Air

WORLD: Readiness

June 18, 2026
New KC-46 Vision System Slips to ’28  By Matthew Cox The Air Force says it has formed a plan with Boeing to get key upgrades deployed across the KC-46 tanker fleet faster—but the service acknowledged it won’t start fielding the...

WORLD: Iran

June 18, 2026
Epic Fury’s Epic Cost: $29B  By Chris Gordon The cost of operations against Iran has risen to $29 billion, a senior Pentagon official told lawmakers May 12, a $4 billion increase from the Department of Defense’s last public estimate two...

WORLD: Air

June 18, 2026
USAF Tests New Air-to-Air Missile  By Stephen Losey The military’s secretive new air-to-air missile appears to have been publicly photographed for the first time during testing. A missile matching previously released information and renders of the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical...
DOD Personnel by the numbers: Total Force; end strength and manpower trends; breakdowns by sex, rank, region, command, Air Force Specialty Codes, and more.

Letters

June 18, 2026
We love letters! Write to us at letters@afa.org. To be published, letters should be timely, relevant and concise. Include your name and location. Letters may be edited for space and the editors have final say on which are published. Foresight...
The Pentagon’s record $1.5 trillion defense budget reveals interesting differences in how each service seeks to spend its share of this trove of national treasure.  The Army and Navy are going big on procurement. The Space Force is investing across...