SrA. Nathan Fried, deployed to Bagram AB, Afghanistan, has trained Panjshir Provincial Reconstruction Team members to figure out dew point, wind speed, temperature, barometric pressure, cloud cover, and more. The PRT observers e-mail the data to Fried or another staff weather officer at Bagram, providing more accurate forecasts for ground and air assets transiting the region.
Numbers Game Squeezes USAF Fighter Force
Dec. 15, 2025
Congress set the legal floor for how many primary mission aircraft the Air Force had to have in its fighter force in 2018, requiring at least 1,145 fighters through Oct. 1, 2026. In each of the past past two legislative cycles, lawmakers agreed to reduce the number. But when the House passed…
