Daily Report: Read the day's top news on the U.S. Air Force, U.S. Space Force, and national security issues.
aircraft news
The F-16 pilot killed in the June 30 crash at Shaw Air Force Base, S.C., has been identified as 1st Lt. David Schmitz. Schmitz, assigned to the 77th Fighter Squadron at Shaw, was flying a local training sortie as his squadron is preparing to deploy ...
Bigger fleets of aircraft are easier and less costly per aircraft to manage than small ones, but that may change as the Air Force moves toward the new Digital Century Series, Air Force Materiel Command chief Gen. Arnold W. Bunch Jr. said July 1. The ...
Congress wants to pump the brakes on U.S. Special Operations Command’s effort to buy a new plane for armed overwatch in remote areas, after many lawmakers recently supported a similar Air Force program. Lawmakers call on Pentagon leadership to describe why SOCOM would need such ...
USAF is keeping the tip of the spear sharp, despite pandemic challenges.
The big fighter gamble.
The first operationally ready Negatively Pressurized Conex arrived in Ramstein Air Force Base, Germany, on June 24. The adapted shipping container can fit onto C-17 and C-5M aircraft, and can safely transport up to 23 COVID-19 patients without risking contamination of the aircrew or aircraft, ...
The unprecedented pace of bomber task force deployments to Europe recently has allowed USAF's strategic forces to train with allies they haven’t flown alongside before in areas generally unfamiliar to the bombers, the head of U.S. Air Forces in Europe said. The task force flights, ...
F-22s from the North American Aerospace Defense Command, with help from KC-135 tankers and an E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System, intercepted Russian aircraft near Alaska for the second time in a week and the sixth time this month. On June 27, the NORAD fighters ...
Russian aircraft on June 26 again intercepted U.S. aircraft in international airspace, this time USAF and U.S. Navy reconnaissance planes along with a refueling tanker operating in the Black Sea. The Russian Ministry of Defense released a video showing a Navy P-8, along with a ...
Nuclear modernization concerns are again on the table for fiscal 2021 defense policy negotiations, as House lawmakers raise issues about staffing, program delays, and how to use the weapons themselves. The Air Force’s three major nuclear weapon upgrade programs—the Ground-Based Strategic Deterrent, the Long-Range Standoff ...
The Senate Armed Services Committee’s defense spending plan for 2021 would give the Air Force and Space Force largely what they want, with some notable tweaks. “What this bipartisan bill does is straightforward: care for our troops; preserve peace through strength; and defend this great ...
