The Space Force has spent the past few years preparing for war. Now, it has fought one. The U.S. military has chronicled its strikes by sea and air on Iranian military sites in Operation Epic Fury, as well as its...
November/December 2026
Vol. 109, No. 11
For over two decades the United States Navy has been contracting for commercial air refueling services for itself and a other users, including the U.S. Marines Corps, U.S. Air Force, and the air arms of at least five partner militaries....
The first Friday of the month was usually a welcome break for the pilots of the 510th and 555th Fighter Squadrons, both part of the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano Air Base in northern Italy. The pilots and families would...
SATCOM AT WAR SPEED
Modern warfare depends on the ability to move, integrate, protect, and exploit data at speed and scale. Yet operational timelines continue to compress, and military sensors, autonomous systems, and proliferated satellite constellations are generating increasing volumes of data. Designed for...
The Space Force: GROWING—AND ARMED IN SPACE
Thousands more Guardians. Hundreds of new satellites. Newly disclosed on-orbit weapons. At AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference in September, Space Force leaders laid out how the service is in the process of transforming from a small, secretive pocket of...
Editorial: Whose Risk Is It Anyway?
There is risk in any endeavor: a chance of loss, danger, even harm. In business, it could mean losing money. In combat, human lives. Geopolitically, decisions about war and peace carry unseen, unmeasurable risks, ripple effects that can stretch around...
Book Excerpt: ‘Tidal Wave’
Having lost territory to Stalin in 1940, then sided with Hitler to win it back, Romania landed itself on the wrong side of World War II. For fighting men like Lt. Constantin “Bâzu” (“Buzz”) Cantacuzino, there was seemingly little choice...
Faces of the Force
Staff Sgt. Tabitha Awoniyi, 442nd Force Support Squadron Commander, Whiteman AFB, Mo., and her morning show team earned a Regional Emmy Award, one of journalism’s highest broadcast honors. She is the weekday news producer at WLKY-TV, a 24-hour news station...
Verbatim
Verbatim – November/December 2026 Essential Role “For decades, American air and space power has often operated from a position of sanctuary. Those days are over. We can no longer treat point defense as a side hustle. We must make it...
Letters
Support System In the article: “The Future of NATO” [July/August, p. 26] Lt. Gen. Jason Hinds, commander of USAFE is quoted as saying, … the capability “to fight, enter the combat zone, land at a different location, refuel, potentially even...
WORLD: Iran
DRONE-KILLER ROCKETS W hen the Air Force needed a new solution to shoot down the one-way attack drones that have dominated the new era of drone warfare, it turned to a decades-old weapon: small air-to-air rockets. How the Air...
WORLD: Iran
10 Epic Fury Airmen Earned Battlefield Promotions Ten Airmen received battlefield promotions for their roles in the daring rescue of DUDE 44, the crew of an F-15E Strike Eagle that was shot down over Iran last spring, Air Force Chief...
WORLD: Air
USAF Offers Another New Fighter Plan A new Air Force report details revised plans for growing the F-35A fleet, both in total and as a share of the fighter force. And landmark new 10-year framework agreement between the Pentagon and prime...
WORLD: Base Defense
Point Defense as a Key Warfare Mission F lying and fixing aircraft remain the Air Force’s reasons for being, but protecting air bases from attack is becoming an essential component that makes those possible. Following attacks on air bases across...
WORLD: Autonomy
CCAs and Autonomy Gain Momentum F or the past four years, the idea of autonomous drone warfare like Collaborative Combat Aircraft has been discussed as a future concept, rather than near-term reality. But now that promised vision appears imminent, with...
WORLD: Obituary
Michael Wynne, Dead at 82 M ichael Wynne, the 21st Secretary of the Air Force, died Oct. 17. He was 82 years old. Wynne was Secretary from 2005 to 2008, a stretch of time when the U.S. military was...
2026 AFA Almanac
Skip to almanac content EXPLORE THE ALMANAC 01Founders & leadership↗02Membership & growth↗03National Aerospace Awards↗04AFA Field Awards↗05Education & STEM↗06Chapter recognition↗07Regional honors↗ ↓ Original PDF Opens here · Back to Almanac to return Read original PDF Search all sections⌕Clear Browse using the...
AFA IN ACTION: Gulf War Air Campaign Map Featured in New Smithsonian Exhibit
A map pinned to the wall in a basement 36 years ago will go on display in November at the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum. The map, used to identify strategic targets across Iraq in the fall of 1990,...
Heroes and Leaders: Gen. Chuck Horner, Fighter Pilot
Chuck Horner is the most successful air commander since World War II. In the summer of 1990, Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait and overran the country in two days. President George H.W. Bush declared Iraq’s aggression would not stand and began building...
