Air Education and Training Command's fixed-wing trainer aircraft saw a 17 percent improvement in their mission capable rates in fiscal 2020 over the previous year, pushed by investments in facilities, proactive parts replacement, and maintenance reorganzation, the command reported.
Aircraft Propulsion
In the summer of 2019, the 18th Maintenance Group at Kadena Air Base, Japan, was struggling to produce just a light day of sorties. Just 16 months later, the unit pulled off a “super surge,” putting up 436 sorties in three and a half days—the ...
Despite solid combat performance, the F-35’s high maintenance costs and ongoing parts supply problems continue to be a drag on the fifth-generation fighter aircraft, giving critics ammunition as Congress readies to receive the Biden administration’s first budget. Lockheed Martin is delivering F-35s at a rate ...
The United States is on a crash course to field prototype hypersonic weapons within three years, with more elaborate and mature systems to follow soon after. Flight tests will ramp up quickly this year, with follow-on tests as frequently as every six weeks over the ...
The B-21 is progressing to roll out and first flight, as the Air Force wrestles with how many to buy.
The Air Force is investing in electronic aircraft, hoping to jumpstart a nascent market.
The first flight of the secretive B-21 bomber has slipped to mid-2022, but the program is moving along well, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office director Randall Walden said in an exclusive interview. The second copy of the B-21, which will be used for structural testing, ...
Lockheed Martin will buy Aerojet Rocketdyne, maker of rocket motors and hypersonic engines, among other products, in a $5 billion transaction, Lockheed announced Dec. 21. The biggest issue in the potential deal is how comfortable the industry, Congress, and the Pentagon will be with all ...
Nineteenth Air Force has transformed Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph’s Hangar 62 into an official hub for teaching the next generation of trainer aircraft maintainers. The 19th Air Force Maintenance Training Center, which the numbered Air Force opened on Oct. 29, will serve as a schoolhouse ...
