Two B-52 bombers made a rare touchdown at a public airport earlier this month to practice landing at non-military airfields. The jets, operated by the 20th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale Air Force Base, La., landed at Chennault International Airport on April 12. The airport is situated about 200 miles south of Barksdale, the home of the 2nd Bomb Wing and Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the service’s bomber missions and strategic nuclear deterrence. “When it comes to nuclear war, all bets are off and we need to be prepared to adapt to the current situation,” squadron commander Lt ..read more

The Air Force blamed the death of a 33-year-old Missile Defense Agency civilian employee after a C-17 test flight in August on decompression sickness complicated by his underlying medical conditions, including obesity, hypertension, an enlarged heart, and cardiovascular disease, according to the results of an accident investigation board released April 12. However, the report leaves several questions unanswered, such as how the employee was cleared for the flight, why medical specialists aboard did not recognize his symptoms, and why the test flight continued as planned, even after it was c ..read more

When the National Defense Strategy was issued in 2022, the U.S. military mission in the Middle East took a back seat to the ongoing challenges of deterring China or Russia. But since then, no region has been more combustible. From Iran and its proxies to the Islamic State, American forces have had to contend with multiple threats. As head of Air Forces Central, Lt. Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich has been at the heart of almost all U.S. military action in the Middle East, from overseeing airstrikes against Iranian proxy groups to protecting troops as America’s air defense commander for the r ..read more

Top Air Force leaders may have to provide Congress with extensive justification for further cuts in the fighter force, after being grilled in budget testimony by members of the Senate and House Armed Services Committees unhappy with divestitures in various fleets. Rep. Elissa Slotkin (D-Mich.) complained to Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall and Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin that a Fighter Recapitalization Plan, mandated in last year’s defense bill and due to Congress March 30, has not yet appeared. “We need to make sure we have fighters in the air” in sufficient numbers to deter Chi ..read more

Nearly four months after the deadline, the Defense Department has not fulfilled a congressional mandate to submit a plan for weaning U.S. military bases in Europe off of Russian energy. That reliance could “be helping to fund the Russian war effort to the tune of a million dollars a week,” Brown University researchers wrote in a 2022 analysis.  The Fiscal Year 2023 National Defense Authorization Act called the issue “a critical challenge for national security activities” and directed the department to make plans to reduce and eventually eliminate reliance on Russian energy for each bas ..read more

The F-35 Joint Program Office is challenging the title of the Government Accountability Office’s most recent assessment of the multinational fighter, saying it implies the F-35 is getting more expensive to operate when the opposite is true. The GAO report: “F-35 Sustainment: Costs Continue to Rise While Planned Use and Availability Has Decreased,” issued April 15, “highlights affordability and readiness challenges, all of which are known to the F-35 enterprise,” the JPO said in a press statement. It also said the report accurately notes “key program affordability and sustainment progress ..read more

Secretary of Defense Lloyd J. Austin III conducted virtual talks on April 16 with his Chinese counterpart, Adm. Dong Jun, Beijing’s Minister of Defense, marking the first direct talk between defense chiefs of the two nations in close to two years. In a readout, the Pentagon said Austin stressed freedom of navigation in the air and at sea, as Chinese warplanes and ships have intercepted U.S. and allied aircraft, continuously harassed  Philippine vessels, and nearly collided with a U.S. destroyer in the past year. The call signals more open military communication channels between the t ..read more

The Air Force isn’t looking to buy more than 100 B-21s because it may come up with something better by the time all those aircraft are built, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David W. Allvin told the Senate Armed Services Committee on April 16. While the B-21 “is the future of our bomber force,” Allvin told the SASC that fresher, more effective technology may appear before the planned B-21 production run is complete, making the Air Force hesitant to commit to any more just yet. One hundred B-21s “is the program of record,” Allvin said under questioning from Sen. Mike Rounds (R-S.D.). Northro ..read more

Air Force F-16 pilots are testing out new sensors that could help maximize their performance and avoid deadly accidents while flying fast under heavy G-forces and stressful conditions. Developed by the Air Force Research Laboratory, the Integrated Cockpit Sensing (ICS) system measures a pilot’s blood oxygen levels, heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, and other markers that show how their bodies are faring in flight. F-16 pilots from the Air Force Test Pilot School (TPS) at Edwards Air Force Base, Calif., and the 59th Test and Evaluation Squadron and 422nd Test and Evaluation Squad ..read more

Two of the four B-1B Lancers deployed as a Bomber Task Force to Spain last month have been positioned closer to the ongoing conflicts in the Middle East, the Air Force announced, as the aircraft are now exercising in Turkey with that NATO partner’s air force. The U.S. Air Force has supported Israel’s defense against Iranian missile attacks in recent days, and additional USAF fighters have deployed to the region in the last week, likely in anticipation of potential Iranian attacks on U.S. assets.   The two bombers “flew from their deployed location at Morón Air Base, Spain, to Incirlik ..read more