KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — Time is moving fast for the two loadmasters in the cargo hold of the MC-130H.

They’ve got 10 minutes before a group of about 40 special operators parachute from the aircraft, and there’s a lot to coordinate before then with the jumpmaster and the plane’s navigator — from wind speed and heading to drop location.

After what seems like mere moments, the green light comes on, and the paratroopers are given the OK to jump from the cargo bay.

For the MC-130H and MC-130J crews at Kadena Air Base in Japan, that’s just another training mission — one that Tech Sgt. Adrian Garcia, an MC-130H loadmaster with the 353rd Special Operations Group, helped complete days before speaking to Defense News in February.

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On a normal workday, “we can be doing anything, going from working with our joint partners in the Pacific to just moving cargo from here into another country,” Garcia said.

But there may come a time when they are called in to actually insert special operators into a war zone, refuel a CV-22 or extract troops from combat, and so they’ve got to keep all their skills sharp.

The 353rd SOG at Kadena operates six MC-130J Commando IIs and four MC-130H Combat Talon IIs. Both are multirole versions of the C-130 Hercules outfitted with gear that enables special operators to conduct a variety of clandestine missions.

Bringing supplies or troops in or out of a war zone may sound like a simple task, but there are a lot of moving parts.

During a flight, every MC-130H is staffed with a seven-person crew to ensure that work gets done: a pilot, copilot, flight engineer, navigator, electronic warfare officer and two loadmasters. The newer MC-130J requires less manpower, operating with a crew of five in which the roles of flight engineer, navigator and electronic warfare officer are condensed into one weapons systems officer position.

The main external difference between the MC-130J, which the Air Force is currently procuring, and the older MC-130H is the engines. The Commando II flies with four Rolls-Royce AE 2100D3 turboprop engines that provide a quarter more power than the Allison T56-A-15s on the Combat Talon, giving it more range and payload capacity.

But inside, there are significant differences. The MC-130H is equipped with analog mission systems that necessitate a separate navigator, EW officer and flight mechanic.

“I’m looking at where we need to go, what time we need to get there, how much fuel we’re going to need to get there, what sort of equipment we’re going to be potentially airdropping,” said Capt. Megan Moulton, an MC-130H Combat Talon navigator from the 353rd. “Are we going to be landing in a field and dropping it off? The flow of the mission, that’s what I’m responsible for.”

During a mission, a navigator will keep an eye on GPS, the infrared sensor, the radar and old-fashioned charts and maps, correlating them and changing the route as needed to ensure the aircraft can get where it needs to go.

“Pretty much every time we fly, maybe we have weather or something like that, we’ll have to change our navigation to a different location,” she said. “That’s really what I’m there for, is for that dynamic piece.”

Both MC-130 variants are equipped with an extensive electronic warfare suite that allows the aircraft to move without being detected, but the operators declined to say much about specific EW capabilities. When otherwise not engaged, EW officers can help assist the other crew.

“If I’m starting to get bogged down with mission management, then I can pass that to the electronic warfare officer, because they’re also very capable as navigators,” Moulton said.

In the Commando II, one person is capable of managing all the mission systems, said 1st Lt. Shamel Butler, an MC-130J combat systems officer.

“The majority of my job comes from navigation. We do a lot of low-level flying at night,” he said, so the most important piece is paying attention to the radar.

The combat systems officer also helps conduct the aerial refueling of helicopters and rotorcraft, Butler said, adding that his last sortie involved refueling helicopters flown by the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.

Meanwhile, the loadmasters are responsible for managing the weight and balance of the aircraft, which is critical for the aircraft as it often flies in adverse conditions, said Garcia.

“That can be cargo, passengers, making sure everything is in balance so the aircraft can fight as it’s supposed to,” he said. “In flight, we take care of any type of airdrop or any type of air-to-air refueling with helicopters or tiltrotors.”

The Air Force is replacing its MC-130Hs with MC-130Js and requested $800 million in its fiscal 2019 budget for six more J models. Procurement of the Commando II is expected to extend to FY23, with a total program of record that includes 73 aircraft.

It’s possible that the service could get those aircraft on an accelerated schedule. In FY18, the Air Force included additional MC-130Js on the unfunded wish list sent to Congress each year. Lawmakers responded by funding five extra planes.

However, the operators and maintainers of the 353rd said they are making do with the older H models, which are still performing well despite some obsolescence issues.

“Smaller components are a little harder to come by because they don’t make them anymore. So a lot of parts, if they do break, they’ll have to be sent in for maintenance. We’ll have to just wait for them to come back,” said Airman 1st Class Joseph Miller, a MC-130 maintenance chief.

“But all in all, these things are ready to go at any moment necessary.”

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan, and WASHINGTON —The F-35 has caught flack for what critics decry as lack of dogfighting prowess, a reputation that has followed the joint strike fighter for years.

But in the skies above Kadena Air Base in Japan, F-35 operators are getting the chance to prove those detractors wrong.

In October, more than 300 airmen and 12 F-35A conventional takeoff and landing jets from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, arrived in Japan, marking the Air Force’s first-ever F-35 deployment to the Asia-Pacific region. Since then, pilots have focused primarily on the air-to-air fight — a rarity for the F-35, a stealthy fifth-generation jet that is more known for its air-to-ground capability.

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Kadena’s location on the island of Okinawa, a small 466-square-mile plot of land surrounded by the Pacific Ocean, offers a prime location for F-35 operators to practice aerial combat, said Capt. Ryan Fantasia, an F-35A pilot with the 34th Fighter Squadron.

“The airspaces are all over the water, so it’s a lot harder to look down and see the ground or anything like that. Plus, the Eagles are here,” he said, referring to the two F-15C/D Eagle fighter jet squadrons based at Kadena.

F-35A pilots train with F-15C/Ds anywhere from a couple times a month to a couple days a week, Fantasia told Defense News in February. Sometimes those exercises include Eagles from the 44th and 67th fighter squadrons at Kadena; while other days, F-35 pilots mix it up with F-15s from the Japan Air Self-Defense Force.

“It’s a blast. I really, really enjoy it,” said Fantasia, a fairly new pilot who graduated in January from the inaugural F-35 basic flight class. Fantasia and the five other “B-course” graduates are the first pilots trained from the start to be F-35 operators. They didn’t have prior experience in another combat aircraft like an F-22 or F-16.

Now, those pilots get to learn not only from the more knowledgeable F-35 operators based at Hill, but the F-15 pilots of Kadena, whose training consists of tactics and techniques that have been passed down and refined over nearly four decades.

“The training itself, we’re really taking advantage of the joint part of the exercise,” Fantasia said. “So the ability to see everybody’s different capabilities and then ultimately put that into one fluid scenario, it really allows for a lot of successes out there and a lot of chances to learn from each other.”

During his last flight, Fantasia faced off in a one-on-one fight that allowed him to practice basic fighter maneuvers — things like high-G turns, high climbs and high angle-of-attack moves that allow a pilot a more advantageous position when in a close-quarters fight.

Fantasia didn’t say whether he went up against another F-35 or an F-15, but the older fourth-generation jet still can pose a challenge in a dogfight.

The F-15C sustained has a long run as the Air Force’s premier air superiority jet, from the time it was introduced in the 1970s to 2005, when the fifth-gen F-22 was fielded. It’s famed for its incredible aerial combat record, with no losses ever recorded.

The F-35’s record against fourth-generation fighters hasn’t always garnered the jet positive attention. In 2015, War Is Boring obtained a five-page brief authored by an F-35 test pilot, who wrote that the joint strike fighter had been outclassed by the F-16. The pilot dogged the F-35 as too slow and not maneuverable enough to evade the F-16 or to shoot it down, the report stated.

At the time, the Defense Department defended the F-35 by pointing out that the aircraft involved in the test was a very early model with a flight envelope limited to only 5.5 G’s. The jet also did not feature many of the mission systems, stealth coating or helmet display functionality considered by some as the defining features of the F-35, which are now widely available.

In February, the F-35s at Kadena got the latest block 3F software, the full combat capability version that allows the aircraft to fly its entire flight envelope and up to 9 G maneuvers. But even before that, the Joint Strike Fighter’s air-to-air game has shown improvement, achieving a 20-to-1 kill ratio at its first Red Flag event in early 2017.

Capt. Brock McGehee, a pilot from Kadena’s 44th Fighter Squadron who has been flying F-15s for two years, characterized the F-35 as an “extremely capable” air-to-air fighter, during a February interview with Defense News.

“It’s just kind of scary a little bit to fly around in the dark with an invisible airplane that’s around you somewhere,” he said. “Those guys are very good pilots, their situational awareness is very high and they do a good job of keeping us in the loop of where they are when they’re on the same team as us.”

McGehee compared the F-35 to its fifth-generation brother, the F-22 Raptor. Both are stealth aircraft, making them very difficult to detect at long distances. But in close combat, an F-15 will engage an F-22 and F-35 very differently, he said. He declined to discuss specifics that could reveal tactics, techniques and procedures and provide an adversary with hints about how to best either aircraft.

“An F-22, if you’ve ever watched the demo of it, you can turn inside out. It’s ridiculous,” he said. “An F-35, it turns differently. So that’s just [basic fighter maneuver] kind of awareness for us of what to do differently.”

So can the F-15 beat the F-35 in dogfights?

“I mean, sometimes,” McGehee said, adding that all aircraft lose in aerial combat sometimes, and for various reasons.

“Part of it is the aircraft and part of it is the man in the aircraft,” he continued. “We’ve got some really talented pilots here who are able to gain the offensive on a lot of other pilots. A pilot who understands this aircraft very well and is very skilled at it is pretty lethal no matter what he’s flying, so it’s possible.”

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — On the cloudy afternoon of Feb. 14, maintainers were hard at work on the flight line of Kadena Air Base, Japan, trying to get an F-15 Eagle ready to fly again.

A team of four maintainers rolled up their sleeves, pulled out the jet’s hydraulic pump and connected the aircraft to a system that would remove excess air, which can cause controls to malfunction.

The aircraft could be cleared to resume flight operations in as little as a half hour, said Staff Sgt. Johnny Brown, a dedicated crew chief from Kadena’s 18th Maintenance Group, which oversees sustainment of the base’s 54 F-15s, 15 KC-135 tankers, two E-3 airborne early warning aircraft and nine HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters.

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Like many other bases in the continental U.S. and abroad, Kadena Air Base’s F-15 enterprise is grappling with pilot shortages and challenges in retaining its skilled maintainers, but the base’s location on the Japanese island of Okinawa gives those challenges a unique flavor.

The Air Force has made huge progress in closing its maintenance deficit, which is down to a shortfall of 200 maintainers from about 4,000 positions. However, many of its maintainers are relatively green, and the service has resorted to novel methods to get them up to speed, such as training with retired aircraft from the boneyard at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base in Arizona.

At Kadena, that problem is exacerbated even further.

Maintainers at stateside bases will work on the F-15 for four to five years, giving them time to become experts, Brown told Defense News in a Feb. 14 interview. Meanwhile, the 18th Maintenance Group has the numbers it needs to sustain the wing’s aircraft, but those maintainers often come in without a lot of experience and are out the door in two years.

“We have the maintenance [manning] to support it, but the most stringent part is just getting the training done as we support the mission. Because we still have to make sure the jets are ready for the pilots when they get there, as well as training our airmen in an efficient manner and a good time frame,” he said.

“It can be complicated sometimes, but we still get the mission done.”

The work seen by Defense News in February was carried out by three young, relatively inexperienced airmen and overseen by one seasoned maintainer. That’s very often the norm at Kadena, Brown said.

Over the next three months, 19 new maintainers will arrive at the base and will have to dive headfirst into making sure the 18th Wing’s aircraft are repaired and mission-capable, he said.

“We constantly get new people and are pushing people out,” he said. “These guys are pretty good at learning stuff, but like I said, you got different types of learning styles. You’ve got to make sure you train everybody by their learning styles and keep them efficient.”

On the operations side, the Air Force remains about 2,000 pilots short of what it needs — a level that, if it continues, could “break the force,” according to Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson.

For Kadena Air Base, the pilot shortage is more an administrative burden than a major obstacle. The base is home to two F-15 squadrons, the 44th and 67th, each of which has about 25 Eagles at its disposal.

Lt. Col. Nicholas Register, who commands the 44th Fighter Squadron, acknowledged that the pilot shortage is affecting his squadron, though he declined to lay out how many pilots it needs.

What it translates into for pilots, however, is a high-operational tempo.

From Monday through Thursday, the 44th will put up at least two groups of flights, which amounts to about three to five flights a week for each pilot. Each flight could be as short as 45 minutes or as long as two hours, said Capt. Brock McGehee, an F-15 pilot from the 44th.

The squadron expects an influx of new members over the next four or five months. Register sees that as a sign that shows Air Force efforts to boost pilot numbers ― such as monetary bonuses and regulatory changes that scale back operators’ administrative workloads ― are bearing fruit.

“I think we’re in the normal ebb and flow of personnel in and out of the squadron, and the way that things [look] right now, it looks like we’re going to have everybody that we need. We’re almost there,” he said.

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — For the U.S. Air Force’s largest base in the Asia-Pacific region, location is everything. Situated a mere three hours of flight time from Beijing, Seoul and Taipei, Kadena Air Base would be key to any military engagement with Russia, China or North Korea.

That proximity breeds complications, especially as rhetoric between U.S. and North Korea burns hot. Leaders at the base must straddle a difficult line — projecting combat readiness, one of the base’s core missions, while at the same time downplaying the potential for regional tensions to lead to actual conflict.

“The environment is as complex as it has ever been. You don’t have to read a paper for very long to recognize that fact,” said Brig. Gen. Case Cunningham, who as commander of Kadena Air Base’s 18th Wing oversees the Air Force’s largest combat wing worldwide.

“But I will tell you that the missions that we execute are the same ones that we’ve been executing for many, many years from this particular location. Certainly the focus is sharp, but the missions remain the same,” he added.

Defense News visited Kadena Air Base from Feb. 12 to 14. During that time, the Olympics were taking place in Pyeongchang, South Korea, and North Korea used the opportunity to mount a charm offensive and tamp down its bombastic talk. On Monday, U.S. President Donald Trump responded to overtures from the North Korean government, saying that he is open to talks “under the right conditions.”

During Defense News’ interviews at Kadena, the words “North Korea” often seemed like the elephant in the room. Leaders shied away from talking about the country, and when asked explicit questions about North Korea, avoided mentioning the country by name in responses.

The intention, Air Force officials said afterward, was to follow Defense Secretary Jim Mattis’ example and give Secretary of State Rex Tillerson the time and political headway needed to push through new economic sanctions or, eventually, broker a diplomatic solution — something to which Cunningham alluded during a Feb. 14 interview.

“Diplomacy is in the lead in many of these increased tensions that you talk about,” he said. “Our job in uniform is to make sure we’re as ready as we can be so that we can provide the credibility.”

At the same time, he acknowledged that when North Korea launches a ballistic missile, it’s not just “business as usual” at Kadena.

“We watch those instances very closely, and processes are in place by which we could respond appropriately, should that be required. We do not go into any panicked mode when there is a launch from [North] Korea,” he said.

Kadena Air Base is one of the Air Force’s most diverse installations. The 18th Wing supports squadrons of F-15 Eagles, KC-135 tankers, HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters and E-3 airborne early warning planes. The base is also home to several tenant units, such as the 82nd Reconnaissance Squadron, which operates several obscure, special-mission aircraft that have been temporarily deployed to Kadena in the wake of increased missile testing.

Cunningham declined to detail how operators at Kadena respond — or prepare to respond — when North Korean missile launches occur. However, these special-mission aircraft could potentially play a role in the wake of North Korean weapons testing activity.

The WC-135 Constant Phoenix, known as the “nuclear sniffer,” has been flying out of Kadena since September. Constant Phoenix is a modified Boeing C-135 that has been used by the Air Force since the 1960s to monitor radioactive activity. By collecting and analyzing air samples and debris, the onboard crew determine whether a nuclear warhead has been detonated nearby and can gather information about the weapon.

When asked if he could share how the Constant Phoenix is being used, Cunningham said, “I can’t, and you knew I couldn’t,” with a laugh.

The 82nd also flies several other C-135 derivatives, like the RC-135V/W Rivet Joint, which collects intelligence, and the RC-135U Combat Sent, which locates and identifies foreign radar signatures.

The capabilities of all these aircraft are highly classified, which is why the Air Force denied Defense News’ requests to interview WC-135 and RC-135 operators based at Kadena. Cunningham also declined to comment on what the Air Force is learning from its Constant Phoenix flights.

Despite the hesitation to talk about current and future threats, reminders of Russian, Chinese and North Korean advances are plastered around base, making it evident that the military is constantly thinking about how it could potentially respond to a contingency.

For instance, unclassified intelligence digests about Russia, China and North Korea can be found taped inside every bathroom stall.

In the building currently occupied by Hill Air Force Base’s 34th Fighter Squadron — the first active-duty F-35 squadron, which is currently operating from Kadena — Defense News saw a fact sheet about North Korean S-200 surface-to-air missiles taped on a wall. When asked about that, an F-35 pilot declined to comment.

The fact that airmen are talking and learning about North Korean capabilities doesn’t portend that war is imminent, or even likely. The stated vision of Pacific Air Forces is to provide “combat-ready American airmen,” which involves preparing military options, including for worst-case scenarios.

Those options could include anything from increasing engagements with partner nations — like the Cobra Gold exercises in Thailand this February — to Pacific Air Forces commander Gen. Terrence O’Shaughnessy’s threat of “rapid, lethal and overwhelming force” made this summer in response to a North Korean intercontinental ballistic missile launch.

Leaders at Kadena prefer to speak about the former, softer types of activities. All of the leaders and squadrons interviewed by Defense News took care to talk about partnerships with the Japan Air Self-Defense Force and other militaries.

When asked about how the activities of Russia, China and North Korea affect Air Force special operators in the Asia-Pacific, Col. Jason Kirby, commander of the 353rd Special Operations Group, spoke about the importance of being able to rapidly respond to a crisis.

He then quickly pivoted to talking about relationships with foreign militaries.

“I think the other key piece is the relationship that we have with the governor of [Okinawa prefecture], Japan,” he said. “This is the ideal location for us to operate from and work with all our partners across the region.”

And even when tensions rise, for the most part, training and operations go on as usual, airmen reiterated.

“From a day-to-day basis or day-to-day perspective, we’re basically doing the exact same thing,” said Lt. Col. Nicholas Register, who commands the 44th Fighter Squadron, one of two F-15 squadrons on base. “It really doesn’t affect us that much. We have an open dialogue. I talk to the squadron regularly about what we’re seeing in the news. But honestly it doesn’t change what we do every day.”

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — Kadena Air Base is the largest U.S. military installation in the Asia Pacific, and is home to the Air Force’s largest combat wing, the 18th Wing. Every day a dizzying array of aircraft — from F-15 Eagles, KC-135 Stratotankers, and HH-60 Pave Hawks to planes from tenant units that fly F-35As and Navy P-8s — can be seen in skies over the skies of Okinawa as pilots train.

As commander of the base and the 18th Wing, it’s Brig. Gen. Case Cunningham’s job to ensure that this strategically critical hub is ready for any contingency. Defense News, which toured the base early this month, sat down with Cunningham on Feb. 14.

The goal of Pacific Air Force’s mission statement is to deliver combat-ready airmen. What’s the 18th Wing and folks here at Kadena Air Base doing to fulfill that mission?

[For] the amazing airmen at Kadena, readiness is at the top of our list. So honing our readiness to its finest edge and just making sure that we’re ready to execute all of the missions that we’re called to execute, and then the other piece of that is that this particular base is a key power projection platform in the Indo-Pacific, so that’s another responsibility that we have here at Kadena.

Readiness has been a problem across the entire military, and across the Air Force as well. How are you doing?

I feel like we’re doing really well. That’s the amazing part of what our airmen contribute to this mission set. They’re working very, very hard at making sure that they’re flying the missions that they need to fly, and maintaining the aircraft that they need to fly those missions, and we’re really doing well on that front. I think our readiness is at the highest level that it’s been in quite some time.

That’s crazy. Why and how? At a time where so many other parts of the military are struggling to meet their goals, what’s enabling Kadena to have the highest readiness it’s ever had?

When you talk about readiness, it’s an interesting question. What we have been doing as Secretary Mattis has come on and especially been focused on that readiness piece, is we have been deliberately focusing our efforts on exactly that. And I think with that deliberate focus of efforts, it’s produced results. So whatever the equipment is that we’re using to produce those results, it’s the efforts of our airmen with that focus that’s really paid off.

The other thing you hit on is power projection. One thing we keep hearing about from operators here is how Kadena’s location is a key enabler for that. You’re right in the thick of things. At a time where there seems to be so much tension, how do you project power without exacerbating those tensions?

I think you just heard Secretary Mattis talking about this recently with the release of the defense strategy. Our job in uniform is to make sure that we’re as ready as we can be so that we can provide the credibility, as diplomacy is in the lead in many of these increased tensions that you talk about. But I also want to emphasize that because of where we are located, it provides us the opportunity to engage in partnership building and alliance strengthening in a way that is incredibly powerful as we look to the future here in the asia pacific.

So for the examples of that, right now, as we sit here, we’re engaged in Cobra Gold, an exercise with Thailand. We’re also engaged in Cope North, which is not only a joint [exercise] with our Marine Corps and Navy partners, but also with Australia and the Japanese Air Self Defense force, in Guam in that exercise.

Your job is to be as ready as can be. Does the current threat environment change Kadena’s posture, its op-tempo, the kinds of missions that are being trained for here?

The environment is as complex as it has ever been. You don’t have to read a paper for very long to recognize that fact. But I will tell you that the missions that we execute are the same ones that we’ve been executing for many, many years from this particular location. Certainly the focus is sharp, but the missions remain the same.

It sounds like you are confident in the combat capability of your airmen if called to do that.

Yes, extremely confident. Honestly I couldn’t be more confident. As you’ve noted, we have some aging aircraft. I think on average, you’d find up to 38 years old. But our airmen are doing amazing things with those aircraft every single day.

I think when there are reports of North Korea getting ready to launch a missile, it’s very opaque to the American people what the U.S. military may be doing in response to do that. When there are those kinds of reports, what is happening here?

For operational security concerns, I can’t go into all of the details of that, but what I would say is the level of readiness that we have attained here at Kadena through the deliberate efforts of our airmen, leave us in a place that we’re very well positioned for any contingency. So it’s not business as usual, but I feel very confident in our readiness to respond should that call be required.

Could you go a little further? What operations are heightened in the moments when there is a North Korean ballistic missile launch?

We watch those instances very closely. And processes are in place by which we could respond appropriately, should that be required. We do not go into any panicked mode, when there is a launch from [North] Korea.

I think that gets lost in translation, that the U.S. military is prepared in that way when we see those reports.

Yeah, and that’s what’s so critical about the readiness and how much we’re focused on that particular edge. Again, I’m not going to say that it’s an everyday activity, because clearly it isn’t. But when they do occur, then we’re ready to respond.

One of the platforms that we didn’t get to see out here that I’m very interested in is the WC-135 Constant Phoenix, which can sniff out particles connected to nuclear weapons. How are you using it? What are you learning from it? Can you say anything—

I can’t, and you knew I couldn’t. [laughs]

Ok, had to try. So let’s talk about the budget situation. There’s a continuing resolution still in effect, even though the next budget request for fiscal year 2019 has just been released. How does that effect Kadena?

A lack of budgetary stability has real implications for our readiness. If you just take a look at the constant CR environment that we’ve been through recently. That uncertainty has a lot of impact, one just from the focus of our airmen as they see that in the news, but two, there are many efforts that we have to execute at the wing level to be ready for the potentinal of a government shutdown each time one of those occurs. So that does have real impact to our readiness out here in the Asia Pacific.

Can you give an example?

For the recent government shutdowns, and I think these are well documented all the way up to the secretary and to the chief, the activities that have to go on. The canceling of temporary duties for our airmen who are out and about doing some of these partnership building activities. Those are canceled. Airmen are brought back home. That requires the chaos of bringing the travel system to bring everyone back from something that was well planned for.

Our civilian employees, who will show up to work to get furlough notices. […] Just a lot of those activities create extra and additional work on top of the work that we’re already very heavily engaged in, which is being as ready as we can be as a military force in the Indo-Pacific.

WASHINGTON and KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — The U.S. Air Force’s fleet of legacy tankers and cargo planes may be getting some major survivability upgrades over the next decade, with lasers and autonomous systems on the table, the head of Air Mobility Command said Tuesday.

Air Mobility Command recently completed an assessment about how to improve the survivability of aircraft in contested environments, Gen. Carlton Everhart, the four-star in charge of AMC, told reporters. While more work still needs to be done to figure out exactly which modifications the Air Force will fund and when, the “High Value Airborne Asset” study recommended improvements to communications, situational awareness and self-protection systems.

“Those technologies are out there right now,” he said. “We’re just at the infancy stages of starting to peel that back. How does that fit on the airplane? Do we need to modify the airplane? How does it work? What can we do to make this better?”

The area of self-protection systems perhaps offers the most diverse technologies for the Air Force to pick from or develop further, with Everhart pointing to everything from light armor, signature management tech or high-energy lasers as potential interests.

“We just had a directed-energy summit where we’re really taking a look at exploring defensive systems that we may be able to piggy back on contracts. That’s in an exploratory phase,” he said. “That would give them persistence over a battlefield.”

The command will also consider whether to equip tankers and airlift assets with nondevelopmental radar warning receivers. And AMC is searching for additional beyond-line-of-sight communications, he said. AMC will be looking at data links commonly used by the bomber and fighter fleets, like Link 16, and how to better network with the service’s air operations center.

When Link 16 was being developed, AMC didn’t think its aircraft needed that or other kinds of advanced communications technology, Everhart explained. However, the ability to better understand the threats around an aircraft and communicate with other Air Force assets in the area could greatly bump the chances of an older platform like the 1950s KC-135 Stratotanker surviving a battle with a near-pear competitor.

“If I can get the situational awareness up inside the cockpit where the aircrews can make a decision whether to hang on or all out for a CAP [combat air patrol] to come in and protect that aircraft or to retrograde out, that’s a whole lot further than what I’ve got now because right now I have nothing. Right now it’s a … radio,” he said.

The Air Force plans on requesting a total of $49.2 million over fiscal 2019 and fiscal 2020 for a KC-135 upgrade called “Real Time in the Cockpit,” which aims to provide protected, classified data connectivity. Other requests for funding survivability upgrades will likely emerge in the next five to 10 years, once AMC formalizes its requirements, Everhart said.

Going forward, the command will also assess whether its newest platform, the KC-46 tanker due for delivery this year, could benefit from enhancements — including making it more autonomous, he said.

“As that airplane continues to develop, is there a possibility for autonomous mobility platforms? That’s going to be able to offboard and onboard communications just to be able to get that aircraft to fly and be able to fly. And that’s a possibility in the future.”

The High Value Airborne Asset study was led by AMC, but could also have implications for aircraft outside of the air mobility fleet. Everhart told reporters that Air Force Global Strike Command and Air Combat Command, which oversee the service’s bomber and strike assets, also participated in the assessment.

During a trip last week to Kadena Air Base, located on the Japanese island of Okinawa, Defense News asked KC-135 operators whether survivability upgrades — such as defensive systems, high-energy lasers or a radar signature disguising devices for which Everhart had previously expressed interest — would be beneficial for the Stratotanker fleet.

“I would have to defer to the war fighter on [if those upgrades would be] useful and helpful,” said Lt. Col. Garrett Bilbo, commander of the 909th Aerial Refueling Squadron. “Would it be neat and innovative and a better way to do business? I’d say ‘yes.’ ”

Capt. Ty Burgess, the squadron’s director of staff and a KC-135 pilot, said that survivability upgrades could be nice, if that’s what Air Force leadership deems necessary. However, Burgess said he was still happy with the aircraft’s performance despite its advanced age, and indicated that he felt comfortable with the Stratotanker’s current level of survivability.

“We’re not like, ‘Oh, my gosh, I need a new X.’ That’s just not the case with this airplane,” he said.

“As far as what I want, I want an airframe that keeps on flying and flying well. Whether that’s round dials and gauges, if that’s what’s working and that’s survivable and a long-term solution, awesome. If that’s LED screens and glass cockpit, that’s fine, too.”

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan — The HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopter is showing its age. Specifically, at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, Japan, the aircraft are experiencing structural cracks and frequent maintenance issues that hamstring the fleet.

But that doesn’t stop the airmen of 33rd Rescue Squadron from doing their jobs, which regularly includes deploying from Japan to the Middle East — including to aid casualty evacuation operations in Afghanistan or conduct combat rescue missions in Iraq — or to other regions worldwide.

While other squadrons at Kadena prepare for the possibility of war, the members of the 33rd frequently find themselves in it.

“Half of our unit is actually deployed right now. About half of them in Afghanistan” Capt. Chris Allen, an HH-60G pilot and flight commander, said in a Feb. 13 interview.

“Our guys have been in and out of Afghanistan for years now,” he said. “Last year I came back from AFRICOM [U.S. Africa Command].”

The squadron operates nine HH-60Gs, a variant of the ubiquitous Black Hawk sold by Sikorsky, which is now owned by Lockheed Martin. At any given time, one of those aircraft is usually going through depot or phased maintenance, Allen said. The rest of the squadron is split into two unit type codes, or UTC, one of which is always ready to deploy from Kadena or temporarily operating somewhere around the globe.

Through all of this, the Pave Hawk is advancing in age. The oldest of the 33rd’s HH-60Gs were manufactured in the late 1980s. All of them are either approaching their 7,000-hour lifespan or have exceeded it, Allen said.

The result is an overworked fleet of aircraft that is literally coming apart at the seams.

“Over the past few years, we’ve started to see airframe structural cracks,” Allen said. “Usually what that entails is we find it, it goes to maintenance, maintenance sends back to their headquarters for approval to basically stiffen that area, put in bracing and all that, and then it comes back to us. And then we see the crack either go somewhere else or progress, or whatever. So that’s something we’re constantly fighting these days.”

However, that doesn’t keep the squadron from putting the aircraft to work. The HH-60G is frequently flown with heavier payloads than it was designed to handle. And it operates in the Middle East, where the environment can come with higher altitudes and temperatures than the helicopter was designed to handle.

All of those mission requirements increase the load of maintainers, Allen said.

Even at home station, the squadron flies twice a day, about four days a week, with at least one complex training scenario — usually staged at nighttime. The scenario could involve picking up a wounded operator with a radio, with red forces deployed as aggressors.

“For what they are, as old as they are, our maintenance guys have to work pretty hard. But they fly well once we get them up and going,” Allen said.

The Air Force plans to begin buying a new combat rescue helicopter, Lockheed Martin’s HH-60W, in fiscal 2019. The service’s newly released budget request includes the first procurement dollars, about $680 million for the first 10 low-rate initial production helicopters of a planned 112 aircraft acquisition.

The combat rescue helicopter program appears to be proceeding at pace, but the competitions leading up to the selection of the HH-60W were famously troubled. Under the combat search and rescue-X, or CSAR-X, program, the Air Force in 2006 selected a variant of Boeing’s CH-47 Chinook helicopter but canceled the program after multiple protests.

It then scaled back its requirements and restarted the HH-60G replacement effort as the combat rescue helicopter competition.

The HH-60G’s current predicament illustrates why it is critical for the military to acquire and field new technologies in a timely manner. Pushing new procurement programs too far into the future can hinder a critical mission — a fact not lost on the airmen flying the Pave Hawk today.

“CSAR-X happened, what is it, 10 years ago? We needed a new helicopter then,” Allen stressed, “because our birds are so old.”

It will be “years, at least” until active-duty units like the 33rd start getting the new HH-60Ws, he added.

Despite the structural issues plaguing the HH-60G inventory, Allen stressed safety comes first, especially in a training environment. When there seems to be an issue with one of the Pave Hawks, the crew will either hop to another helicopter or not fly that training mission.

“We make a lot of decisions not to fly helicopters purely based on precaution. So it’s things like: Would we in a real life — if there’s someone actually floating out there we need to go pick up or a pilot just got shot down — would we fly that helicopter? Absolutely,” he said. “But a lot of times here, we make the conservative choice and say: ‘We’ll just give it back to maintenance and let them fix it.’ ”

Hot and heavy

Moving injured troops from the ground or sea into a helicopter to receive medical attention is a team effort. Typically, an HH-60G crew includes two pilots and two special mission aviators, who are responsible for flight engineer duties and operating the .50-caliber GAU-18 gun and GAU-2 minigun. It can also be augmented by two to three pararescue jumpers from the 31st Rescue Squadron, all of which are qualified combat medics.

If a UTC stays at Kadena or is deployed to a place like Africa, it will likely be regulated to flying training missions to keep its skills sharp; or, very rarely, it will conduct an actual rescue mission of a downed pilot.

That all changes when a Pave Hawk squadron is sent to a place like Afghanistan, where an HH-60G will always be operating nearby other aircraft carrying out combat missions.

“If there’s a lot of activity, like a lot of dudes are getting shot or hit with [improvised explosive devices], our pace, our tempo rapidly increases. But it truly depends on where we’re at, and what we’re tasked to do because if we’re not tasked to do [casualty evacuation], then most likely, we’re not doing a whole lot [more] than flying training lines,” said Master Sgt. Joshua Reid, a special missions aviator.

Evacuating troops in a warzone requires quick thinking and cooperation with other U.S. assets in the air. The first task for the Pave Hawk crew is figuring out the precise location of the operator needing help, which could entail talking to his or her wingman, using data from surveillance aircraft like the MQ-9 Reaper, or contacting him or her directly using radios. Then, the HH-60G crew will call in other aircraft, which can help protect the operator on the ground.

“Depending on where he goes down, if he goes down in OIR [Operation Inherent Resolve] if he’s in ISIS-controlled territory [in Iraq or Syria], then it becomes: Let’s coordinate with anyone we have available, whether it be the guys he was with that have bombs or A-10s that were 100 miles away doing whatever,” Allen said.

“It gets really busy, but that’s the beauty of the crew and the helicopter. We always have one guy flying…but that other pilot is there to mission manage. Additionally there’s the guys in the back, those [special mission aviators],” he said. “They’ll have notes in grease pen scribbled all the way down the window. […] Anytime new information comes through, they copy it down.”

While the 33rd is fully manned on the pilot side, it’s dealing with a shortfall of special mission aviators like Reid, who says he could fly two to three times a day even at home station.

“We’re not critical, we’re not going to fail at our mission set, but we can definitely use a few extra bodies,” he said. “This job takes a toll on people, sitting in the back of the helicopter—even in the front, I’m not saying pilots don’t have it rough — but sitting in the aircraft, people’s knees get hurt, people’s necks and backs start hurting.

“In the earlier days of constantly being gone, I knew dudes who were on rotation for four months home, four months on the road, if not longer. But the constant rotation of deployments and exercises take away from people’s lives and families and stuff, so a lot of people get out over time. They don’t make it a career.”

KADENA AIR BASE, Japan ― In this day and age, the phrase “special operations” conjures the idea of the covert forces in Afghanistan that conduct raids on terrorist strongholds, train native forces in tactics or accomplish highly critical missions like the killing of Osama bin Laden.

But in the Asia-Pacific regions, the work of special operators takes on a softer veneer, focusing instead on strengthening partner nations’ militaries through exercises and training, and putting U.S. forces through their paces in preparation for a worst-case scenario down the road.

As commander of the 353rd Special Operations Group, Col. Jason Kirby is the head of U.S. Air Force special operations in the Asia-Pacific region. He talked to Defense News during a February trip to Kadena Air Base in Japan, discussing the group’s current priorities and challenges in light of emerging tension with China, Russia and North Korea.

The work of U.S. Air Force Special Operations Command is less apparent than special ops missions in the Middle East. What does your special ops group do in an operational context?

It’s the full spectrum of operations. We’ll work on building partnership capacity, whether it’s the Filipinos or the Indonesians or the Malaysians or a variety of other partners in the region. We work with them and we ask what skill sets they would like to improve in their own forces and then we work to provide them with that kind of instruction.

Have you increased your training activities in the Philippines since the uptick in terrorism there?

Yes, we absolutely have. The Filipinos are a central partner for us within the region. So the Filipinos have done an outstanding job of responding to the threat from violent extremist organizations in their own country of late, and they’ve made great improvements in providing security for their own people, so we’ve been happy to be a part of that.

What’s happening that’s new to that partnership?

In our efforts with the Filipinos, we’ve worked on their skill sets in terms of air control and ensuring that they’ve got the ability to manage their assets effectively, so whether that’s maintenance or generating aircraft, we’ve been helping them with those skill sets.

Is the increase in terrorist activity across Southeast Asia leading to an increased operational tempo or changes in training?

I think we’re continuing to adapt to the challenges within the theater. So we constantly refine our tactics, our techniques and our procedures, and we evaluate the environment that we’re operating in. And that includes our adversaries as well, so as challenges change, we adapt with them, and that’s part of that innovation piece that I was speaking to previously is the ability to change what we’re doing and accept the fact that what we’ve done historically may not be the best way to get after a problem set.

What threats are you seeing in the region, and how is this group equipped to help the military deal with them?

I think our objective for U.S. Pacific Command is to maintain stability and hope to garner prosperity throughout the region. All of that comes out of security. It’s that partnership capacity-building that allows our partners to develop their own security initiatives, and that is definitely a focus area for us. And it’s likely to continue to be that way in the foreseeable future.

Are there exercises coming up that illustrate those efforts?

Historically, we’ve got exercises with, again, the Philippines and also exercises with Indonesia and Malaysia and Australia and New Zealand. So whether it’s partners that we’re building capacity for, or we’ve got very high-end partners like we’d find with Australia or New Zealand, we conduct exercises with them on an annual basis.

What’s the biggest challenge?

I think probably the Department of Defense writ large, it’s [lack of] a predictable funding stream is probably our biggest challenge that we have. So we strive to maximize our resources to the maximum extent. But at the same time, there is a challenge with not having that predictability and confidence in the funding stream that we might like to have. And that’s something I know our senior leaders continue to advocate for.

What does that mean for this group specifically? Can you think of an example when the group was hindered because funding wasn’t guaranteed?

I’d say the bottom line is we get it done at the end of the day, that we often have to think about how we’re going to conduct, or we may have to commit more resources in order to achieve the same effect.

But I can’t think of an instance where at the end of the day, we weren’t able to accomplish the mission. I think at times, it just becomes more challenging.

Readiness has been a problem Air Force-wide. How do you ensure operators are trained and aircraft are ready?

For the leadership, the squadron commanders that we have within the SOG, they’re empowered to identify the areas that they need to focus on. So because we’re special operations, the mission set is very broad, very diverse set of skills that we’ve got to maintain, so what the commanders can do is based on what they’re seeing ahead. They can adjust and reprioritize if needed, and that’s what’s so great about special ops, is you’ve got that flexibility, you’ve got that empowerment — perhaps compared to other components — to be able to adjust and get out.

Can you give an example of that?

I think a good example of late is our partnerships with conventional elements like III Marine Expeditionary Force that’s located here on Okinawa. We’ve got an outstanding partnership that’s going to continue to develop with them. So whether it’s forward aerial refueling of their assets including the F-35s that are now assigned to USPACOM, whether it’s their High Mobility Artillery Rocket System [and] their artillery system as well, we can provide them with support with transporting their system, which is kind of a unique special operations capability that we’ve continued to develop with them.

So those are the opportunities that we see across the force, including with those conventional elements like III MEF.

We’re seeing a resurgent Russia, ascendant China and issues with North Korea. Has the situation caused you to rethink how the group does things?

When we look at that problem set from a tactical viewpoint, we look at rapid responsiveness. And when we do encounter challenges, we want to present dilemmas for others, and what I mean is the ability to adapt to the situation, to move quickly in support of other special operations elements and move within a given decision cycle. So I think that’s the part that special operations provides.

I think the other key piece is the relationship that we have with the governor of [Okinawa prefecture], Japan and his location here on Okinawa and the close proximity within. This is such a central focus area of the entire Pacific across the China seas, so this is the ideal location for us to operate from and work with all our partners across the region. And that’s the focus area for us, it’s those partnerships that the United States has had historically, and then we’re continuing to develop [them].

A lot of those partnerships are even improving right now, and a good example of that is probably India. They’ve got an outstanding capability on their own, there’s no question about that, so we see a lot of opportunities for partnering with India.

When you talk about presenting dilemmas, what does that mean? As adversaries change and grow their own capabilities, how do you stay responsive?

I think a key piece of our responsiveness is our focus on multitiered communications. So the ability to communicate with our forces in the field through a variety of different means so that we always have that connectivity. Because that’s absolutely key to being able to react quickly is the ability to command and control forces. And so I think we’re doing very well in that area in particular.

The other part, too, in terms of moving out rapidly is that ability to operate in any environment. Day, night, adverse weather. You name it, to infiltrate forces, to take them out or to resupply them in the field as well. I think that’s the unique part that Air Force special operations provides. Not only the aircraft, but also the ground component as well with special tactics.

Are you seeing any technology gaps? Is there any tech that would benefit special operators in the region?

I would say that generally for any skill sets that I think that we don’t have, we can usually find — and really, I can’t think of where we could not find those skill sets — with one of our partners.

I think the area that is a challenge for us is ensuring that we’re manned at the levels that we want to be manned at. As close to 100 percent manning as we can achieve. And I would say the trend is positive right now because of the continued focus on the Pacific.

There’s been kind of a renewed emphasis on ensuring that we’ve got the personnel that we need in the field. But as far as adding additional skill sets to the SOG, I can’t really think of any particular skill sets that we can’t find with one of our partners.

How many people are you at right now, and how many would get the SOG to 100 percent?

The SOG is pretty well-manned. We’re somewhere near 1,000 personnel or so, but in terms of the figure on a given day, it varies. But really the manning levels are actually quite good, quite close to what our targets are at.

Are you seeing a demand for MC-130Js and the MC-130Hs? Are they mission-ready?

It’s kind of a replacement of our legacy aircraft, is what we’re trying to focus on, Air Force Special Operations is focusing on. So USSOCOM has done a terrific job of advocating for additional MC-130s, and we’ve been seeing that in the budget. So the number of aircraft has been increasing very positively.

I’d say for the aircraft that the 353rd SOG has, we’ve got the capacity that we need, but ideally we’re going to have to replace our older aircraft.

I think it’s more of just sustaining the capacity that we have and ensuring we’ve got adequate aircraft for the future as well. The trends are very positive, and I’ll tell you, the other elements of special ops, they always want MC-130s. They always want that capacity to get where they need to go in a given time. And that’s what’s so unique about the mission set: the ability to always make it happen and to be very responsive whenever we have requests for support.

It’s been about three months since more than 300 airmen relocated from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, to Japan for the F-35A conventional takeoff and landing model’s first-ever stint in the Asia-Pacific. The first of 12 jets arrived at Kadena in late October for a six-month deployment — the longest period the 34th Fighter Squadron has spent away from home.

Although the Lockheed Martin-manufactured jets haven’t made a lot of news since their arrival in Japan, the pace of operations has been relentless.

Click here for more coverage from the Singapore Airshow.

“We’re approaching 1,000 flight hours and 500 sorties, we’ll probably have that here in the next week and a half or two weeks,” Master Sgt. Brian Sarafin, F-35A production superintendent for the 34th Aircraft Maintenance Unit, told Defense News in a Jan. 24 interview.

On any given day, the 12 F-35s at Kadena could be expected to make anywhere from 12 to 14 total sorties, meaning every plane must be quickly inspected and repaired so it is ready to fly.

“They have been doing a lot of flying with the F-15s here stationed at Kadena. That’s almost a daily thing ― that they will meet up with F-15s from here,” Sarafin said. “And I believe that they’ve also met up with the [Japan Air Self-Defense Force] airplanes a time or two as well.”

About 20 F-35A pilots relocated to Okinawa, and they fly about two to three times a week, said Capt. Ryan Huber, the 34th Fighter Squadron’s flight commander. Most of those hours are spent training, but pilots also participate in exercises like Vigilant Ace, held in South Korea in December, where operators got to practice skills such as enemy infiltration and precision strike with U.S. military and South Korean jets.

“Some of my flights included operations with our USAF F-15C Eagle counterparts and Republic of Korea F-16s,” he said. “The experience was enlightening, as it allowed us to learn the intricacies of each other’s operating capabilities to further strengthen what we bring as a whole to the fight.”

A normal workweek for maintainers goes like this: Every morning, usually from Monday to Friday, several jets will fly a mission of about one to two hours in length. A morning shift of maintainers will be on hand to help launch and recover those jets, as well as to turn them for the second set of flights later that afternoon, Sarafin said.

A second “swing shift” of maintainers will come in before the second round of sorties have landed, and once those aircraft are back on the ground, they will begin necessary repairs to get the jets back into the air the following day. That work is continued by a third shift of maintainers, who clock in at about midnight.

“It’s a big revolving door every single day to make sure our aircraft are ready,” Sarafin said.

The Air Force’s data sponge

Tensions between the U.S. and North Korea exploded over the past year as North Korea ramped up testing of intercontinental ballistic missiles, including the Hwasong-15, which the North claims can hit the continental United States. U.S. President Donald Trump’s own comments promising “fire and fury” have kicked off debate about the administration’s willingness to escalate to a full-blown war.

Amid this delicate geopolitical landscape, the U.S. Air Force has been careful to characterize its F-35 operations at Kadena as a “long-planned deployment … designed to demonstrate the continuing U.S. commitment to stability and security in the region,” as it noted in an October news release. The deployment had been in the works since 2016, when Deborah Lee James, then the Air Force secretary under the Obama administration, announced that the “A” models could travel to the Asia-Pacific as early as 2017.

Although the aircraft would be available in case of a contingency — and although the collection of B-2 and B-1 bombers in Guam, F-35s in Japan, and F-15s in South Korea send a powerful message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un about the U.S. military’s capabilities — it’s unlikely that the U.S. Air Force will operate its F-35s in an attempt to provoke North Korea, said John Venable, a senior fellow for the Heritage Foundation and a former F-16 pilot.

“I don’t think we’re going to pulse the boundary,” he said. “I don’t think that there will be anything inflammatory done in an overt posturing.”

But the F-35s operating in Japan — the Air Force’s “A” models at Kadena as well as the Marine Corps’ F-35Bs, which will deployed aboard the amphibious assault ship Wasp this year — could still play a vital role in enhancing the U.S. military’s understanding of North Korea’s own military activities, especially given the jet’s classified electronic warfare package and data fusion capability that brings together imagery from the aircraft’s myriad active and passive sensors.

“I don’t know if it’s actually monitoring the television channels that people are watching in their homes or if, as soon of they get airborne, they start doing a really good assessment of what’s happening in the North,” Venable said.

“When you have the guys out on the Wasp and they’re flying, if they’re flying 100 miles off the coast of North Korea, you can bet your bottom dollar that they’re scooping up gobs and gobs of information of what’s going on inside the peninsula and then the northern side of the peninsula. And the same thing is going on with the [’A’ models].”

Go ask ALIS

Although agencies like the Government Accountability Office and the Pentagon’s independent weapons tester have criticized the F-35 program for spare parts shortages and aircraft availability problems, Sarafin said the 34th hasn’t run into any major complications during its deployment in Japan.

“We haven’t had major surprises since we’ve been here. The jets have been performing pretty well, and we have not had many maintenance nondeliveries. When we first got here, we went over 130 sorties without dropping a single one, which was great for us and kind of unheard of for a new platform like that,” he said.

So far, the most critical challenge on the maintenance side has been setting up the aircraft’s Autonomic Logistics Information System, which allows operators to order spare parts, walk through maintenance procedures and plan missions. The 34th is using the latest version, ALIS 2.0.2.4, during this deployment.

“It’s much quicker. We have a lot of access to all the data we need on the aircraft,” Sarafin said. “Is it a perfect system? No, but it’s much better than it has been in the past few years.”

During the first days of the deployment, maintenance crews had difficulty readying the supply system and getting parts delivered on time due to customs hiccups.

But “it’s been hashed out fairly quickly,” said Sarafin, adding that the squadron did not lose any sorties due to a lack of parts. “We’re operating here almost as efficiently as we do at home station now.”

One of the new features of ALIS 2.0.2 allows the user to view and monitor data from the aircraft’s Pratt & Whitney F135 engine, which was developed specifically for the F-35. Before getting the current ALIS version, maintainers would have to download the engine data, burn it to a disc and then hand it over to a Pratt & Whitney employee, who would look at the data and ensure that the engine was safe to fly the next sortie.

“It was a time-consuming process. Sometimes you’re talking two to four hours to get the data, which could then delay your time and [decrease] the possibility of having an aircraft ready the next year,” he said. Now, because engine data flows through ALIS, it can be downloaded in five to ten minutes after the plane lands.