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 rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.