The Space Force’s new Space Systems Command will oversee the new service’s acquisition and launch services under one command, with the soon-to-be-former Space and Missile Systems Center serving as its headquarters. Space Systems Command, one of three commands within the Space Force, will officially stand up this summer after a commander is nominated and confirmed. SMC’s current offices at Los Angeles Air Force Base, Calif., will be the headquarters, and launch sites at Cape Canaveral Space Force Station, Fla., and Vandenberg Space Force Base, Calif., will be realigned under the SSC. The overall goal of the organization is to acquire and launch space systems more quickly. The SSC will work directly with the Air Force Research Laboratory and other groups like the Rapid Capabilities Office.
The Air Force's new mission statement is familiar, all-encompassing, and joins two parallel aspects of the service's 74-year history: “To fly, fight, and win … Airpower anytime, anywhere.” The new mission statement focuses on air alone, now that the Space Force is independent, and emerged from consultations with a spectrum of Airmen representing Active, Guard, and Reserve members in both the enlisted and officer ranks, said Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. in a release.
Acting Air Force Secretary John P. Roth announced a host of new general officer assignments on Aug. 6, including new commanders for Second and Eighth Air Forces.
Two B-1B Lancers returned to Europe for a bomber task force flight on April 7, shortly after USAF bombers returned home from the continent after a deployment. The Lancers from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., flew directly to the Aegean Sea and returned home in a 12,000 nautical mile round-trip flight. During the mission, F-16s from Aviano Air Base, Italy, escorted the bombers before flying over the Aegean Sea, according to a U.S. Air Forces in Europe release. Photographs show the B-1s linking up with KC-135s from RAF Mildenhall, England, during the mission.
The Pentagon expects all Defense Department personnel to be able to make an appointment for a COVID-19 vaccine by April 19, and that all overseas personnel and beneficiaries can get a shot by the next month as deliveries ramp up. Within the Air Force, the department has delivered 499,683 vaccines to more than 125 sites worldwide, said Maj. Gen. Robert Miller, the director of medical operations in the Air Force Office of the Surgeon General. Of those, 444,083 doses have been administered, he said.
The Defense Department has regained some lost readiness after two decades of continuous combat, but still has more work to do, according to a new report from the Government Accountability Office. “Nearly two decades of conflict has degraded U.S. military readiness," wrote report author Diana Maurer, GAO's director of Defense Capabilities and Management.
