From left to right, a U.S. Air Force F-22 Raptor and F-16 Fighting Falcon, French Air and Space Force Dassault Rafale and Airbus A400M Atlas, a German Air Force Eurofighter Typhoon, a U.S. Marine Corps F/A-18 Hornet, a U.S. Air Force F-35A Lightning II, and a German Air Force PA-200 Tornado, fly in formation during Arctic Defender 24 at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, July 8, 2024. Arctic Defender is a German Air Force-led exercise that provides a unique opportunity to integrate various forces into joint, coalition and multilateral training from simulated forward operating bases and is part of several exercises under Pacific Skies 24. Pacific Skies is a combination of several exercises in the Indo-Pacific theater in which German, French and Spanish air forces participate with U.S. forces. U.S. Air Force photo Senior Airman Julia Lebens
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2026 USAF & USSF Almanac
June 19, 2026
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Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
For more than 50 years, our annual Almanac of the Air Force (and since 2020, the Space Force) has compiled data on the people, weapons, programs, and budgets of the Air Force, Space Force, and Department of Defense. We draw data from multiple sources, including Air Force and Space Force Public Affairs, Department of Defense documents, Congress and reports to Congress, Major Commands, and more.
This comprehensive, unclassified review of Air Force and Space Force data depends on the cooperation of the military services, and we gratefully acknowledge that support. We would be remiss, however, if we did not acknowledge that some data was withheld this year:
Mission Capable Rates for USAF aircraft
Pilot Training Hours
Aircraft Inventory by Major Commands
Average age of aircraft by Major Command
Demographics—Sex, ethnicity, race, and education—for general officers in the Active Air Force and Space Force
Demographics—Sex, ethnicity, race, and education—for all ranks in the Air National Guard
Audio of this article is brought to you by the Air & Space Forces Association, honoring and supporting our Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Find out more at afa.org
The Air Force’s Experimental Operations Unit hosted a change of command ceremony recently, another sign of how the CCA concept is maturing and becoming entrenched in the Air Force’s structure, to the point where exercises have generated multiple sorties in a single day to simulate high-tempo combat operations.
The Space Force will maintain its aging weather satellite fleet—which provides key forecasting data for military planners—until at least 2028 as it transitions to a new replacement architecture.
The Space Force's recently activated 1st Electromagnetic Warfare Squadron is its first unit to combine the Bounty Hunter system with the new Meadowlands, part of a larger push to field and operate powerful EW capabilities across the force.
Search and rescue Airmen from Nellis Air Base, Nev., flew more than 200 miles in two HH-60W Jolly Green IIs last week to rescue five of their Navy helicopter crew counterparts who were forced to land in mountainous terrain near Naval Air Weapons Station China Lake, Calif.
The Air Force said Aug. 13 it recently tested prototypes for a portable ground station for commanding and controlling semi-autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft.
A novel program to integrate U.S. and Japanese space capabilities was “completed” last week when a Japanese navigation satellite carrying a U.S. Space Force payload launched into orbit.
The Space Force wants contractors to sweep decommissioned satellites out of orbit when their useful lives are over, and it's signed up three companies to advance its Deorbit-as-a-Service project: Firefly Aerospace, Katalyst Space, and D-Orbit.
The Space Force announced five new contract awards for its Space Data Network, broadening the vendor base for the proliferated data transport constellation.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Dan Caine, Air Force Secretary Troy Meink, and Chief Master Sergeant of the Space Force John F. Bentivegna paid tribute to Gen. B. Chance Saltzman at the Chief of Space Operations’ Aug. 13 retirement ceremony, ahead of a formal change of responsibility…
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