Fighter Pilot 101

The Pentagon awarded a contract worth over $2 billion for the next batch of F-35 engines to Pratt & Whitney on June 5. The deal for Lot 17 F135 engines, totaling $2.02 billion, is expected to be completed by December 2025.

Cleaning trash off a training range may sound like a dull task—but not if the trash is highly explosive. Airmen with the 775th Explosive Ordnance Disposal (EOD) Flight deal with such trash on a regular basis at the Utah Test and Training Range (UTTR), an area about the size of…

The Air Force is bumping up bonuses in its quest to retain pilots, the service announced June 5. Aviators—including pilots, air battle managers, and combat systems officers—can now receive up to $50,000 annually for agreeing to stay on in fiscal year 2023, a significant increase from the cap of $35,000…

A pair of B-1 bombers flew over the North Sea on June 5, joining in on an expansive aerial exercise taking place in the Nordic region. As part of Arctic Challenge Exercise 2023, the B-1s from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, flew above the USS Gerald R. Ford aircraft carrier and integrated…

Earlier this spring, the 388th Fighter Wing proved just 12 Airmen can operate an F-35 contingency location, refueling and rearming the fighters at spots across Georgia and South Carolina. The demonstration, part of exercise Agile Flag 23-1, marks yet another proof of concept for the Air Force’s plan to send…

With the Space Force on the precipice of standing up its own European component, the service is studying how it will work within NATO, the continent's primary military framework. To that end, Lt. Gen. DeAnna Burt, deputy chief of space operations for operations, cyber, and nuclear, traveled to Germany and…

The Department of the Air Force has selected Patrick Space Force Base, Fla., as the preferred location for Space Training and Readiness Command (STARCOM) headquarters—and hopes to start moving in by fall of next year.

U.S. President Joe Biden delivered remarks June 1 at the U.S. Air Force Academy graduation ceremony—his first visit to USAFA as president. The full text and video of his speech is available here.

Speaking at the U.S. Air Force Academy’s graduation ceremony June 1, President Joe Biden urged the 921 graduates in the class of 2023 “to keep us at the forefront of air and space dominance.” To do so, Biden added, the newly-commission Air Force and Space Force officers will have to lead their…