As 2025 draws to a close, Air & Space Forces Magazine selected several dozen of the best photos capturing exploration, activities, achievements, challenges, salutes, history, and milestones for Airmen, Guardians, and their families. Check them out below, and Happy Holidays!
National Security
The U.S. began extensive air and artillery strikes against Islamic State group targets in Syria on Dec. 19 in retaliation for the killing of three Americans on Dec. 13 by a gunman affiliated with ISIS, U.S. officials said.
Gen. John D. Lamontagne has been nominated by President Donald Trump to become Vice Chief of Staff of the Air Force, a job that has been vacant since February. Brig. Gen. Christopher A. Eason, currently commander of the Oklahoma Air National Guard, has also been ...
Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth visited the site of U.S. Space Command’s future home Dec. 12 and endorsed the move to establish the headquarters in Alabama after years of political back and forth.
The U.S. sent Air Force F-16s over central Syria in a show of force following the Dec. 13 killing of two U.S. Army Soldiers and one American civilian interpreter by a gunman linked to the Islamic State group.
More than three-fourths of Americans would support using force to support NATO’s collective defense, according to the Ronald Reagan Institute’s latest annual National Defense Survey. The report comes as the Pentagon prepares to unveil its new National Defense Strategy, the lodestar for multiyear planning. It ...
Less than two years after previous Air Force leaders announced a sweeping slate of changes, the new top brass is discarding more than half of them.
The sinking of 21 boats and killing of dozens of accused “narco-terrorists” by the Trump administration over the past two months has sparked an intense debate among legal experts and lawmakers.
President Donald Trump projected confidence Nov. 19 that a proposed sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia will sail through the Foreign Military Sales process, an early test of the Pentagon’s acquisition reforms. The deal is also likely to face scrutiny from ally Israel over how ...