Maj. Scott Hall and SMSgt. Anthony Smith have received the 2010 Gen. Lew Allen Jr. Award, recognized for their excellence in aircraft sortie generation. “This is about fixing machines and maintaining platforms, and doing it better than anyone else in our Air Force,” said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz during Tuesday’s award ceremony in the Pentagon. Hall was honored for his work during his previous assignment as maintenance operations officer with the 20th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Shaw AFB, S.C. Among his accomplishments, he led the first F-16 satellite communications modification for operations in Afghanistan that resulted in a 50-percent increase in precision strikes. Among his stand-out activities, Smith, F-16 aircraft maintenance unit superintendent with the 57th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Nellis AFB, Nev., helped reduce the aircraft cannibalization rate by 10 percent while maintaining an 86-percent mission-capable rate. (SAF/PA report by TSgt. Jess Harvey)
The final version of the fiscal 2026 defense policy bill calls for adding $1.2 billion to the Space Force’s research and development accounts, an increase that’s mostly split between two efforts: expanding the service’s low-Earth orbit data transport network and boosting its space-based missile warning and tracking capabilities.
