A readiness task force spanning several major Air Force organizations is looking at new ways to measure fleet readiness other than the controversial mission-capable rate. After trying and largely failing to get certain fighter jet fleets to reach 80 percent mission-capable, or ready to enter ...
Boeing expects to spend $551 million of its own money on the design and implementation of fixes to the KC-46 Remote Vision System, as part of a new $827 million charge on the aircraft, the company announced April 29. The Air Force and Boeing early ...
The Air Force is extending its feasibility study into the use of privately owned aerial refueling tankers after an initial report determined further research is needed to understand legal and financial challenges. Last week, the Air Force delivered a Commercial Air Refueling Report to the ...
KC-135s and Airmen from the 349th Air Refueling Squadron at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., lived in quarantine and dramatically changed their routine before heading to the Middle East earlier this month. The early April deployment to Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, is an example ...
A joint Air Force team on April 21 delivered a rapidly developed containment system prototype that will enable as many as 28 COVID-positive patients to be transported aboard a C-17. The team, led by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and the Air Force’s ...
The impact of the new coronavirus outbreak has been mixed for USAF flying units, with many close to the fight maintaining a high operations tempo, while training at home takes a major hit that could have lasting impacts to readiness. However, the service has faced ...
Air Force researchers and mobility crews recently evaluated six airframes over the course of two weeks in an effort to better understand the airflow of mobility aircraft in case there is a need to airlift a large number of COVID-19 positive passengers. Researchers placed systems ...
The Air Force employed its specially designed isolation pods to transport highly contagious COVID-19 positive patients from Afghanistan to Germany on April 10, the first use of the system in the new coronavirus outbreak, while the service is also developing a more advanced version of ...
Air Mobility Command will soon stop some missions and cut back others to focus on what it has deemed essential, as the new coronavirus outbreak changes how the military operates globally. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein ordered all major commands to provide ...
Aeromedical flight crews are training at Joint Base Charleston, S.C., on an older isolation system for transporting highly infectious patients by air, even as the Air Force rapidly develops and tests a newer and more elaborate system for the mission. Testing on the C-17 is ...
A C-17 and Airmen from multiple bases flew a 41-hour, 6,866 mile emergency airlift mission across 12 time zones to bring one-month-old twins to the Washington area for emergency neonatal care. The long-distance aeromedical evacuation mission came on short notice, after the twins were born ...
The Air Force’s troubled new tanker has another serious deficiency: a fuel leak problem that Boeing must fix at its own cost. The service’s KC-46 program office first discovered a fuel leak during a flight test in July 2019, and the Air Force announced March ...