WORLD: Air Warfare

April 27, 2023
WORLD: USAF Fighter Mix Changing at Kadena; $9 Billion in F-22 Updates; CCAs Arrive Before NGAD; Re-engined B-52 becomes B-52J; T-7 Delayed til 2025; A-10s, E-3s to the Boneyard.
The aging E-3 AWACS fleet got a little smaller last week, as the first of 13 aircraft the Air Force is planning on retiring this year took off from Tinker Air Force Base, Okla., for the last time. Before the E-3, aircraft 0560, departed for the ...

The Future Force

March 31, 2023 | By John A. Tirpak
At least 20 new airplane programs—including a handful that are variants—are in some stage of planning or development. If sustained, this airplane-building campaign will lower the average age of the fleet, increase its size, and enhance its ability to be upgraded rapidly.
Congress is of a mind to allow the Pentagon to do more multiyear procurement—in the billions of dollars—particularly of munitions, given the situation in Ukraine and its implications for other potential conflicts, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante said.
The Air Force doesn’t want its new “collaborative combat aircraft” to be exclusively part of the Next Generation Air Dominance system but is looking at other air- and ground-based platforms to direct such uncrewed airplanes, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. ...

Editorial: Milestones

Aug. 10, 2022
The Air Force turns 75 on Sept. 18, a momentous three-quarters of a century.
The commander of U.S. Air Forces Central (AFCENT), Lt. Gen. Gregory M. Guillot, spoke with Air Force Magazine from the AFCENT headquarters at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar.

World: Modernization

July 1, 2022
Recent wargaming results; ARRW at hypersonic speed; Advanced F-22 capabilities revealed.