The Air Force and Navy have together flown the T-6A Texan II for more than half a million hours since the new trainer’s introduction in mid-2000. The new joint trainer reached the milestone at the end of June, according to a recent release from the Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. The Air Force now has some 318 T-6As and the Navy another 47; the services expect to buy a total of about 760 aircraft. The two services use the single-engine, turboprop trainer with tandem seats for initial undergraduate pilot training, and the Navy also uses it for flight officer training and its test pilot school. In the Air Force, the T-6A has replacing the T-37 Tweet.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.