Air Mobility Command needs to develop a force prepared for a high-end fight, advance new capabilities beyond the traditional role of the heavy aircraft, embrace the role in ferrying the joint force forward, and ensure the nation’s nuclear mission can be fueled and ready, the ...
Defense Secretary Mark T. Esper on Oct. 15 said he is keeping a close eye on the modernity and readiness of the Air Force’s tanker fleet. During an on-stage discussion with Thomas Spoehr, director of the Heritage Foundation’s Center for National Defense, Esper also cited ...
A military team is working with SpaceX to flesh out the prospect of shipping routes that pass through space, the head of U.S. Transportation Command said Oct. 7. That group could demonstrate as early as 2021 whether quickly sending cargo around the globe via space ...
The head of U.S. Transportation Command said Oct. 7 he sees new “momentum” to protect some legacy tanker aircraft from retirement. Canceling that proposed divestment would help the mobility enterprise avoid an oncoming “train wreck” of a tanker shortage while the new KC-46 is delayed, ...
More than 1,600 personnel, 60 companies, over a dozen aircraft, and dozens of radars and sensors came together for a massive Air Force-led event that utilized everything from boots on the ground to satellites in space to test how the service expects to fight a ...
Draft versions of the 2021 defense policy bill in both the House and Senate will keep enough legacy tankers in the Air Force to “bridge” the fleet to the point where the KC-46 will become fully operational without extensive stress on the military’s refueling backbone, ...
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency is eyeing new strides in artificial intelligence and biological technology as it lays plans for fiscal 2022, its acting director said July 30. Former DARPA Director Steven H. Walker’s departure to industry in January offers an “opportunity to rethink ...
A House panel plans to let the Air Force retire some of its KC-10s in a phased approach while blocking cuts to the KC-135 fleet, with a caveat. The House Armed Services seapower and projection forces subcommittee’s markup of the fiscal 2021 National Defense Authorization ...
President Donald Trump has nominated Lt. Gen. Mark Kelly to receive his fourth star and take over as commander of ACC and Lt. Gen. Jacqueline Van Ovost to receive her fourth star and take over as commander of AMC. Kelley is the deputy chief of ...
A B-1B Lancer will play the bad guy and try to penetrate U.S. airspace in a large force exercise that will bring together assets and players from four combatant commands, as well as North American Aerospace Defense Command and the Navy’s Harry S. Truman Carrier ...
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 ...
As the new coronavirus spreads, USAF aircrews are practicing “isolation in motion” to stay healthy while flying important airlift missions. While they can’t practice social distancing in a cockpit, aircrews are isolated before missions, and they go straight from their aircraft to their billets once ...