2John Murphy Retires
At the end of the year, long-time survivability practitioner and leader John Murphy will be retiring from Federal service after nearly 42 years. Mr. Murphy’s career began in 1984 as a college co-op student engineer at the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), working in the Fire Protection Branch of the Propulsion Directorate’s Fuels and Lubrication Division at Wright-Patterson AFB (WPAFB). While here, he helped develop the anti-static gray fuel tank foam currently used in many Air Force and other aircraft, and he worked on the On-Board Inert Gas Generation System (OBIGGS).
After graduating with a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Cincinnati in 1986 (which would later be followed by a master’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Dayton in 1991), Mr. Murphy became a full-time test engineer and program manager with the Survivability Branch of the AFRL Flight Dynamics Directorate’s Vehicle Subsystems Division. For more than a decade, he was involved in the testing and evaluation of numerous survivability and lethality issues related to the C-130, Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile (AMRAAM), C-17, and other air systems. Specific areas of interest included wing dry bay fire and hydrodynamic ram issues, composite propeller ballistic damage, engine nacelle fire extinguishing, and mission abort vulnerability.
Mr. Murphy then went on to assume numerous leadership positions at Wright-Pat, including Survivability Assessment Flight Chief, Technical Director/Chief Engineer, and Acting Director of the Air Force Test Center (AFTC), Arnold Engineering Development Complex, 704th Test Group Aerospace Survivability and Safety Office (AEDC/704 TG/OL-AC). As OL-AC’s Technical Director for more than 15 years, he served as an Air Force subject-matter expert for survivability/Live Fire Test and Evaluation (LFT&E) and landing gear systems safety and sustainment for many critical fixed-wing, rotary-wing, and unmanned air systems and programs.
In 2020, Mr. Murphy left his position as Technical Director to become the WPAFB Senior Research, Development, Test, and Evaluation (RDT&E) Representative for the Test and Evaluation (T&E) Division of AFTC’s Engineering and Technical Management Directorate. In this role, he represented AFTC T&E interests and test capabilities to numerous WPAFB organizations, including the Air Force Materiel Command, the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, and AFRL.
Among the many awards and recognitions Mr. Murphy received throughout his career are the AFRL Scientist/Engineer of the Year Award in 1993, the AFRL Flight Dynamics Directorate Perkins Engineering Award in 1995, an Exemplary Civilian Service Award for the C-27J LFT&E in 2010, two Meritorious Civilian Service Awards, and numerous Notable Achievement Awards, including for key contributions in planning and facilitating the AFTC’s Digital Engineering T&E Enterprise Summit in 2022. Mr. Murphy was also recognized with a JASP Excellence in Survivability award in the spring 2011 issue of Aircraft Survivability, was selected as Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in 2016 and Technical Fellow of the Arnold Engineering Development Center in 2018, and received the Outstanding Civilian Career Service Award in December 2022.
Congratulations, John, on your retirement, thank you for your many years of service and excellence in the aircraft survivability community, and best wishes as you begin the next chapter of your life.
First F-35A Hot Turns Conducted at Nellis
U.S. Air Force Photo by 1st Lt. Rebecca Abordo
In February, the Air Force reported conducting the first-ever F-35A integrated combat turns (ICTs)—more commonly known as “hot turns”—during rapid aircraft regeneration and employment exercises at Nellis Air Force Base, NV. A hot turn is a procedure in which an aircraft’s engine is left running while the aircraft is simultaneously refueled, rearmed, and prepared for additional sorties. These first F-35A hot turns were performed by maintenance crews and testers from the Air Force’s 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron (TES), in partnership with the 57th Maintenance Group, 422nd TES, Air National Guard Air Force Reserve Command Test Center, and several other Government and industry organizations.
According to a Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) report, approximately 90% of combat aircraft losses occur on the ground, when a fighter is arguably at its most vulnerable and least lethal state. Traditionally, it takes as much as 3 hrs for F-35’s to be refueled and reloaded before they can return to combat. Thus, time-saving measures such as hot turns, which have also been used successfully on legacy U.S. aircraft, promise to significantly decrease ground time and thereby improve the survivability and lethality of fifth-generation and later U.S. fighters.
For more information on hot turns and the F-35 Nellis exercises, visit https://www.af.mil/News/Article-Display/Article/4055196/f-35-hot-turns-enhancing-survivability-lethality, as well as https://www.airandspaceforces.com/maintainers-hot-ict-f-35.
Marines and Air Force Join Forces in the JSE
U.S. Navy Photo by Terri Thomas
In March, eight U.S. Marine Corps F-35 pilots joined four Air Force F-22 pilots to form the first Joint fighting force in the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division’s (NAWCAD’s) Joint Simulation Environment (JSE) at the Naval Air Station Patuxent River, MD. Over a two-day excercise, the pilots practiced fifth-generation fighting together in 17 simulated combat events against various advanced enemy threats, which are currently only available at the JSE. The pilots then reviewed their performances together using recorded cockpit video and audio.
Developed by NAWCAD engineers and supporting industry, the JSE is the DoD’s most advanced digital test and training range. The range features realistic domed simulators with actual defense hardware, software, and adversary aircraft, thereby allowing combat pilots to practice complex combat scenarios, gain real-time feedback, accelerate their learning pace, and hone their skills. The JSE also enables tactical groups to “fly” more sorties in a week than they can in more than a year using open-air ranges.
Efforts are currently underway to also add simulation capabilities in the JSE for the E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, F/A-18 Super Hornet, and EA-18G Growler, as well as incorporate JSE training into additional pilot programs.
For more information about the exercise and the JSE, visit https://www.navair.navy.mil/news/Marines-Air-Force-fight-joint-force-first-time-Navys-Joint-Simulation-Environment/Tue-04012025.
Penn State Launches Directed Energy Center of Excellence
In April, the Pennsylvania State University launched a new Center of Excellence in Directed Energy (CEDE). The center, which is being led by a partnership of the university’s College of Engineering, Applied Research Lab, and Materials Research Institute, will be used to conduct basic research on focused energy, such as lasers and microwaves. The center will also align with Penn State’s new National Security Institute and help promote cross-collaboration and expertise-sharing in the areas of defense-related materials science, systems integration, and directed energy applications.
For more information on Penn State’s CEDE, visit https://www.mri.psu.edu/centers/welcome-penn-state-center-excellence-directed-energy.
New Publications on Ukraine-Russia Lessons Learned
Several analyses have recently been published containing various lessons learned—including survivability lessons learned—from the ongoing conflict between Russia and Ukraine. These publications include:
- A 325-page monograph titled A Call to Action: Lessons From Ukraine for the Future Force, by John Nagl and Katie Crombe, U.S. Army War College Press, June 2024. Visit https://press.armywarcollege.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article =1964&context=monographs.
- A 12-page article titled “Something Old and Something New: Lessons From the Ukraine-Russia War,” by U.S. Army Colonel Daniel Sukman, Military Review, U.S. Army Press, November 2024. Visit https://www.armyupress.army.mil/Portals/7/military-review/Archives/English/Online-Exclusive/2024/Lessons-Ukraine-Russia-War/Lessons-Ukraine-Russia-War-UA.pdf.
- A 12-page report titled “Lessons from the Ukraine Conflict: Modern Warfare in the Age of Autonomy, Information, and Resilience,” by U.S. Air Force Colonel Matthew Slusher, Center for Strategic & International Studies, May 2025. Visit https://csis-website-prod.s3.amazonaws.com/s3fs-public/2025-05/250501_Slusher_Ukraine_Conflict.pdf?VersionId=01UUwSkCxsWGAU5vOtwYQHmtq3F1.XKM.
- A 13-page article titled “A Long, Hard Year: Russia-Ukraine War Lessons Learned 2023,” by Michael Hackett and John Nagl, Parameters, the U.S. Army War College Quarterly, vol. 54, no. 3, autumn 2024. Visit https://publications.armywarcollege.edu/News/Display/Article/3890256/a-long-hard-year-russia-ukraine-war-lessons-learned-2023/.
New Report on Combat Collaborative Aircraft Employment
U.S. Air Force Graphic
Last year, a group of fellows from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS) published a report on the U.S. military’s steadily expanding interest and investment in collaborative combat aircraft (CCA) and some of the assessed command and control (C2) issues surrounding the employment of such forces. The 16-page report, titled “Cockpit or Command Center?: C2 Options for Collaborative Combat Aircraft,” is part of the CSIS’s On Future War article series. It discusses the current status and likely application of envisioned manned-unmanned networks, some of the Air Force’s ongoing plans and efforts to use CCAs to create/maintain technological advantages over peer and near-peer adversaries, and proposed key components of a successful CCA architecture. The report also details a fictional campaign scenario—20XX—to discuss and analyze C2 characteristics of three future campaign/mission types: in counterair operations, interdiction in littoral environments, and close air support.
For more information or to download the CSIS report, visit https://www.csis.org/analysis/cockpit-or-command-center-c2-options-collaborative-combat-aircraft.
