The Pentagon is reportedly planning to draw down the number of fighter squadrons in the Middle East while also withdrawing missile defense systems as part of a broad shift in the U.S. military’s force posture in the region. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III informed ...
The 609th Air Operations Center at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, in early May became the Air Force’s first AOC to operationally use the Kessel Run All Domain Operations Suite to build an air tasking order. The new cloud-based system allows planners to build an ...
Two B-52s arrived in the Middle East on April 23 as part of an increase in airpower to protect U.S. and coalition troops in Afghanistan as part of the withdrawal in the country. Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III approved the deployment of the bombers ...
Extensive coalition and Iraqi operations targeting the Islamic State group in northern Iraq continued, with aircraft now conducting at least 312 airstrikes on ISIS remnants in the remote mountainous region. U.S.-led coalition aircraft and Iraqi forces conducted the airstrikes as part of Operation Ready Lion ...
The U.S. military operating in Syria regularly confronts “great power competition” while conducting ongoing counterterrorism operations, facing regular interference and Russian aircraft close by in a confluence of threats, Air Force and Space Force officials said. “Great power competition … is alive and well in ...
More than three dozen Air Force officials are headed to new postings at the Pentagon and around the world, the Defense Department announced Feb. 12. At the highest level, Maj. Gen. Charles S. Corcoran will leave his job as head of the Air Force Warfare ...
Thirty-five Reservists from the 433rd Security Forces Squadron returned home to Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, on Jan. 31 following a six-month deployment to Kuwait in support of Operations Inherent Resolve, Freedom’s Sentinel, and Spartan Shield, the squadron told Air Force Magazine on Feb. 9. ...
A B-52 flew a long-range direct sortie from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., to the Middle East on Jan. 27, the third such flight this year and the first under the new Biden administration. The bomber from the 2nd Bomb Wing flew the “presence patrol” ...
The Air Force Weapons School has recognized Capt. Woodruff “Thunder” Johnson, an F-15E Weapons Officer assigned to the 494th Fighter Squadron at RAF Lakenheath, U.K., with its 2020 Robbie Risner Award. The annual award—whose namesake, Brig. Gen. James Robinson “Robbie” Risner, was the first living ...
Dozens of Airmen and four KC-135s from the 914th Air Refueling Wing returned home to Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station, N.Y., this month from the wing’s first combat deployment with the tankers. The wing switched from flying C-130s to KC-135s beginning in 2017, became fully ...
Two B-52s flew directly to the Persian Gulf from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., in what the military says is a message of deterrence to Iran. The bombers, from the 2nd Bomb Wing, took off from their home base Dec. 9 and integrated with other ...
The number of U.S. airstrikes in Afghanistan has increased despite ongoing peace talks with the Taliban aimed at ending the 19-year-old war. U.S. Forces-Afghanistan in October reported that airstrikes supporting Afghan forces on the ground have increased from the second to third quarter—a step that ...