The Wisconsin Air National Guard’s 115th Fighter Wing stood up an active association with an injection of Active Duty airmen at Truax Field near Madison, Wis., on Feb.7. “We’re going to get young aviators, young maintainers, young support personnel, and they are going to work right alongside those of you in the guard who have been doing this for a lot longer than they have,” said Lt. Col. J. Scott Gibson, commander of the new Active Duty 495th Fighter Group Det. 176 at Truax. The detachment will add four Active Duty F-16 pilots, and a total of 40 Active maintenance and support personnel that will work alongside their Air National Guard counterparts, according to the unit release. Madison’s association is part of the Air Force’s overall Total Force Integration effort to stand up Active Duty detachments at each of its ANG and Air Force Reserve Command fighter units.
The Pentagon announced new long-term agreements with four defense companies May 13 to develop and produce large numbers of low-cost cruise missiles. And while the effort will focus mostly on the Army to start, it pairs with Air Force efforts to find more affordable munitions.