Air Force officials at Bagram AB, Afghanistan, on July 22 announced the crash of an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle in the southern part of that country on July 21. There was no other information available. The service lost two Predator UAVs in Iraq, one in June and one in May. We are still awaiting word on the cause of the June crash, but the service attributed the one in May to mechanical failure.
The Air Force is planning to spend $2.19 billion over the next five years to acquire new C-37 jets for transporting military and civilian leaders. That’s on top of another $1.17 billion in projected funding for the VC-25B “Air Force One” replacement.