A decade ago, female missileers could not "pull alert" at a certain stage of pregnancy or while nursing. More often than not, the women who took responsibility for an ICBM launch control capsule chose instead to leave the Air Force. Today, Air Force policies have ...
Air
As the Air Force continues to look for a “bridge tanker” to follow the KC-46, top officials say they’re working to define the requirements for the next aerial refueler—while the KC-46 itself continues to progress.
A Boeing-led team of European defense contractors will study options to replace NATO's E-3 AWACS. Boeing is doing a similar study for the U.S. Air Force centered on the E-7 Wedgetail, which Air Force leaders have hinted could be the replacement for retiring the Airborne ...
The Department of the Air Force needs its largest research and development budget ever in the face of threats from China and Russia, the lead Air Force and Space Force budget planners said. Air Force Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom and Space Force Lt. Gen. William ...
F-35s in Eastern Europe have been performing some “elegant” intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions as part of the NATO response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, the head of U.S. European Command told lawmakers March 30—and he expects the fighter’s presence on the continent to expand ...
Budget compromises driven by the need to modernize two-thirds of the nuclear triad forced Air Force leaders to cut planned F-35 purchases in 2023 to just 33—15 fewer than it bought in fiscal 2022 and 27 fewer than 2021, said Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom, ...
The military’s capacity to move people and objects around within single geographic combatant commands may have taken a back seat to other “mobility priorities” in recent years, but the commander of U.S. Transportation Command now sees intra-theater airlift as an “area of increased interest.” In ...
The Air Force's Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon may be running out of chances to prove its worth. The service's 2023 budget request does not include any procurement funds for the troubled hypersonics program, and though officials said they remain committed to the program in 2023, ...
The Air Force plans to retire half its AWACS fleet of E-3 Sentries and most E-8C JSTARS in fiscal 2023 and 2024, but it anticipates a delay between the retirements and new space-based ISR capabilities that could replace them, Air Force leaders said as the ...