Air Mobility Command is pursuing a contract for privately operated tankers to meet the unrelenting need for booms in the air as the service proposes cutting 29 KC-135s and KC-10s. The command is wrapping up a feasibility study on the plan this month with the ...
The U.S. Air Force recently deployed aid to nations in Europe to help counter the spread of the new coronavirus and brought home Americans stranded abroad. “The COVID-19 pandemic requires that we work with our allies and partners to meet the challenges together,” U.S. Air ...
The Air Force’s depot maintenance activities continue unabated during the COVID-19 crisis, but Air Force Materiel Command is staying alert for supply chain issues that could affect throughput. “To date, no mission requirements have been impacted, and aircraft are still being inducted into the depots,” ...
Members of Congress who've heard the Air Force's explanation of why it's trading capacity now to get connectivity later back the move, Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told reporters February 27. But he expects a lot more explanation will be needed. “The risk is ...
Lawmakers on Feb. 26 signaled a harsh fight ahead over the Pentagon's plans to retire aging aircraft and shift spending from weapons systems to border wall protection. The Defense Department’s total $705.4 billion fiscal 2021 request looks to retire dozens of USAF aircraft. Defense Secretary ...
A touted $30 billion realignment of the Air Force's budget, with some wholesale retirements of major systems, did not materialize in the spending documents released Feb. 10. Instead, the Air Force is reducing its operational fleet to pay for technology upgrades emphasizing connectivity, agile logistics, ...
Air Force Reserve Command is mulling where to place four newly funded C-130Js, prioritizing two wings with specialized missions. The fiscal 2020 defense spending bill provided an additional $730 million for 8 C-130J aircraft, including four for the Air Force Reserve and four for the ...
Dynetics and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency are moving forward with their Gremlins drone swarming program after flying a small unmanned aircraft for the first time in late November. The X-61A flew with and launched from a C-130 wing at Dugway Proving Ground, Utah. ...
Operation Christmas Drop, Pacific Air Forces’ trademark yearly training mission that brings humanitarian aid to dozens of islands throughout the region, delivered supplies for 20,000 people in 2019. The week-and-a-half-long exercise included airdropping 176 bundles totaling more than 70,000 pounds of cargo to residents of ...
The world’s longest-running airdrop training mission, bringing aid to 20,000 people across 1.8 million square nautical miles, is in full swing in the Pacific. The USAF-led, 68th annual Operation Christmas Drop began on Dec. 7 and runs through mid-December. About 175 bundles full of food, ...
Congressional authorizers are offering the Air Force less money in most areas than the service asked for in fiscal 2020, but want to put nearly $19 billion toward aircraft procurement, according to the bipartisan, bicameral defense policy bill, which passed the House on Dec. 11.
The health of the Air Force's B-1 fleet, which spent much of 2019 plagued with readiness issues, has improved, enabling Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Timothy Ray to send the bombers on a short-notice deployment to the Middle East with plans for a ...