Air Force Chief of Staff Michael Moseley told reporters this morning at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando that the service’s new long-range strike aircraft will be the “backbone of the bomber force.” With long-range strike and F-22 fleet size hanging on it, the new program better work. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne added that the Air Force is going to try to get initial operating capability on the new bomber by 2018, but he acknowledges, “We know that will be a struggle.”
A half-dozen pilots from one of the Air Force’s premier F-16 units, the 20th Fighter Wing at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., have been awarded one of the service’s highest decorations for their role in Operation Midnight Hammer, the June 2025 strikes against Iranian nuclear facilities.