Air Force Materiel Command’s newly issued 2013 strategic plan, intended to guide the command’s priorities over the next three to five years, highlights a new vision and mission statement. “AFMC exists to provide our airmen and allies with the best warfighting systems and equipment—bar none,” said AFMC Commander Gen. Janet Wolfenbarger in a Jan. 22 release. Accordingly, the command’s new vision is: “One team, delivering capabilities to fly, fight, and win … today and tomorrow.” And, the command’s mission is “straightforward,” wrote Wolfenbarger in the plan’s introduction: “Equip the Air Force for world-dominant airpower.” AFMC released the 24-page document on Tuesday. “Our strategic plan, with its vision and mission statements, better defines what the nearly 82,000 people of AFMC deliver to the fight,” stated Wolfenbarger in the release. The plan comes on the heels of the command’s reorganization into a five-center construct. The document will serve as “a roadmap” to help guide that new construct and “achieve an even higher level of warfighter support at a point in history where money and resources are extremely constrained,” said Wolfenbarger. (AFMC Strategic Plan 2013; caution, large file.)
Celebrating 100 Years of Liquid-Fueled Rockets
March 11, 2026
March 16, 2026, marks 100 years since Dr. Robert H. Goddard launched the world’s first liquid-fueled rocket. Over the past century, new and ever more capable liquid-fueled rockets have literally propelled humanity into space. Why liquid-fueled rockets?