B-2s completed a record-setting, week-long airborne nuclear alert exercise at Whitemen AFB, Mo. Airmen of Whiteman’s active duty 509th Bomb Wing and Missouri Air National Guard’s 131st BW generated a record 21 sorties during the exercise’s peak day, and logged 235 flight hours over a total of 64 sorties during the week-long event, which concluded on July 14. They compressed two-thirds of an average month’s operations into the week, noted Whiteman officials. “We wanted to take the B-2 and the maintenance and operations communities to the limit of aircraft generation, while safely generating as many sorties and hours as possible,” said Capt. Brady Poe, 509th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron operations officer. Ground crews performed hot-pit refueling—meaning they refueled the bombers while their engines were running—to achieve the optimum sortie tempos. (Whiteman report by A1C Cody Ramirez)
A semi-autonomous Collaborative Combat Aircraft drone shot down an air-to-air target in a Dec. 8 test supported by the U.S. Air Force, a notable milestone in the development of the loyal wingman-type drones that will join the fleets of the USAF, other American services, and allies and adversaries.
