2023 USAF & USSF Almanac: Leaders

The Air Force’s first new warrant officers in 66 years graduated Dec. 6 at a ceremony at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., the inaugural class of the new Warrant Officer Training School.

The Air Force Global Strike Command is considering long-range, autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft as partners for its bombers but is waiting to see how they prove out with the fighter force first, the head of the command said Dec. 5.

The Air Force is deferring decisions on the Next-Generation Air Dominance stealth fighter program to the incoming Trump Administration, the service announced. It will continue its review of the program in the meantime, as well as continue the Technology Maturation and Risk Reduction phase being performed by undisclosed contractors.

There is no set timeline for retiring the B-1 and B-2 bomber fleets, but when one is established it will be based on strategic conditions and when the B-21 is available to succeed them, the commander of 8th Air Force said Dec. 4.

A pair of Air Force major generals have been nominated to become three stars and the first commanders of new centers formulated as part of the service’s “Great Power Competition” changes. 

The Air Force has begun a sweeping overhaul of its education and training programs with the standup of new centers that will be part of the future Airman Development Command that is scheduled to come online next year, service officials said.

Air Force B-52 bombers dropped live ordnance on simulated enemy positions in Norway on Dec. 3 as part of a training exercise meant to hone data-sharing and targeting skills between NATO allies near the Arctic Circle. 

The U.S. carried out airstrikes on Dec. 3 to defend U.S. forces in eastern Syria, the Pentagon said. The operation destroyed three truck-mounted rocket launchers, mortars, an armored personnel carrier, and a T-64 tank. The strikes were intended to defend American forces at their outpost and not to intervene in the…

The Navy is keeping its fleet of F/A-18 Super Hornets at 80 percent readiness, six years after former Defense Secretary James Mattis ordered both the Air Force and Navy to raise their fighters’ readiness levels. The Air Force, meanwhile, has abandoned that goal and its fighters’ mission capable rates are…