-Cavet Lector- <A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A> -Cui Bono- WJPBR Email News List [EMAIL PROTECTED] Peace at any cost is a prelude to war! 000031. Space Command plans for computer network attack mission by Paul Stone American Forces Press Service WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- If Y2K was the first major battle of the information age -- and by all accounts it was -- then it may have given the world a glimpse into how war could be waged in the future. Oh ... and by the way, the future has arrived. The U.S. Space Command, which only last October took over responsibility for the Defense Department's computer network defenses, will assume the flip-side attack mission beginning in October. Air Force Gen. Richard Myers, commander-in-chief U.S. Space Command and Air Force Space Command, said DOD is moving forward to make computer network attacks part of the military arsenal. Although Space Command is still in the early stages of developing a concept of operations and implementation plans, the goal of information attacks will focus on denying, disrupting and degrading systems, Myers said during a recent Pentagon briefing. "In the area of air defense, for instance," he said, "if you can degrade an air defense network of an adversary through manipulating ones and zeroes, that might be a very elegant way to do it as opposed to dropping 2,000-pound bombs on radars." Myers sees Space Command as a natural choice for further developing the emerging capability. However, he does not envision computer attacks being launched by Space Command headquarters at Peterson Air Force Base, Colo., but rather by warfighters on the battlefield. "This is an issue of bringing certain tools to the operational and tactical level," he said. He said Space Command's mission will be to coordinate the services' computer expertise, determine what network attack tools are available or could be developed, test capabilities and get those tools to the warfighters. The Space Command chief, who will leave his post March 1 to become vice chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on March said computer network attack will augment, not replace, "kinetic" weapons, such as bullets, and bombs. It'll provide commanders with "one more arrow in the quiver," he said. Myers acknowledged that computer network attack has already been used "on a case-by-case basis." The Pentagon considered using the new warfare techniques in Kosovo last year, but, he said, opportunities were limited because Serbian military forces were not heavily dependent on information systems. In addition, he pointed out that just as with warfare involving conventional weapons, DOD must analyze policy and legal implications and establish rules of engagement. So-called dual-use targets and secondary and tertiary implications of computer network attacks are examples of legal and policy sticking points, Myers noted. For instance, attacking a communications network may do more than shut down an adversary's air defense systems. What are the consequences when that network supports other needs having no direct impact on the conflict, he asked. "We understand the effects of a 2,000-pound bomb. We know the laws of armed conflict, so we're much more comfortable in that realm," Myers said. It'll be a while before DOD warfighters are as comfortable with computer network attacks, he predicted, and keystrokes won't soon replace bullets and missiles. "We are on the cusp of this," he said. "A lot of the existing capability is very immature, has not been tested." 000030. SECDEF announces departure of deputy secretary of defense WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- Secretary of Defense William S. Cohen announced Jan. 10, the departure of Deputy Secretary of Defense John J. Hamre to become president and chief executive officer of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Hamre will depart his post March 31. "John Hamre has been my friend and partner in running the department," said Cohen. "He approaches all issues with extreme confidence and an extraordinary sense of humor. He is committed to fixing problems with solutions that are effective, practical and fair to all concerned. "He has made contributions in many areas, but his biggest achievements have been in increasing computer security, bringing better business practices to the department, winning increases in Defense spending to improve readiness and procurement and helping Defense contractors and the department adapt to global business conditions. He has had a major impact on the department, and I will miss him when he leaves." Cohen also announced his recommendation that the President nominate Rudy de Leon to replace Hamre as deputy secretary of Defense. De Leon currently serves as under secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness. "Rudy de Leon has dealt with many of the department's toughest and most important issues -- maintaining readiness, improving the quality of life for troops and families and making sure that the department remains a leader in providing equal opportunity to all," said Cohen. 000027. Air Force Surgeon General tours Pacific by Staff Sgt. Cindy York Air Force Print News YOKOTA AIR BASE, Japan -- The Air Force's top medic visited here recently to begin his inaugural sweep through the Pacific as the service's new surgeon general. Lt. Gen. Paul K. Carlton Jr. said he hoped he and his team would learn and understand the medical issues in the Western Pacific during the seven-day trip. He also wants to make sure those in Washington are giving the issues adequate representation. Having held the post for one month, Carlton, a 31-year Air Force veteran, said his top priority is to provide an unrelenting focus on the customer. During a talk with 374th Medical Group personnel here, Carlton stressed the importance of changing the way military health care is provided. He said the cost of providing care in military facilities is too much and is going to have to come down to compete with civilian services. "I believe we can change ourselves and not have military health care go away. It will take some differences of attitudes than perhaps we've had in the past. We must be cost accountable to our customer, the Air Force," the general said. "If we build a system that is more expensive than downtown, we must have very good justification for that. And, if not, we must look and say, 'Well, maybe we need to build a different system.'" One of Carlton's ideas for that system is to change the medical focus. "We will be practicing health in the future. It's no longer where we focus on surgery or medicine or nursing or dental. We'll focus on health. How do we keep our human, which is the most important system we have, healthy?" In maintaining that focus, Carlton talked about health care for retired members, including those living overseas. He said the No. 1 topic retired coalition members are discussing now is how to make sure the retirees are treated as space required, as opposed to space available, which Carlton said implies they are "second class." He sees retiree medical treatment overseas as a more "difficult issue." "The care is available (to retirees) but, it involves travel. That makes it less convenient, simply because they live in a foreign country." Technology, Carlton said, may solve this problem for retirees, as well as active-duty members. "We're trying to solve that by leveraging technology. Why can't we use tele-medicine? Why can't we move electrons instead of people and can these things be of practical use to us?" he said. Two of the biggest challenges Carlton sees in the future are to learn how to partner with medical colleagues in local areas and to learn how to adopt best business practices, while maintaining the readiness focus. Those challenges shouldn't be difficult, according to Carlton, considering the quality of health care providers the Air Force continues to recruit. He also talked about some of the "exciting" initiatives the medical field has in the works to optimize the use of enlisted medics. "We have a group of people, coming in the service at all levels, that are the finest quality we've ever seen. From the enlisted level, we are addressing how best to do our technical training and how best to develop them after their first tour. (We want to know) if we can extend their opportunities to contribute more in a vocational nurse or associate degree nurse program. So, on the enlisted side, we've got (an) exciting opportunity." Carlton continued his trip with stops at Misawa and Kadena Air Bases, Japan, and bases in the Republic of Korea, Guam and Hawaii. 000029. PECI programs promote productivity, savings for Air Force WASHINGTON (AFPN) -- The Productivity Enhancing Capital Investment program provides project managers loans aimed at improving an organization's operation. The PECI loans are for the purchase of equipment, modern tools, communications systems and facilities. Project loans requested and approved by the Air Staff in fiscal 2000 may not have to be repaid until fiscal 2002. "Increased productivity is an important part of our lives," said Col. Ray Conley, chief, Requirements and Utilization Division at the Air Staff. "With the draw down of manpower, rapid changes in technology and increasing support and labor costs, we continually need to generate productivity improvement initiatives. The PECI programs are an excellent way to finance these productivity improvements and initiatives." PECI programs include the Productivity Investment Fund and the Fast Payback Capital Investment programs. PIF and FASCAP provide dedicated funding for productive opportunities and provide incentives to improve productivity, fund new technology, and support functional process improvement and Commercial Activities studies. Projects implemented through the use of PECI funds must provide real savings to the Air Force in the form of manpower or operation and support costs that pay back the cost of the program in the required time periods. "We encourage you to actively look for new productivity and quality process opportunities," said Bennie Sands, deputy chief, Requirements and Utilization Division. "The impact of financing the improvements and initiatives are direct and tangible, increase performance and cut costs without adverse impacts on people or missions." For more information on the PECI program, watch the Air Force Productivity Enhancing Capital Investment Programs video available at base manpower offices or by the servicing PECI manager. 000028. Luke's F100 engines: A case study in teamwork by Maj. Derek Kaufman 56th Fighter Wing Public Affairs LUKE AIR FORCE BASE, Ariz. (AFPN) -- Maintainers from the 56th Fighter Wing here have received the first 50 chemically-milled augmentor ducts for some of their more than 200 F-16 engines -- marking an important element of their ability to overcome the setbacks the base went through in 1999. After the loss of seven F-16s, the media and public called for answers as to why planes here kept crashing. So, Luke decided to roll up its sleeves and work the problem as hard as it could. "I firmly believe, years from now, people will look back on what has taken place here and they will cite it as the benchmark case study of how a team comes together to overcome adversity," said Brig. Gen. John Barry, 56th FW commander. "The operational and maintenance challenges this wing has faced are absolutely unprecedented." With engine failures identified as the cause of four of the seven crashes, the "Luke maintainers performed a miracle," said Barry. "To really gain an appreciation for what has taken place here, you need to go back a few years," Barry said. In July 1996, the Air Force made the decision to switch from a two-level to a three-level maintenance concept to care for the F100 family of engines, which power the F-16. Under two-level maintenance, flightline and base-level specialists performed periodic inspections on the engines, but any major repair work was sent to a depot for overhaul. Under the three-level system, bases have their own intermediate jet engine shops, which are capable of performing many depot-level repair tasks and returning the engines to service sooner. Coinciding with the change was a growing chronic shortage of key engine parts, such as engine cores and high-pressure and low-pressure turbines. In just five months, the number of engines in the Luke engine shop doubled from 30 to 60. By February 1998, the base was 39 engines short -- a record. Seeing a possible impact on pilot production, Air Force leaders worked hard to push parts to Luke. "With parts flowing in, we increased operations in the propulsion flight to 24 hours," said Maj. Joe Swillum, 56th Component Repair Squadron commander. By October, the engine shop had turned the 39-engine deficit into a surplus of one -- the first spare engine in five years. But, the February crash of a Luke F-16 resulting from a material failure of the engine augmentor duct, which helps provide engine thrust and holds the nozzle on the engine, turned an already busy engine shop into an even more hectic place to work. At the time of the crash, cracks in augmentor ducts for the F100-PW-220 engine were a well-known problem. There had been 11 failures in flight, but none resulted in the loss of an aircraft. The previous failures were either on twin-engine F-15s, which were able to shut down the affected engine, or the affected F-16 was able to land in a very short period of time. To lower the risk of failures, the Air Force required a one-time time compliance technical inspection of the augmentor duct. The duct interior was cleaned and a water-based penetrant applied to the surface to look for cracks along welds. Luke had already performed the inspection on two-thirds of the fleet and found only one bad duct. In February 1999, Luke hosted a worldwide F100-PW-220 engine summit in an effort to identify the need to fund engine safety modifications and upgrades. Ironically, that need was underscored by the second Luke accident involving an augmentor duct separation March 26. Immediately following the crash, Barry grounded Luke's entire fleet. "I had a hunch we had a bigger problem here than even our best engineers realized," he said. Luke maintainers worked with the engine manufacturer and the San Antonio Air Logistics Center to develop an even more comprehensive inspection to find cracks that previously would have gone undetected. The new process used improved cleaning procedures and an oil-based penetrant. "We helped develop it, validated it and verified it was the best nondestructive inspection we could perform in the field," Swillum said. "On a scale of five, with one being a visual inspection and five being a laboratory inspection, our procedure was a solid four." Luke's own manpower-intensive procedure was adopted Air Force-wide as Time Compliance Technical Order 573, to inspect a suspect lot of augmentors which were believed to have thin walls, potentially leading to cracks. Although the wing had only 34 "suspect" engine augmentors, Barry reasoned the prudent step would be to inspect every F100-PW-220 engine on the base. So, Luke maintainers started pulling engines. A 24-hour assembly line removed the engines, sent them to the shop for cleaning, inspection and reinstallation. The process took 15 hours per engine, but Barry's hunch was confirmed when the first cracks were found in a non-suspect augmentor duct. In an effort to return the wing to flying operations, Luke maintainers inspected 157 ducts in just 10 days. Ultimately, 218 augmentors were inspected and 24 had cracks requiring repair or replacement. As a result of Luke's findings, the Air Force directed every Pratt & Whitney 220 engine in the Air Force inventory undergo the improved inspection. If augmentor ducts weren't enough to keep Luke maintainers busy, a problem with blade outer air seals of engine low-pressure turbines more than made up for it. Over spray of a protective coating on the seals, a manufacturing defect, was beginning to flake off and cause damage to rotating blades in the 4,000 cycle low-pressure turbine. In April, Barry decided to ground all 71 F-16 engines that had the turbine. The 200-man engine shop immediately faced a shortage of 54 engines. "The propulsion flight didn't just face the challenge, they shattered it," said Col. Ron Lee, 56th Logistics Group commander. The engine shop produced an all-time record of 53 engines in April. In addition, the low-pressure turbine retrofit was completed in just 81 days. "Give us the parts and we'll answer the challenge and make it happen," said Master Sgt. Duane Carter, assistant superintendent of the propulsion flight. In September, Luke's engine shop teamed with Pratt & Whitney and San Antonio Air Logistics Center engineers to perform a validation and verification procedure on a new chemically-milled augmentor duct. This "Val/Ver" process validates procedures written for technical orders, paving the way for the ducts' use throughout the Air Force. The planned long-term fix is to replace all the old augmentor ducts in the Air Force's fleet of F-16s and F-15s with the new chem-milled ducts, according to Master Sgt. Harley J. Merrell, AETC F100 Program manager. "This duct reduces the risk to acceptable levels, while lessening the maintenance workload burden." Luke received the first 11 ducts produced for 1999, and the rest will be shared with the Tucson Air National Guard and throughout the Air Force. The Air Force-wide engine module shortages, back-to-back loss of two Luke F-16s due to the separation of the engine augmentor duct from the aircraft, and defective parts in engine low-pressure turbines essentially hit Luke maintainers all at once, Barry said. Still, they were able to simultaneously overcome parts shortages to transform a deficit of 39 engines into a surplus of four spares, deal with the inspection of every augmentor and repair 71 turbines -- all in a span of about 17 months. "This may be the largest engine recovery effort in the history of our Air Force in the jet age," Barry said. "With available parts, teamwork and old-fashioned hard work, we proved to be the Air Force's 'pacer unit' for the Pratt & Whitney 220 engine." Despite all the training time lost because of safety stand downs, the wing at Luke was only three pilots short of its contracted goal for producing new F-16 basic course graduates. Barry said it took "incredible teamwork, coordination and unprecedented effort" by the flightline and engine shop maintainers to make it all possible. (Courtesy of Air Education and Training Command News Service) **COPYRIGHT NOTICE** In accordance with Title 17 U. S. C. 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