Col. Michael Vaughn, head of 20th Air Force operations, said that if you asked the missileers how they felt about changing to 72-hour shifts in October, they “wouldn’t have been very happy.” (See two items above.) Now however, most are looking forward to the greater schedule predictability the change will bring—something made possible through “protected time off” when missileers return from their three-day shifts. AFSPC plans to convert every missile squadron to the new schedule during April.
Raytheon, a division of defense giant RTX, recently announced a multiyear deal with the Pentagon to increase annual production of the Air Force’s primary dogfighting missile by more than 50 percent from two years ago.
