Exhausted by almost 20 years of nonstop combat against violent extremism, the Air Force is seeking a new cycle of modernization and refurbishment, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Mark D. Kelly said Dec. 11. The new construct would routinely change out old gear and modernize ...
The 115th Fighter Wing identified Capt. Durwood “Hawk” Jones, 37, as the F-16 pilot killed when his jet crashed in Michigan on Dec. 8. Jones, from Albuquerque, N.M., was flying a routine training mission when the F-16 crashed in the Hiawatha National Forest in Michigan’s ...
Every year, Congress and the military debate which combat assets should head to the boneyard and which have more life left in them. Lawmakers often opt to keep Air Force systems that bring jobs to their districts, which complicates matters as the service looks to ...
Congress has backed off on requiring the Space Force to adopt naval ranks, allowing the new service to choose its own military rank system and a name for its members. Former Navy SEAL Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) earlier this year floated the idea of calling ...
More than 90 citizen-Airmen from the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Airlift Wing returned from a four-month Middle East deployment on Nov. 18, according to a wing release. The wing’s aircrews completed nearly 5,000 combat sorties, moving 15,000 people and over 10,000 tons of supplies ...
The Defense Department deployed dozens of medical personnel to two states and one territory to bolster civilian medical facilities battling COVID-19, and hundreds more remain on standby as the pandemic surges. Sixty-seven Air Force nurses and other personnel deployed to hospitals and long-term care facilities ...
More than 110 Airmen from the Missouri Air National Guard's 139th Airlift Wing recently returned from a deployment to the U.S. Central Command area of responsibility. The troops, members of the 139th Operations and Maintenance Groups, as well as two of the wing's C-130s, were ...
The Air Force’s C-130 fleets have again caught the eye of congressional lawmakers, who asked for more information on the future of those aircraft in a version of the fiscal 2021 defense spending bill. Senate appropriators want the Air Force Secretary to send Capitol Hill ...
An A-10 pilot with the Michigan Air National Guard received the Distinguished Flying Cross on Nov. 5 for dramatically guiding his Warthog to a belly landing in 2017 after a catastrophic gun malfunction blew the aircraft’s canopy off and prevented the landing gear from functioning ...
The New Hampshire Air National Guard received its eighth and ninth KC-46 on Nov. 6, one of which was delayed for more than a month due to electrical issues. The 157th Air Refueling Wing at Pease will receive 12 of the tankers. Pegasus No. 8 ...
A member of the Texas Air National Guard died of COVID-19-related issues, the first uniformed member of the Department of the Air Force and ninth service member overall to die of the disease. The Air National Guardsman has not been identified. The death was reported ...
About 80 aircraft have come together for Checkered Flag 21-1—a large-scale, air-to-air exercise off the coast of Florida. The exercise, which focuses on integrating fourth- and fifth-generation fighters in several scenarios, runs until Nov. 14 at Tyndall Air Force Base. Participating aircraft include Tyndall’s F-22s ...