Eielson to House First Operational Overseas F-35s

Eielson AFB, Alaska, was chosen as the home base for the Air Force’s first operational overseas F-35A strike fighters, the service annou?nced Monday. The base will get two squadrons of F-35As. “Alaska combines a strategically important location with a world-class...

Reducing JSTARS Risk

The Air Force on March 24 awarded two contracts worth up to $130 million to develop radar systems for the next generation JSTARS, moving forward on a program to replace the current E-8 fleet. Specifically, USAF awarded up to $70.2...

Dragging Fuel Prices Down

The Air Force and Boeing are searching for a way to reduce the C-17’s drag and, in turn, reduce fuel costs. During the first phase of the Air Force Research Laboratory’s C-17 drag reduction program, which concluded in March, testers...

Crushing Records at Lakenheath

The 48th Fighter Wing at RAF Lakenheath, England, flew 1,238 sorties in March, topping the previous record of 938 sorties flown in August 2015. “We crushed the record, but that wasn’t the goal,” said Col. Scottie Zamzow, 48th Operations Group...

Coalition Bombs ISIS-Held Turkish Consulate

Coalition aircraft on Monday targeted a former Turkish government building in Mosul, Iraq, that ISIS had turned into a headquarters facility in its stronghold, Pentagon spokesman Peter Cook said. The coalition received Ankara’s blessing to bomb its former consulate in...

US Strikes al Qaeda Leader in Syria

US aircraft on Sunday targeted a meeting of al Qaeda operatives in Northwest Syria, killing a senior leader whose ties to the group stretch back to operations in Afghanistan in the 1980s. The Pentagon on Monday said the strikes targeted...

Iraqi Officers Begin NATO Training in Jordan

The first group of Iraq national security force officers began training at a NATO course in Jordan on April 2, according to a press release. The course, part of NATO’s defense capacity building program for Iraq, was prompted by a...

Strike Killed Al Shabaab Leader

A US airstrike in Somalia killed senior al Shabaab leader Hassan Ali Dhoore on March 31, the Pentagon announced Monday. The Pentagon initially reported the strike on Friday, but had not determined Dhoore’s fate. Dhoore, who was part of al...