Air Force Special Operations Command has a big day planned for Nov. 16, AFSOC commander Gen. Michael Wooley said Tuesday. That’s the date that AFSOC expects to get its first operational CV-22 Osprey aircraft. The Air Commando wing at Hurlburt Field, Fla., will at the same time reactivate the 1st Special Operations Wing, bringing back the designation from AFSOC’s formative days. The existing 16th Special Operations Wing will relocate to the command’s new base at Cannon AFB, N.M. Wooley said standing up a second wing with “equivalent capabilities” at Cannon realizes a vision AFSOC has had for more than a decade—to stand up a new base west of the Mississippi. AFSOC continues to grow and has outgrown Hurlburt, Wooley said.
The Air Force is seeking funding to let its pilots fly a little more than 1.1 million hours in fiscal 2027, which would be the most in about four years. But even if Airmen actually do fly all 1.1 million hours, it would still be short of the 1.3 million…