The US military maintains a joint combat assessment team at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, which assesses aircraft battle damage. This can include battle damage suffered by any US fixed- or rotary-wing aircraft. The work yields insights on the enemy and ultimately helps to make these platforms more survivable. “Say, for example, an aircraft has been hit by small arms fire while flying a rescue mission. Depending on what evidence is available, we can characterize with pretty good accuracy what types of threats we are facing,” in that area explained Capt. Mark Friesen, one of the airmen performing this work. Much of the information gathered by the team is shared with the Defense Department’s aircraft survivability community, including the Survivability/Vulnerability Information Analysis Center at Wright-Patterson. (Kandahar report by TSgt. Renni Thornton)
Pentagon Releases Cost of Living, BAH Rates for 2026
Dec. 30, 2025
The Pentagon will pay cost of living allowances to 127,000 service members in the continental U.S. in 2026, an increase of 66,000 members in 2025. Airmen and Guardians across the U.S. will also receive an average increase of 4.2 percent for their Basic Housing Allowance, compared to the 5.4 percent…
