2023 USAF & USSF Almanac: USAF Major Commands and Reserve Components

Air Force senior statesmen explained the reasons they jointly sent a letter to Congress urging restoration of the E-7 Wedgetail and more F-35s to the fiscal 2026 defense budget.

The Air Force is once again tightening its standards for dress and appearance, banning eyelash extensions for female Airmen and setting a minimum height for combat boots. 

U.S. Special Operations Command is once again slowing its purchases of the new OA-1K Skyraider II multipurpose counterinsurgency plane, as the Pentagon pivots its budget to prepare for a high-end conflict following two decades of wars in the Middle East.

Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.

Air Force B-52 program officials are gunning for a budget boost for new simulators that can adequately replicate challenging tasks crew members must perform on real-world bombing missions.

The T-7A Red Hawk next-generation jet trainer underwent a second round of extreme weather testing as the Air Force presses to get the T-7 into production so it can replace the aging T-38 Talon.

A U.S. Air Force KC-46 tanker suffered damage to its boom while refueling F-22 Raptors off the coast of Virginia on July 8, Air & Space Forces Magazine has confirmed, with reported radio communication from the crew indicating the boom “detached.”

The Air Force appears to be leaning buying toward more KC-46 refuelers rather than developing a stealthy future tanker, based on budget documents released this week. USAF’s plans prioritize connectivity upgrades and self-protection measures for its aerial refueling fleet.  No...

The Air Force and Space Force kicked off a busy summer of major exercises across the Pacific on July 8, with thousands of Airmen and Guardians and hundreds of aircraft and satellites set to participate in a so-called Department-Level Exercise series.