Air Force Chief of Staff Charles Q. Brown Jr. took a tour of the Middle East in early January, engaging with U.S. allies and visiting service members in the region, the Air Force announced. Brown and Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force JoAnne S. ...
The Air Force is sending a squadron of F-22s to the United Arab Emirates “over the next week or so,” U.S. Central Command boss Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. told the official UAE news agency Feb. 8. The F-22 Raptors will be tasked with helping ...
While much of the Pentagon’s stated focus in the past few months has been about pivoting away from the Middle East to strategic competition with Russia and China, “the most immediate and credible threats to the American homeland” are still coming from the Middle East, ...
Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III on Aug. 22 activated the Civil Reserve Air Fleet to assist with the ongoing airlift out of Afghanistan. Tens of thousands have fled the country. The Stage 1 CRAF activation includes 18 aircraft—three each from American Airlines, Atlas Air, ...
Despite the COVID-19 pandemic, Foreign Military Sales of Air Force systems are on pace to eclipse fiscal 2020 levels, the head of USAF's Security Assistance and Cooperation Directorate said Aug. 5. Transfers have centered on F-15s, F-16s, F-35s, A-29s, and MQ-9 drones. Despite a push ...
The State Department on Nov. 10 formally approved a potential $23.37 billion arms sale to the United Arab Emirates, including up to 50 F-35s, 18 MQ-9s, and both air-to-air and air-to-ground munitions. The move, which is opposed by some on Capitol Hill, comes on the ...
In its 20th assessment of Chinese military power, the Pentagon said China is leading the U.S. and the world in shipbuilding, ballistic missiles, and air defenses. Its combined air and naval air forces are the third-largest in the world and the largest in the Indo-Pacific ...
Air Force F-35As from Hill Air Force Base, Utah, have patrolled the skies of the Middle East continuously for the past 16 months. During the 34th Fighter Squadron's eight-month deployment, the squadron tested new tactics for the fifth-generation F-35A that will lay the groundwork for ...
U.S. unmanned aerial vehicles are the best in the world, but allied nations are barred from acquiring those systems under a 1987 voluntary non-proliferation agreement that classifies them as equivalent to nuclear weapons. Now a new report from the Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies argues ...
Airmen and F-35s from the 388th and 419th Fighter Wings at Hill Air Force Base, Utah, returned home on May 7 from the aircraft type’s second combat deployment to the Middle East. The Airmen and aircraft deployed to Al Dhafra Air Base, United Arab Emirates, ...