In a new Letter to Airmen, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne writes that Air Force, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve Command “training and operations make it impossible to differentiate between the three components.” He goes on to note that the days of the “strategic reserve” are gone and adds, “our total force sacrifices daily through extended deployments in the most challenging missions we have.” Wynne’s bottom line: “Total Force has moved from a future concept to today’s reality.”
The Air Force awarded a $13.08 billion contract to the Sierra Nevada Corporation on April 26 for its Survivable Airborne Operations Center aircraft, the successor to the service’s E-4B “Doomsday” plane. Like the E-4B, officially called the National Airborne Operations Center, the SAOC will be meant to withstand a nuclear attack and keep…