The Air Force F-117A Nighthawk—America’s first stealth fighter—will soon go on display among other iconic aircraft at the Smithsonian Institution's National Air and Space Museum's Udva-Hazy Center outside Washington, D.C.
Desert Storm
Since Russia’s 2022 invasion, outside observers have measured Ukraine’s prospects by a familiar yardstick: miles of territory gained or lost on the ground. By that standard, the war often appears static, attritional, and brutally expensive. But Ukraine is now demonstrating...
Operations Midnight Hammer and Absolute Resolve demonstrated the remarkable flexibility and overwhelming force possible when nations command control of the skies. It’s an object lesson to all who, having watched the carnage over more than four years of Russia’s war on Ukraine, some of whom have come to the erroneous belief that air ...
How a rogue planning cell engineered the most decisive air war in modern history.
Dick Cheney, who died Nov. 3 at 84, is best remembered by most Americans as among the most powerful Vice Presidents in history, a consummate Washington insider who had previously served in the Nixon administration, was Chief of Staff for President Gerald Ford, a Congressman ...
The U.S. Air Force operational concepts for penetrating into contested areas assume that U.S. forces can maintain highly networked connectivity and reach-back to data and command centers. But China’s People’s Liberation Army’s “informationized” warfighting strategy is specifically designed to counter the networked U.S. approach. Disaggregated ...
Small satellites lend themselves to many more applications than simply low-Earth orbit resilience. Russian and Chinese offensive spacepower ambitions are making headlines and are intent on erasing the vital advantage the United States has in space. U.S. defense leadership now...
The Air Force’s ambitious effort to overhaul its organization, deployment model, and training to better prepare for great power competition with China was just six months old when Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin returned from Exercise...
Currently, neither Russia nor Ukraine is using combat aircraft to conduct deep strikes, relying instead on missiles and drones. The lethal air defenses on both sides have resulted in a state of air parity, in which neither force has control of the air.
The CAOC is the Air Force nerve center in the Middle East, responsible for planning and executing air operations across the U.S. Central Command (CENTCOM) area of operations.
The Mitchell Institute conducted a wargame and associated studies to assess how a family of uncrewed Collaborative Combat Aircraft could increase the lethality, survivability, and capacity of the Air Force’s air superiority forces for operations in highly contested environments.
Frank Kendall ordered in September a sweeping review of five lines of effort across the department, seeking to uproot the impediments to current and future readiness.
