Air Mobility Command is pursuing a contract for privately operated tankers to meet the unrelenting need for booms in the air as the service proposes cutting 29 KC-135s and KC-10s. The command is wrapping up a feasibility study on the plan this month with the ...
KC-135
U.S. Air Force F-22s and Canadian CF-18s intercepted two Russian Tu-142 maritime reconnaissance aircraft north of Alaska on March 9, North American Aerospace Defense Command announced. The fighters, which were supported by an E-3 Sentry AWACS and a KC-135 Stratotanker, escorted the Russian aircraft for ...
Air Mobility Command's gray tail airlifters and tankers will participate in a series of Joint All-Domain Command and Control experiments this year. The efforts, part of the series of Advanced Battle Management System experiments and other exercises, aim to show how aircraft such as C-17s ...
Private aerial refueling may help ease the intense demand for tankers, as service leaders and U.S. Transportation Command debate the plan to retire legacy refuelers. The Air Force’s fiscal 2021 budget request calls for retiring 16 KC-10s and 13 KC-135s. Top USAF and TRANSCOM officials ...
The pressure on the aerial refueling community affects more than the iron on Air Force ramps. Total Force aircrews are part of the most stressed force element in U.S. Transportation Command, Army Gen. Stephen Lyons told the Senate Armed Services Community on Feb. 25. Lyons ...
The Air Force’s push to retire aging tankers to fund future capabilities will significantly impact current operations and the ability to fly current wartime missions, the head of U.S. Transportation Command wrote to lawmakers. In the command’s Unfunded Priority List sent to Congress on Feb. ...
One of the Air Force’s biggest exercises in the Pacific is underway, with 2,000-plus personnel and more than 100 aircraft training together through the end of February. During Exercise Cope North—headquartered at Andersen AFB, Guam—USAF, Japan Air Self-Defense Force, and Royal Australian Air Force troops ...
The new Air Force budget responds to the arrival of peer militaries on the world scene, the service's deputy chief of staff for operations said Feb. 12. The nation must shake off notions about Air Force capabilities that are 30 years old and no longer ...
A touted $30 billion realignment of the Air Force's budget, with some wholesale retirements of major systems, did not materialize in the spending documents released Feb. 10. Instead, the Air Force is reducing its operational fleet to pay for technology upgrades emphasizing connectivity, agile logistics, ...
The Air Force wants to retire 28 KC-10s and KC-135s, even though the KC-46 tanker is years away from operational capability. This KC-46 fleet has been plagued by problems, especially with its Remote Vision System, which links the boom operator to the refueling system. Air ...
The Pentagon’s top weapons buyer and several aerospace corporations have pulled out of the Singapore Air Show as concerns about the new coronavirus spread, though U.S. Air Force demonstration teams, airmen, and other aircraft will still attend. Multiple companies, including Gulfstream and Textron Aviation from ...
Aerial refueling tanker availability remains a major roadblock to readiness for US Transportation Command, prompting the military to look at retaining even more aging tankers as well as the possibility of relying on private contractors to fill the gaps, the head of TRANSCOM said. Army ...
