Instructor pilots at Sheppard AFB, Tex., recently took four T-37 Tweet training aircraft for a final four-ship formation flight to mark the end of the Tweet era at Sheppard. SSgt. Tonnette Thompson reports that the Texas base begins its transition to the new T-6 Texan II next year. The eight IPs in the four-ship have a total of more than 26,530 flying hours in the Tweet. The 141 T-37s at Sheppard are destined for the Boneyard at the Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Center at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. Sheppard will get 75 Texans in their stead.
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…