[Ryan Robertson]
EVERYTHING OLD IS NEW AGAIN. FROM REFORGER (Re-forger) TO REFORPAC (Re-for-Pac), THE AIR FORCE DUSTS OFF A DECADE-OLD EXERCISE AND REFORMATS IT FOR THE PACIFIC. WE’LL TALK ABOUT IT.
AND SOLVING PROBLEMS AT THE TACTICAL EDGE. SEE HOW THIS VIRGINIA-BASED COMPANY IS ENABLING SOLDIERS, SAILORS, AIRMEN, AND MARINES TO 3-D PRINT SOLUTIONS TO COUNTLESS PROBLEMS IN THE BATTLE SPACE.
HEY FOLKS AND WELCOME TO WEAPONS AND WARFARE, FOR STRAIGHT ARROW NEWS, I’M YOUR HOST, RYAN ROBERTSON. THOSE STORIES AND MORE ARE JUST AHEAD ON THIS WEEK’S EPISODE, BUT WE’RE STARTING WITH AN EYE ON THE FUTURE.
SPECIFICALLY, THE AIR FORCE’S VISION FOR THE F-47, THE COLLABORATIVE COMBAT AIRCRAFT, AND THEIR ROLES IN MAINTAINING AIR DOMINANCE. IT’S THE SUBJECT OF THIS WEEK’S DEBRIEF.
LOOK AT ANY MODERN MILITARY SUCCESS THE UNITED STATES HAS ACHIEVED SINCE WORLD WAR II, AND A FEW THEMES EMERGE. ONE OF THE MOST PROMINENT IS AIR DOMINANCE.
CREATED AS ITS OWN BRANCH OF SERVICE IN 1947, THE AIR FORCE PLAYED A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN AMERICA’S DEFENSE FOR NEARLY EIGHT DECADES. SO WHAT DO THE NEXT 77 YEARS LOOK LIKE?
TO BEGIN TO ANSWER THAT QUESTION, THE AIR FORCE’S DIRECTOR OF FORCE DESIGN, INTEGRATION, AND WAR GAMING, MAJOR GENERAL JOE KUNKEL, SAT DOWN TO TALK ABOUT THE F-47, COLLABORATIVE COMBAT AIRCRAFT, AND AMERICAN AIR DOMINANCE IN THE 21ST CENTURY. HE SAYS AFTER MORE THAN THREE DECADES OF FOCUSING ON THE MIDDLE EAST, THE AIR FORCE IS TAKING A VERY HARD LOOK AT ITSELF. COMPARING IT TO THE END OF VIETNAM, AND THE START OF THE COLD WAR.
[Maj Gen Joe Kunkel, Dir. of Force Design Integration, War Gaming, USAF]
“We’re looking at it going, ‘Wow, we’re probably not the right size. We’re probably not the right shape for this fight that we might have to fight against a different peer adversary.’ And so this force design has taken a different look. It’s just like in the past. We’re taking a look at the threat, and we’re looking at how the threat impacts us, and we’re designing to that.”
[Ryan Robertson]
PART OF THAT DESIGN IS LEANING HEAVILY INTO DEVELOPING THE F-47.
BORN FROM THE NEXT GENERATION AIR DOMINANCE PROGRAM, THE BOEING DESIGNED JET WILL BE AMERICA’S FIRST SIXTH-GENERATION AIR SUPERIORITY FIGHTER. BUT IT’S NOT WITHOUT SOME CONTROVERSY.
FRANK KENDALL, THE SECRETARY OF THE AIR FORCE DURING THE BIDEN ADMINISTRATION, PUBLICLY QUESTIONED THE EFFORT, CITING COST, THE EVENTUAL ADDITION OF CCAs TO THE FORCE, AND UNTAPPED POTENTIAL IN THE CURRENT F-35 FLEET.
THAT’S NOT A VIEW SHARED BY GENERAL KUNKEL.
[Maj Gen Joe Kunkel, Dir. of Force Design Integration, War Gaming, USAF]“The F-47, the NGAD, before we called it, the F-47, the F-47 absolutely does matter and changes the character of the fight. I mean, it does. It doesn’t change the character of the fight just for the Air Force. It changes it for the joint force. You know, it allows us to get places. Allows the joint force to get places where it otherwise couldn’t. It allows us to move closer to the adversary. It allows us to counter the adversary in ways we can’t.”
[Ryan Robertson]
WITH AN EXPECTED COMBAT RADIUS OF MORE THAN 1,100 MILES AND A TOP SPEED ABOVE MACH 2, THE F-47 IS EXPECTED TO ENTER SERVICE SOMETIME BEFORE 2029.
THAT’S AROUND THE SAME TIME AS THE COLLABORATIVE COMBAT AIRCRAFT. ALSO KNOWN AS THE CCA, IS EXPECTED TO FLY INTO SERVICE. THESE UNMANNED MACHINES ARE SEEN AS ONE OF THE KEY NEXT STEPS IN THE DOD’S EFFORTS TO MODERNIZE THE NATION’S DEFENSE.
[Maj Gen Joe Kunkel, Dir. of Force Design Integration, War Gaming, USAF]
“What CCA does in the fight, it’s twofold. One, it provides affordable mass, but the other thing it does is it complicates the picture for an adversary. And you know, as a as an air to air guy, we all know that the easiest picture is this single axis, single azimuth. You know picture right that the fight. You know that everyone’s coming right at you, and it’s like, okay, hey, diddle, diddle at the middle, we can take this on. What’s more complex and harder fight is this multi access, dense threat environment, and with CCA is we have the opportunity to do that. ”
[Ryan Robertson]
THIS PAST MARCH, THE AIR FORCE NARROWED THE LIST OF POTENTIAL BUILDERS FOR THE PROJECT, DOWN TO TWO: GENERAL ATOMICS, AND ANDURIL.
GROUND TESTING FOR THE INITIAL PROTOTYPES, THE Y-F-Q-42-A AND Y-F-Q-44-A, STARTED IN MAY, WITH THE FIRST FLIGHTS ANTICIPATED SOME TIME THIS SUMMER. THE AIR FORCE INTENDS TO REACH A PRODUCTION DECISION FOR INCREMENT 1 OF THE PROGRAM A LITTLE LESS THAN A YEAR FROM NOW. ULTIMATELY, GENERAL KUNKEL SEES THE CCA AS NOT ONLY A FORCE MULTIPLIER, BUT A FORCE ENHANCER.
[Maj Gen Joe Kunkel, Dir. of Force Design Integration, War Gaming, USAF]
“CCA integration with F-47 makes the F-47 better. CCA integration with F-35, F-22, I would suggest, potentially in the future of B-21, and maybe just CCA on its own, complicates the adversary picture, puts us in a better position where it makes the fight better for all of us.”
[Ryan Robertson]
WHILE MUCH OF THE AIR FORCE’S PLANNING IS FOCUSED ON YEARS DOWN THE ROAD, KUNKEL SAYS THEY ARE PAYING ATTENTION TO WHAT’S HAPPENING AROUND THE WORLD RIGHT NOW. CITING EXAMPLES OF CURRENT CONFLICTS IN UKRAINE AND THE MIDDLE EAST. ACKNOWLEDGING THAT BIGGER MAY NOT BE BETTER WHEN IT COMES TO NEUTRALIZING THREATS.
[Maj Gen Joe Kunkel, Dir. of Force Design Integration, War Gaming, USAF]
“If we’re shooting multi-million dollar missiles against, you know, multi $1,000 drones, we’re in this cost imposition that doesn’t make sense for us. And we’ve been pursuing cheaper weapons in a mix of, you know, affordable mass for a long time. But that that just it was one more example where it’s like, hey, this this affordable mass. There’s something to it. We need to figure out how to do it so we don’t find ourselves on, you know, depleting weapons when, when, frankly, we don’t need to.”
[Ryan Robertson]
ONE THING THE AIR FORCE IS VERY AWARE OF IS THE TRADITIONAL THINKING ABOUT WHAT AIR SUPERIORITY LOOKS LIKE, AND HOW THAT’S LIKELY TO CHANGE AS PROGRAMS LIKE THE B-21, CCA, AND F-47 COME ONLINE.
[Maj Gen Joe Kunkel, Dir. of Force Design Integration, War Gaming, USAF]
“There’s probably places where there’s mutual air denial, where where no one’s no one has air superiority, but we’re denying the air domain to the adversary. And I think you know, in some of these cases, that may be perfectly acceptable, where we don’t have, like this dominating presence all the time, over over. We’re not trying to take over a plot of air, but we’re certainly trying to deny it from the adversary and deny its use. Now, is that your superiority? I don’t know. I tend to think it is, but it may not be. You know, the traditional definition that we’ve had.”
[Ryan Robertson]
GENERAL KUNKEL WENT ON TO SAY THAT THE WAY THE AIR FORCE BUILDS ITS ARSENAL IS CHANGING. MOVING FROM A THIS FIGHTER, OR THIS BOMBER, MINDSET, TO ONE OF THIS SYSTEM, OR THAT SYSTEM. A TOTAL INTEGRATION OF FIGHTERS, BOMBERS, AIR REFUELERS, HYPERSONICS, AND UNMANNED AIRCRAFT JUST TO NAME A FEW.
[Maj Gen Joe Kunkel, Dir. of Force Design Integration, War Gaming, USAF]
“You know, we are on the verge of something great. We’ve got the right people in place to develop the right capabilities. We figured out what it takes to win, and we are aggressively pursuing those things.”
