Over its 20 years of service, the MQ-9 Reaper drone has typically landed on paved runways, where it is rearmed and refueled by a large group of maintainers and support staff. But a recent Agile Combat Employment exercise saw Air Force Special Operations Command land an ...
The People’s Republic of China is expanding the range of its missiles and aircraft farther and farther beyond its shores, causing the U.S. Air Force to double down on its commitment to agile combat employment and focus on the complex logistics of a potential Indo-Pacific ...
An Air Force F-16 pilot designed a collapsible ladder that weighs just six pounds and folds into the unused cockpit map case.
The U.S. Air Force’s plan to operate from an expanded network of bases around the Pacific is facing a familiar but fundamental challenge: how to protect those locations from a Chinese missile attack. The Air Force and Army say they are working on a solution.
A new training initiative at Holloman Air Force Base, N.M., is helping MQ-9 maintainers expand their specialties, essentially giving one Airman the skills of three to be able to generate sorties with minimal crews.
Top Air Force officials including Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall and Chief of Staff of the Air Force Gen. David W. Allvin are on a weeklong tour of the Pacific, including visits to key bases the U.S. hopes to expand to be better ...
The Agile Combat Employment (ACE) operational concept, a proactive and reactive operational scheme of maneuver executed within threat timelines to increase survivability while generating combat power, provides a starting point for Airmen to codify best practices. However, this can be quite...
MQ-9 drone student operators are now trained to land and take off via satellite, dramatically shrinking the footprint of of personnel and equipment needed for Reaper operations. Previously, Reapers have been flown by operators in faraway ground control stations but launched and recovered by Airmen ...
Air Force weather specialists are used to providing essential data in austere conditions, and they have new tools to move even faster. Their skills could be even more crucial in a conflict against a near-peer adversary.
Members of Congress want to know how the Air Force plans to defend remote or forward-deployed airfields as part of its Agile Combat Employment strategy. By February 1, the House Armed Services tactical air and land forces subcommittee expects a report outlining the Secretary of ...
Earlier this spring, the 388th Fighter Wing proved just 12 Airmen can operate an F-35 contingency location, refueling and rearming the fighters at spots across Georgia and South Carolina. The demonstration, part of exercise Agile Flag 23-1, marks yet another proof of concept for the ...
The U.S. Air Force marked an important first earlier this week when F-22 Raptors deployed to Clark Air Force Base, the first time U.S. fifth-generation fighters have ever deployed to the Philippines, the Air Force said. The F-22 deployment, which took place on March 13 ...