f-35 sustainment contract

F-35 Sustainment Strategy Coming This Summer

The F-35's program director promised Congress an F-35 sustainment strategy this summer, but said it's unlikely he'll achieve the elusive goal of $25,000 cost per flying hour by 2025. Negotiating three one-year sustainment deals is a "carrot" to get a better deal from Lockheed Martin on a Performance-Based Logistics contract.
Matthew Donovan

Donovan to Lead New Spacepower Research Center

Former Undersecretary of the Air Force Matthew P. Donovan will lead the Air Force Association’s new Mitchell Institute Spacepower Advantage Research Center (MI-SPARC), serving as an independent voice advocating for U.S. space capability. Donovan was Air Force under secretary, Acting Secretary of the Air Force, and undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness during the Trump administration. During that time he helped pave the way for the Space Force to become an independent service under the Department of the Air Force. Though the new organization is still putting together its policy position platform, making sure space receives the proper funding and authorities will be among his top priorities, he said.
Operation Copper Arrow: Refueling the mission forward

USAFE Begins New Tanker Operation to Increase Refueling Capacity

U.S. Air Forces in Europe recently began a new operation to bring additional aerial refueling capacity in its area of operations, while alleviating stress on its only permanent tanker unit. Operation Copper Arrow 2021 started earlier this month, with a rotation of Airmen and a KC-135 from the Kansas Air National Guard’s 190th Air Refueling Wing flew out of Ramstein Air Base, Germany, and refueled a NATO E-3A Sentry. The operation will bring in Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command tankers to USAFE, to fly out of Ramstein and provide more refueling capacity.
B-21 Dyess AFB Rendering

Editorial: True Jointness Requires Hard Choices on Roles and Missions, Trusting Commanders

Jointness is not about ensuring every service gets a piece of every mission. That’s a waste of money and resources. Jointness is about using the right service component forces—at the right places at the right times. It’s about making hard choices on roles and missions and then sticking to them, trusting the joint force commanders to combine the individual service components to best meet the needs of a particular contingency. The objective: To deter and dissuade rival forces such that no foe on Earth would risk challenging the combined power and prowess of the world’s most effective armed forces.

Radar Sweep

OPINION: Enough About ‘Not Picking Sides.’ The Only Right Position is Against White Supremacy and Extremism

Air Force Times

“The Academy’s lack of a strong rejection of the insurrection is, in effect, a political stance, one which undermines trust as well as good order and discipline within the ranks and the graduate community. Additionally, many of us, as service members of color and our allies, feel the insurrection was not only an assault on American democracy but on the value of all as equal citizens in this country. We saw our government nearly overthrown after an election victory brought about, in large part, by people of color,” writes Esteban Castellanos, is a 2003 graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy and member of the Air Force Reserve, and 11 other USAFA graduate co-signers.

NATO Space Pitch Day: Submit Your Solutions!

NATO Communications and Information Agency

The NATO Communications and Information (NCI) Agency is accepting proposals for its first-ever Space Pitch Day, in partnership with the NATO Space Centre located in Allied Air Command (AIRCOM).

One More Thing

How Ernest Hemingway’s WWI Service Changed 20th-Century Fiction

Military.com

Almost all of us experienced Ernest Hemingway’s stories in high school English class. He’s still considered one of the greatest authors of the 20th century, and Hemingway made sure he had plenty of real-life adventures to fuel his writing.