Randolph AFB, Tex., has just received the last two of the Air Force’s upgraded T-38C aircraft. The Air Force began 11 years ago to upgrade the avionics on the nearly 40-year-old trainers, making such dramatic changes to the aircraft’s “brain” that it “really is a whole new aircraft,” says Lt. Col. James Garrett, chief of undergraduate flying training requirements at Air Education and Training Command. He called the upgrade essential because of growing maintainability and replacement problems. MSgt. Jon Hanson reports that more changes are in progress for the propulsion system, ejection seats, and banking system—all of which the service expects to complete by 2015.
The U.S. carried out airstrikes on Dec. 3 to defend U.S. forces in eastern Syria, the Pentagon said. The operation destroyed three truck-mounted rocket launchers, mortars, an armored personnel carrier, and a T-64 tank. The strikes were intended to defend American forces at their outpost and not to intervene in the…