Raptor Futures
The Air Force could keep flying F-22 Raptors to nearly 2060, based on current usage and assuming the service keeps flying them until the very last hour of service life is exhausted. The F-22 was designed for a service life...
Future Kill Chain
The next step in air dominance is not as easy as simply starting a new airplane program because “warfare today is such a complicated endeavor,” involving aspects that weren’t anticipated even a short while ago, Air Force acquisition chief William...
Asking the Right Questions
Those impatient for the Air Force to get going on a sixth generation fighter need to be patient and wait for the Air Dominance 2030 study to figure out what’s really needed, Pentagon acquisition chief William LaPlante said in an...
Laser Guided Rockets for Fast CAS?
The Air Force is considering arming its fast jets with laser-guided rockets to provide longer endurance close air support with low risk of collateral damage, testers at Eglin AFB, Fla., told Air Force Magazine during a recent visit to the...
Everhart Tapped to Lead AMC
President Barack Obama nominated Lt. Gen. Carlton Everhart for a fourth star and for assignment as commander of Air Mobility Command, according to an internal Air Force memo. Everhart has led 18th Air Force at Scott AFB, Ill., since June...
Beale’s Perfect Lady
Maintainers of the 9th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron achieved the first zero discrepancy status on a U-2 Dragonlady in 13 years of flying operations at Beale AFB, Calif. “This was a 1980 model,” 9th AMXS Superintendent CMSgt. John Pinksaw said in...
US Signs Off On ROK F-16 Upgrade Deal
The US State Department approved a potential foreign military sale to South Korea on July 14 for the KF-16 upgrade program, a potential $2.5-billion effort that will modernize some 134 KF-16s in the Republic of Korea Air Force inventory with...
Rumble Down Under
Air Force and Royal Australian Air Force C-17s commenced Exercise Talisman Sabre with a combined air assault mission from JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, to RAAF Amberly, Australia, last week, officials announced. Roughly 400 Army airborne troops parachuted into Kapyong Airfield in...
Air Advisor Academy Stands Down
The Air Force’s Air Advisor Academy at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., inactivated and was subsumed into the US Air Force Expeditionary Center’s schoolhouse during a July 10 ceremony. The training of specialized advisors to build foreign partners’ capacity transitions from Air...
Air Advisors Focus on Medevac Skills in Kabul
Air advisors with the Train Advise Assist Command-Air hosted 10 Afghan flight medics and a flight nurse for medical evacuation training on July 9 at Kabul international airport, where they simulated medevac procedures on a C-130H Hercules. Advisors and their...