The 1st Fighter Wing and Air National Guard’s 192nd Fighter Wing, which together operate two squadrons of F-22 stealth fighters at Langley AFB, Va., successfully flew through the Air Force’s first Total Force operational readiness inspection the week of April 21. They received an “excellent” rating by the Air Combat Command inspector general. “The F-22 performed superbly,” said Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. Christopher Young, 1st Operations Group chief of standardization and evaluation. “They destroyed over 250 enemy aircraft and did not take a single loss.” More than 100 Guardsmen participated in the event and sat side by side with their active duty counterparts of the 1st FW, distinguishable only by their unit patches. This inspection was the first for the F-22 since the platform achieved full operational capability in December 2007. (Langley report by David Hopper)
The Space Force should take bold, decisive steps—and soon—to develop the capabilities and architecture needed to support more flexible, dynamic operations in orbit and counter Chinese aggression and technological progress, according to a new report from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.
