Air Force Special Operations Command comprises some of the most stressed career fields in the entire Air Force. Some air commandos have deployed to Iraq or Afghanistan as many as 20 times, said AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. Eric Fiel, Wednesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. “We know we are going to be [in Afghanistan] a long time. We have some pretty courageous folks and they all want to keep going back, but each time they come back you see just a little piece of them still left over there,” said Fiel. “There is a lot of pressure on them and an enormous amount of pressure on their families as they continue doing this, but they are great Americans.”
The Air Force’s Hypersonic Attack Cruise Missile is behind schedule and may significantly overrun its expected cost, which could partially explain why the service is reviving the hypersonic AGM-183 Air-Launched Rapid-Response Weapon.