US Air Forces in Europe sent a four-person traveling contact team from the 31st Fighter Wing at Aviano AB, Italy, to Romania late last month to explain how the US Air Force trains and equips its enlisted airmen to conduct aircraft maintenance and progressively to take on more responsibility in the field—and, in turn, learned about the Romanian approach. SMSgt. Timothy Kellner, a quality assurance superintendent with the 31st FW, said, “I was impressed with the training of their warrant officers,” who he said undergo a two-year course that gives them “a very good understanding of the theory of operations of the specific system they were training on.” (Aviano report by TSgt. Michael O’Connor)
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
