2023 USAF & USSF Almanac: Weapons & Platforms

The Pentagon is considering ditching the Air Force’s plan to buy the E-7 Wedgetail as it looks to outsource the airborne target-tracking mission to space, defense officials indicated this week.

As futuristic aviation programs gain priority, the F-35—the only in-production, fifth-generation American fighter—is facing new headwinds. Fresh debate over its challenges and its potential in the coming months will shape its future role in the force. 

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s first trip to Capitol Hill to argue for next year’s Pentagon budget shed new light on funding for some of the Air Force’s top-priority acquisition programs, even as the department continues to hide its 2026 request from view.

The first batch of instructor pilots on one of the Air Force’s newest airframes are piling on the flight hours as they prepare to welcome their own students next fiscal year.

U.S. bomber units are stepping up the pace of combat operations and overseas training as demand for their capabilities grows around the globe, the head of Air Force Global Strike Command said June 5.

The Air Force on June 5 stood up a new unit to figure out how to use drone wingmen, known as "Collaborative Combat Aircraft," in future air wars.

Funding to build the next two batches of F-35 fighters, originally expected to be finalized by the end of June, won’t be awarded to Lockheed Martin until sometime this summer, the jet's Joint Program Office told Air & Space Forces Magazine.

The Air Force is ready to add more nuclear warheads to its bomber aircraft and underground missiles if ordered to do so when a key arms control treaty expires next year, its top nuclear officer said June 5.

Col. Nick Hague, the first active-duty Guardian to launch into space, urges more Space Force troops to learn from NASA.