Congressional authorizers want to restrict Air Force funding until the service provides more information on its effort to replace the B-52’s engines. But the joint fiscal 2020 defense policy bill would withhold 25 percent of the Air Force’s total 2020 money until USAF Secretary Barbara ...
Air
Air Mobility Command officials recently met with more than a dozen companies to figure out how the Air Force could use privately owned refueling aircraft to take on certain missions, freeing up USAF tankers for more training and operations. The command on Dec. 17 brought ...
Operation Christmas Drop, Pacific Air Forces’ trademark yearly training mission that brings humanitarian aid to dozens of islands throughout the region, delivered supplies for 20,000 people in 2019. The week-and-a-half-long exercise included airdropping 176 bundles totaling more than 70,000 pounds of cargo to residents of ...
Following the deaths of two special tactics airmen within about one month, Air Force Special Operations Command has suspended all parachute, diving, and mountaineering training to review safety equipment and procedures. AFSOC stood down the training on Dec. 3, in coordination with US Special Operations ...
Lawmakers on Dec. 16 struck a deal for a $1.4 trillion bipartisan, bicameral spending plan to fund the government through fiscal 2020, including $695.1 billion for the Defense Department.
The draft 2020 defense policy bill prohibits the Air Force from transferring any low-rate initial production F-35 strike fighters to the adversary air role until the Chief of Staff submits a report to Congress detailing the service’s plan for modernizing its organic aggressor fleet. “It ...
The world’s longest-running airdrop training mission, bringing aid to 20,000 people across 1.8 million square nautical miles, is in full swing in the Pacific. The USAF-led, 68th annual Operation Christmas Drop began on Dec. 7 and runs through mid-December. About 175 bundles full of food, ...
Two Air Force intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance aircraft escaped the chopping block in the joint, draft fiscal 2020 defense policy bill, but the aircraft are still under congressional scrutiny. At issue are the RC-135, a small fleet with multiple varieties of planes used to gather ...
US and coalition aircraft continued to strike Islamic State group targets in Iraq and Syria in November as US forces drew down in size, according to new statistics from Air Forces Central Command. Last month, aircraft as part of Operation Inherent Resolve conducted 153 airstrikes, ...