Several Air Force aircraft including F-16s, C-130s, and KC-135s have deployed to northern Africa for the continent’s largest exercise involving 7,000 participants from nine nations. The African Lion exercise wraps up June 18, with USAF aircraft flying alongside Moroccan aircraft in close air support training ...
The Air Force is again targeting its old tankers for retirement, so it can make room for new KC-46s to come online. The service's 2022 budget request looks to cut 18 KC-135s and 14 KC-10s, as it buys 14 more KC-46s. Maj. Gen. James D. ...
The Pentagon’s $715 billion budget request aims to increase research and development, with a key focus on what is needed in the Indo-Pacific, and it will chop old aircraft to do it. The Biden administration’s first budget request, released May 28, includes the biggest total ...
The Air Force is asking to retire 201 airplanes and buy 91 new ones in its fiscal 2022 budget request, representing a net decrease of 110 airplanes. The fighter fleet would drop by 77 aircraft, and the RQ-4 Global Hawk fleet would be cut by ...
The Biden administration's first budget request, to be released May 28, will trade aircraft and other capabilities not relevant in future fights for the “largest ever” request for research and development, with a particular focus on what is needed to compete against China, top Pentagon ...
Air Force Magazine on May 25 flew aboard a KC-46 during a refueling flight as part of Air Mobility Command’s major exercise Mobility Guardian 2021 in Michigan, the first time an independent media outlet has flown on the new tanker. The KC-46 from McConnell Air ...
Top Department of the Air Force leaders told lawmakers May 7 they need to divest aging aircraft to make room for more advanced systems, setting up a now familiar budget fight on Capitol Hill. “America cannot wait to modernize the Air Force any longer, not ...
Utah Air National Guard KC-135s and Airmen deployed to the Middle East on April 5-6 to support combat operations in Afghanistan and Iraq and Syria. The four KC-135s and 120 Airmen from the 151st Air Refueling Wing will support Operation Inherent Resolve—the ongoing fight against ...
Two B-1B Lancers returned to Europe for a bomber task force flight on April 7, shortly after USAF bombers returned home from the continent after a deployment. The Lancers from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., flew directly to the Aegean Sea and returned home in ...
The Air Force’s tanker presence in the Arctic will grow, with four more KC-135s heading to a new Active component at Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska. The KC-135s and up to 220 Active duty Airmen will head to the 168th Wing at Eielson, with aircraft ...
The USAF air refueling mission to support French counter-terrorism operations in Mali is entering its eighth year, with KC-135s offloading more than six million pounds refueling French aircraft. The 100th Air Refueling Wing at RAF Mildenhall, United Kingdom, is now the sole unit deploying to ...
U.S. Air Forces in Europe last week wrapped its Advanced Battle Management System demonstration, bringing together dozens of aircraft from U.S. military services and multiple countries to find new ways to share data and operate together. The USAFE “on ramp” demonstration was the first to ...