If Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) has his way, the first F-16C model to fly past 7,000 hours will not go to the boneyard at the Aircraft Maintenance and Regeneration Center in Arizona at the end of the year, reports Associated Press (via The Reformer). The fighter, known as Lethal Lady and flown by the Vermont Air National Guard’s 158th Fighter Wing in Burlington, reached the 7,000-flying hour mark last month and is slated for grounding later this year. However, Leahy, in a letter to the Air Force last week, has asked to have the aircraft put on display in Vermont. He wrote, “The Lethal Lady has clocked record-setting hours and saved the lives of soldiers and marines in combat, setting new tactical standards,” and added that the aircraft and its aircrews and maintainers “stand as a symbol of the dedication, endurance, and values of the Air National Guard and the entire Air Force.”
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
