Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach told lawmakers this week there will be no gap in the service’s close air support capabilities under its latest plan to retire the venerable A-10 Thunderbolt II at the start of the next decade.
close air support
About a month away from its arrival, the Air Force named an upcoming light attack and observation aircraft after an iconic Cold War-era close air support platform.
Two B-1 Lancers from Dyess Air Force Base, Texas, led a simulated close air support exercise with South Korean fighters to maintain “defensive readiness” for both nations last week.
An era came to a close late last month when the highest-time A-10 pilot, Lt. Col. John ‘Karl’ Marks, retired after a 37-year career and 7,500 hours behind the stick of the Thunderbolt II, affectionately known as the Warthog.
Thirty-three TACPs and other Special Warfare Airmen performed feats of physical strength and technical wizardry for the chance to be the best in their career field in the 18th Air Support Operations Group.
The combat search-and-rescue mission will be extremely challenging in a fight against a peer adversary, and the focus may have to shift to downed Airmen finding their own way to safety, Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mark D. Kelly said Aug. 3. The future of ...
U.S. Special Operations Command has awarded a total of $19.2 million to five companies for prototype demonstrations as part of the Armed Overwatch effort to buy a low-cost aircraft to fly surveillance and strikes in austere locations. The aircraft selected to proceed are: Leidos Inc.’s ...
The Air Force plans to begin evolving its fighter fleet to one that can win a Pacific war by retiring 421 old jets and buying 304 new ones, transitioning away from the F-22 and A-10 to an advanced, sixth-generation fighter and an F-16 replacement in ...
The Air Force is preparing to unveil a 30-year fighter force design that calls for two new fighters—one for high-end fights and one for less demanding missions—a new way of providing close air support, and the retirement of the F-22 starting in about 2030, a ...
The Air Force revamped its F-16 Basic Course following a 2017 incident where an inexperienced student pilot strafed the wrong target and killed a military contractor. Now, students must fly their first nighttime close air support sortie with an instructor pilot in the rear seat ...
Senior leaders were briefed on a new plan for Air and Space Expeditionary Forces at the service's top-level Corona meeting earlier this month, Air Combat Command boss Gen James M. Holmes said during a June 22 Mitchell Institute virtual event. Holmes and Deputy Chief of ...
B-1Bs from Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., integrated with Swedish Gripens for the first time during a long-distance bomber task force sortie to Europe that included fighter jets from multiple allied countries. The two B-1s, supported by a U.S. Air Force KC-135 from RAF Mildenhall, ...