The F-47: Next Generation Air Dominance Boeing Wins Contest to Build the Next Manned Fighter. By Chris Gordon and John A. Tirpak When President Donald Trump announced March 21 that Boeing would build the Next-Generation Air Dominance fighter, he unleashed a...
March/April 2025
Vol. 108, No. 3
As USAF awaits the E-7, Airmen keep the E-3 flying. TINKER AIR FORCE BASE, Okla. Observers have called the plane aging, old, even geriatric. A few have described its current state as being in “hospice care,” as they look forward...
Why retiring the B-1 too soon could undermine U.S. security. The U.S. Air Force plans to start retiring the B-1 Lancer fleet to make room for the new, sixth-generation B-21 Raider. But the Air Force is planning to do that...
Battle of Takur Ghar Controversy Continues
New Medal of Honor Museum Plays Down 21st Century Air Force Hero. Twenty-three years after his heroic death on a frozen Afghan peak, John Chapman is still fighting against the odds. Chapman, a combat controller with the 24th Special Tactics...
Fixing the Air Force Pilot Crisis
Combat airpower requires more planes and more pilots to fly them. The U.S. Air Force is stretched thin by unrelenting rotational and contingency response demands, and its chronic pilot shortage just won’t go away. For more than a decade, the Air...
Editorial: Air and Space Dominance
The Trump administration arrived in Washington promising to restore America’s military, reinvigorate deterrence, and bring back its warrior ethos. These are not things that can change overnight, but there is evidence of progress. Topics that were gingerly avoided six months...
WORLD: Airpower
Allvin Makes the Case for More Airpower It’s all about ‘more options for the President,’ CSAF says. By Chris Gordon Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin dialed up the intensity of his calls for “more Air Force” in...
WORLD: Space
Space Superiority Takes Center Stage By Greg Hadley Looking into the future in 1957, then-Maj. Gen. Bernard A. Schriever predicted that “in the long haul, our safety as a nation may depend upon our achieving ‘space superiority.’” Now,...
WORLD: Golden Dome
Space and Missile Defense Leaders Ponder Golden Dome By Unshin Lee Harpley Within a week of his inauguration, President Donald Trump directed the Pentagon to outline a comprehensive air and missile defense strategy with a focus on advanced space-based interceptors....
WORLD: Munitions
Sustained Munitions Production and Lower-Cost Designs By John A. Tirpak Munitions have long been a bill-payer in the Air Force budget—staples of warfare that, in peacetime, can be neglected or shortchanged to pay for more pressing needs—but after more than...
WORLD: Agile Combat Employment
ACE Gets Real How USAF is evolving Agile Combat Employment informed by insights from Ukraine and Israel. By David Roza As the head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe and Africa and NATO Allied Air Command, Gen. James B. Hecker...
Strategy & Policy: New Undergraduate Pilot Training Program Targets 1,500 Pilots Annually
The Air Force is overhauling Undergraduate Pilot Training (UPT), moving to a hybrid private/government instruction program that officials at Air Education and Training Command (AETC) expect will reduce overall course time while achieving, within two years, USAF’s elusive goal of...
Letters
We love letters! Write to us at letters@afa.org. To be published, letters should be timely, relevant and concise. Include your name and location. Letters may be edited for space and the editors have final say on which are published. Danger,...
Verbatim
War Plans … “The world found out shortly before 2 p.m. Eastern time on March 15 that the United States was bombing Houthi targets across Yemen. I, however, knew two hours before the first bombs exploded that the attack might...
Faces of the Force
Tell us who you think we should highlight here. Write to afmag@afa.org Capt. Anna Mason transitioned from cadet to aeronautics instructor at the U.S. Air Force Academy, inspiring future Air Force leaders. Selected through the Graduate Studies Program Pipeline, she...
Heroes and Leaders: Benjamin O. Davis Jr.
Career Airman who served proudly. Our armed forces have not always been integrated. Although Blacks served, they did so in specialized units commanded by White officers and suffered institutional discrimination in the 1940s and beyond. Racial inequality was both pervasive...
AFA IN ACTION: AFA Elevates Maj. Gen. Larry Stutzriem to Executive Vice President
Arlington, Va. Maj. Gen. Larry Stutzriem, USAF (Ret.), has been promoted to Executive Vice President of the Air & Space Forces Association. Stutzriem was previously Director of Research at AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, where he has held...
AFA IN ACTION: Building Community, Strengthening Voices: The ENGAGE@AFA MilSpouse Summit
Against the backdrop of the AFA Warfare Symposium in Denver, the Air & Space Forces Association’s United Forces & Families (F2) program hosted the “ENGAGE@AFA: MilSpouse Summit” on March 5. This first-of-its-kind gathering was designed to elevate the voices of...
