Air Education and Training Command’s RPA Training Next effort wants to overhaul how the Air Force builds future RPA pilots and sensor operators. More specifically, it wants to give these Airmen more personalized journeys through the RPA training pipeline instead of making them adhere to a one-size-fits-all path to their careers.

U.S. Air Forces in Europe will host its own Advanced Battle Management System experiment next spring. The exercise will bring in allies and take advantage of new Joint All-Domain Command and Control capabilities to speed up intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance targeting, USAFE boss Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian said at a virtual June 29 Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies event. Harrigian said his goal with ABMS is to use “layered ISR capabilities” to “refine our timelines, to take data from different sensors, and provide those to shooters that would be available to us.” The Air Force has a series of the experiments planned, each hosted by different commands.

The unprecedented pace of bomber task force deployments to Europe recently has allowed USAF's strategic forces to train with allies they haven’t flown alongside before in areas generally unfamiliar to the bombers, the head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe said. The task force flights, which recently have been flown direct from the continental U.S., have ventured into the Black Sea, the Baltics, and even the Arctic to demonstrate how well U.S. Strategic Command and Air Force Global Strike Command are able to integrate with allies, USAFE boss Gen. Jeffrey L. Harrigian said June 29 at a virtual Mitchell Institute event. “We were able to generate these sorties and coordinate them from across Europe to facilitate training opportunities, demonstrate interoperability, and, at the end of the day, ensure ... we continue to refine what I’ll call our muscle memory to operate across Europe,” Harrigian said.

The first operationally ready Negatively Pressurized Conex arrived in Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, on June 24. The adapted shipping container can fit onto C-17 and C-5M aircraft, and can safely transport up to 23 COVID-19 patients without risking contamination of the aircrew or aircraft, according to a USAF release. The NPC has been in development since early April, when Air Mobility Command and Air Force Materiel Command leaders called for a method to move large numbers of COVID-19 patients, should the need arise. “The NPC allows us to perform those life-saving movements in only hours,” said Col. Timothy Mach, Air Mobility Command Requirements Division chief.

Airmen from Eielson Air Force Base in Alaska recently finished the first bombs for the 354th Fighter Wing’s F-35A strike fighters. Eielson, which received its first two F-35s on April 21, is the first Pacific Air Forces base to host F-35s. The fighter delivery and munitions manufacturing are part of a shift for the 354th Fighter Wing as they start a combat mission alongside ongoing Red Flag-Alaska training exercises.

On March 23, the Air Force Association's Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies will host a virtual Nuclear Deterrence Series event featuring Scowcroft Group Principal Frank Miller. At a time when nuclear modernization programs are accelerating around the world, proposals to recapitalize the U.S. nuclear arsenal are at the forefront of debates over defense spending. Miller will share his insights into the prospects for U.S. nuclear modernization programs and the value of nuclear deterrence in today's competitive security environment. The think tank will post event video on its website and YouTube page after the live event.