“There’s nothing we’re doing today in the fight against ISIL that doesn’t rely on space,” said Gen. Jay Raymond, the new commander of Air Force Space Command, on Friday. The US military’s joint fight within “the complex strategic environment that we face” depends on the capabilities delivered by space assets at every step of the way, he said at a Mitchell Institute event in Washington, D.C. Space operations enable the selection and identification of targets in the battlefield, the coordination of intelligence with RPAs, communication among various elements of the command, and the direction of GPS-enabled precision weapons. Raymond said his mission at Space Command is driven by asking, “how can we get the information provided by space into the hands of the warfighter?”
The last remaining T-1 Jayhawk at JBSA-Randolph, Texas, took its final flight to the "Boneyard" at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., on July 15. The 99th Flying Training Squadron will train pilots using T-6 and simulator until it gets T-7 Red Hawk in fiscal 2026.