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 Space Force’s fiscal 2027 budget request includes about $2.5 billion for commercial services like satellite communications and off-the-shelf capabilities, but officials say commercial components and technology are embedded throughout programs, making the true allocation much higher.