US Air Force maintainers finished work early—way early—on some mighty unusual aircraft for USAF airmen. A 16-member project team, comprising airmen from Edwards AFB, Calif., Hill AFB, Utah, Robins AFB, Ga., and Tinker AFB, Okla., stripped down and rebuilt four Iraqi Air Force Comp Air 7SLX aircraft at Edwards over 41 days. The job was supposed to take 130 days. Once they had that done, they removed the wings and packed all four aircraft, which Iraq got from the United Arab Emirates, and their parts and tools on a C-17 to fly to Kirkuk AB, Iraq, where they set to work on four more of the aircraft, which the Iraqis plan to use to check oil pipelines. (Read more here.)
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.