AFA Almanac

Classified Lockheed Program to Lose $1 Billion Before Becoming a ‘Franchise’

April 23, 2024

Lockheed Martin projects more than a billion dollars of losses on a classified program, but company officials said April 23 they are confident it will turn profitable by 2028 and become a "franchise" system in the U.S. military.

South Korea’s F-4 Phantoms Fire AGM-142 Popeye Missiles One Last Time Before Retirement

April 23, 2024

South Korea conducted the final live-fire drills with its F-4 Phantoms and AGM-142 Popeye missiles amid the largest U.S.-South Korea air exercise of the year.

F-35 Tech Upgrade Slips to 2025; ‘Truncated’ Version in the Fall

April 23, 2024

The full-up Tech Refresh 3 for the F-35 won't be delivered until 2025, Lockheed Martin officials said April 23. A "truncated" version will be delivered this fall so users can start taking delivery of their jets, and then be able to exploit the full capabilities once the complete upgrade is…

Saltzman: New Space Force Readiness Model Will Be ‘Drastic Change’

April 23, 2024

Chief of Space Operations Gen. B. Chance Saltzman said reforms underway to the Space Force’s deployment and training model are the “most drastic change accompanying the establishment of the Space Force” in a note distributed to Guardians on April 19. “It fundamentally alters how we prepare for operations,” Saltzman wrote…

Why a C-130 Crew Braved a 26 Hour Flight to Guam

April 23, 2024

An Air Force C-130J crew braved a long flight around half the planet last week as part of an experiment testing how quickly they could respond to a crisis in the Indo-Pacific. Dubbed Hazard Leap, the test kicked off on April 20 when two full crews in a C-130J assigned…

US Confirms First Attack on American Troops in Months as Drones Shot Down in Iraq

April 22, 2024

The U.S. thwarted a drone attack on U.S. forces at Al Asad air base in western Iraq on April 22, marking the first time that American troops have been targeted since February, U.S. officials said. “We can confirm it was an attack on Al Asad,” a defense official told Air & Space…

President Says Poland ‘Ready’ to Join NATO Nuclear Sharing

April 22, 2024

Polish president Adrzej Duda said in a interview published April 22 his country is "ready" to become one of the "nuclear sharing" NATO partners that can deploy American tactical nuclear weapons from their fighter aircraft, but prime minister Donald Tusk said no such decision has been made.

ICBM Cancer Study Finds No High Levels of Hazardous Chemicals at Vandenberg

April 22, 2024

The Air Force found no significant evidence of harmful chemicals at Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., as part of its ongoing Missile Community Cancer Study, the service said on April 22. Samples collected in February found “no instances of contamination above regulatory action level.” The sampling of Vandenberg focused on polychlorinated…

DOD Needs a Plan To Make Military Health System Genesis Work Better for Users, Watchdog Says

April 22, 2024

Government Accountability Office urged the Department of Defense to set concrete goals for improving user satisfaction with military health system (MHS) Genesis, the widely-maligned program meant to modernize and streamline the military’s electronic health record (EHR) networks, the GAO said in a report released April 18.

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