The new Air Force Chief of 
Staff, Gen. Michael Moseley, used the occasion of his first major address (September 14) to re-affirm the main mission. Speaking at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, he noted that the Air Force has been engaged “1,438 days straight” fighting terrorists around the world, and that some might start to lose focus. However, Moseley warned, airmen “cannot now, nor ever, lose sight of the fact that the mission of the United States Air Force is to fly and to fight.” Winning the war, said Moseley, means airmen must never take their “concentration off that ball,” whether operating as a joint or coalition or independent team. “We fly and we fight, whether it’s flying a spacecraft in geosynchronous orbit or a UAV over Baghdad or flying an A-10 into Afghanistan or an AWACs crew over the CONUS or an HH-60 into Biloxi, Miss. This is what we do.”
The Pentagon awarded a contract worth over $2 billion for the next batch of F-35 engines to Pratt & Whitney on June 5. The deal for Lot 17 F135 engines, totaling $2.02 billion, is expected to be completed by December 2025.