The 492nd SOW Lands at Davis-Monthan By Stephen Losey As the last few A-10 Warthogs leave Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., Air Force Special Operations Command is accelerating plans to move a new wing to the Arizona base. The 492nd...
KC-135 Stratotanker
The KC-135 Stratotanker that lost part of its vertical stabilizer in a deadly midair collision over Iraq in March is among a group of damaged tankers that have returned to Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., to be fully repaired.
Gallery of Weapons
A KC-135 Stratotanker’s front landing gear retracted while it was parked on the flightline of McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., on May 29, prompting the aircraft’s forward fuselage to touch the ground. Two maintainers were onboard and three other crew members were nearby the aircraft ...
KC-135 Stratotankers have arrived in Saudi Arabia to replace the KC-10s which recently left the region for good after 30-plus years of service. The aerial tankers from Fairchild Air Force Base, Wash., arrived at Prince Sultan Air Base on Oct. 2. The 384th Expeditionary Air ...
Aerial refueling is a family business for Master Sgt. Kevin Clancy and his daughter, 1st Lt. Megan Hirlehey, who flew her first operational flight on July 6 aboard a KC-135 on which Clancy served as dedicated crew chief for six years.
The Air Force has ordered safety inspections for its entire fleets of KC-135 tankers, RC-135 reconnaissance planes, and WC-135 “nuke sniffers” over poorly-made tail pins, preventing aircraft from flying until they are cleared. The Time Compliance Technical Order (TCTO), issued Feb. 14, affects hundreds of aircraft. ...
Three dozen aircraft assembled on the flight line for an “elephant walk” at Kadena Air Base, Japan, in a show of air power. The capabilities demonstration included six different kinds of aircraft, all stationed at Kadena at the moment. The display came on the same day U.S. ...
RAF MILDENHALL, U.K—The ops tempo has increased as of late, but after every sortie, the pilots, co-pilots, and boom operators flying the KC-135s of the 100th Air Refueling Wing still gather for a debrief. And in those sessions, the Airmen develop a bond they feel ...
Only a few years ago, RAF Mildenhall, one of a few bases in the United Kingdom that still hosts U.S. Air Force units, was set to close, a target of the 2015 European Infrastructure Consolidation Plan. That changed in the summer of 2020, when then-Defense ...
Air Force Global Strike Command integrated B-52s from Minot Air Force Base, N.D., with B-1s operating from RAF Fairford, England, and a host of British aircraft for exercises over the North Sea on Nov. 10. The Bomber Task Force Europe mission included a targeting activity ...
FAIRCHILD AIR FORCE BASE, Wash.—For a barometer of the military’s unrelenting thirst for aerial refueling, look to the sprawling flight line here in the Inland Northwest. Fairchild is the home of the Air Force’s only “super” tanker wing, with four KC-135 squadrons. The fourth, the ...
