The Air Force is asking to retire 201 airplanes and buy 91 new ones in its fiscal 2022 budget request, representing a net decrease of 110 airplanes. The fighter fleet would drop by 77 aircraft, and the RQ-4 Global Hawk fleet would be cut by ...
The Air Force didn’t effectively oversee the development of the KC-46’s refueling boom, leading to additional delays and costs and a lingering deficiency that prevents the tanker from refueling some USAF aircraft, according to a new Pentagon watchdog report. The Defense Department Inspector General, in ...
China's meteoric rise in military capability—and the urge to do something to contain it—is the chief reason Frank Kendall, the Biden administration's pick to be Air Force Secretary, agreed to return to Pentagon work, he said in his Senate Armed Services Committee confirmation hearing. Kendall ...
ALPENA COMBAT READINESS TRAINING CENTER, Michigan—Air Mobility Command wants to overhaul how it operates so that it serves as more than just the “bus drivers” for combat forces, and it is practicing how to do that right now across the upper Midwest. Exercise Mobility Guardian ...
The Air Force plans to begin evolving its fighter fleet to one that can win a Pacific war by retiring 421 old jets and buying 304 new ones, transitioning away from the F-22 and A-10 to an advanced, sixth-generation fighter and an F-16 replacement in ...
The Air Force is preparing to unveil a 30-year fighter force design that calls for two new fighters—one for high-end fights and one for less demanding missions—a new way of providing close air support, and the retirement of the F-22 starting in about 2030, a ...
Sharply rising support costs among aging fleets are devouring money the Air Force needs to spend on new technology and new hardware, service Vice Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. David S. Nahom said. The Air Force has to figure out how to divest old hardware ...
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. wants to neck down the Air Force's fighter inventory from seven fleets to four, and the F-22 is not on his short list. The extant seven-fleet mix of fighters will need to be reduced to ...
Congressional defense committees are moving forward on their work in 2021 with the addition of a few new faces and subcommittees. Senate leadership has hammered out the details of an organizing resolution that dictates how the evenly divided chamber will operate, opening the door for ...
In commemoration of the 30th Anniversary of Operation Desert Storm, Air Force Magazine is posting daily recollections from the six-week war, which expelled Iraq from occupied Kuwait.
The 2021 iteration of the annual Red Flag combat air exercise at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is focused on great power competition, two of the minds behind the event told Air Force Magazine on Jan. 29. With 27 unique scenarios (a mixture of offensive ...
The Air Force's in-house software factories have become hacking targets because they are accelerating the service's fielding of new capabilities, and must be defended as the "crown jewels" they are. The Pentagon needs to apply "Zero-Trust" technology in its data systems, not only keeping hackers ...