Boeing announced Monday that it has connected the F-15E mission training center at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, to the Air Force’s distributed mission operations network, thereby enabling Mountain Home’s Strike Eagle pilots, for the first time, to be able to train virtually at home with pilots located around the world. “This new capability,” said Mark McGraw, Boeing’s vice president for training systems and services, ”provides realistic training at a fraction of the cost of live-fly training exercises, which require you to bring all of your personnel and aircraft together in one location.” Mountain Home is the first of three F-15E training centers that Boeing will link to the network this year. DMO installations are scheduled for completion this fall at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., and RAF Lakenheath, the company said.
The Air Force has finished modifying and testing the new VC-25B Bridge aircraft that will serve as a temporary Air Force One, the service announced May 1. All that’s left now is to finish painting the jet before it starts flying this summer.