SDB Goes Operational: 
Munitions maintenance airmen of the 48th Fighter Wing, RAF Lakenheath, England, have been getting schooled on the Air Force’s newest munition—the Small Diameter Bomb, or GBU-39. The wing will be deploying F-15E fighters equipped with the SDB for the munition’s first operational debut—in Southwest Asia—this fall. TSgt. Corey Hammond, production supervisor for the 48th Munitions Squadron, says the SDB is “a great weapon” for ground crew, noting that they like “the ease of it.” He explained, “It requires less manpower. It requires less maintenance. When you are on the fighting front that’s important.”
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.