US Air Forces in Europe on Oct. 1 plans to open the first Joint and Combined Air Dominance Center of Excellence in the world at RAF Lakenheath, UK. According to the center’s commander, Lt. Col. David Slade, the center will consolidate expertise of existing air-to-air and theater air dominance forces, creating a one-stop warehouse for operational doctrine, tactics, techniques, and procedures development.
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…