Air Force and other service medical teams are operating “closer to the front than ever before,” USAF’s Surgeon General told the House Appropriations defense panel last week. Lt. Gen. James Roudebush said the new system of joint en route care has meant that wounded warriors are moved, on average, from the battlefield to definitive care in the States in “three days or less.” He compared that to the up to 14 days required during Operation Desert Storm in 1991 and 45 days during the Vietnam War. The Air Force medics, alone, said Roudebush, have “treated and safely evacuated more than 41,000 patients since the beginning of Operations Enduring Freedom and Iraqi Freedom.”
The F-47 fighter will be run differently than previous fighter programs and share the same mission systems architecture as the Collaborative Combat Aircraft, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Allvin told the Senate Armed Services Committee. That means advances in one will fuel advances in the other.