Multifaceted Team Strives to Modernize Air Refueling Management

Jul 12, 2021 | Partner News

An E-8C Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, also known as Joint STARS, from the 7th Expeditionary Airborne Command and Control Squadron, receives fuel from a KC-135 Stratotanker from the 340th Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron during a mission over Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom, May 17, 2011. Photo by Master Sgt. William Greer, USAFCENT/PA.

Since its inception in 1923, the ability to use one aircraft to refuel another in flight, known as air refueling (AR), has become a central tenet of US combat power projection around the world.

An expansive team of experts from the US Transportation Command (USTRANSCOM) Operations Directorate’s Air Refueling Branch (J38-R), Air Mobility Command (AMC), and the 618th Air Operations Center are working alongside developers from Rolls-Royce on a project to modernize AR management, safeguarding the relative advantage AR capabilities afford the Department of Defense (DOD).

“In today’s increasingly competitive geopolitical environment, there is a need to enable the AR enterprise with technologically competent tools that accelerate processes and the decision making of leaders at all levels,” said US Air Force Maj. Jonathan Yates, who until recently served as deputy chief of the Air Refueling Branch.

The Mission
A preponderance of aerial refueling assets are employed by USTRANSCOM, with some additional assets controlled regionally by geographic combatant commands. All air refueling and air cargo fleet assets operate off a set of four general priorities identified by the Secretary of Defense.

“The J38-R plays a key role in managing the utilization of this limited but vital capability by validating all priority one and two requirements,” said Yates. “We are in place to help make sure priorities match what the request actually is, then flow the task to the air operations center who assigns the mission to a unit for execution and monitors it, while Air Mobility Command manages allocation of the fleet itself.”

Additional coordination is needed when assets under the command of another combatant command are involved.

“The current process is not optimized for the speed, complexity, and lethality of future conflicts; it’s fragmented and relies on people to move data from one system to the next,” said Yates. “Action officers use more time managing the overly complex system than using the data produced by it to validate and source missions.”

AR requirements are constantly being generated and processed through phone calls and emails between the multiple organizations involved, with no single system that captures the entire decision space.

“The lack of a singular coherent system elongates processes at all levels, breeding inefficiencies into the management, validation, allocation, and utilization of the tanker force,” said Yates.

Tackling the problem
The multi-organizational team is looking to address these issues through a three-phased effort which began at the end of April. The effort is scheduled to run through mid-January 2022, with a goal of modernizing multiple facets of the AR process.

“After an industry-wide request for information on existing technologies, Rolls-Royce presented a prototype system with the potential to positively impact how USTRANSCOM and its air component, AMC, employs the air refueling fleet,” said US Air Force Maj. Dave Bishop, USTRANSCOM Current Operations Division, and project lead for the modernization effort.

During the first phase, representatives from Rolls-Royce and subject matter experts from various levels of the enterprise are working together to build upon the prototype system, with the intent to alleviate frustrations caused by disaggregated systems and suboptimal processes.

“The team will pick the system apart and shape it so that it fits the way our system needs it to look in order to operate,” said Yates. “Imagine a process fueled by a modern system, disassociated from the fragmented data environment that we are so accustomed to in the DOD, what does that look like? How would that improve the work for those steeped in the current process? That is the direction of this initiative.”

The composition of subsequent phases will be determined during the iterative development construct where Rolls-Royce, in conjunction with stakeholders at all levels, will continuously work to incorporate known requirements, improvements, and even limitations given the allotted time. Providers and receivers of AR will also participate in helping to shape the requesting interface where a future AR event initiates the process lifecycle.

Looking ahead to tomorrow
“The national defense strategy points towards a fourth industrial revolution of artificial intelligence and cloud computing,” said Yates. “We’re starting small, getting our foot in the door for change.”

New technology is only part of the solution. The team also recognizes the importance of empowering those most involved in the process by equipping them with technology that facilitates the execution of their duties rather than generating mundane or value-absent tasks.

“We also have to make sure that on the other end of the spectrum we have people who are going to work the system, are in a mindset that the system is going to do work for them, and are ready to identify when the system isn’t working properly,” said Yates. “As long as we can start modernizing it won’t seem so disruptive when it happens.”

 

By André Kok, USTRANSCOM Public Affairs

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