KC-135 tankers of the 22nd Expeditionary Air Refueling Squadron at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, set a single-day, fuel-offload record for the base on May 24 by passing 804,800 pounds of fuel to 32 receivers during 12 missions. The figure bested the previous offload mark of 722,000 pounds that was set Aug. 13, 2007. “This impressive offload accounted for 55 percent of all the air refueling support in Afghanistan that day,” said Lt. Col. Wayne Cooper, the unit’s commander. (Manas report by Lt. Col. Adriane Craig)
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force has unveiled a new electronic warfare drone designed to fly with fighter jets into contested airspace, including alongside its fleet of F-35s. RAF says it plans to develop models that draw on the U.S. Air Force’s approach of mating unmanned systems with crewed platforms.