2024 USAF & USSF Almanac: USAF Institutional and Component Commands

A massive wargame this summer saw Air Force C-130 crews push their limits to haul everything from potatoes to firetrucks between small islands across the Pacific.

The Air Force awarded a prototyping contract for a successor to the GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator, the hulking munition used to destroy Iran’s deeply buried nuclear development sites this June as part of Operation Midnight Hammer. 

“This much is certain: First, U.S. Air Force airpower is vital to deter adversaries and secure victory in conflict; and second, the U.S. Air Force is too small, too old, and too lacking in combat readiness to meet the nation’s security requirements. The Air Force needs decisive, insightful leadership not…

President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Sept. 5 to rename the Department of Defense as the Department of War, a move that has heightened the ongoing debate over the White House’s legal authorities and the role of the military in the world and at home. 

The Air Force needs a steady infusion of as much as $30 billion a year to reverse the decades of neglect that has diminished its readiness, capacity, and capability to dangerously low levels, according to a new report from the Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies.

The U.S. homeland is vulnerable to air and missile attack across the Arctic because the network of ground, air, and space-based defenses guarding those approaches have atrophied over time, according to a new paper from AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. 

Even after reducing the scope of Block 4 F-35 upgrades, Lockheed Martin will still needs two years to develop and install planned improvements, the Government Accountability Office said in a new audit of the fighter program. Details about what upgrades will be carried into production, as well as a new…

The People’s Republic of China emphasized operational and near-operational fifth-generation aircraft in its massive Sept. 2 military parade marking the 80th anniversary of victory over Japan in World War II. Also trucked through Tiananmen Square were a number of uncrewed aircraft, many of which bear a striking resemblance to U.S.…

In a first, the Air National Guard recently tested how its new rescue helicopter would survive against attacks from enemy fighter aircraft to prepare for a potential war in the Pacific.