The airman who stopped a terrorist attack aboard a high-speed train to Paris will be promoted to senior airman at the end of October—and then to staff sergeant the first of November, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh announced Tuesday...

The Air Force will conduct the first flight of the KC-46A on Sept. 25, following a completed fuel dock test and a complete revamp of the fuel system after a contamination incident this summer, the program executive announced Sept. 15...

Not too long ago, the Air Force was blamed for “next-war-itis,” but Air Combat Command boss Gen. Hawk Carlisle said when you consider everything happening in the world today, “we needed to think about that.” Speaking Tuesday at ASC15, Carlisle...

A return to sequester-level funding in Fiscal 2016 might also mean the return of Air Combat Command’s tiered readiness model. Whether the Defense Department is forced back to Budget Control Act-levels or funds drop even lower under a long-term continuing...

The Air Force needs to start planning the recapitalization of some of its core electronic warfare and intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance assets, which are nearing the end of their service lives, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said Sept. 15...

The Air Force has a list of “must pays” beyond its “big three” acquisition programs—the F-35 strike fighter, the KC-46A tanker, and the Long-Range Strike Bomber, said Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh on Tuesday during ASC15. “There are a...

One unintended consequence of an extended continuing resolution on the KC-46 and F-35 programs has nothing to do with technology, but civil engineering, said Air Force Materiel Command chief Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski at ASC15. A CR would “impact our ability...

Air Education and Training Command will double the amount of remotely piloted aircraft pilots to meet an ever-increasing demand for intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance across the service, AETC’s commander Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson said Sept. 15 at ASC15. The command...

The Air Force has not yet been able to realize the full potential of the MQ-1B and MQ-9 fleets and its ability to fly multiple different missions simply because the pilots have not been able to train enough, Gen. Hawk...

The discussion on the future of close air support has to move beyond a focus on just an airframe and onto new technologies the service can employ, Gen. Hawk Carlisle, commander of Air Combat Command, said Sept. 15 at ASC15....

The F-35 program has shifted from “slow and steady” to “rapidly growing and accelerating,” program executive officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan reported at ASC15 Tuesday. The program is ramping up from a three-year period where production was “30-40 a year”...

The F-35 program will have to “skinny down” its ambitious program of upgrades beyond the baseline 3F configuration, program executive officer Lt. Gen. Christopher Bogdan said at ASC15 Tuesday. Neither the US nor the partners can afford the cost of...

The F-15C and E fleets will need a Service Life Extension Program that will cost “billions,” Air Combat Command chief Gen. Hawk Carlisle told reporters at ASC?15. “If you look at the stress tests we’re doing on the F-15C and...

With more information coming into the US Air Force’s Distributed Common Ground System (DCGS) than ever before—from space, cyber, and air sensors—the service needs to find a way to embrace new concepts such as machine learning, metadata tagging, and open...

Air Combat Command in the “near future” will demonstrate the ability to rapidly deploy personnel recovery airmen and assets abroad, similar to its recently developed capability to rapidly deploy combat aircraft, ACC boss Gen. Hawk Carlisle said Monday at ASC15....

One of the main deciding factors for the next-generation training aircraft will be how good the system’s simulators will be, in addition to how the aircraft performs in the air, Lt. Gen. Darryl Roberson, the commander of Air Education and...

The Air Force and Pentagon are not adequately rewarding industry for taking the risks needed to develop breakthrough aircraft and weapons, said former Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne, speaking at ASC15 on Tuesday. “I think there’s a risk we’re taking...

Four AC-130U Spooky gunships previously slated for retirement will soldier on to meet added operational demand in Iraq and Syria and cover for delays needed to put a 105-millimeter gun on the new AC-130J. “Because of the demand created by...

The bulk of the AC-130W Stinger II gunship fleet will be up-gunned with the addition of a 105-mm artillery gun like the rest of the gunship fleets, Air Force Special Operations Command boss Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold revealed on Tuesday...

The Air Force has added about half of the roughly 2,000 people that make up the service’s portion of the Cyber Mission Force, and by the end of the month should have 17 teams at initial operating capability and two...

One of the ways the Air Force may look to draw in cyber talent in the future is through “alternate career paths” or “alternate personnel systems,” said Brig. Gen. Brian Kelly, the Air Force’s Military Force Management Policy director, at...

Operation Inherent Resolve over Iraq and Syria uncovered a serious shortfall in available intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance capacity within the coalition. Major contributors—the US, UK, and France—“either through underinvestment or reapportionment, have inadvertently taken risk in many of the same...

Due to specialized skill sets required in fields of advanced commercial analytics and data science, USAF’s intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance field does not stand a chance of keeping much of the uniformed or civilian human capital in these careers as...

The Trilateral Strategic Initiative between the US Air Force, Royal Air Force, and the French Air Force has opened up new avenues for cooperation and building interoperability, according to a Sept. 15 panel at ASC15. USAF Maj. Gen. John Newell,...

The US military is far from developing fully autonomous vehicles, ones completely uncontrolled by humans, said Paul Scharre, senior fellow and director of the 20YY Warfare Initiative. However, since current trends in development for manned aircraft are “unsustainable,” it’s wise...

The US has the world’s largest airspace—five million miles—and is the most diverse, most complex, yet safest one, said Edward Bolton, the assistant administrator for NextGen at the Federal Aviation Administration, at ASC15. That said, the amount of close calls...

The NextGen project, aimed at modernizing airspace infrastructure, is on track for initial operational capability, said Edward Bolton, the assistant administrator for NextGen at the Federal Aviation Administration, at ASC15. The fear, however, is that because the behemoth project is...