DO NOT FORWARD WITHOUT WRITTEN PERMISSION FROM PRODUCT OWNER

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

BUDGETMilitary.com: AF-Guard Aircraft Brawl Continues (1)NUCLEAR ENTERPRISEGSN: Pentagon Updates Plans for "Loose Nukes," Official Says (7)WIN TODAY’S FIGHTAF Times: Ground-based airmen deployed more in 2011 (9)CARING FOR AIRMENAF Times: AF asks airmen to rate their own performance (12)MODERNIZATIONAP: Controllers rescue wayward satellite (14)ACQUISITION EXCELLENCEDayton Daily News: AF lagged in seeking competitive bids, study finds (17)GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTOttawa Citizen: Canadian Forces to pull out of some NATO programs (18)GSN: Indian Atomic Scientist Reports Laptop Theft (23)OF INTERESTAP: Air Force disciplining 2 mortuary supervisors (24)AP: Lawyer to visit Bales at Leavenworth (28)

BUDGET

1. AF-Guard Aircraft Brawl Continues (Military.com, 17 Mar 12) … Michael HoffmanA top U.S. Air Force official on Friday disputed the conclusions of an Ohio Air Guard captain that have caught the attention of the Pentagon and Congress -- its assertion that the service inflated the lifecycle costs of its C-27J Spartan in order to justify killing the aircraft.

2. C-27J mission still alive, says Air Force brass (Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, 17 Mar 12) … Lou WhitmireMANSFIELD -- Maintaining the 179th Airlift Wing's C-27J mission in Mansfield remains a paramount objective, but a fallback plan could be in the pipeline to save hundreds of jobs.

3. U.S. Air Force Defends Global Hawk Grounding Decision (Aviation International News, 16 Mar 12) … Chris PocockU.S. Air Force leadership has defended the decision to halt acquisition and current operations of the Global Hawk Block 30 UAV, in favor of retaining the manned Lockheed Martin U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen Norton Schwarz told Congress

Page 1 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

U.S. Air Force

Morning Report

Monday, 19 March 2012

that the move was driven by the federal budget reduction and influenced by a lower forecast requirement for medium- and high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

4. Source of DoD Commercial Bandwidth Funds is Drying Up (Space News, 16 Mar 12) … Titus Ledbetter IIIWASHINGTON - With a primary source of funding for commercial satellite capacity drying up, the U.S. Department of Defense must find an alternative means to feed the tremendous appetite for bandwidth generated by unmanned aircraft, according to a U.S. Air Force official.

CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN THE NUCLEAR ENTERPRISE

5. Simulated nuclear weapons accident exercise in planning (Minot Daily News, 17 Mar 12) … Eloise OgdenMINOT AIR FORCE BASE Airmen at Minot Air Force Base are getting ready for a simulated nuclear weapons accident incident exercise later this spring.

6. Japanese TV crew visits Minot AFB (Minot Daily News, 17 Mar 12) … Eloise OgdenMINOT AIR FORCE BASE - Minot Air Force Base's Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles and B-52 bombers have been getting international and national media attention this month.

7. Pentagon Updates Plans for "Loose Nukes," Official Says (Global Security Newswire, 16 Mar 12) … UnattributedThe U.S. Defense Department is stepping up preparations for potential "loose-nukes" scenarios with an emphasis on coordinating operations between its own offices and other agencies, a senior Pentagon official told a Senate Homeland Security Committee panel on Wednesday.

PARTNER WITH JOINT AND COALITION TEAM TO WIN TODAY’S FIGHT

8. Stress of combat reaches drone crews Physically they may be thousands of miles from Iraq or Afghanistan. Psychologically, they're on the ground with troops. The disconnect, and the sense of helplessness, take a toll.(Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar 12) … David ZucchinoReporting from Washington - Drone crews protect U.S. ground troops by watching over them 24 hours a day from high above. Sitting before video screens thousands of miles from their remote-controlled aircraft, the crews scan for enemy ambushes and possible roadside bombs, while also monitoring what the military calls "patterns of life."

9. Ground-based airmen deployed more in 2011 (Air Force Times, 17 Mar 12) … Jeff SchogolIt’s clear the Air Force wants to destroy enemy air forces, neutralize enemy air defenses and project global power, but right now the enemy would rather fight an asymmetric conflict that has multimillion-dollar fighters providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for ground convoys.

10.Obama phones Karzai, discusses troop pullback call (AP, 16 Mar 12) … Jim Kuhnhenn

Page 2 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE -- President Obama has telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss Karzai's call for NATO troops to withdraw from rural villages.

11.Groups: U.S. sent detainees to banned prisons (AP, 18 Mar 12) … Heidi VogtKABUL, Afghanistan - A report released Saturday by two rights groups says the U.S. sent some detainees to Afghan prisons where torture was found despite an announced moratorium on such moves.

DEVELOP AND CARE FOR AIRMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES

12.AF asks airmen to rate their own performance (Air Force Times, 18 Mar 12) … Jill LasterYour opinion may soon play a bigger role in evaluations thanks to a change being considered to performance reviews.

13.Tricare proposal vexes veterans Lawmakers against fee increases(Wichita Falls Times Record, 17 Mar 12) … Trish ChoateWASHINGTON - Air Force retiree William "Hack" Alexander said North Texas military retirees are upset about President Barack Obama's proposal to raise fees for Tricare, the military health care insurance program.

MODERNIZE OUR AIR, SPACE AND CYBERSPACE INVENTORIES, ORGS AND TRAINING

14.Controllers rescue wayward satellite (AP, 17 Mar 12) … UnattributedDENVER -- Air Force ground controllers delicately rescued a $1.7 billion military communications satellite that had been stranded in the wrong orbit and at risk of blowing up -- all possibly because a piece of cloth had been left in a critical fuel line during manufacture.

RECAPTURE ACQUISITION EXCELLENCE

15.Blue Devil 2 airship expected to be canceled (Air Force Times, 18 Mar 12 ) … Dave MajumdarThe Air Force has placed a stop-work order on a 370-foot-long blimp that was designed to be an optionally manned surveillance airship, and a senior service official said the program is likely to be canceled.

16.Change Contract Oversight Cost of Governance Hampers Progress(Defense News, 18 Mar 12) … Dean Peebels, Mark Valerio and Andrew GreenWith the Pentagon and its suppliers looking at potential cuts ranging from $500 billion to $1 trillion over the next 10 years, the perennial talk of finding hidden economies has taken on new urgency. An improved, more collaborative model of the traditional customer-contractor relationship has never been more vital.

Page 3 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

17.Air Force lagged in seeking competitive bids, study finds It missed chance to save millions, agency asserts.Hot TopicsNominate a Superior Nurse in your community!(Dayton Daily News, 17 Mar 12) … John NolanThe Air Force’s rate of seeking competitive bids for non-research and development services from the private sector fell significantly behind the rest of the Defense Department between 2007 and 2011, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded in a new study.

GLOBAL AIR, SPACE, and CYBERSPACE ENVIRONMENT

18.Canadian Forces to pull out of some NATO programs Withdrawal from unmanned aerial vehicles, early warning planes systems could save as much as $90M a year(Ottawa Citizen, 17 Mar 12) … David PuglieseThe Canadian Forces hope to save $90 million a year by pulling out of NATO programs operating unmanned aerial vehicles as well as airborne early warning planes, according to documents obtained by the Citizen.

19.Tory minister says 'all options are on the table' for F-35 fighter jets (Candian Press, 17 Mar 12) … UnattributedThe Conservative cabinet minister in charge of buying equipment for the military says all options are on the table when it comes to the F-35 stealth fighter jets.

20.Air Force Procures Fighter Helicopters (Nigerian Leadership, 17 Mar 12) … Bayo OladejiThe Nigerian Air Force yesterday took delivery of two Super Puma fighter helicopters to boost its air operations as security operatives battle terrorism and related criminal activities in the country.

21.T-346 Introduction Prompts Italian Air Force Training Offer (Aviation International News, 16 Mar 12) … Chris PocockItaly is the latest country to offer to pool or share military pilot training with other air forces. “We have many years of experience, and were the first to introduce the practice of ‘downloading’ training from more expensive platforms,” said Col Luca Capasso, deputy chief of the T-346 program office. Alenia Aermacchi has provided the new Italian training system as a package that includes the new T-346 advanced jet trainer and all the ground-based training. The contract was signed in late 2009.

22.North Korea plans to launch long-range rocket (AP, 16 Mar 12) … UnattributedPYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea announced plans Friday to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket, a surprise move that could jeopardize a weeks-old agreement with the U.S. exchanging food aid for nuclear concessions.

23. Indian Atomic Scientist Reports Laptop Theft (Global Security Newswire, 16 Mar 12) … UnattributedAn Indian nuclear researcher raised an alarm when his laptop, reportedly filled with critical data, was pilfered from a passenger rail car, India Blooms News Service reported on Thursday.

Page 4 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

ITEMS OF INTEREST

24.Air Force disciplining 2 mortuary supervisors (AP, 17 Mar 12) … Randall ChaseDOVER, Del. -- The Air Force is disciplining the former commander of the Dover Air Force Base mortuary and a former key civilian aide after an investigation into retaliation against workers who blew the whistle on the mishandling of human remains, officials said Friday.

25.SOCOM seeks down time for special operators (Navy Times, 17 Mar 12) … Michelle TanSEALs and other special operations forces could soon enjoy more time at home with their families as part of a sweeping effort to take care of and preserve a joint force that has shouldered a relentless operational tempo over the last decade of war.

26.2 US officials face disciplinary action over war dead scandal (Reuters, 17 Mar 12) … UnattributedWASHINGTON Two supervisors at the Delaware mortuary for US war dead are facing disciplinary action for engaging in a “campaign of retaliation” against whistle-blowers whose revelations of wrongdoing caused a major scandal at the Air Force facility, officials said late on Friday.

27.Air Force to further discipline former supervisors in Dover mortuary controversy (Washington Post, 16 Mar 12) … Craig WhitlockThe Air Force said Friday it will impose harsher penalties on the former commander and chief deputy of the Dover Air Force Base mortuary after a federal probe found they retaliated against subordinates for reporting systematic problems there, including cases in which body parts were lost.

28.Lawyer to visit Bales at Leavenworth (AP, 18 Mar 12) … Gene JohnsonSEATTLE - With formal charges looming against his client within days, the lawyer for an Army sergeant suspected in the horrific nighttime slaughter of 16 Afghan villagers was flying Sunday to Kansas and preparing for his first face-to-face meeting with the 10-year veteran.

29.U.S. Navy Brass: No Technical Fixes to Avoid Ambiguous Missile Launches (Global Security Newswire, 16 Mar 12) … Elaine M. GrossmanWASHINGTON -- No technical solutions exist that could alone prevent other major world powers from misinterpreting the launch of a U.S. conventional ballistic missile from a submarine as the onset of a nuclear war, the nation’s top Navy officer said on Friday.

30.Air Force to increase testing for Spice (Stars and Stripes, 19 Mar 12) … Travis TrittenCAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Air Force can now screen up to 3,000 airmen per month for synthetic marijuana, a significant increase over previous testing abilities, thanks to new drug testing equipment that came online this month.

HEADLINES

CNN at 0530

Page 5 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

'Mission is changed' after rampage, retired general saysSlavery's last strongholdExplosions, gunfire start anew in Syria

FOX News at 0530Study: No State Gets 'A' For IntegrityRomney Gets All Delegates In Puerto Rico Primary WinGroup Claims It Killed US Teacher for Proselytizing

NPR at 0530Is A Baby Conceived After Dad's Death A 'Survivor'?Greek Bailout Fuels Rise Of Extreme PoliticsGOP's Delegate Race A Game Of 'Political Moneyball'

USA Today at 0530Michigan State leads Big Ten's NCAA marchBales' military town knows stressRomney wins Puerto Rico primary

Washington Post at 0530Obama’s high-dollar donors go AWOLIndia eyed as emerging auto hubSalvaged for sacred ends: A Virginia bird’s journey begins in death

FULL TEXT

BUDGET

B1

AF-Guard Aircraft Brawl Continues(Military.com, 17 Mar 12) … Michael Hoffmanhttp://www.military.com/news/article/af-guard-aircraft-brawl-continues.html

A top U.S. Air Force official on Friday disputed the conclusions of an Ohio Air Guard captain that have caught the attention of the Pentagon and Congress -- its assertion that the service inflated the lifecycle costs of its C-27J Spartan in order to justify killing the aircraft.

Congress has repeatedly questioned service leaders about the analysis done to justify the cuts made to the Air Guard in the service’s 2013 budget submission. The Air Guard bears the brunt of the cuts made by the Air Force to meet the $54 billion reduction in planned Air Force spending over the next ten years.

The Guard will lose 5,100 of the 9,900 airmen the service plans to draw down. Guard squadrons also will lose the majority of the aircraft the service has chosen to retire, including all the C-27Js and half of the Air Guard’s A-10 fleet.

Page 6 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Ohio Capt. Dave Lohrer’s briefing is the latest by a Guard officer to find its way onto desks in the Pentagon and Capitol Hill. It’s rare that a briefing penned by an officer ranked lower than a colonel would receive so much attention.

Yet Lohrer and Maj. Joe “Buzz” Walter, of the Wisconsin Air Guard, have both popped up on service leaders’ radar. Walter’s “Buzz Brief” made the case against slashing the Guard’s fighter fleet and argued that it’s cheaper to keep fighters in the Guard than active duty.

Lohrer took umbrage with the analysis used by the Air Force to cancel the C-27 in favor of maintaining and upgrading the C-130 fleet. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told Congress the C-27J was a “niche” aircraft his service could no longer afford in this austere budget environment.

Lohrer’s briefing attacks some of the numbers the service has used in its comparison between the C-27 and C-130 such as the 25-year lifecycle costs. Schwartz cited the C-27J 25-year lifecycle cost at $308 million. He said the C-130J similarly cost the Air Force $213 million and the C-130H $185 million.

The Ohio Guardsman argues that the Air Force added 53 more airmen than the C-27J needs to its cost analysis to push the 25-year life-cycle price up an additional $112 million. Lohrer said he found early analysis the Air Force did that dropped the C-27J 25-year lifecycle costs all the way down to $111 million.

Kevin Williams, a retired Air Force colonel who is one of the service’s leading analysts, said Friday he has no idea where Lohrer came up with the $111 million figure.

“It doesn’t exist in any formal authorized signed document. That then becomes the basis of kind of like a math problem when you have the wrong number of the first step of your process and that error ripples through everything else,” said Williams, the deputy director of Air Force Headquarters’ Studies and Analyses, Assessments and Lessons Learned directorate, better known as A9.

Williams also questioned the figure Lohrer used for cost per flying hour. Williams said the service had tabulated each C-27 marginal flying hour to cost $2,700, not $2,100, as Lohrer had written in his briefing.

Williams said Lohrer was wrong to criticize the manning figures the Air Force used in its C-27 life cycle cost analysis because that data came directly from the Air Guard.

Williams told a group of reporters and defense analysts Friday that Lohrer and the Ohio Air Guard should have consulted the Air Force before publishing his briefing.

“We can’t find anyone in A9 who ever heard from anyone in the Guard about wanting to validate or verify the numbers they were using,” Williams said.

Schwartz and Air Force Secretary Michael Donley have repeatedly said that Guard and Reserve leaders were included in the discussions over service cuts. However, a Guard and Reserve leader was noticeably absent from Friday’s roundtable organized by Air Force leaders to explain the service’s analysis for its 2013 budget.

Page 7 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Williams echoed Schwartz and Donley, saying his dispute over Lohrer’s data shouldn’t be read as an argument between the Guard and the active component. However, the tension between the active and reserve components continues to grow.

The adjutants general for all 50 states along with Guam, Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands and Washington D.C. signed a letter to the Senate Armed Services Committee in February saying the Air Force’s budget analysis was filled with “flawed processes, assumptions and criteria that produced the Air Force budget request.”

Multiple Guard members said the meeting was held specifically to quiet the uproar caused by Lohrer and Walter’s briefings and to allow the service’s active component to regain the upper hand in the debate over service cuts.

One Guard official, who asked not to be identified because the person was not authorized to speak officially, asked Military.com to draw an obvious conclusion from the Air Force officials at Friday’s briefing.

“How many Guardsmen did the Air Force go out of its way to provide you in that budget briefing?” the Guard official asked. “I bet zero -- and there’s a reason for that.”

RETURN

B2

C-27J mission still alive, says Air Force brass(Bucyrus Telegraph-Forum, 17 Mar 12) … Lou Whitmirehttp://www.bucyrustelegraphforum.com/article/20120317/NEWS01/203170304/C-27J-mission-still-alive-says-Air-Force-brass

MANSFIELD -- Maintaining the 179th Airlift Wing's C-27J mission in Mansfield remains a paramount objective, but a fallback plan could be in the pipeline to save hundreds of jobs.

The Air Force proposed defense fund cuts that would ax the local base's C-27J mission and wipe out more than 800 local jobs, nearly 16 percent of the Air Force's total reduction of 5,100 Air National Guard positions. However, according to a story in Friday's Air Force Times, the Council of Governors is proposing dramatic changes to that plan, reversing the movement of aircraft and cutting thousands more active duty airmen to save thousands of Guardsmen.

Additional provisions include eliminating the 107th Airlift Wing in New York, which would instead become one of four MC-12 surveillance units, along with Mansfield, Meridian, Miss., and Bradley, Conn.

U.S. Air Force Col. Gary McCue said Monday the 179th will host a Media Day to detail its situation.

"We expect several of our elected officials to be here, key folks from the community who have helped with our campaign, and, of course, media personnel from around the state," McCue said. "We are very excited to tell our story, showcase our C-27Js, and have some of our unit members talk about the overseas mission.

"We have personnel who have just come home, and can give insight as to how it's going."

Page 8 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

McCue emphasized the C-27J mission is not yet dead.

"We have not been told that the C-27J is definitely leaving the 179th," McCue said. "As you know, the Department of Defense says the aircraft is to be divested sometime this summer, early fall. Our elected officials tell us that the fight is not over, and that there is more information they are seeking.

"So, we are committed to telling our story, and are confident that the numbers will show how cost-effective the C-27J and the ANG (Air National Guard) are for America."

McCue said the MC-12 is a military version of the Beechcraft King Air.

"There has been a counter-proposal given to the Air Force. The MC-12 is an ISR (Intelligence, Surveillance and Reconnaissance) platform, but at this time, we have no details about how many, size of manning package etc.," McCue said. "We currently do not fly this aircraft in the ANG. So, I don't know how many other units may be included in this proposal."

In January, President Barack Obama signed an executive order establishing a bipartisan group of 10 governors, the Council of Governors, to strengthen the partnership between federal and state governments to protect the nation. The council is reviewing matters involving the National Guard of various states and homeland defense.

The nonprofit Richland Community Development Group created a "Save the C-27J" link of its website, www.chooserichland.com, to allow residents to easily contact their legislators.

Almost 4,100 people have visited the "Save the C-27J" website through Thursday, according to the development group.

"Given the major investment in people, planes and training that have already been expensed, maintaining the C-27J program would seem to be the most logical answer at this time," local business leader Jeff Gorman said.

"Should, however, the C-27J program be cut, not having a flying mission for the 179th would be a huge error in judgment."

RETURN

B3

U.S. Air Force Defends Global Hawk Grounding Decision(Aviation International News, 16 Mar 12) … Chris Pocockhttp://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ain-defense-perspective/2012-03-16/us-air-force-defends-global-hawk-grounding-decision

U.S. Air Force leadership has defended the decision to halt acquisition and current operations of the Global Hawk Block 30 UAV, in favor of retaining the manned Lockheed Martin U-2 reconnaissance aircraft. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen Norton Schwarz told Congress that the move was driven by the federal budget reduction and influenced by a lower forecast requirement for medium- and high-altitude intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR).

Page 9 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

“The sensor capability of the U-2 was better, particularly in EO/IR and to some degree on the Sigint side,” Schwarz told the House Armed Services Committee (HASC). This is a reference to the Goodrich SYERS-2, a long-focal-length, multispectral sensor that has identified hidden or buried targets, including IED placements, during many U-2 flights over Afghanistan and Iraq. Regarding Sigint, most U-2s carry the Raytheon RAS-1R system, although some have been deployed with the same Northrop Grumman ASIP sensor that is fitted to the Global Hawk Block 30. The Pentagon’s Operational Test and Evaluation team criticized ASIP performance on the UAV last year. Proponents of the U-2 say that the Global Hawk cannot match its sensor performance because of the UAV’s payload, aperture and power limitations. Donley told the HASC that “we could not justify the cost” of improving the Global Hawk’s sensors to match those on the U-2.

Until the recent budget crunch, U.S. Air Force policy was to trade off any lesser performance in the Global Hawk’s sensors against its greater persistence, versus the U-2. But the higher-than-expected cost of acquiring and operating the UAV has finally tipped the balance. Schwarz said that the operating cost of the two systems was about the same, at $32,000 per hour. Northrop Grumman officials have disputed the basis for this calculation, but the UAV has twice breached Nunn-McCurdy acquisition cost escalation ceilings. The three Global Hawks bought in Fiscal Year 2012 cost $484.6 million, according to official documents. “Keeping the U-2 yielded $2.5 billion in savings” over the next five years, Schwarz said. That sum presumably includes the cost saved by not buying the remaining 13 Block 30 Global Hawks that were programmed.

Eighteen Block 30 aircraft have already been contracted, of which 14 have been delivered. Initial operating capability was declared last year, and some have been deployed on operations to Sigonella airbase in Italy, Al Dhafra airbase in the UAE, and Andersen AFB, Guam.

The Air Force is sticking with a plan to acquire 11 Block 40 Global Hawks equipped with the advanced MP-RTIP ground surveillance radar. Seven have already been delivered. The service is also converting an additional two Block 20 aircraft to the battlefield communications relay role, making four. The Air Force bought six Block 20s as an interim imaging ISR collector before switching to the multi-sensor Block 30. A Northrop Grumman spokeswoman told AIN that the company still hopes that the decision to end the Block 30 program will be modified. The Global Hawk production line at Palmdale will in any case continue moving, thanks to contracts for the U.S. Navy Bams version and the German Euro Hawk Sigint version. An order from NATO is also expected.

RETURN

B4

Source of DoD Commercial Bandwidth Funds is Drying Up(Space News, 16 Mar 12) … Titus Ledbetter IIIhttp://www.spacenews.com/military/120316-dod-bandwidth-funds-drying.html

WASHINGTON - With a primary source of funding for commercial satellite capacity drying up, the U.S. Department of Defense must find an alternative means to feed the tremendous appetite for bandwidth generated by unmanned aircraft, according to a U.S. Air Force official.

For the past decade or so, the Pentagon has relied heavily on Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) accounts funded by wartime supplemental appropriations bills to pay for commercial satellite services. But the Pentagon likely will not be able meet the demand for commercial satellite bandwidth

Page 10 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

with OCO funding in the months and years ahead, said Air Force Col. Michael Lakos, the service’s military satellite communications lead.

Speaking at the Satellite 2012 conference here organized by Access Intelligence LLC, Lakos pleaded with satellite industry executives to come up with cheaper ways of providing bandwidth that is critical to a growing number of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) applications. “There is not a lot of money to put those into the service budgets because those are being shrunk,” he said.

The Air Force has been wrestling with the funding problem internally, Lakos said. “At the same time, we are going to have to leverage you folks from industry to help us solve that problem, but again, trying to do it better but cheaper at the same time,” he said.

Bandwidth requirements for UAV operations have increased since the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq late last year, according to Ed Spitler, vice president of managed network services for Artel LLC, based in Reston, Va. Artel provides satellites network solutions to U.S. military customers.

Industry officials have maintained that the military’s demand for commercial bandwidth will not decline as its forces withdraw from Iraq and Afghanistan because the draw-downs will increase its reliance on bandwidth-hungry UAVs. However, some satellite operators, such as Intelsat, have reported softening Pentagon demand in recent months.

There is little question, however, that the Pentagon’s reliance on UAVs is growing. The Defense Department’s 2013 budget request allocates nearly $2 billion to the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper UAV programs, a sum that covers procurement of 43 aircraft and related activities, according to budget documents.

The Pentagon has a goal of being able to operate 65 UAV combat air patrols simultaneously by 2013. Some of these patrols require more than one UAV, Air Force officials say.

Andrew Ruszkowski, vice president of global sales and marketing for Rockville, Md.-based Xtar LLC, which markets X-band satellite capacity to government users, said that as UAV sensors and missions become more specialized, the need for bandwidth will increase. Industry has done a great job to date of meeting the Pentagon’s demand, but its ability to do so over the long haul is in doubt, in part because satellite capacity in the desired frequency bands is not always going to be available where and when it is needed, he said.

Ruszkowski said the government should equip its UAVs to be able to transmit data in multiple frequency bands. This would give the Pentagon more options to choose from, he said, adding that some frequency bands are better suited than others to adverse weather conditions. Thunderstorms, for example, can degrade Ka-band transmissions.

Today, most UAVs are equipped to transmit in the heavily used Ku-band. But commercial satellite operators are increasingly expanding into the Ka-band, and the Air Force is deploying a new fleet of Wideband Global Satcom communications satellites that operate in both Ka- and X-band frequencies.

Andy Beegan, chief technology officer for Inmarsat Government Services here, agreed that future UAVs should be designed with an ability to utilize multiple frequency bands. Inmarsat operates a fleet of L-band satellites and is planning in the coming years to deploy a Ka-band system.

Page 11 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Lakos said the Defense Department also is wrestling with the issue of which major military command should take the lead in making sure UAV plans take into account trends in the commercial satellite telecommunications industry. Air Force Space Command oversees core military space capabilities but Air Combat Command owns most of the service’s UAV fleet, he said.

RETURN

CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN THE NUCLEAR ENTERPRISE

N1

Simulated nuclear weapons accident exercise in planning(Minot Daily News, 17 Mar 12) … Eloise Ogdenhttp://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/564019/Simulated-nuclear-weapons-accident-exercise-in-planning.html?nav=5010

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE Airmen at Minot Air Force Base are getting ready for a simulated nuclear weapons accident incident exercise later this spring.

"We're going to exercise the United States' ability to respond to an incident on base," Col. James Dawkins Jr., commander of the base's 5th Bomb Wing, told members of the Minot Area Chamber of Commerce's Military Affairs Committee Thursday.

About 300 people from various agencies across the United States, including the U.S. Department of Energy, U.S. Northern Command, FBI and others who will come to the Minot base in May for the three- to four-day exercise, Dawkins said.

RETURN

N2

Japanese TV crew visits Minot AFB(Minot Daily News, 17 Mar 12) … Eloise Ogdenhttp://www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/564018/Japanese-TV-crew-visits-Minot-AFB.html?nav=5010

MINOT AIR FORCE BASE - Minot Air Force Base's Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missiles and B-52 bombers have been getting international and national media attention this month.

Nippon TV, based in Japan, and Airman magazine staff visited the base last week.

"Our strategic deterrence capability was the focus of the visits for both," said Tech. Sgt. Mark Bell, with the Minot AFB Public Affairs Office.

A producer, reporter and camera operator with Nippon TV, who are with its Washington, D.C., bureau, visited a missile alert facility in the Minot missile field March 8, where they had lunch with Col. Stephen Davis, commander of the the base's 91st Missile Wing.

The TV group's visit to Minot AFB tied in with the 2012 Seoul Nuclear Security Summit to be held in the South Korean capital March 26-27. More than 40 heads of state and government are expected to attend the summit. The first nuclear security summit was held in Washington, D.C.

Page 12 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

The Japanese TV group's camera operator had heard about Minot AFB and the group decided they would like to come here.

The Nippon TV segment about Minot AFB's ICBMs is scheduled to air in Japan during the timeframe of the summit.

A writer, photographer and broadcaster with Airman magazine also visited Minot AFB last week.

The magazine is produced for the Secretary of the Air Force Office of Public Affairs.

Airman magazine's focus was on both the ICBMs and B-52s, and their visit also included a trip to the missile field, Bell said.

RETURN

N3

Pentagon Updates Plans for "Loose Nukes," Official Says(Global Security Newswire, 16 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://www.nti.org/gsn/article/pentagon-revising-plans-loose-nukes-official-says/

The U.S. Defense Department is stepping up preparations for potential "loose-nukes" scenarios with an emphasis on coordinating operations between its own offices and other agencies, a senior Pentagon official told a Senate Homeland Security Committee panel on Wednesday (see GSN, Feb. 8).

The department's nuclear security contribution "comes primarily through" the Nunn-Lugar Cooperative Threat Reduction Program, but “given [the Pentagon's] overall mission to defend the nation, there's a whole world of separate nuclear-security activities for which my agency plans, equips and trains,” a press release quotes Principal Deputy Assistant Defense Secretary Kenneth Handelman as saying.

Those preparations “center on a scenario none of us want to confront; namely, what to do when we think the bad guys actually have gotten their hands on really bad things,” Handelman told the government oversight subcommittee.

“For instance,” the official said, “the instability or collapse of a nuclear-armed state could quickly lead to the proliferation of nuclear weapons or materials well beyond the country of origin and involve multiple state and nonstate actors as it moves across the globe.”

Efforts now under way seek to better prepare the department for such a situation by improving domestic defense arrangements, collaborating with intelligence agencies to bolster assessment and monitoring of extremist groups, spotting probable means by which sensitive materials could spread, and strengthening the system for evaluating the origin and details of possible nuclear dangers.

“Our work at DOD has focused on how U.S. military units would coordinate with other U.S. agencies and with allies and partners in the face of such a loose-nuke threat scenario,” he said (U.S. Defense Department release, March 15).

Page 13 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

RETURN

PARTNER WITH JOINT AND COALITION TEAM TO WIN TODAY’S FIGHT

P1

Stress of combat reaches drone crewsPhysically they may be thousands of miles from Iraq or Afghanistan. Psychologically, they're on the ground with troops. The disconnect, and the sense of helplessness, take a toll.(Los Angeles Times, 18 Mar 12) … David Zucchinohttp://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-drone-stress-20120318,0,2745824,full.story

Reporting from Washington - Drone crews protect U.S. ground troops by watching over them 24 hours a day from high above. Sitting before video screens thousands of miles from their remote-controlled aircraft, the crews scan for enemy ambushes and possible roadside bombs, while also monitoring what the military calls "patterns of life."

Only rarely do drone crews fire on the enemy. The rest of the time, they sit and watch. For hours on end. Day after day.

It can get monotonous and, yes, boring.

It can also be gut-wrenching.

Crews sometimes see ground troops take casualties or come under attack. They zoom in on enemy dead to confirm casualties. Psychologically, they're in the middle of combat. But physically most of them are on another continent, which can lead to a sense of helplessness.

"That lack of control is one of the main features of producing stress," said Air Force Col. Hernando Ortega, who discussed results of a survey of Predator and Reaper crews at a recent conference inWashington, D.C. They ask themselves, he said: "Could I have done better? Did I make the right choices?"

The Air Force is only now becoming aware of the toll — which Air Force psychologists call combat stress — posed by drone crews' job, even as the drone workload is growing.

In recent years, the Air Force has trained more drone pilots than conventional pilots, and the Pentagon is increasingly relying on drones to fight wars and terrorism overseas. Drone crews flew 54 combat air patrols a day over Afghanistan and Iraq last year, up from five a day in 2004. The goal is 65 patrols a day by 2013.

The military is changing its terminology accordingly. What the Air Force used to call UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicles, are now called RPAs, for remotely piloted aircraft.

"They are not unmanned at all," Ortega said. "They're manned to the hilt."

Page 14 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

In civilian jobs, the pressures of working long hours on staggered shifts are wearing enough. But with drone missions, one miscalculation can prove fatal.

Last April, two U.S. Marines were accidentally killed by Predator fire, and at least 15 Afghan civilians died in a mistaken attack by a Predator and helicopter gunships in February 2010.

The Air Force considers drone crews "deployed'' in combat, even though most of them fly planes from U.S. bases. "The most dangerous part of their day is their commute,'' said Peter W. Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who studies robotics in warfare.

Crews must shift repeatedly between home and combat. "A Predator pilot told me: 'I'm spending 12 hours fighting enemy combatants, and 20 minutes later I'm talking to my kids about homework,'" Singer said.

The three-member crews typically work 12-hour shifts. They monitor the landscape and events on the ground — what the Air Force calls ISR, for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance — often through the early-morning hours.

"Humans don't work well at 3 in the morning … we're not nocturnal," said Ortega, a flight surgeon. "And that builds fatigue, which decreases human performance, which leads to more stress."

"It's really kind of a boring job ... it's kind of terrible," Ortega said, paraphrasing comments from the survey.

At the same time, the crews can develop strong emotional bonds with ground troops via text messages and radio, Ortega said. "These guys actually telecommute to the war zone," he said. "The band of brothers is built online."

That contributes to the sense of helplessness when their colleagues are in physical danger.

"There can be guilt even if no shot is fired, just from the fact that you don't feel you can help," said Col. Kent McDonald, an Air Force psychiatrist who helped conduct the recent survey of 900 drone crew members in 2010 and 2011.

In the survey, 46% of active-duty drone pilots reported high levels of stress, and 29% reported emotional exhaustion or burnout. The data included Air Force crews who have flown drones over Iraq and Afghanistan, but not crews who fly drones over Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia as part of CIA programs.

Active-duty sensor operators, who operate camera and surveillance gear, reported high-stress rates of 41% and burnout rates of 21%. Mission intelligence coordinators, who are often separated from pilots and sensor operators, reported high-stress rates of 39% and burnout rates of 20%.

By comparison, a recent Families and Work Institute study found that 26% of civilian workers were "often or very often burned out or stressed by their work," and a Yale University study found that 29% of workers felt "quite a bit or extremely stressed at work."

Page 15 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Combat stress puts many drone crew members at high risk forpost-traumatic stress disorder, Air Force psychologists say, though no pilots and only a couple of camera operators have been diagnosed with PTSD.

By comparison, between 11% and 20% of troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, including some Air Force crew members who fly conventional warplanes, have been diagnosed with PTSD, according to the National Center for PTSD.

At the very least, the stress leaves drone crews at risk for depression and anxiety disorders, potentially affecting their performance, psychologists say.

Often, crew members don't even acknowledge that they're stressed by combat. After all, they're not directly exposed to combat smells or sounds, or the imminent threat of death — all typically associated with PTSD in ground troops.

Crews who feel stress don't say it's "because I was in combat or because we had to blow up a building or because we saw people get blown up," Ortega said. Rather, he said, they complain of shift work, schedule changes, long hours, low staffing and failure to maintain family relationships.

As one respondent complained: "Sustaining vigilance is mind-numbing." Others wrote: "Too much monotony/Groundhog Day" and "Not being around to do stuff at home."

The Air Force is considering assigning more chaplains and psychologists to drone units, said Dr. Wayne Chappelle, an Air Force clinical psychologist. It's also considering workshops on family stresses, and adding psychologists to military clinics so that crew members don't have to be referred to outside specialists.

Combat stress needs to be addressed before it affects crew performance, Chappelle said.

Crew members may not be able to escape combat stress, Ortega said.

"This is a different kind of war, but it's still war," he said. "And they do internally feel it."

RETURN

P2

Ground-based airmen deployed more in 2011(Air Force Times, 17 Mar 12) … Jeff Schogolhttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/air-force-ground-based-airmen-2011-most-deployed-031712w/

It’s clear the Air Force wants to destroy enemy air forces, neutralize enemy air defenses and project global power, but right now the enemy would rather fight an asymmetric conflict that has multimillion-dollar fighters providing intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance for ground convoys.

Among the airmen who deployed for the longest in 2011 were explosive ordnance disposal technicians, tactical air control party airmen, vehicle and vehicular maintenance airmen, and security forces, according to figures provided by the Air Force Personnel Center.

Page 16 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

It’s the type of unconventional war the U.S. military has learned to loathe, and it means spending less time in the air and more time with the ground-pounders.

With the ever-increasing risk posed by hackers, the Air Force also needs to spend more time protecting its computer networks.

Meanwhile, aviators — with the exception of generalist pilots and instructors — were away from home fewer than five months. In the case of mobility pilots, with the largest number of pilots deployed at 4,043, the average number of days deployed was among the lowest of all officers — 67 days.

The pilots deployed the longest in 2011 were those operating unmanned aircraft. The 454 unmanned aircraft pilots deployed for an average of 149 days, topping their bomber pilot counterparts, 210 of whom deployed for an average of 146 days.

Also high on the list of the longest deployed are airmen who focus on capabilities such as finance, contracting and acquisition. The officers with the longest deployments were financial management airmen, who deployed for an average of 263 days in 2011, showing that those who wage war behind a desk are just as valuable as those who can drop a deep penetrator on a hardened underground bunker.

The figures show unique deployments, so an airman who deployed more than once is only counted once. In all, 87,757 airmen deployed to support contingency operations in 2011.

On the enlisted side, cyberspace superintendents were deployed the most — an average of 216 days last year.

Formed in late 2010, the career field is made up of a small cadre of airmen retrained from intelligence and cyberspace support specialties to cyberspace defense operators. Fewer than 10 deployed last year; the Air Force declined to provide their exact numbers so as not to identify them.

Hackers, whether Chinese agents or anarchist groups such as Anonymous, have caused havoc recently, crashing government websites and stealing information.

Asked if hackers pose a strategic threat, the head of U.S. Strategic Command punted, saying cyberspace is certainly a strategic domain.

“You have to improve your ability to defend it, defend against it, recognizing that you’re not going to be able to defend against everything and then have the resilience to operate through it,” Gen. Robert Kehler said at last month’s Air Force Association winter symposium.

Meanwhile, tactical air control party airmen deployed for an average of 199 days last year, while explosive ordnance disposal technicians deployed for 193 days, showing you can’t win the fight unless you can blow the bad guys up and prevent them from blowing you up.

In terms of sheer numbers of airmen, security forces were deployed most in 2011, with 7,587 enlisted airmen deploying for an average of 174 days.

Security forces have been dealing with long deployments for a while, and the Air Force has been trying to give them more time at home.

Page 17 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Still, retired Col. Terry Stevens said he isn’t surprised that security forces are still deploying for close to six months because the Air Force can’t use civilian security guards for its bases downrange.

Stevens, a former security police officer, said he does not expect the number of security forces deployed to drop, even as the U.S. military draws down in Afghanistan.

“Couple of reasons: One, we still don’t know how many we’re going to need in the Asia-Pacific area; and another thing is, even though we’ve got civilian security on some of the gates and performing some of the other stuff, the tendency, I believe, is to go back to active-duty military to perform those security duties,” said Stevens, who worked at the Air Force Personnel Center for several years.

A number of factors drive deployment lengths, said retired Gen. Roger Brady, former Air Force personnel chief and later commander of U.S. Air Forces in Europe.

“One was the supply and demand, obviously,” Brady said in an email. “The conflict that started at 9/11 drove a huge requirement for security forces. We were very short-handed for a while, which changed our recruiting pattern and put a much higher portion of security-forces airmen into our ranks over the last decade.”

Another factor is how healthy a career field is, specifically how many airmen it is authorized and how many it actually has, Brady said.

“Also, when a combatant commander identifies a requirement, it includes both a skill set (Air Force Specialty Code) and an experience level,” he said. “If you have a high demand for relatively high ranking people (a chief enlisted manager is probably a senior NCO), there aren’t as many of those in the career field pyramid and that can drive longer deployment periods and shorter dwell times.”

When measuring which airmen deployed the most, deployment lengths are not as important a metric as how often airmen deploy compared with how much time they get at home, said retired Lt. Gen. Michael M. Dunn, president and CEO of the Air Force Association.

The Air Force is working to give airmen twice as much dwell time as they spend deployed, so security forces who deploy for 174 days would get about a year at home, Dunn said in an email.

Even though the U.S. military is expected to draw down in Afghanistan by the end of 2014, the U.S. Central Command commander will still need Air Force assets in the region to deter Iran, said Colin Kahl, former deputy assistant defense secretary for the Middle East.

“That means ISR, tankers, and strike aircraft,” Kahl said in an email to Air Force Times. “There are already some 40,000 U.S. forces deployed in the [Persian] Gulf. Some percentage of those support ops in Afghanistan and are likely to continue to do so as the U.S. footprint in Afghanistan shrinks — but the main driver of force levels will be Iran.”

RETURN

P3

Obama phones Karzai, discusses troop pullback callPage 18 of 48

SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

(AP, 16 Mar 12) … Jim Kuhnhennhttp://www.sacbee.com/2012/03/16/4343295/obama-phones-karzai-discusses.html

ABOARD AIR FORCE ONE -- President Obama has telephoned Afghan President Hamid Karzai to discuss Karzai's call for NATO troops to withdraw from rural villages.

Spokesman Jay Carney says that during the early-morning call, the leaders agreed to talk further about the demand. Karzai has told reporters in Afghanistan he's standing firm. If so, that throws a wrench in the current U.S. strategy.

Carney says the leaders reaffirmed their "shared commitment" to a gradual transition to an Afghan combat lead next year. He was briefing reporters as Obama flew to a fundraising appearance.

Karzai's demand followed the weekend massacre of 16 Afghans. The suspect is a U.S. soldier who was stationed at a rural outpost.

Karzai's demand sowed confusion among U.S. officials, but Carney says the two leaders are "very much on the same page."

RETURN

P4

Groups: U.S. sent detainees to banned prisons(AP, 18 Mar 12) … Heidi Vogthttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/ap-groups-us-sent-detainees-to-banned-prisons-031812/

KABUL, Afghanistan - A report released Saturday by two rights groups says the U.S. sent some detainees to Afghan prisons where torture was found despite an announced moratorium on such moves.

The report by the Afghan Independent Human Rights Commission and the New York-based Open Society Institute suggests that Afghanistan’s international allies are still failing to ensure that people captured on the battlefield are treated humanely despite a massive reform program in recent months.

NATO forces regularly hand Afghans that they have captured over to Afghan authorities after they have decided that the detainees are no longer an immediate threat. But the coalition stopped such transfers to 16 Afghan detention facilities shortly before a U.N. report was issued in September that found evidence of torture at those prisons.

The report documents 11 “recent, credible cases” in which detainees said they were captured by U.S. personnel, then transferred to an Afghan facility in Kandahar where U.N. investigators had found evidence of torture.

The transfers happened after July, when NATO and U.S. forces stopped sending detainees to the facility because of torture concerns, the report said.

U.S. military officials could not immediately be reached for comment, but are cited in the report as saying that there are no NATO or U.S. military forces transferring detainees to the facility, which is operated by the National Directorate of Security, or NDS — the Afghan intelligence service.

Page 19 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

“There is compelling evidence that at least some U.S. forces or personnel continue to transfer individuals to NDS Kandahar despite not only a widely acknowledged risk of torture but also evidence that detainees transferred to NDS Kandahar by U.S. forces have been subjected to torture,” according to the report.

Interviews with detainees and U.S. responses to queries suggest that “there may be U.S. forces or personnel, perhaps including C.I.A. or other U.S. intelligence officials,” operating outside of these commands and who have detained people and sent them to the supposedly banned facilities, the report said.

A U.S. embassy spokesman said that American officials had not yet received a copy of the report.

“We have not seen the report, and so can’t comment,” spokesman Gavin Sundwall said.

The report — which also details abuse at nine Afghan intelligence service facilities and “several” prisons operated by the Afghan police — was based on interviews with more than 100 detainees between February 2011 and January 2012, along with interviews with lawyers, legal aid workers, detention facility officials and government representatives, the authors said.

The U.N. report issued in September found evidence of torture at 16 Afghan detention facilities.

Since then, NATO has started an intensive program of inspections and trainings at the flagged prisons, and has resumed prisoner transfers to 12 of the facilities that it says have instituted reforms. The Kandahar facility is one of the four that have not been approved to resume transfers.

NATO officials have said that Afghan authorities at first rejected any accusations of abuse but have since worked with NATO on the reforms.

Saturday’s report, called “Torture, Transfers, and Denial of Due Process,” names a number of facilities that were not flagged in the United Nations report. But the facility that receives the most criticism is the NDS Kandahar facility, where the report say there has also been recent evidence of beatings and being shocked with electric cables.

“Monitors received 10 credible allegations of abuse in NDS Kandahar as recently as January 2012,” the report said.

RETURN

DEVELOP AND CARE FOR AIRMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES

D1

AF asks airmen to rate their own performance(Air Force Times, 18 Mar 12) … Jill Lasterhttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/air-force-airmen-to-rate-their-own-performance-031812w/

Page 20 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Your opinion may soon play a bigger role in evaluations thanks to a change being considered to performance reviews.

The Air Force is testing a new program in which airmen grade themselves on their performance, in addition to evaluations completed by their supervisors.

A field test of the Airman Comprehensive Assessment began in early February at 18 active-duty Air Force bases and one Air Force Reserve base. During the test period ending in June, airmen will complete an assessment worksheet when their scheduled feedback sessions are conducted.

Air Force officials declined to provide the worksheet that airmen are filling out. They said the assessment is a “working document” that the service isn’t ready to release publicly, but did say it includes sections for physical fitness, training, teamwork, deployment readiness, and personal and professional goals.

And, as with current feedback worksheets, supervisors will have spaces to talk about expectations, strengths and weaknesses, and recommendations for how airmen can improve performance. Airmen at test bases will be notified electronically with more information on where to get test forms and instructions.

“The objective for the ACA is to create a conduit for more broad and open communication between airmen and their supervisors,” Will Brown, chief of the Air Force Evaluation and Recognition Programs Branch, said in an email. “To achieve this improved communication, the formal feedback conducted using the ACA is expanded to the four dimensions of wellness: spiritual, emotional, physical and social wellness of individuals.”

The service came up with the worksheet as a way to improve communication between airmen and the people overseeing them, Brown said. Supervisors and airmen at the test bases will get a survey within a month of their feedback sessions to see if the worksheets should be implemented across the Air Force.

The Army and Navy conduct “360-degree feedback” as part of their assessment systems — in which peers, subordinates, supervisors and the troop conduct feedback on a service member’s performance. The Army started requiring officers in October to certify that they’ve conducted a 360-degree evaluation sometime in the past three years. The Navy now requires admirals and prospective commanding officers to conduct 360-degree evaluations, although these assessments are only for informational purposes and don’t go into an officer’s service record.

However, Brown said the Airman Comprehensive Assessment isn’t directly related to the “360-degree” reviews conducted by the Army and Navy. Instead, he said it was developed by a team that regularly looks at Air Force programs involving feedback, mentorship, wingman relationships and sponsorship.

The personal assessments conducted at the test sites will not go into airmen’s personnel records, and there are no plans now for self-evaluations to become part of an airman’s record if the initiative is adopted forcewide.

Brown said the Air Force Personnel Center hopes the evaluations will improve interactions between airmen and supervisors and not just provide a “grade” on which airmen can be judged.

Page 21 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

“The main goal is not to simply complete a form or ‘grade’ an airman on their own assessment, but to develop the airman and provide the ingredients for a successful Air Force career,” he said.

The Air Force Personnel Center has also created a training guide for supervisors and airmen on the revised format, which is available once the airman who is being rated has been identified. A link to that guide will come in the email airmen will receive letting them know they will self-evaluate.

RETURN

D2

Tricare proposal vexes veteransLawmakers against fee increases(Wichita Falls Times Record, 17 Mar 12) … Trish Choatehttp://www.timesrecordnews.com/news/2012/mar/17/tricare-proposal-vexes-veterans/

WASHINGTON - Air Force retiree William "Hack" Alexander said North Texas military retirees are upset about President Barack Obama's proposal to raise fees for Tricare, the military health care insurance program.

Alexander, a retired chief master sergeant, doesn't think the proposal keeps the government's promise to provide medical care for life in return for 20 years of service in the military.

"The only thing we're saying now is, don't change the rules on us again," Alexander, 65, of Iowa Park said.

Some experts say military retirees pay a fraction of the cost of private plans while health care's share of the defense budget is growing. They say it's time to evaluate military benefits, especially for incoming troops.

The Pentagon seeks to hold down mounting health care costs and cut a mandated $487 billion from the defense budget over 10 years.

The plan to ratchet up Tricare fees for retirees and pharmacy co-payments for retirees and families of active-duty members is outlined in the Department of Defense's fiscal year 2013 budget. It saves an estimated $17.6 billion over five years.

Many members of Congress, including the North Texas delegation, are extremely wary of the proposal, and many military associations have spoken out against it.

Last year, lawmakers approved a hike in Tricare fees — $2.50 a month for individuals and $5 for families — in the first increase since the program's creation in 1995.

This year's proposal would make steeper increases over five years to military retirees' fees.

"I live on a fixed income right now, and if these fees go up, my income is probably going to decline by $3,000 to $5,000 a year," said Alexander, who served on warfronts in Vietnam and the Middle East.

Page 22 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Some retirees paying no annual fees now for Tricare would pay $250 a year by 2017 to enroll their families. Enrollment fees can be equated with premiums.

Retirees younger than 65 in Tricare Prime could see family enrollment costs increase from $460 a year to as much as $2,048 by 2017 if they're earning more than $45,178 in retirement pay.

"They're getting a really good deal," said Todd Harrison, a defense budget expert at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments in Washington. "Even with the increased fees, it'll still be a good deal much better than any private company offers."

Workers on employer-sponsored private plans paid an average of $4,129 a year for family health care coverage in 2011, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation study.

Some analysts point out the big difference in costs when arguing for raising Tricare fees.

"Ask these analysts how much time they spent away from their families," Alexander said.

He recounted numerous deployments that took him away from his family over more than 30 years of service in the Air Force.

Retired Air Force Col. Steve Strobridge, a lobbyist for the Military Officers Association of America, said military members pay more for their health care benefits than just cash. Their careers take them from their families, interrupt their spouses' careers and require moving every couple of years and require other sacrifices.

"When people don't bring that into the equation, then you're really devaluing and denigrating their service," Strobridge said.

The Pentagon detailed the rising cost of military health care in its 2013 budget proposal: from $19 billion in 2001 to a proposed $48 billion in 2013.

To cut costs, the Pentagon proposal aims to nudge working-age retirees and their families off the military health care plan and onto private plans by increasing Tricare fees.

Working-age retirees don't enroll in the health care plan where they work because Tricare is so cheap, said retired Naval Reserve Capt. Lawrence Korb, an analyst at the Center for American Progress and a former assistant secretary of defense.

Korb is in the private health care plan at CAP even though he qualifies for Tricare.

"I don't think it's right for the Pentagon to be subsidizing CAP," Korb said.

But the budget move has led to accusations the administration is trying to find recruits for "Obamacare" — detractors' term for the administration's health care reform — among military retirees.

"Obamacare is private health care," Harrison said. "All it does is require people to get health care coverage through a private insurance company."

Page 23 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

So the strategy would move people out of government-run health care — Tricare — into private health care, he said.

Alexander wants Congress to stick to a policy approved last year to tie Tricare fee hikes to increases in retiree pay.

"We can live with that. That's fair," he said. "But don't increase it by 100 percent."

Wichita Falls Rep. Mac Thornberry, vice chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, also wants Congress to stick to the policy approved last year.

"Changing the rules in the game for the people who already put in their 20-plus years and have already had promises made to them is one thing," said Thornberry, a Republican from Clarendon. "I don't think the government can renege on a promise."

But he thinks it might be time to look at different policies for young troops entering the military.

"We may need to have a different promise for them," he said. "But you need to be up front about it and tell them up front about what the benefit will be."

North Texas Rep. Randy Neugebauer said he doesn't think lawmakers should "balance our budget on the backs of veterans" and should keep commitments to them.

Before making decisions about Tricare, "we should consider the effect that those changes might have on the courageous men and women" in the military, said Neugebauer, a Republican from Lubbock who represents Young County and Archer County.

RETURN

MODERNIZE OUR AIR, SPACE AND CYBERSPACE INVENTORIES, ORGS AND TRAINING

M1

Controllers rescue wayward satellite(AP, 17 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://www.newsday.com/news/nation/controllers-rescue-wayward-satellite-1.3609486

DENVER -- Air Force ground controllers delicately rescued a $1.7 billion military communications satellite that had been stranded in the wrong orbit and at risk of blowing up -- all possibly because a piece of cloth had been left in a critical fuel line during manufacture.

During the 14-month effort ending last year, the satellite had to battle gravity and dodge space junk while controllers improvised ways to coax it higher to its planned orbit.

The Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite is the first of six in a $14 billion system designed to give the military more communications capacity than its current Milstar system as well as resist signals jamming.

Page 24 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Losing AEHF-1 would have been a costly blow. It would have delayed the satellite system along with all the related technology that will use it. It also would have raised more questions in Congress about the military and aerospace industry's ability to manage multibillion-dollar projects.

The program was $250 million over budget and two years behind schedule when AEHF-1 lifted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla., in August 2010. As planned, an Atlas V rocket carried it to an elliptical "parking orbit" ranging from 140 miles to 31,000 miles from Earth.

Trouble came days later when ground controllers twice directed AEHF-1 to fire its main engine to begin moving into a circular orbit more than 22,000 miles above the Earth. Both times the satellite shut the engine down when it detected that it wasn't working -- a safety feature.

RETURN

RECAPTURE ACQUISITION EXCELLENCE

A1

Blue Devil 2 airship expected to be canceled(Air Force Times, 18 Mar 12 ) … Dave Majumdarhttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/air-force-blue-devil-airship-expected-canceled-031812w/

The Air Force has placed a stop-work order on a 370-foot-long blimp that was designed to be an optionally manned surveillance airship, and a senior service official said the program is likely to be canceled.

The Air Force’s 2013 budget request does not include any money for Blue Devil 2, said spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy.

“However, the Air Force remains committed to developing a long-duration [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] capability that balances capability and affordability,” Cassidy said in an email.

Because of budget and technical challenges, the service has issued a 90-day stop-work order on sensor payload integration of Blue Devil 2, which will allow the Air Force “to determine the most prudent course of action,” Cassidy said.

The service is expected to finish building and testing the 1.4-million-cubic-foot Blue Devil 2, produced by Mav6, but it won’t equip the aircraft with its crucial mission systems, the senior Air Force official said.

“The likely outcome is a descope of the program to complete construction, test and deliver the airship, only without sensors,” said the official, who asked not to be named. “Due to current budget constraints, further efforts to outfit the airship with sensors, data links and a ground station and deploy it for ops are unlikely.”

The official cautioned that the fate of the Blue Devil is still “predecisional,” but the Air Force is coordinating with the Office of the Secretary of Defense on the aircraft’s ultimate disposition.

Page 25 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Barring objections from higher offices within the Pentagon or additional funding from another agency, the airship is likely to be placed in storage.

The Blue Devil 2 was considered to be a herald of next-generation persistent intelligence collection with a potential endurance of more than nine days. Depending on the duration of the mission, the airship would have been able to carry 2,500 pounds of surveillance equipment for five days, or 7,500 pounds if the sortie was shortened to three days. Its payload system was designed to be reconfigurable in less than four hours, according to documents from Mav6, based in Vicksburg, Miss.

Mav6 CEO David Deptula, the Air Force’s former intelligence head, expressed disappointment.

“Blue Devil 2 is the kind of innovative capability that the Department of Defense needs to be embracing for the new fiscal environment — cost-effective [intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance] greater than on any current DoD ISR system,” he said. “A decision not to capitalize on this game-changing potential now may be penny-wise, but pound-foolish.”

While the Air Force move doesn’t come as a surprise, Mav6 business development vice president David Bither said he was puzzled by the decision. “We obviously respect the decision,” Bither said. “But it’s a bit confusing for us.”

Bither said the fiscal 2012 budget allocated about $60 million in war funding to the program, specifically to address urgent operational needs in Afghanistan.

“In fact, we’ve been contacted by [U.S. Central Command] to actually tell that the requirement is still needed,” he said. Additionally, buying the airship without the mission systems makes little sense.

“You’re hearing one thing from the war fighter, and then another from the service that’s sponsoring the work,” Bither said. “That’s confusing.”

RETURN

A2

Change Contract OversightCost of Governance Hampers Progress(Defense News, 18 Mar 12) … Dean Peebels, Mark Valerio and Andrew Greenhttp://www.defensenews.com/article/20120318/DEFFEAT05/303180006/Change-Contract-Oversight?odyssey=mod%7Cnewswell%7Ctext%7CFRONTPAGE%7Cs

With the Pentagon and its suppliers looking at potential cuts ranging from $500 billion to $1 trillion over the next 10 years, the perennial talk of finding hidden economies has taken on new urgency. An improved, more collaborative model of the traditional customer-contractor relationship has never been more vital.

One important step is already underway: the move from cost-plus to fixed-price type contracts. For instance, when satellite programs evolve from development to production, technical and schedule risks are well understood, making it appropriate to transition to a fixed-price contract structure. Unfortunately, the very program governance processes that are supposed to drive savings are threatening a substantial portion of the projected savings.

Page 26 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Program governance presents two thorny problems. First, in many acquisition programs, governance happens in a culture that has evolved in a cost-plus environment. Such contracts have historically emphasized customer responsiveness while incentives have often been tied to customer satisfaction. When a government customer asked for anything, contractors complied and were reimbursed on a cost-plus basis.

In a fixed-price contract structure, the government and contractors will need to be much more disciplined about actions that affect program costs. Given the prevailing cost-plus culture, simply shifting to fixed-price contracts is not enough. To truly reduce costs, both government and contractor program managers must change their behaviors and mode of operations.

Second, governance costs are poorly tracked and understood. The governance model — formal events, reporting and the informal rules of engagement — is never clearly spelled out in government requests for proposals or contractor bids. Cost accounting systems simply don’t completely track the costs of governance-related activities. And as the old saying goes, what gets measured gets managed.

Our calculations show that program governance costs can account for up to 15 percent of total program costs. Governance costs have traditionally been high, driven in large part by the government’s inherent need for oversight of highly complex development efforts. Past attempts to reduce costs by reducing oversight, such as the Total System Performance Responsibility initiative of the 1990s, are cited as the reason many programs got into trouble.

But as contracts shift from cost-plus development to fixed-price production, the nature of oversight should also change to reflect the reduced risk of manufacturing products from a stable design.

What would a new governance model look like? How would it operate? We suggest a collaborative approach in which the government and the contractor work together to identify and implement process improvements that would allow the contractor to reduce, and better manage, its costs while providing the government with sufficient insight to assess program performance.

While “governance” is a broad term, there are three primary elements that can demand enormous amounts of time and money. A revised governance model would address all three.

• Formal events, such as status meetings, design and quality reviews, and change control boards. Each governance meeting, review or board needs to be subject to a rigorous cost/value analysis. Can the efficiency of high-value events be improved, perhaps by reducing meeting frequency or required attendees? Are there meetings or processes that add little to a program that can be eliminated?

• Reporting, such as Contract Data Requirement Lists (CDRLs). By working collaboratively, reporting requirements can be streamlined in many ways, such as eliminating, standardizing or finding alternatives to high-cost CDRLs while preserving critical information flow between the contractor and the government.

• Informal interactions in which the government requests additional information, help in preparing briefings or training new government team members. These actions have historically come from multiple sources without formal approval. Programs need to establish a more disciplined process for

Page 27 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

contact between the contractor and multiple government stakeholders to minimize marginal requests while speeding decision-making.

Both parties should be able to develop a mutually satisfactory operating model that spells out governance activities, identifies cost-savings opportunities, improves effectiveness and reduces surprises.

This approach was used for the Space Based Infrared System program, managed by the U.S. Air Force’s Infrared Space Systems Directorate and its prime contractor, Lockheed Martin. As the program shifts into production, the team is proposing a new governance model to reduce the number of formal governance events by 40 percent, shave the number of CDRLs by more than 50 percent, and develop an informal interaction model to restrict out-of-scope tasks.

This jointly developed, streamlined governance model is more affordable and still provides the government team with the critical insight needed to manage the program. This effort also demonstrated that program governance can be managed more efficiently. In fact, the efficiencies associated with streamlined governance are so compelling, the Air Force Space and Missile Center expanded the focus of this operating model and is driving to make it the standard for future fixed-price contracts.

Accomplishing the same results with fewer resources gets to the heart of DoD’s intent to drive affordability without sacrificing performance. Based on this experience, we believe this budget environment creates the opportunity for government/contractor collaboration that can be adapted to many complex acquisition programs and to other efficiency efforts within the industrial base to reduce costs to the government.

RETURN

A3

Air Force lagged in seeking competitive bids, study findsIt missed chance to save millions, agency asserts.Hot TopicsNominate a Superior Nurse in your community!(Dayton Daily News, 17 Mar 12) … John Nolanhttp://www.middletownjournal.com/air-force-lagged-in-seeking-competitive-bids-study-finds-1345214.html

The Air Force’s rate of seeking competitive bids for non-research and development services from the private sector fell significantly behind the rest of the Defense Department between 2007 and 2011, the U.S. Government Accountability Office has concluded in a new study.

That meant that the Air Force missed a substantial opportunity to save taxpayers millions of dollars for purchase of those services, the GAO found.

From fiscal years 2007 through 2011, the rate at which non-R&D services were competed held steady across most of the Defense Department, going from a collective 79 percent in 2007 to 78 percent in 2011, the GAO reported.

But during that time, the Air Force’s rate of seeking competitive bids fell from 75 percent to 59 percent.

Page 28 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

The Air Force did not publicly respond to the report, which was released Thursday, but the Air Force is looking into what happened, the GAO said.

The GAO is the investigative and accounting arm of Congress.

The Department of Defense also is taking specific steps to increase competition for contracts, the report said.

“Competition is a cornerstone of the federal acquisition system and a critical tool for achieving the best possible return on investment for taxpayers,” the GAO said in a letter accompanying the report to the House and Senate Armed Services committees.

“Competitive contracts can help save money, conserve scarce resources, improve contractor performance, curb fraud and promote accountability,” the GAO added.

Congress has already asked the GAO to do a follow-up report that will be due in March 2013, Michele Mackin, interim director of the GAO team that did the report, said Friday.

The report did not estimate how much the Air Force’s poorer rate of seeking competitive bids would have cost taxpayers. That would be difficult to determine because many different contracts were involved, including multi-year deals awarded years earlier with continuing spending obligations, Mackin said.

The report examined purchasing on a service- or department-wide basis, not base by base. Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, as the hub of Air Force acquisition and logistics, is a major awarder of contracts.

The Defense Department and Office of Management and Budget have urged all government agencies to promote competition in procuring goods and services, the GAO noted.

U.S. law generally requires federal agencies to award contracts using full and open competition.

But the law allows exceptions — that require written justification — when only one contractor is available to provide a specific service or product, or where there is an urgent need that precludes adequate time for competition.

RETURN

GLOBAL AIR, SPACE, and CYBERSPACE ENVIRONMENT

G1

Canadian Forces to pull out of some NATO programsWithdrawal from unmanned aerial vehicles, early warning planes systems could save as much as $90M a year(Ottawa Citizen, 17 Mar 12) … David Pugliesehttp://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Canadian+Forces+pull+some+NATO+programs/6319520/story.html

Page 29 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

The Canadian Forces hope to save $90 million a year by pulling out of NATO programs operating unmanned aerial vehicles as well as airborne early warning planes, according to documents obtained by the Citizen.

Defence Minister Peter MacKay gave U.S. officials a heads-up last year about the withdrawal, pointing out that it will free up 142 Canadians assigned to NATO for new jobs, the documents show.

The shutdown of Canada’s contribution to NATO’s airborne warning aircraft, known as AWACS, will save about $50 million a year, according to the records obtained under the Access to Information law. Another $40 million a year will be saved as a result of Canada’s withdrawal from NATO’s Alliance Ground Surveillance Program, which would see the purchase of advanced unmanned aerial vehicles to conduct surveillance and intelligence gathering.

Canada has been involved in NATO’s AWACS program for more than 25 years and the aircraft were seen as key to the alliance’s success during the recent war in Libya.

U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAVs as they are known in military parlance, were also used to gather intelligence information during the Libyan conflict. NATO wants to ease the strain on the U.S. UAV by having a pool of Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles at the alliance’s disposal.

Canada’s pull out from the UAV program will be done by the end of April, the Defence Department confirmed in a recent email. The withdrawal from the AWACS program is expected to take much longer.

The Canadian Forces contingent assigned to the AWACS aircraft is the last major Canadian military presence in Europe. Canada’s bases and installations there were closed decades ago and troops returned home.

Some retired air force officers have written Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s office to protest the decision to withdrawal from the AWACS program. During the Libyan war the AWACS directed fighter aircraft, co-ordinating both attacks and air-to-air refuelling operations.

The Canadian Forces newspaper Maple Leaf also highlighted the importance of AWACS in an article last year heralding how a Canadian frigate transmitted information about ground targets in Libya to a Canadian on-board a NATO AWACS. As a result Canadian CF-18s then attacked the targets.

Others, such as York University strategic studies professor Martin Shadwick, point out that the withdrawal from both programs further distances Canada from NATO.

But a spokesman for Defence Minister Peter MacKay says Canada is considered a leader in NATO because of its role in the Libyan mission and in Afghanistan.

“In tough economic times, this government believes making action-oriented decisions in support of freedom, democracy, human rights and the rule of law are more essential to NATO member states’ security than any other initiative,” Jay Paxton noted in an email when news leaked out last year about the possible withdrawal from the AWACS program.

Page 30 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

In a recent email commenting on Canada’s withdrawal from NATO’s unmanned aerial vehicle program, Paxton stated: “In difficult economic times, this government believes in making tough, action-oriented decisions that are more essential to NATO member-states’ security than any other initiative.”

That decision does not affect the Canadian military’s core capabilities, he added.

Canada temporarily leased unmanned aerial vehicles for the combat mission in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The military also hopes to purchase such equipment in the future, with such a program expected to start sometime in the summer. The Canadian Forces want to have such UAVs operating by 2017.

RETURN

G2

Tory minister says 'all options are on the table' for F-35 fighter jets(Candian Press, 17 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://www.inews880.com/Channels/Reg/CyberCorner/Story.aspx?ID=1671814

The Conservative cabinet minister in charge of buying equipment for the military says all options are on the table when it comes to the F-35 stealth fighter jets.

Associate Defence Minister Julian Fantino says the Tories have set aside $9 billion to replace the air force's aging CF-18 fighter-bombers.

He says the government has flexibility, so it can move ahead or behind in the line to buy the new aircraft, or buy more or fewer than the planned 65 planes.

The purchase price in any given year depends on how many other countries are placing orders.

But Fantino says he won't speculate on whether Canada will buy fewer than 65 F-35s.

The Conservatives say they still believe the high-tech jet is the best choice to replace the CF-18.

RETURN

G3

Air Force Procures Fighter Helicopters(Nigerian Leadership, 17 Mar 12) … Bayo Oladejihttp://leadership.ng/nga/articles/19447/2012/03/17/air_force_procures_fighter_helicopters.html

The Nigerian Air Force yesterday took delivery of two Super Puma fighter helicopters to boost its air operations as security operatives battle terrorism and related criminal activities in the country.

Speaking at the occasion held at the Presidential Wing of the Nnamdi Azikiwe International Airport, Abuja, minister of Defence, Dr. Bello Haliru Mohammed, said the re-introduction of fighter helicopters would go a long way in assisting other security agencies like the army and navy in containing the insurgency and menace of Boko Haram.

Page 31 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

In his own remark, Chief of Air Staff, Air Marshal Mohammed Dikko Umar, said the Super Puma, which is a frontline aircraft in the Nigerian Air Force inventory, was grounded for years due to the military’s unfortunate foray into politics.

The aircraft arrived the country from Romania where they had undergone periodic depot maintenance and upgrade after 6 days, 36 flying hours and 6, 500 kilometres journey,

“These aircraft that we are introducing back to our inventory are part of our dividends of democracy. The other two are still undergoing PDM and it will join up before the end of this year. With these aircraft and the support Mr. President has given to the Air Force, I can confidently say that the NAF is ready for any assignment given it, in addition to the territorial defence of the nation,” Umar said.

He pledged the unalloyed loyalty of the officers and men of the Nigerian Air Force to civil democratic rule, assuring that the NAF would assist other securit y agencies work towards containing insecurity challenges in the country.

Continuing, the minister said that apart from ensuring that NAF aircraft were brought back to air, the federal government was also looking at the possibility of building capacity in the country so that rehabilitation work could be carried out internally, with partners working closely.

RETURN

G4

T-346 Introduction Prompts Italian Air Force Training Offer(Aviation International News, 16 Mar 12) … Chris Pocockhttp://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ain-defense-perspective/2012-03-16/t-346-introduction-prompts-italian-air-force-training-offer

Italy is the latest country to offer to pool or share military pilot training with other air forces. “We have many years of experience, and were the first to introduce the practice of ‘downloading’ training from more expensive platforms,” said Col Luca Capasso, deputy chief of the T-346 program office. Alenia Aermacchi has provided the new Italian training system as a package that includes the new T-346 advanced jet trainer and all the ground-based training. The contract was signed in late 2009.

Speaking at the Military Flight Training conference organized in London by Defence IQ, Capasso reported that initial operational test and evaluation of the T-346 began earlier this month. It will last for six months and involve two aircraft flying from Pratica di Mare. Meanwhile, the full simulator will be activated at the main training base at Lecce in late May. After the instructors are trained, the first student course will start at Lecce in January 2014.

The T-346 will replace the Aermacchi MB339C in Phase IV of the Italian syllabus. The MB339C will in turn replace the older MB339A in Phase III. The MB339C has a modern cockpit, and was introduced some years ago as a lead-in fighter trainer. But the T-346 offers much better aerodynamic performance; avionics; and an embedded training system that includes simulated sensors, Capasso explained.

Page 32 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

The downloading concept should not be limited to airborne training, Capasso noted. The new Italian syllabus provides for part-task trainers and computer-based trainers to replace some time that students would otherwise have spent in the full simulator, which is more expensive to run.

The pooling of military flying training between countries is not a new idea. The best known examples are the NATO joint program with the U.S. Air Force at Sheppard AFB in Texas, and the NATO Flying Training in Canada venture. Some years ago, air chiefs from 10 European countries signed a joint requirement. But the Advanced European Jet Pilot Training scheme never gained traction.

RETURN

G5

North Korea plans to launch long-range rocket(AP, 16 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/ap-north-korea-plans-long-range-missile-launch-031612/

PYONGYANG, North Korea - North Korea announced plans Friday to blast a satellite into space on the back of a long-range rocket, a surprise move that could jeopardize a weeks-old agreement with the U.S. exchanging food aid for nuclear concessions.

The North agreed to a moratorium on long-range launches as part of the deal with Washington, but argues that satellite launches are part of a peaceful space program that is exempt from international disarmament obligations. The U.S., South Korea and other critics say the rocket technology overlaps with belligerent uses and condemn the satellite program as a disguised way of testing military missiles in defiance of a U.N. ban.

The launch is to take place three years after a similar launch in April 2009 drew widespread censure.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the announcement of the launch "highly provocative."

"Such a missile launch would pose a threat to regional security and would also be inconsistent with North Korea's recent undertaking to refrain from long-range missile launches," she said in a statement, urging Pyongyang to abide by its international obligations.

Japan urged Pyongyang to abandon the launch, calling it a violation of a U.N. resolution restricting the North's use of ballistic missile technology, and South Korea's Foreign Ministry called the plans a "grave provocation."

Liftoff will take between April 12 and 16 from a west coast launch pad in North Phyongan province, a spokesman for the Korean Committee for Space Technology said in a statement carried by state media.

He said the launch would be part of celebrations marking the April 15 centenary of the birth of North Korea's founder, Kim Il Sung.

"This is a grand event that shows off our national power," Pyongyang officer worker Choe Myong Suk told The Associated Press as rain fell in the North Korean capital Friday. "We can say that our country has proudly joined the ranks of developed countries."

Page 33 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

North Koreans often repeat official state slogans when asked their views of current events.

Pyongyang's announcement comes as North Korea's new leader, Kim Jong Un, seeks to solidify his rule of the nation of 24 million people in the wake of father Kim Jong Il's death in December.

"The window for the launch is important in terms of the domestic politics of the North," said Daniel Pinkston, an expert on North Korea's weapons programs at the International Crisis Group. He said the launch serves to underline North Korea's military capabilities and reinforce Kim's fledgling rule.

Kim Jong Il began grooming the son to take over as leader after suffering a stroke in 2008. Footage aired Friday on state-run TV showed Kim Jong Un observing the 2009 rocket launch.

Such a launch aims to reinforce unity at home by provoking new tensions that will allow its leadership to portray the country as beset by hostile forces. A third nuclear test could be next, Pinkston said.

The launch also jeopardizes the recent food aid deal with the U.S., he said.

"I can't see how the U.S. is going to deliver this food aid," he said. "I think this is going to kill it."

North Korea agreed last month to suspend uranium enrichment, place a moratorium on nuclear and long-range missile tests, and to allow back U.N. weapons inspectors in exchange for much-needed food aid. Uranium enrichment is one way to make atomic bombs. In the past North Korea has also weaponized plutonium for nuclear devices.

North Korea called the April 2009 launch a bid to send a communications satellite into space, but it was widely viewed in the West as a violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions prohibiting North Korea from engaging in nuclear and ballistic missile activity.

Shortly after the 2009 launch from an east coast station, Pyongyang declared that it would abandon six-nation negotiations on offering the North aid and concessions in exchange for nuclear disarmament. And weeks later, North Korea tested a nuclear device, the second in three years — earning the regime tightened U.N. sanctions.

Japan's Foreign Minister Koichiro Gemba said going ahead with the launch would harm peace and stability in the region. Japan has set up a crisis management task force to monitor the situation and is cooperating with the U.S. and South Korea.

North Korea is proud of its nuclear and missile programs, which it claims are necessary to protect itself against the United States, which stations more than 28,000 troops in South Korea and has more troops as well as nuclear-powered warships in the region.

"This is an event that shows how strong our self-reliant economy is," Pyongyang resident Song Jong Chol told AP. "This is the happiest of happy occasions."

North Korea and the United States fought on opposite sides of the three-year Korean War, which ended in a truce in 1953. They have never signed a peace treaty.

Page 34 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

North Korea is believed to have enough weaponized plutonium for four to eight "primitive" atomic bombs, according to scientist Siegfried Hecker of the Center for International Security and Cooperation at Stanford University. Pyongyang also announced in 2009 that it would begin enriching uranium, and revealed the facility to Hecker in November 2010.

Scientists believe North Korea is working toward building a device small enough to mount on a rocket capable of reaching the United States. The same rocket used for a satellite could be used for a long-range missile.

The North Korean space committee spokesman said a Kwangmyongsong-3 satellite designed to orbit the earth will be mounted on an Unha-3 rocket from the Sohae station in Cholsan County. He called it a "working" satellite that was an improvement over two previous "experimental" satellites.

The spokesman said North Korea would abide by international regulations governing the launch of satellites for "peaceful" scientific purposes and that an orbit was chosen to avoid showering debris on neighboring nations.

North Korea provided similar notice in 2009, but launched the rocket over Japan despite warnings from world leaders that it would set the nation on a path of isolation.

In 2009, North Korea said an experimental communications satellite mounted on a rocket was sent into space playing "Song of Gen. Kim Il Sung" and "Song of Gen. Kim Jong Il."

The U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command and South Korea's Defense Ministry said no satellite made it into orbit.

South Korea is due to host the Nuclear Security Summit in Seoul in two weeks, and North Korea's nuclear program was expected to be discussed on the sidelines of the gathering of world leaders.

Associated Press writers Kim Kwang Hyon and Pak Won Il in Pyongyang; Jean H. Lee, Stephen Wright and Sam Kim in Seoul, South Korea; and Mari Yamaguchi in Tokyo contributed to this report.

RETURN

G6

Indian Atomic Scientist Reports Laptop Theft(Global Security Newswire, 16 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://www.nti.org/gsn/article/indian-atomic-scientist-raises-alarm-after-theft-laptop/

An Indian nuclear researcher raised an alarm when his laptop, reportedly filled with critical data, was pilfered from a passenger rail car, India Blooms News Service reported on Thursday (see GSN, Jan. 13).

The scientist, who is reportedly involved with the Kaiga atomic power plant in Karnataka, demanded that train officials find his laptop and other stolen personal effects that included identifying documents.

The Thiruvananthapuram-bound train was stopped for roughly 10 minutes. Interviews with other passengers did not turn up any clues as to what happened to the stolen laptop.

Page 35 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

"The robbery took place somewhere near Vasai road railway station in Mumbai suburban. We have lodged a police complaint," rail authorities said.

Law enforcement officials have opened an investigation into the matter and began detaining potential perpetrators on Wednesday (John Edwards, India Blooms News Service, March 15).

RETURN

ITEMS OF INTEREST

I1

Air Force disciplining 2 mortuary supervisors(AP, 17 Mar 12) … Randall Chasehttp://www.heraldextra.com/news/national/air-force-disciplining-mortuary-supervisors/article_d06061cf-4ae5-5c00-b60e-3b37dbf71f23.html

DOVER, Del. -- The Air Force is disciplining the former commander of the Dover Air Force Base mortuary and a former key civilian aide after an investigation into retaliation against workers who blew the whistle on the mishandling of human remains, officials said Friday.

The U.S. Office of Special Counsel said in a report that three officials retaliated against four employees who sought to expose wrongdoing at the base that receives the remains of service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. The report concluded that the former commander of the mortuary, Col. Robert Edmondson, was the "primary force" behind most of the retaliation.

"Col. Edmondson really had it out for all of us, he really did," said James Parsons, one of the whistleblowers.

The retaliation against Parsons and the other whistleblowers, William Zwicharowski, Mary Ellen Spera and David Vance, included suspensions, threats of firing, terminations and disciplinary letters.

One of two civilian mortuary supervisors involved in the retaliation, Quinton "Randy" Keel, has resigned from the Air Force. The OSC said the Air Force has begun disciplinary procedures against Edmondson and the other former supervisor, Trevor Dean. The disciplinary action the OSC referred to is in addition to earlier censures taken against the three in the fall.

The Air Force released a statement saying disciplinary proceedings have begun, and that it expects to complete its decisions by mid to late April. It also said it is working with OSC to make appropriate corrections to the whistleblowers' records.

"The individuals who reported the allegations in this matter performed an important service to the Air Force and the nation," the statement read.

The OSC report found that Edmondson and Keel were responsible for the vast majority of the retaliation, and that, aside from one instance, Dean was generally reluctant to take adverse personnel actions.

Page 36 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Special Counsel Carolyn Lerner also said the Air Force has committed to improving its internal investigation procedures and the way it remedies whistleblower retaliation claims.

"I am pleased the Air Force has agreed to take further disciplinary action and institute training to prevent whistleblower retaliation in the future," Lerner said.

Last November, the Office of Special Counsel issued a report accusing the mortuary supervisors of "gross mismanagement" at the Dover facility, where small body parts of U.S. troops killed in Afghanistan were lost on two occasions.

The Air Force said at the time that it took disciplinary action against, but did not fire, the former mortuary supervisors. Edmondson was given a letter of reprimand, denied a job commanding a unit at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., and barred from future command assignments. Dean and Keel took a cut in pay and were moved to nonsupervisory jobs at Dover.

The OSC report found that the retaliation against the whistleblowers took place in a pressure-packed environment overseen by a "forceful, autocratic" Edmondson, who believed in a strict chain of command and told OSC investigators that he considered Zwicharowski, who had served as the mortuary supervisor before Edmondson arrived at the base, as an "antagonist," "agitator," and "non-conformist."

"In context, these are synonyms for "whistleblower," the OSC report said

"There is compelling documentary and testimonial evidence demonstrating Colonel Edmondson's significant role in the actions at issue and his strong motive to retaliate," the report found.

OSC investigators noted an Air Force attorney who reviewed the proposed termination of Zwicharowski concluded in a memorandum that "it is almost certain that any reviewing authority would conclude any such discipline was reprisal/retaliation."

Zwicharowski did not immediately return a telephone message Friday.

Meanwhile, Parsons noted with a touch of irony that Zwicharowski has been participating in an online course regarding training to prevent whistleblower retaliation.

"We're part of the curriculum," Parsons said.

RETURN

I2

SOCOM seeks down time for special operators(Navy Times, 17 Mar 12) … Michelle Tanhttp://www.navytimes.com/news/2012/03/navy-socom-down-time-seals-special-operators-031712w/

SEALs and other special operations forces could soon enjoy more time at home with their families as part of a sweeping effort to take care of and preserve a joint force that has shouldered a relentless operational tempo over the last decade of war.

Page 37 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

These troops have been turning and burning for the last 10 years. Many are deployed more than they’re home, leaving for six or seven months at a time with shorter periods between tours.

The move is being undertaken by U.S. Special Operations Command’s Preservation of the Force and Families Task Force, which was formed after former SOCOM commander Adm. Eric Olson sent a team to talk to troops and their families about the state of the 66,000-strong special operations community. In addition to SEALs, the community includes Army Rangers, Special Forces and aviators; Air Force pararescuemen and combat controllers; and Marine special operators.

Findings from the “sensing session” came back to SOCOM leaders as current commander Adm. William McRaven took over for Olson.

“Preservation of the force is a much more holistic look because it encompasses training opportunities, education opportunities, and all the things that keep the special operations force intact,” said Army Command Sgt. Maj. Chris Faris, SOCOM’s senior enlisted service member. “This isn’t about a higher quality of life. This is about trying to find those aspects of our service members’ lives that are lacking quality and trying to do what we can to instill quality in their lives.”

The task force’s work is critical as special operations forces are expected to continue playing a key role around the world even as the military draws down its troops from Afghanistan.

“Since 9/11, we have doubled in size, our budget has tripled, and the number of deployed special operations forces has quadrupled,” McRaven said during testimony March 6 in front of the Senate Armed Services Committee. “It is clear the demand for special operations capability will remain high.”

SOCOM has forces in 78 countries, and it will be necessary for the force and their families to remain strong, McRaven said.

“A decade of war … has exerted a physical and emotional stress on our force and their families,” McRaven said. “I am committed to … the preservation of the force and their families. The demands on special operations forces will not end in the foreseeable future. We will continue to sustain a world-class special operations capability.”

The Pressure on the Force and Families Task Force — the group’s original name — began surveying troops and their families in October 2010.

The feedback senior SOCOM leaders received came from more than 400 focus groups that consisted of more than 7,000 service members and more than 1,000 spouses from 55 different special operations units at home and overseas.

Their concerns, Faris said, boiled down to three major themes: predictability, resilience and communication.

More time at home

The Defense Department measures a service member’s time at home based on combat deployments, and the guidelines call for a service member to get at least one day at home for every day he is deployed, or a 1-to-1 dwell-to-boots-on-the-ground ratio, Faris said.

Page 38 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

“That only accounts for your overseas deployments,” he said. “If you’re going to go to Afghanistan or some place like that, those are very predictable. The force knows when they’re going into theater. We have a lot of commitments outside the combat zones, and we also have commitments here in the U.S. for training. All that training time means they’re not placing their heads on their own pillows at night.”

Across special operations, the current average is about six months at home for every seven-month deployment.

To give troops more time at home, the task force is looking to measure dwell time using a personnel tempo system versus simple BOG-to-dwell, Faris said.

The task force is still in the “formative phases” of the personnel tempo policy, Faris said.

“We’ve got to look at the training cycles and the deployment cycles; are we going to do it for a 12-month period in terms of measurement or a 24-month period,” he said. “The thing we’re trying to fix is to give more predictability; that it’s not an immediate turn and burn.”

The issue of predictability becomes increasingly important after 10 years of war, Faris said.

Increasing the force’s resilience has been critical to retaining the highly trained and skilled troops, he said, and now the task force wants to also focus on resilience training for families.

“This is 11 years that this force has been at it, and what we’re starting to get back from the families was … ‘the resiliency training was really designed for [the service member], and as we go into 11 years of supporting my spouse and this war, I’ve got my own issues — where’s my own resiliency training?’” he said. “We’re having to look at how do we focus something very specific to the families and their needs, something that’s not just in the context of their military spouse.”

In terms of communication, that effort also is predominantly focused on the families, Faris said.

“There are a great many programs to help them, but we’re not doing a very good job as a force communicating what those programs are,” he said. “You would almost take for granted that they would know these things, but we’re a bit guilty in assuming that. As [Adm. McRaven] and I traveled around, the message was received loud and clear. We’ve got to communicate with them about what is available.”

As a first step, the task force will unveil a Facebook page to better reach service members’ families, Faris said. The goal is to have the page up by the end of March.

The task force is studying other initiatives, including standing up interdisciplinary teams at bases that are home to special operations forces.

These teams would offer everything from social workers to chaplains in one place, giving service members a one-stop shop for whatever they need, Faris said.

“A lot of times, if you need help and you’ve got to work too hard at it, you just don’t go,” he said. “One of the things we have to overcome in our culture is a stigma that’s placed on people through peer pressure or whatever the case might be that seeking help is bad.”

Page 39 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

Faris said he and other senior SOCOM leaders are working to remove the stigma against getting help.

“SOF has this myth about it, that they’re not supposed to have any chinks in their armor, but at the end of the day, that’s an absolute fallacy,” he said. “You’re still a human being, and a human being can only have X amount of capability for coping with the things going on in their lives, especially as we enter the 11th year of war.”

RETURN

I3

2 US officials face disciplinary action over war dead scandal(Reuters, 17 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://www.omantribune.com/index.php?page=news&id=114607&heading=Americas

WASHINGTON Two supervisors at the Delaware mortuary for US war dead are facing disciplinary action for engaging in a “campaign of retaliation” against whistle-blowers whose revelations of wrongdoing caused a major scandal at the Air Force facility, officials said late on Friday.

A third supervisor involved in the case - former mortuary director Quinton Randall Keel - resigned from the Air Force this month in the wake of a scandal over the mishandling of some war dead remains, including some that were disposed of in a landfill.

“Disciplinary proceedings have been initiated and we expect to have all decisions complete by mid- to late-April,” Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said in a statement. “The Air Force will not tolerate wrongdoing, especially prohibited personnel practices, by employees.”

“OSC’s investigation uncovered willful, concerted acts of retaliation that necessitate disciplinary action,” the office said in an investigative report released late on Friday.

In addition to action against Keel, the Office of Special Counsel also recommended disciplinary proceedings against Colonel Robert Edmondson, commander of the mortuary affairs operations, and Trevor Dean, the former deputy director, for their role in punishing whistle-blowers.

The report said supervisors took a variety of punitive actions against the suspected whistle-blowers, from passing them over for permanent jobs or overtime, to putting disciplinary records containing personal information on a shared computer drive in violation of privacy rights.

An investigation report released last year found gross mismanagement at the mortuary located at Dover Air Force Base, including losing body parts on two occasions and sending partial remains of at least 274 troops to a Virginia dump.

Earlier this year, a separate investigation by the US Office of Special Counsel concluded that three supervisors at the Dover Port Mortuary had wrongfully punished four suspected whistle-blowers who helped bring to light mishandling of remains.

RETURN

Page 40 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

I4

Air Force to further discipline former supervisors in Dover mortuary controversy(Washington Post, 16 Mar 12) … Craig Whitlockhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/world/national-security/air-force-to-discipline-former-supervisors-in-dover-mortuary-scandal/2012/03/16/gIQAVxmLHS_story.html

The Air Force said Friday it will impose harsher penalties on the former commander and chief deputy of the Dover Air Force Base mortuary after a federal probe found they retaliated against subordinates for reporting systematic problems there, including cases in which body parts were lost.

The Air Force declined to specify what action it will take against Col. Robert Edmondson, the former commander, and his civilian deputy, Trevor Dean, saying only that it had begun disciplinary proceedings that will last into next month. Previously, Edmondson had been issued a letter of reprimand; Dean had been placed in a lesser, non-supervisory position.

The announcement was made in response to an investigation by the Office of Special Counsel, an independent federal agency that protects whistleblowers. The probe found that Edmondson, Dean and another supervisor had provided phony reasons to fire or punish four mortuary workers who had exposed problems there.

Two of the Dover whistleblowers were terminated in 2010 for allegedly watching an X-rated movie at the mortuary, according to the Office of Special Counsel’s report, which was made public Friday. The investigation determined that the film was an R-rated cop flick — “Brooklyn’s Finest,” starring Richard Gere and Ethan Hawke — and that movie-watching was officially encouraged during employee breaks as a way to reduce stress.

The firings came shortly after the two whistleblowers protested an order to saw off the fused arm bone of a dead Marine so he could fit in his dress uniform and casket. One of them, James G. Parsons Sr., an embalming technician, filed complaints about the incident, saying it amounted to mutilation.

“This has probably been the worst two years of my life,” Parsons said in an interview Friday. His firing was overturned after the Office of Special Counsel intervened on his behalf. He said that he was pleased the Air Force had decided to discipline his former bosses, but that he was “anxious to see” their final punishment and whether it sticks.

He blamed Edmondson for most of the problems. “This was his little island, and I don’t think there was much oversight,” Parsons said. “I think that had a lot to do with what happened.”

Edmondson, who is assigned to the Pentagon, did not respond to an e-mail or an interview request placed with Air Force officials. The Office of Special Counsel report concluded that he was the “primary force” behind the effort to retaliate against the whistleblowers.

The Office of Special Counsel said Edmondson wrongly tried to fire another whistleblower, William D. Zwicharowski, in 2010, even though a senior Air Force lawyer warned there was no basis for him to be fired.

Page 41 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

The lawyer, whose identity was redacted from the Office of Special Counsel report, said the infractions in question were exceedingly minor and “didn’t pass the smell test.” He also said he was “flabbergasted” when another Air Force official admitted that mortuary supervisors were looking for reasons to “get rid of” Zwicharowski because he had filed whistleblower complaints.

Zwicharowski was placed on leave for several months but ultimately was allowed to return to work. In an interview Friday, he credited the Air Force lawyer and the Office of Special Counsel for saving his job. He said that when he filed a grievance about a suspension he was given in 2009, other Air Force officials at the Pentagon “literally laughed at me. No one was listening.”

The leadership of the Air Force has taken heat for months from lawmakers and veterans groups for not firing Edmondson and Dean despite evidence that they and another supervisor were responsible for “gross mismanagement” at the mortuary that handles America’s war dead. Dean declined to comment for this article.

Another supervisor at the Delaware mortuary, Quinton “Randy” Keel, was demoted but given another job at Dover; he resigned late last month.

Angry lawmakers called the actions a slap on the wrist. Defense Secretary Leon E. Panetta ordered Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley to reconsider whether stronger punishment was warranted. Upon review, Donley upheld his January decision but reopened the case last month at the request of the Office of Special Counsel.

“The Air Force will not tolerate wrongdoing, especially prohibited personnel practices,” Donley said in a statement Friday. “We are committed to a workplace climate that makes individuals feel confident that they can raise any concerns they may have.”

RETURN

I5

Lawyer to visit Bales at Leavenworth(AP, 18 Mar 12) … Gene Johnsonhttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/ap-lawyer-to-visit-bales-at-leavenworth-031812/

SEATTLE - With formal charges looming against his client within days, the lawyer for an Army sergeant suspected in the horrific nighttime slaughter of 16 Afghan villagers was flying Sunday to Kansas and preparing for his first face-to-face meeting with the 10-year veteran.

John Henry Browne of Seattle said he planned to meet Monday with Army Staff Sgt. Robert Bales, who is being held in an isolated cell at Fort Leavenworth’s military prison.

Bales, 38, hasn’t been charged in the March 11 shootings, which have endangered relations between the U.S. and Afghanistan and threaten to upend U.S. policy over the decade-old war. But formal charges are expected to be filed within a week and if the case goes to court the trial will be held in the United States, said a legal expert with the U.S. military familiar with the investigation.

Page 42 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

That expert said charges were still being decided and that the location for any trial had not yet been determined. If the suspect is brought to trial, it is possible that Afghan witnesses and victims would be flown to the United States to participate, he said.

Military lawyers say once attorneys involved in the initial investigation of an alleged crime involving a service member have what they believe to be a solid understanding of what happened and are satisfied with the evidence collected, they draft charges and present them to a commander. That person then makes a judgment on whether there is probable cause to believe that an offense was committed and that the accused committed it.

That commander then “prefers” the charges to a convening authority, who typically is the commander of the brigade to which the accused is assigned but could be of higher rank.

Bales’ defense team said in a statement late Saturday that “it is too early to determine what factors may have played into this incident and the defense team looks forward to reviewing the evidence, examining all of Sergeant Bales’ medical and personnel records, and interviewing witnesses.”

The lawyers’ statement also said that Bales’ family was “stunned in the face of this tragedy, but they stand behind the man they know as a devoted husband, father and dedicated member of the armed services.”

Military officials have said that Bales, after drinking on a southern Afghanistan base, crept away March 11 to two slumbering villages overnight, shooting his victims and setting many of them on fire. Nine of the 16 killed were children and 11 belonged to one family.

Court records and interviews in recent days have revealed that Bales had a string of commendations for good conduct after four tours in Iraq and Afghanistan. But he also faced a number of troubles in recent years: a Florida investment job went sour, his Seattle-area home was condemned as he struggled to make payments on another, and he failed to get a recent promotion.

Legal troubles included charges that he assaulted a girlfriend and, in a hit-and run accident, ran bleeding in military clothes into the woods, court records show. He told police he fell asleep at the wheel and paid a fine to get the charges dismissed, the records show.

Browne, 65, has represented clients ranging from serial killer Ted Bundy to Colton Harris-Moore, known as the “Barefoot Bandit.” He has said he has only handled three or four military cases. Bales will also have at least one military lawyer.

Tall and stylish, Browne has been a prominent figure in Washington state legal circles since the 1970s, known equally for his zeal in representing his clients and his flair before television cameras.

Also contributing were Associated Press writers Manuel Valdes in Seattle and Deb Riechmann in Kabul, Afghanistan.

RETURN

I6

U.S. Navy Brass: No Technical Fixes to Avoid Ambiguous Missile LaunchesPage 43 of 48

SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

(Global Security Newswire, 16 Mar 12) … Elaine M. Grossmanhttp://www.nti.org/gsn/article/us-navy-brass-no-technical-fixes-avoid-ambiguous-ballistic-missile-launches/

WASHINGTON -- No technical solutions exist that could alone prevent other major world powers from misinterpreting the launch of a U.S. conventional ballistic missile from a submarine as the onset of a nuclear war, the nation’s top Navy officer said on Friday (see GSN, Jan. 27).

“I can see and I understand, as written,” lawmaker concerns about the potential for this sort of strategic ambiguity, Adm. Jonathan Greenert, the chief of naval operations, told reporters at a question-and-answer session. He said any resolution of these concerns would have to involve diplomatic engagement with Washington’s potential nuclear-weapon adversaries.

Worries that a future Russia or China might respond to a misinterpreted missile launch with a catastrophic atomic salvo have led Congress to repeatedly prohibit the Navy from fielding a conventional version of its nuclear-armed Trident D-5 missile aboard Ohio-class submarines (see GSN, Sept. 22, 2010).

The Defense Department early this year announced that it had asked the Navy to design a new, intermediate-range ballistic missile for so-called conventional “prompt global strike” missions from future Virginia-class attack submarines. The idea is to develop the capability to attack an enemy anywhere around the world on just one hour’s notice, without resorting to nuclear war.

“The question then is, so how do we assure” it would not create instability during a crisis, said Greenert, who rose to his service’s top uniformed post last September. “That is probably beyond technical; it’s now how is our policy, our understanding, and the protocols with the country [detecting a launch], such that we could be convincing of that.”

The Navy official added that such foreign policy and diplomatic issues are beyond his area of expertise.

Greenert’s comments diverge somewhat from assertions on the matter made recently by Gen. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The Army general said that by giving the new conventional missile a flight profile that could be distinguished quickly from a nuclear-armed Trident launch, a nuclear response based on miscalculation could be averted.

Compared to the earlier Trident missile-based concept, “the technology and therefore the trajectory that would be required to deliver it” would be different for the medium-range missile now on the drawing boards, Dempsey told reporters at a Jan. 26 press conference. “There's [also] the speed at which these delivery systems can move.”

He added: “You can lower the trajectory and therefore avoid the confusion you're talking about in terms of it being mistaken for an ICBM with a nuclear warhead.” Dempsey did not address diplomatic dimensions of such a military operation.

Critics were immediately skeptical of Dempsey’s remarks, arguing that the unprecedented fielding of a ballistic missile on a stealthy attack submarine would do little to address unease about potential adversaries becoming confused in the heat of crisis.

Page 44 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

“Even a conventional intermediate-range ballistic missile launched from a converted Virginia-class attack submarine could be misinterpreted because its compressed trajectory would look much like a nuclear D-5 launched in a compressed trajectory as part of a first strike,” atomic weapons expert Hans Kristensen of the Federation of American Scientists said at the time.

Speaking on Friday, Greenert also divulged more about the potential modifications required for the Virginia-class submarines to accommodate a ballistic missile than his service had done to date.

“A step in that direction will be to put the new payload tube that you see in the Block 3” attack submarines authorized for Navy procurement in fiscal 2009 through 2013, the service chief said, noting that the missile’s development is “in the very rudimentary stages” and “more conceptual than specific.”

The Navy is currently buying Virginia-class attack vessels at a rate of two per year, with incremental upgrades to the submarine’s design expected on each new procurement “block.” Eight Block 3 submarines, beginning with the 11th Virginia-class hull, will include new wide-diameter launch tubes. The design for next set of boats in the series, Block 4, has not yet been finalized.

In the Block 3 vessels, each of two new launch tubes would initially be able to accommodate six Tomahawk conventional cruise missiles, replacing 12 narrow vertical launch tubes for the same number of Tomahawks aboard earlier versions of the submarine.

These new launch tubes, located on the submarine bow, could alternatively accommodate one -- and maybe more -- of the new medium-range ballistic missiles, defense sources have told Global Security Newswire. This configuration could permit a total of two or possibly more ballistic missiles in each modified submarine.

The new launch tubes will each have an 87-inch diameter, Greenert said.

“That kind of size … that’s your start for at least capacity to put a [ballistic] missile the size that you’re talking about, to get the range for that,” he said.

“In the follow-on, it’s within our budget, we have the ‘Virginia payload module,’” Greenert went on to say. “[It’s] a similar capability, only you can get seven now because you’re aft of the sail. But just the configuration of the hull allows you to get that seventh one in the middle, [with] six on the outside.”

“So it’s the development of that,” Greenert said, “that I think could perhaps -- and we’re really in the early conceptual stages of that -- lead to a conventional strike payload.”

The admiral said it was too early to know how many medium-range ballistic missiles would fit in each of the new launch canisters.

“If technology brings a very dense rocket propellant such that you can really get great range, then maybe you do get more than one,” Greenert said. “It’s really about the technology and the range that will be necessary for when we define that ballistic missile, should we define it.”

The “first step” would be to ask, “Do you have anything this could get in? Yes, no, maybe so,” he said. “This tube might be it.”

Page 45 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

The chief of naval operations came close to ruling out that the new Virginia payload modules would be built large enough to house a Trident D-5 missile, an idea that some have proposed as a potentially cheaper alternative to building from scratch a replacement for today’s aging Ohio-class nuclear-armed ballistic missile submarines.

Upon launch, today’s D-5 missiles -- as opposed to some future version that might be developed -- “are ejected from the tube, they burst through the water, they ignite,” Greenert said. “And so that gas generator, that entire launching system, that’s pretty big.”

A missile “of that capacity” would “clobber just about everything else you have in the Virginia class as we now know it,” he said.

The only way around that design challenge would be to extend the body of the existing attack submarine, “and now you’re into the hydrodynamics on a new module [for] an extended Virginia-class [submarine],” he said. “A Trident D-5 is likely too big.”

RETURN

I7

Air Force to increase testing for Spice(Stars and Stripes, 19 Mar 12) … Travis Trittenhttp://www.stripes.com/news/air-force/air-force-to-increase-testing-for-spice-1.172031

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — The Air Force can now screen up to 3,000 airmen per month for synthetic marijuana, a significant increase over previous testing abilities, thanks to new drug testing equipment that came online this month.

The equipment is the latest breakthrough in the campaign against the group of drugs known as Spice, which have become pervasive in the military and led to hundreds of courts-martial and separations, and been at the center of scandals at military academies. The Air Force can now run 100 times more drug tests for Spice than the office of the Armed Forces Medical Examiner, which handles most testing across the military, and screens up to 30 samples per month for each branch.

Still, the new measure will not let the military randomly conduct urine testing for Spice — a method that has kept drugs such as marijuana and cocaine in check for years.

For now, the Air Force urine screening will be done on demand, and the service will “continue to provide testing for command-directed urinalysis and unit, dorm and gate sweeps,” Air Force spokesman Todd Spitler said in a released statement.

The Air Force spent $480,000 for two specialized machines that can detect metabolites in the urine of Spice users, according to the service. The service said it also hired two forensic toxicologists and will hire five laboratory technicians to work specifically on the testing.

Spice is the commercial name associated with various synthetic marijuana-like drugs that have recently swept through the United States and the rest of the world. The drugs are sprayed onto dried herbs that resemble marijuana and give a euphoric high when smoked. But the compounds also can cause panic attacks, hallucinations, vomiting and bouts of anger, according to the Air Force.

Page 46 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

The military, the federal government and dozens of states have banned the sale, possession and use of Spice. But identifying and testing for the drugs has become a challenge because underground laboratories are quickly developing new chemical recipes, according to a report by The Washington Post.

Spitler said the Air Force will be able to test for any variants.

“The instruments being used to detect for synthetic cannabinoids are able to test for several hundred compounds at once,” according to Spitler. “By staying on top of the data identifying which compounds are in the current Spice formulas, the laboratories are able to adapt the testing to look for the new drugs as they are introduced.”

The testing will likely be a valuable tool as the Air Force punishes users. So far, the lack of widespread urine testing has caused the military to rely mostly on admissions of guilt or possession of the leafy substances for administrative actions and courts-martial. Only two of the 108 airmen convicted of using Spice by courts-martial last year were prosecuted using urine samples, the Air Force said.

At Kadena Air Base on Okinawa, leaders say the new testing will help deter airmen from using such dangerous drugs.

“Bottom line: Every Airman is now potentially subject to urinalysis testing for Spice,” Brig. Gen. Matthew H. Milloy, 18th Wing commander, said in a prepared statement. “Kadena is actively and aggressively seeking to bring this added testing capability on line immediately as an added arrow in the quiver in the war against drugs.”

Last year, the Air Force was the first service to announce urine testing for synthetic marijuana, but the other services are also interested in widening the net to catch Spice users.

“The Army is a key partner in Department of Defense efforts to develop an accurate and economically viable [randomized] test for Spice,” Hank Minitrez, an Army spokesman, wrote in a statement to Stars and Stripes.

DOD labs test millions of urine samples each year, including at least one random screening of each servicemember to detect illegal substances such as marijuana, cocaine, LSD and amphetamines. According to an analysis by Tricare, the department performed more than 4.6 million tests in 2008.

But no random test has yet been devised for the various compounds known as Spice.

The Navy plans to conduct random testing when the sea service finalizes the testing procedure.

"Spice. I wouldn’t use it if I were you," Chief of Naval Operations Adm. Jonathan W. Greenert told a group of sailors during an all-hands forum while visiting Naples, Italy, in February.

"We’re going to be able to do random testing very soon, and it’s reputable and it’s defendable and it’s coming close to exactly the way we do urinalysis on regular drugs, if you will. … I’d get out of it as soon as possible because we’re coming after it."

Page 47 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12

The Army Forensic Drug Testing Lab is working with the National Institute on Drug Abuse, a public institution, to develop the science to bring Spice into the DOD testing regimen, Minitrez said.

Research began this month and if successful, could put a cap on use of the synthetic drugs. Randomized testing and other anti-drug efforts have brought substance abuse down to less than 2 percent of active-duty servicemembers in recent years, compared to as much as 42 percent during the Vietnam War, according to Tricare.

RETURN

END OF FULL TEXT

Page 48 of 48SAF/PAX | safpa.ra@pentagon.af.mil | 703.571.3457 | 19 Mar 12