targets with accurate gunfire through an overcast, went through early technology assessment in 2018.

“The MC-130J Talon III program provides adverse weather terrain following/terrain avoidance, radar threat avoidance/protection, and communication networking capabilities significantly more advanced than our current MC-130H Talon II fleet built in the 1980s,” Webb told the Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) on April 11, 2018. Specialists in penetrating hostile airspace, the 52 Lockheed Martin MC-130J Commando IIs and MC-130H Combat Talon IIs are AFSOC’s largest air mobility assets. Twenty MC-130H Combat Talon IIs are being fitted with the Raytheon AN/APQ-187 Silent Knight low probability of intercept (LPI) radar, which enables terrain-following flight in all weather conditions without alerting hostile sensors. They will also receive operational flight program upgrades as part of a contract signed with Lockheed Martin in 2018, with work to be completed by 2022. MC-130s will receive the same electronic warfare upgrade as AC-130s.

In 2018, AFSOC continued to operate single- and twin-turboprop aircraft as air mobility and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) assets, training friendly air arms as well as deploying operationally where larger aircraft are not needed or desirable. AFSOC has said that it is looking for 12 to 22 replacements, in the 2025-30 time frame, for its current 28 Pilatus U-28 ISR aircraft that have seen extensive service, especially in Africa. This would be enough for one operational squadron plus training and reserve aircraft. It had not yet been determined whether this would be an off-the-shelf design or will be the Next Generation Manned ISR platform; its requirement was being validated during 2018.

Bell-Boeing CV-22 Osprey tiltrotors have seen extensive combat in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Yemen, and Sudan. New-production Ospreys continued to be delivered to AFSOC in 2018. Five Ospreys of Detachment 1, 353rd Special Operations Group arrived at Yokota Air Base in Japan, the first of 10 planned to be based there, according to an announcement on April 3, 2018, making this the second CV-22 unit to be based outside of the continental United States. All of the more than 50 Ospreys that have been ordered are scheduled to be delivered to AFSOC by 2019.

In 2018, AFSOC’s Ospreys were being upgraded to Block 30 configuration. Improvements to internal protection and the

In 2018, AFSOC completed taking delivery of 37 General Atomics MQ-9C Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) upgraded to meet SOCOM mission needs under the Medium-Altitude Long-Endurance Tactical (MALET) program, with enhanced signals intelligence sensors, improved full-motion video (FMV) capabilities, extended range, and new software, including an operational flight program optimized for SOCOM missions through the Lead-Off Hitter (LOH) combat evaluation program. In 2018, SOCOM’s Reapers – extensively used for close air support and overwatch roles in support of special operations forces – were upgraded to make them capable of using the Dynetics GBU-69/B Small Glide Munition (SGM) and the Boeing GBU-39B/B Laser Small Diameter Bomb (SDB), with the Raytheon GBU-53/B SDB II as a follow-on capability.

In 2018, AFSOC was committed to maintain one combat line: keeping a round-the-clock UAV flown remotely from Hurlburt Field on station for 24 hours. AFSOC UAV capability is being expanded to a second combat line. In December 2018, AFSOC activated the 65th Special Operations Squadron, making it the first active-duty Air Force Special Operations Command MQ-9 Reaper squadron stationed at Hurlburt Field, Florida. It will be part of the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon Air Force Base (AFB) New Mexico, with personnel from Hurlburt and Creech AFB, Nevada, to share operational commitments with UAVs piloted from Hurlburt.

In 2018, AFSOC was looking to bring new UAVs into service. A request for information (RFI) to industry went out for a small UAV that could be used to survey airfields. The demanding requirements of AFSOC operations means that off-the-shelf designs may prove inadequate.

The Tactical Off Board Sensing (TOBS) UAV that is launched, in flight, from tubes on AC-130s and MC-130s is an AFSOC and Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) program of record for an expendable ($100,000 target cost) UAV to provide aircraft with under-theovercast situational awareness. TOBS builds on 2016 testing of a Raytheon Coyote UAV launched from an AC-130W. Other AFSOC investigations of small air-launched UAVs include the AFRL and Area-I Altius – first launched from an AC-130 in 2018 – and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) Gremlins program, for in-flight launch and – eventually – recovery of swarms of autonomous UAVs.

“A concerted effort that we are doing in conjunction with SOCOM and the Air Force, with Strategic Capabilities Office, DARPA, Air Force Research Laboratory [AFRL], etc., to look at some new concepts and new technologies” is how Webb described, in his April 11 testimony, AFSOC’s experiment to mount a laser on an AC-130. A laser’s ability to engage moving targets at the speed of light, capable of producing nonlethal effects, enables it to carry out covert attacks. The experiment will build on an earlier Office of Naval Research project, using its laser beam control system, beam director, power supply, and cooling and casing, with the Dahlgren Naval Surface Warfare Center serving as government lead systems integrator.

In 2018, AFSOC risk reduction identified airframe vibration and airflow around the laser port. This enabled work to start on a mounting and a laser port design, to be flight-tested in fiscal year (FY) 2019. After initial testing of the laser system at 4 kilowatts (kW) of power in FY 2019, full funding would permit the full 60 kW prototype to be tested by FY 2021, followed by a flight test in FY 2022. AFSOC lacks funding to do this. Webb said on April 11, “We’re $58 million short of having a full program.”

AC-130s were the targets of cyberattack over Syria during Operation Inherent Resolve, Gen. Raymond Thomas, SOCOM commander, said in Tampa, Florida, on April 23, 2018. This demonstrated the rising threat of cyberattacks, along with increases in electronic warfare, including electronic attack. On Dec. 5, 2018, the Air Force issued a request for information to industry for a quick-response capability to protect AFSOC MC-130s and EC-130s from attacks on their GPS navigation systems until system-wide hardening can be put in place by 2021.

Artificial intelligence (AI) is set to change the “character of the future battlefield,” according to the “Summary of the 2018 Department of Defense AI Strategy.” A major advance in AI took place in 2018 when an AFSOC Insitu RQ-21 BlackJack UAV, flying in the CENTCOM area of responsibility (AOR), used AI algorithms developed under the DOD’s Project MAVEN to aid with analysis and interpretation of its sensor data. “We are partners with USSOCOM, AFRL, and industry for Project MAVEN,” Webb said during his April 11 testimony. Based on its success, DOD has requested reprogramming of funds to provide a similar capability in the near-term future at all SOCOM analysis facilities.

“AFSOC must lower the resource and opportunity costs of conducting persistent counterterrorism operations,” Webb said on April 11, 2018. AFSOC will do this through increasing and enhancing the contributions of allies and partners, identified in the 2018 NDS as a pillar of U.S. national security. “Our Combat Aviation Advisors (CAA) are the vanguard of AFSOC’s Irregular Warfare force. Specializing in Aviation Foreign Internal Defense (AvFID) operations, CAAs recently enhanced indigenous aviation operations in the Kingdom of Thailand, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan, and the Republic of Poland,” Webb said. Some 180 CAA personnel – a number, AFSOC announced, it was looking to double – were authorized to wear their own distinctive brown berets in January 2018.

AFSOC is a total-force command; its order of battle includes, and it trains personnel for, active, Air Force Reserve, and Air National Guard units. All have to meet the same exacting standards. In addition, Webb said, “The Air Force proudly promoted our first female Air Commando to the rank of brigadier general this year, and over 13 percent of our senior enlisted formation is female.”

In 2018, AFSOC had to meet serious challenges to its most important resource: its personnel. In 2018, the 330th Recruiting Squadron was activated, with the mission of bringing high-quality entrants into AFSOC’s demanding training. Recent shortages of pilots and technicians have had an effect throughout the service, and shortfalls have been particularly felt by AFSOC. In 2017, AFSOC’s dwell rate – the ratio of time deployed to time at home base – was approaching 1:2, 1:1.5 for AC-130 airmen. In 2018, these numbers were – slowly – improving. Webb told the SASC on April 11, 2018, about the effect of the “demands of multiple deployments, back to back, at this stage in the ongoing countering-violent-extremist type of fight … it is not a rare exception at all for airmen to be on their 12th or 13th, 14th deployment.”

The need for repeated deployments while having to train for and maintain difficult and complex skill sets has led to a broad spectrum response from AFSOC, SOCOM, and the Air Force. Service-wide approaches have included increased bonuses and shorter contracts offered to multi-engine pilots to keep them from going to the airlines. The widespread 120-day deployments have been replaced, when possible, with 90-day deployments. In 2018, deployed teaming was introduced, to ensure that airmen would not train and deploy as an individual replacement but as part of a group that can offer support. The Culture and Process Improvement Program is aimed at retaining personnel working with UAVs, especially pilots, offering less intense duty commitment, an increased range of basing options, and more money.

To expand its training pipeline, AFSOC has been experimenting with emerging technologies. The initial results using virtual reality in training have been successful. AFSOC has been participating in Air Force-wide introduction of autonomous learning and AI. To improve its training pipeline for its special warfare specialists, AFSOC stood up its Special Warfare Training Wing at Lackland AFB, Texas, in October 2018, building on the Battlefield Airman Training Group that was established in 2016. AFSOC has improved training for its special warfare personnel to increase fitness and reduce injuries and attrition.

Acknowledging today’s reality of future threats ranging from great powers to iregular forces, Gen. Tod Wolters, commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe, said in a U.S. Air Force Association panel discussion that airmen need to “train to those two bookends of the threat.” He continued, “Many thought that was impossible… and the secret decoder in all this was the talent of our airmen. [T]hey can do it, and they have done it, and they’re prepared for it better than they ever have been in the past. … we are on a positive glide slope [against] both of those threats.” Webb’s words on May 14, 2018, as he presented 24 Distinguished Flying Crosses to AC-130 crewmembers, perhaps best sum up the year for AFSOC: “The men and women of this command live our ethos every day.”