The new boss of Air Force Space Command, Gen. Robert Kehler, plans to implement recommendations from the “Lanes in the Road Study” ordered last year by his predecessor Gen. Kevin Chilton, now head of US Strategic Command. In a memo to his senior leaders, Kehler wrote, “AFSPC will look, feel, and act as a single, integrated organization that rapidly and effectively delivers required combat capability to combatant commanders and their mission partners.” The Lanes Study and an earlier Independent Strategic Assessment Group apparently identified “blurred” directorate lines within the command’s management headquarters, according to Col. Jack Weinstein, director of plans, programs, analyses, assessments, and lessons learned. The goal, he said, is to provide a single command lead, eliminating the need for customers to shop around among multiple offices to find the support they need. (AFSPC report by 1st Lt. Lindsey Hahn)
The U.S., South Korea, and Japan flew an unusual trilateral flight with two U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers escorted by two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2s, and two ROK Air Force KF-16 fighters—both countries’ respective variants of the F-16—July 11. That same weekend, the top military officers of the three nations…