The Pentagon’s fleet of V-22 Ospreys—comprising Air Force CV-22s and Marine Corps MV-22s—has surpassed 100,000 flight hours. An MV-22 operating in Helmand province, Afghanistan, arrived at the milestone for the fleet last month, announced the tiltrotor aircraft’s manufacturing team, Bell-Boeing, Tuesday. “At 100,000 flight hours, safety, survivability, and mission efficacy have become hallmarks of the operational fleet,” said Mitch Snyder, Bell-Boeing’s deputy V-22 program director. The V-22s amassed these hours in combat, humanitarian, training, and test and evaluation missions on land and at sea, according to Bell-Boeing. They accrued almost half of the hours in the last two years. Air Force Special Operations Command CV-22s and marine MV-22s have participated in 14 combat and humanitarian deployments since the platforms began flying operationally in 2007. More than 130 Ospreys operate today. CV-22s first deployed overseas in October 2008.
Matthew Lohmeier, who was fired from a Space Force squadron command just two years ago, took another step in his unlikely journey to the Department of the Air Force's No. 2 job May 1, testifying before the Senate Armed Services Committee that his background as an Air Force F-15C pilot…