The Combat Talon II retirement plans were also affected by the commander’s intention to get it right. It is Heithold’s belief that “AFSOC exists to have the ability to penetrate enemy defenses for combat mobility – that means providing fully capable Commando IIs and CV-22s.” Therefore, it is the commander’s intention to keep the fully capable MC-130H Combat Talon IIs available until the Commando II reaches operational equivalency.

Additionally, similar delays will occur in the modernization and acquisition of the MC-130J Commando II aircraft. These aircraft are being delivered to AFSOC from the Lockheed-Martin production facility in Georgia and are equipped very similarly to those being delivered to Air Combat Command as helicopter tankers. The defensive systems and navigation capabilities are far less than those required for a threat area-penetrating special operations mission aircraft. AFSOC will therefore slow retirements of its best capability Combat Talon IIs until the Commando II achieves equal or better capabilities. This will also take up to three to five years, but will provide Commando IIs with an integrated and fully tested terrain-following/terrain-avoidance (TF/TA) radar and sufficient defensive systems.

Also, only 42 J-model aircraft are funded and planned to be in Commando II configuration in the current budgets, short of the number required in the Program of Record. Heithold has decided that AFSOC will retain 15 of the Combat Talon IIs until they are replaced by aircraft of equal or greater capability.

The Special Tactics career field of Combat Controllers, Pararescuemen, Tactical Air Control Party, and Special Operations Weathermen continue to be the most decorated in AFSOC and in the USAF as a whole.

These changes to accommodate both the newly ordered AFSOC priorities and the changing geopolitical landscape caused by ISIS do look like a difficult set of adjustments. In fact, they’re significantly harder than they look. The final headache to account for in these changes is the funding required for additional people to populate the aircrew and maintenance needs of the AC-130U, AC-130J gunships, and the Combat Talon IIs and Commando IIs. Previous decisions made by AFSOC, Special Operations Command (SOCOM), and the U.S. Air Force (USAF), in adjusting to recent Department of Defense (DOD) budgetary pressures, scheduled retirements to coincide with deliveries. Now some of the aircraft being retired will continue to operate for years after the new aircraft are delivered. Paying for people to populate both at once will require significant adjustments in SOCOM funding of AFSOC personnel. As AFSOC’s director of Strategic Plans, Programs and Requirements, Brig. Gen. Kirk Smith has the job of reconciling the schedule and the budgets with possible trades to make on programs and delivery dates. He said, “It won’t be easy, but getting the money to pay for slowing retirements of legacy aircraft is just something we have to do.”

Another big change has occurred in the plans for AFSOC’s fleet of aircraft involved in manned aircraft ISR, (intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance). Last year’s plan to accept up to 38 MC-12 Project Liberty (two-engine) aircraft from Air Combat Command and to retire AFSOC’s 28 (single-engine) U-28s is no longer current. SOCOM completed a congressionally mandated cost/benefit analysis of the plan and discovered that the $1 billion dollar cost would result in only a marginal increase in capability. Deeming the swap not worth the cost, Heithold directed that AFSOC will keep its U-28s and asked only to fund modification of three of its lift-providing PC-12s to the U-28 configuration. Thirteen MC-12s will go to the Oklahoma Air National Guard in support of special operations missions. SOCOM and DOD haven’t yet funded those three aircraft, according to Smith, but it would be a way to increase the availability of much needed ISR.

 

Missions: Resting Is Not on the List

AFSOC continues to adjust to missions that require fewer people and aircraft by finding that other missions are waiting for people and aircraft to become available. Reductions in Afghanistan on the combat mobility front see increases in support of missions to train Afghan airmen and to provide additional support. The numbers of any of these missions in way of aircraft and people cannot be provided, but celebrations of groups of people returning from forward-deployed areas at Hurlburt Field, Florida; Cannon Air Force Base, New Mexico; and locations where AFSOC’s Special Tactics airmen are stationed continue at pretty much the same rate as always. Heithold has remarked that the “demand signal” on sending people and aircraft to forward areas is increasing. Additionally, he said that the maintenance people of the AC-130s prefer the aircraft return from their missions with little or no ammunition to unload and care for. “They’re coming back every night empty.”