Members of the 49th Fighter Wing at Holloman AFB, N.M., recently took special note of the fact that their F-117 Nighthawk stealth fighters have amassed 250,000 hours of operation. Col. John Forsythe, commander of the 49th Operations Group, flew the record flight on July 25. The Air Force wants to move up retirement of its F-117 fleet to 2008 and has extended an olive branch to New Mexico lawmakers by announcing it plans to station a unit of its new F-22A stealth fighters in New Mexico.
Control of the skies in Operation Epic Fury is enabling the Pentagon to rely more on satellite- and laser-guided bombs, throttle back on expensive long-range standoff munitions, and move to a new phase of air war, defense officials said on March 4. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen.…