Air Force F-15Es fired cannon-rounds and dropped 500-pound joint direct attack munitions onto enemy combatants May 28 in Bagram, Afghanistan, Air Forces Central announced May 29. Also in Afghanistan on that day, a B-1B bomber struck enemy fighting positions with 500-pound and 2,000-pound JDAMs in Farah. Joint terminal attack controllers reported that these missions were successful, AFCENT said. In total, coalition aircraft flew 47 close-air-support missions in Afghanistan and 70 CAS missions in Iraq on May 28.
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…