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
In September, the Air Force celebrates its 70th year as an independent armed service, having previously been a branch of the Army. After a history arguably dating back to the American Civil War, the Air Force in 1947 began a new story of development and achievement under its own banner.
In the story available through link at the top right button on this page, we have selected 70 photographs representing the Air Force’s history and evolution, one for each year. They comprise leaders, acts of heroism, aircraft, missiles, tragedies, victories, and successes of many kinds.
It would be impossible to select the most important Air Force mission, person, or feat in any given year, nor is it feasible to represent in 70 pictures the more than 300 USAF career specialties or the hundreds of types of aircraft and other weapon systems it has operated. Rather, these images, taken collectively, are meant to illustrate and illuminate 70 years of progress, struggle, and accomplishment.
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 emerging ability to bet on future events using online prediction platforms puts a new twist on classified information: Now there are ways to profit from that insider information.
The Air Force’s BACN may be cooked—the service plans to retire its entire E-11A Battlefield Airborne Communications Node fleet in fiscal 2028 and equip aircraft to use satellite communications instead.
Operations Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury make this crystal clear: Bombers that can precisely deliver large payloads halfway around the world are crucial assets. Given the small size and advanced age of America’s current bomber inventory, it is time to boost investment in the B-21 Raider to ensure long range strike remains a viable option at scale for the foreseeable future.
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.
The Air Force Research Laboratory is undergoing a major reorganization, consolidating 11 of its organizations into seven as part of a broader Pentagon effort to get more technology from the lab to users in the field.
Lockheed Martin’s aeronautics division is getting new leadership, with president Greg Ulmer retiring and Skunk Works general manager O.J. Sanchez tapped to succeed him.
F-22 Raptors from two squadrons have arrived at Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, the latest rotation of fighters at the key Japanese base as its awaits its delayed F-15EX Eagle IIs.
Anticipating significant demand in the coming years for reconnaissance and surveillance satellites, the Space Force is increasing the ceiling value of its recently awarded Andromeda contract from $1.8 billion to more than $6.2 billion.
Fresh off the first combat deployment of its new EA-37B, the Air Force is nearly doubling the planned number of new electronic attack jets and projecting more than $3 billion in spending on the program in the next five years.
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