U.S. Air Force Academy cadets will forgo Thanksgiving break and end the fall semester early as the school adjusts its academic calendar in response to the coronavirus pandemic. Cadets will finish final exams on Dec. 11, and winter break runs Dec. 14, 2020, to Jan. 1, 2021. While Thanksgiving still counts as a holiday, students won’t have extra travel time built in to visit their families. That decision comes as the Colorado academy tries to quash a potential coronavirus outbreak in the cold-weather months.

The Air Force is moving forward with its “bridge tanker” project—the air-refueling aircraft acquisition formerly known as “KC-Y”—in a “full and open competition” to replace the KC-135 Stratotanker fleet. It is a stepping stone to a more futuristic tanker, Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost said Oct. 27. This next tanker would bridge the gap in capabilities offered by the 179 Boeing KC-46s currently being delivered and a later tanker known as “KC-Z.” The Air Force is defining which capabilities it needs in its next tanker and how it will “immediately follow the existing KC-46A delivery timeline,” she said.

Nineteenth Air Force has transformed Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph’s Hangar 62 into an official hub for teaching the next generation of trainer aircraft maintainers. The 19th Air Force Maintenance Training Center, which the numbered Air Force opened on Oct. 29, will serve as a schoolhouse where students learn the basics of caring for AETC’s main training aircraft—the T-1A Jayhawk, the T-6A Texan II, and the T-38A Talon, a 502nd Air Base Wing release stated. The center’s activation marks the first time the Texas base has had a formal program for molding new trainer aircraft mechanics since the 1990s.

A team of five female Airmen last week evaluated a flight suit designed to be more comfortable and functional for women pilots battling gravitational forces in the cockpit. High-speed pilots wear G-suits to avoid health issues when they rapidly accelerate in flight, but since 2001, female pilots have worn suits made for a standard male body. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center and the innovation hub AFWERX modified the Advanced Technology Anti-Gravity Suits (ATAGS) with adjustable panels in the waist, thighs, and calves to make room for different body proportions.

U.S. Airmen and aircraft from two bases in England recently deployed to Aalborg, Denmark for a two-week, multilateral agile combat employment (ACE) exercise hosted by the Combined Special Operations Air Task Group. Agile combat employment is a budding USAF strategy in which the service can launch operations and sustain aircraft and forces from anywhere in the world, instead of relying on brick-and-mortar bases that could be targeted in a war. In addition to giving U.S. Air Forces in Europe a chance to practice ACE concepts, the training improves the 48th Fighter Wing’s flexibility so it can back up partner militaries in the Baltics.

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.