The Air Mobility Command’s Air Mobility Battlelab, located at Ft. Dix, N.J., set up a show and tell on neighboring McGuire Air Force Base to demonstrate its wares and seek new ideas. This was one of several showcase events the lab has embarked upon recently. Among its “outreach efforts,” say lab officials, were AFA’s Air and Space Conference in Washington and the Airlift/Tanker Association Conference in Nashville. The point is to “get the word out,” says Col. Phil Bradley, lab commander. “Some of the best ideas we’ve worked have come from company grade officers and NCOs,” he said. The AMC lab is the newest of USAF’s seven battlelabs, created to quickly generate new solutions to frontline problems. Among projects worked by the Air Mobility Battlelab are a handheld device that may replace loads of paper normally carried by C-130 flight crews and an advanced contingency airfield lighting system.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
