Lt. Col. Jeff Roetzel with the 9th Expeditionary Bomb Squadron recently passed a milestone in the B-1B, becoming the first pilot to go over 4,000 flying hours in the Lancer, better known among the airmen who fly and maintain it as the “Bone.” Roetzel reached the 4,000-hour mark during an Operation Enduring Freedom combat mission. He acknowledged in an Air Force news release that the first Bone crewman to reach the milestone was a weapons systems officer. Roetzel credits his reaching 4,000 hours with the time he spent flying the B-1B while he served in the Kansas Air National Guard, after leaving active duty in 1996. In 2003, he came back on active duty to continue flying the B-1; he expects to retire from active duty this fall.
Sikorsky is pitching a modified "U-Hawk" version of older UH-60 Black Hawk series helicopters as autonomous resupply aircraft with additional capabilities as missile or drone swarm launchers.
