The 115th Fighter Wing announced Dec. 10 that the F-16 pilot, missing since his jet crashed late Dec. 8, has died. “We are deeply saddened by this tragic loss. Our thoughts and prayers are with the family during this difficult time,” 115th Fighter Wing Commander Col. Bart Van Roo said in a release. “Today is a day for mourning. The 115th Fighter Wing and the entire Wisconsin National Guard stands with the pilot’s family as we grieve the loss of a great Airman and patriot.” The name of the pilot is being withheld, pending next of kin notification. The cause of the crash is under investigation.

The Air Force's top weapons buyer is worried the top-secret Next Generation Air Dominance program might become an “unintended casualty” of the COVID-19 pandemic. Lawmakers in the final draft of the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill are cutting $70 million from the NGAD program for a total authorization of $974 million, while also calling for the Pentagon’s cost-assessment office to review NGAD and the Air Force's Digital Century Series. Will Roper, USAF’s assistant secretary of acquisition, told Air Force Magazine in a recent interview the department is struggling to share the successes of NGAD as well as the effectiveness of digital engineering, in part, because of social distancing. “The thing that’s the big delineator on NGAD is whether we’re able to talk with folks on the Hill in a classified level or not,” Roper said. “It’s a difficult program to say anything on without being able to get in the SCIF.”

In order to more effectively compete with Russia and China on the great-power stage, the United States must change the way it perceives—and plays—the game, Air Force Global Strike Command boss Gen. Timothy M. Ray said Dec. 10. “We're in a long-term, strategic competition with two realist, autocratic nations with existential arsenals at their disposal, and they do not share our worldview about how things should operate,” Ray said in pre-recorded remarks that aired during the 20th Nuclear Triad Symposium, noting that this contest has “significant stakes.”

The Department of the Air Force on Dec. 10 announced which Air Force Specialty Codes will be included in the fiscal 2021 Selective Retention Bonus program. The SRB program aims to keep experienced Air Force and Space Force troops in career fields that are undermanned or that come with high training price tags, the department wrote. This year’s program added nine new career fields, but dropped 40 others from eligibility, according to a release from the department.

Two B-52s flew directly to the Persian Gulf from Barksdale Air Force Base, La., in what the military says is a message of deterrence to Iran. The bombers, from the 2nd Bomb Wing, took off from their home base Dec. 9 and integrated with other U.S. Air Force and partner nation aircraft during the long-range mission, according to a U.S. Central Command release. The tasking came on short notice, with the goal of proving the U.S. can send bombers anywhere, anytime. “The ability to fly strategic bombers halfway across the world in a non-stop mission, and to rapidly integrate them with multiple regional partners, demonstrates our close working relationships and our shared commitment to regional security and stability,” U.S. Central Command boss USMC Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie said.

As software-based radios and sensors become the norm, the Air Force's new electromagnetic spectrum warfare wing will be able to quickly adapt software to answer EMS challenges, the unit's incoming commander said in an AFA Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies live-streaming event. The goal will be to develop broad-based defensive applications across many kinds of systems, but there's no silver bullet capability that can solve them all, he said.

The U.S. military is on pace to meet the Jan. 15 deadline to withdraw forces from Afghanistan and Iraq, and though the head of U.S. Central Command said American forces can still meet their main goals, the “margins will be less” because of the smaller footprint. President Donald J. Trump ordered the Pentagon to draw down to 2,500 forces each in the two countries, and CENTCOM boss Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie Jr. said Dec. 10 that it will be “no trouble” to reach that level. Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, speaking to Air Force Magazine on Dec. 9, said existing airlift capacity in the region will meet the demand, with a likely increase in operations tempo. “We’re already doing missions there,” she said, adding that the upcoming drawdown will not be on the same level as previous reductions in Iraq and Afghanistan. “We’ve already stretched down the airfields out there. We’ll be doing, probably, a little more flying hours. I don’t see a massive mobilization.”

A top space policy official in the Department of the Air Force said Dec. 10 he plans to serve in his role until next spring, unless the Trump or Biden administrations nominate someone to fill his post sooner. Shawn Barnes is performing the duties of the Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Space Acquisition and Integration, a job created in December 2019. “Given where we are at this point in the administration, it's unlikely that we would see a nominee for ... the assistant secretary position,” Barnes said at a Via Satellite conference on military satellite communications.

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.