Gen. Stephen Lorenz, commander of Air Education and Training Command, told reporters Sept. 15 at AFA’s Air & Space Conference that USAF has just started work to gain Joint Requirements Oversight Council validation of a requirement for a successor to USAF’s T-38 trainer. “The T-38 is aging out,” he said, and “we’re still in discovery” in determining such basic considerations as numbers needed and whether it will also be a Navy program. Earlier this year, the Air Force requested information from industry to help refine its search for the replacement for the 50-year-old trainer. Lorenz said, “There will be some people who try to push it to the 5th generation, but we can’t do this.” In his view, USAF must undertake a “stairstepping” approach toward a new aircraft for advanced bomber-fighter training. The service currently is in the last stages of procuring the T-6 as its primary pilot trainer, replacing the now-retired T-37 Tweet. The T-6A Texan II is a joint program with the Navy.
A provision in the fiscal 2025 defense policy bill will require the Defense Department to include the military occupational specialty of service members who die by suicide in its annual report on suicide deaths, though it remains to be seen how much data the department will actually disclose.