Operation Desert Storm had important implications for the Air Force, with the tenet of air superiority taking on new meaning as the air campaign became the initial phase of the war. During this time, the U.S. developed a new strategic concept for the use of airpower that continues to influence air operations today. The lessons […]

Editor’s Note – The Air Force retired the F-117 from active service, but pilots from the Air Force Test Center still fly them for limited research activities. The F-117 Nighthawk was a twin-engine stealth attack aircraft designed to exploit low-observable stealth technology. The design was a tectonic shift in combat aircraft design, combining a minuscule […]

Nearly a year ago, in the midst of pandemic, a team led by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, with the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center and Air Mobility Command, partnered with more than a dozen other military and civilian organizations to respond to U.S. Transportation Command’s Joint Urgent Operational Need request […]

Story by Charles Pope, Secretary of the Air Force Public Affairs Invoking history and a vivid recent example, Lt. Gen. David D. Thompson, the vice commander of the newly created U.S. Space Force, presented the case at this year’s Air Warfare Symposium for the new service and how its development as a separate, new force […]

Maj. Gen. Edward W. Thomas Jr. is the commander, Air Force Recruiting Service, Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph, Texas. The Air Force Recruiting Service comprises more than 3,000 Airmen and civilians and approximately 1,200 recruiting offices across the U.S. and abroad. Thomas is responsible for all enlisted accessions and a variety of officer accession programs. AFRS […]

U.S. Air Force Col. Michael Hopkins is leading an international crew of astronauts on a six-month mission to the International Space Station following a successful launch on the first NASA-certified commercial human spacecraft system in history. NASA’s SpaceX Crew-1 mission lifted off at 7:27 p.m. EST Sunday from Launch Complex 39A at the agency’s Kennedy […]

In its sixth decade of operational service, the B-52 Stratofortress is the most combat capable bomber in the U.S. inventory and can perform the greatest variety of missions of any bomber platform in the fleet. Due to its high mission-capable rate, large payload, long range, persistence and ability to employ both nuclear and conventional precision […]

Hidden in the hills of Fairbanks, Alaska, the Permafrost Tunnel Research Facility is part of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers Cold Regions Research and Engineering Laboratory. Originally the tunnels were built to be used in a Cold War experiment to test the protective capabilities of permafrost. However, scientists quickly discovered the tunnel would be […]

Senior U.S. Air Force leaders are embracing and promoting the concept that if their Airmen are not failing, then they are, more than likely, not moving forward. They believe pushing the envelope is necessary to keep the U.S. Air Force dominant and the occasional failure should be viewed by supervisors not as a negative, but […]

Although the technology seems like it comes from “a galaxy far, far away,” Air Force pilots will soon be taking to the skies alongside R2-D2- like wingmen; autonomous and paired to the pilot’s aircraft. Skyborg is an autonomy-focused capability that will enable the Air Force to operate and sustain low-cost, teamed aircraft driven by artificial […]