As the United States closes out its participation in the 1992 Open Skies Treaty, some in government are starting to consider what might come next for the Air Force unit that has handled those foreign surveillance flights for decades. Lawmakers earlier this month released a ...
The 115th Fighter Wing announced Dec. 10 that the F-16 pilot, missing since his jet crashed late Dec. 8, has died. “We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time,” 115th Fighter Wing Commander ...
The Air Force's top weapons buyer is worried the top-secret Next Generation Air Dominance program might become an “unintended casualty” of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers in the final draft of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill are cutting $70 million from the NGAD program for ...
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 ...
A B-1B bomber on Dec. 4 released a JASSM stealth missile from its Sniper targeting pod pylon. The demonstration follows a captive-carry dress rehearsal in November, and paves the way for the B-1 to carry a variety of munitions, but especially hypersonic missiles, on external ...
Lawmakers want to quash the prospect of buying new armed overwatch planes for special operations troops or the Air Force in the next few years, as part of the final draft of the 2021 defense policy bill released this month. They seek to block SOCOM ...
The Air Force saw a total of 33 hypoxia-like events in its T-6A Texan II trainer fleet in fiscal 2020—a nearly 20 percent decrease from the fiscal year prior—Air Force Safety Center data obtained by Air Force Magazine shows. However, the rate of these events—defined ...
The other military services should defend USAF's air bases as the “tax” to enjoy the many benefits the Air Force provides them in terms of communications, mobility, and protection, Deputy Chief of Staff for operations Lt. Gen. Joseph T. Guastella Jr. said Dec. 8. The ...
Lawmakers weighed in on three of the Air Force’s top-priority technology development efforts in the final draft of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill, offering more money and more oversight as the programs mature. The Low-Cost Attritable Aircraft Technology initiative, hypersonic weapons, and the Next-Generation ...
Three companies will move on to flight experiments as part of the Air Force’s Skyborg drone program, the service said Dec. 7. Kratos earned $37.8 million, Boeing earned $25.7 million, and General Atomics earned $14.3 million to continue on in the program, the Air Force ...
Retired Air Force Brig. Gen. Charles E. “Chuck” Yeager died Dec. 7, at age 97. Yeager was a World War II fighter ace and most widely remembered as the first man to fly through Mach 1—the speed of sound—in 1947. He tested numerous research aircraft ...
House-Senate Conferees require a larger Air Force in the final version of the fiscal 2021 defense bill, directing the service to build the 386 combat squadrons it said it needs to meet the National Defense Strategy, and specifically raising the bomber fleet to 225 aircraft, ...