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  • X-37B breaks record, lands after 780 days in orbit

    The spaceplane conducted on-orbit experiments for 780 days during its mission, recently breaking its own record by being in orbit for more than two years. As of today, the total number of days spent on-orbit for the entire test vehicle program is 2,865 days.

  • US Air Force exchange officer soars with partners down under

    U.S. Air Force Maj. Thomas Larner is serving with the Royal Australian Air Force No. 1 Squadron, based at RAAF Base Amberley, Australia, as part of the U.S. Air Force military personnel exchange program. The program allows service members the opportunity to integrate into military units of foreign

  • Air Force requests proposals for light attack aircraft

    The Air Force plans to purchase two to three light attack aircraft from each manufacturer to help support the National Defense Strategy’s focus on building allies and partner capacity, capability and interoperability via training and experimentation.

  • Around the Air Force: SEAC Named, OCP, TAP

    Today's look Around the Air Force features the first Airman to be the top enlisted service member in the Pentagon, the latest Operational Camouflage Pattern update and the Transition Assistance Program gets a slight makeover. Hosted by Senior Airman Angelo Rosario

  • USAFE Band unites US, Ukrainian armed forces through music

    At the invitation of the U.S. Embassy in Ukraine, the 15-member team hosted master classes for local music students, jam sessions in the community and concerts in Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Chernivtsi, Vinnytsia, Desna Military Training Centre and Kyiv.

  • 6th CTS activates new TACP training detachment

    Air Force TACP specialists embed with Army and Marine units on the frontline and are responsible for directing air and artillery strikes from forward ground locations. These highly trained experts go through intense physical, mental and technical training in order to withstand the demanding

  • Transition process improves through TAP refresh

    Before, TAP could be accomplished no later than 89 days before a military member’s separation date. Now, individuals can take advantage of the program 12-15 months before their final out — nearly a year difference.

  • Air Force motorcycle mishaps hit historic lows

    In fiscal year 2019, the Air Force saw a 69% reduction in motorcycle fatalities and a 41.5% decrease in lost-time injuries over a 10 year period. Fatalities dropped from 13 in 2010 to four in 2019 and lost-time injuries during that same period decreased from 224 to 131.

  • AFMC successfully executes $66 billion portfolio in FY19

    Organizationally, AFMC manages 34% of the overall budget for the Air Force; executing funds across six centers, multiple platforms and Air Force installations, with missions ranging from, but not limited to, installation support and readiness to research and development, sustainment and technology

  • SERE: Teaching how to survive

    The responsibility of ensuring these pilots are safe and have the knowledge and skills to make it home safe in any situation they might endure lies heavily on the shoulders of survival, evasion, resistance and escape specialists.

  • US EOD, air advisors train Nigerian Armed Forces

    To expand the U.S. and Nigerian partnership, members of the 768th EABS explosive ordnance disposal team, assisted by 768th EABS Security Forces air advisors, trained Genie Unit members of the Nigerian Armed Forces during the course, which is part of a curriculum spanning several months.

  • Senate confirms Barrett to be Air Force secretary

    The 85 to 7 vote makes Barbara Barrett the third consecutive woman confirmed to lead the Air Force and its 685,000 total force Airmen. Barrett replaces Heather Wilson who resigned in May. Undersecretary Matthew Donovan served as acting secretary in the interim.

  • Eielson AFB reactivates 356th Fighter Squadron

    Eielson Air Force Base reactivated the 356th Fighter Squadron and named a new commander on Oct. 10, in preparation for the arrival of the Air Force F-35A Lightning IIs to interior Alaska. Air Force Lt. Col. James Christensen will lead the 356th FS, which is the first of two combat fighter squadrons

  • 380th ESFS brings proficiency firing to the AOR

    After months of relationship building, planning and paperwork, the 380th ESFS conducted the first proficiency firing course in the U.S. Air Forces Central Command area of responsibility on an Emirati firing range.

  • Air Force Academy launches new Airmanship Next program

    Launched at the start of the fall semester, Airmanship Next augments live-flight at the airfield with virtual reality training to reach cadets who may have been excluded in the past by scheduling conflicts and infuses more aviation training into the four-year cadet developmental model.

  • Air Force integrates missions, strengthens information warfare capabilities

    Sixteenth Air Force activated at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Oct. 11, integrating Twenty-Fourth Air Force, to include Air Forces Cyber, and Twenty-Fifth Air Force into a single headquarters that will provide global intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, cyber, electronic warfare and

  • Around the Air Force: State of the Air Force, Fitness Culture

    Today's look around the Air Force features key topics and discussion points highlighted by Air Force leaders during the Air, Space and Cyber Conference at National Harbor, Md. Acting Secretary of the Air Force Matthew Donovan speaks about key successes of 2019. Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force

  • Air Force Recruiting Total Force Enterprise makes FY19 goal

    The Air Force is embarking on a Total Force recruiting enterprise approach to recruit the nation’s best talent and this year was the first year to test the new model. It was an important accomplishment for each component to make goal this year considering the challenges faced by all of the military

  • Incirlik AB Medics improve outdated process

    The 39th MDSS medics created a new patient travel-request form process and contributed to saving the wing approximately $34,000 and 1,300 man-hours annually. This process improved overall patient satisfaction and was recognized as the 39th Air Base Wing’s key innovation for the third quarter.

  • Air Force on schedule with new uniform issue timeline

    When Air Force officials announced last year they were adopting the Army OCP as the official utility uniform, they developed a three-year rollout timeline across the force for the entire changeover. Last week put them on target for issue to new recruits entering BMT.

  • Air Force observes National Cybersecurity Awareness Month

    The awareness month is a collaborative effort between the Department of Defense, along with the Department of Homeland Security and its public and private partners. It is up to the total force to stay vigilant, keep learning and be ready for any potential cyber threat.

  • New Air Force Justice Information System goes live

    Learning from decades of high ops tempo and web-based technologies, an Air Force team developed a $5.7 million professional system in less than 10 months that provides security forces operations with a progressive criminal data reporting system.

  • Air Force stands up new Advanced Aircraft PEO

    The new office was created to transform the Next Generation Air Dominance program into the Air Force’s Digital Century Series initiative, using digital engineering, modular open systems architecture, and agile software development to design advanced airplanes faster and enter production with a

  • The sky's the limit: Sheppard AFB innovation goes from ground up

    Mixed reality used by the 80th Flying Training Wing is a flying environment in a controlled setting that enables students to learn and make mistakes with a safety net. It was created through the use of 360-degree cameras, skilled pilots and actual images from flights over north Texas and southern

  • AETC to host Developmental Special Experiences webcasts Oct. 3

    The Air Education and Training Command Developmental Special Experiences Branch is scheduled to host two webcasts Oct. 3. The first webcast is available at 8:30 a.m. CDT (9:30 a.m. EDT), with the second webcast at 4:30 p.m. CDT (5:30 p.m. EDT). Thousands can join the webcast on the AFPC Facebook

  • Air Force recognizes Energy Action Month 2019

    During Energy Action Month, the Air Force will emphasize the need for smart energy solutions and inform Airmen, Air Force senior leaders, policy makers and aligned organizations about what they can do to effectively distribute, generate and manage resilient and reliable energy across the enterprise.

  • Midnight Sun Guardians participate in Gobi Wolf 2019

    The Mongolia National Emergency Management Administration, Mongolian Armed Forces and local Mongolian agencies partnered with their U.S. counterparts, including Airmen from the 176th Wing, Alaska Air National Guard, in Sainshand, Mongolia, during exercise Gobi Wolf 2019. The exercise centered around

  • Facilities, information technology top themes in AFMC We Need study

    Facility quality and Information Technology infrastructure topped the list of concerns identified through the Air Force Materiel Command’s AFMC We Need initiative, which aims to identify ways to best posture the command to meet the demands of the National Defense Strategy and the Air Force of the

  • Air Force creates futuristic fighters

    The 7th Security Forces Squadron is implementing the newly-improved Multiple Interactive Learning Objectives training simulator as part of their regular training curriculum.

  • Joint service members team up for MEDEVAC exercise

    U.S. Army veterinarian clinical specialist worked together with emergency medical responders, sharing life-saving measures for MWDs in case of extreme emergencies where veterinary technicians might not be available.

  • Barksdale AFB bomb wings support Cobra Warrior

    The exercise featured more than 50 fighter aircraft from Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy and Israel. The large-scale exercise, based out of RAF Waddingham, United Kingdom, had aircraft flying in simultaneously to participate in peer-to-peer scenarios.

  • AFRL invents cargo aircraft tire change tool

    The 60th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron, part of the Air Mobility Wing at Travis Air Force Base, California, who maintains the U. S. Air Force’s largest aircraft, the C-5M Super Galaxy, contacted the AFRL's JFWORX team seeking assistance to increase the safety and decrease the manpower requirements

  • Tunnel 9 personnel provide guidance for hypersonic experiment

    Earlier this year, personnel from Tunnel 9 provided instrumentation installation training to members of the research team from the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory, or JHU-APL, in Laurel, Maryland, working on the Boundary Layer Transition, or BOLT, flight experiment.

  • Air Force fields new hiring process for new first sergeants

    The Air Force has removed the first sergeant assignment from developmental special duty and is using a combination volunteer and nomination process when bringing on first sergeants for their initial assignments in the career field to ensure the right Airmen are selected and assigned to these special

  • Reserve readiness for today and the future

    The reemergence of long-term strategic and great-power competition necessitates that the Air Force Reserve grows its capabilities to meet the demands of the future operating environment while integrating with Air Education Training Command and the Air National Guard.

  • ACC discusses 16th Air Force as new information warfare NAF

    Air Combat Command will integrate 24th Air Force and 25th Air Force capabilities into a new organization under a single commander who will be responsible for providing information warfare capabilities to combatant commanders with the speed to match today’s technological environment.

  • Roper: Air Force of the future is faster, smarter, bolder

    “To become a more competitive acquisition system, the Air Force needs to be aware of trends in technology,” said Dr. Will Roper, assistant secretary of the Air Force for acquisition, technology and logistics. “The world is changing, we have to change with it. The key is to decide which technology

  • AFGSC commander speaks on competitive edge, long-term strategic competition

    Starting with the shift in our nation’s defensive posture as a result of the 2018 National Defense Strategy, Gen. Timothy Ray, Air Force Global Strike Command commander, highlighted the reemergence of long-term strategic competition and great power competition. Key to this discussion is the role the

  • Columbus AFB Airmen march 100 miles to ground zero in honor of 9/11

    Capt. Matthew Carpenter, 14th Student Squadron, 14th Flying Training Wing graduation officer, and Maj. Jonathan Leetch, 41st Flying Training Squadron T-6 instructor pilot, managed the setup of this year’s march to the 9/11 Memorial, its seventh iteration, and estimated approximately 25 people

  • Air Force generals Goldfein, Brown make historic visit to Vietnam

    For Americans of a certain age like Goldfein and Brown, Vietnam remains an unshakable memory even today, 44 years after the era-defining war ended. The memory and the reactions it triggers are even more pronounced for people like Goldfein and Brown – second-generation service members whose fathers

  • OEA introduces Energy StoryMap

    OEA, with its team of team of energy experts including engineers, project managers and policy analysts, serves as the single point of entry for all Air Force strategic facility energy and resiliency initiatives.

  • Safety professionals recognized at 2019 NSC Congress and Expo

    The National Safety Council developed the Rising Stars of Safety to help highlight up-and-coming safety professionals. Winners show leadership in safety and bring new ideas to existing problems at their organizations. The Air Force is the only organization, federal or industry, which has had a

  • AFH1 phone app available now on Apple and Google Play

    The AFH1 app includes the “The Air Force Handbook 1,” and study guide, as well as Air Force Instruction 36-2618, The Enlisted Force Structure, known as the “The Little Brown Book.” There is also access to the “The Little Blue Book” which focuses on the profession of arms. Other tools such as flash

  • Innovative approach increases polygraph efficiency

    Recognizing this directly hindered conducting polygraph examinations, the AFOSI 2nd Field Investigations Squadron Polygraph Office, Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, did something innovative about it.

  • A dark night leads to a bright career

    “We didn’t know what the area below us really looked like,” said Maj. Gen. Timothy Leahy, Second Air Force commander. “It could’ve been rolling terrain and when we hit the ground, the helicopter could’ve rolled over and burst into flames. Everyone could’ve died.”

  • Pilot Training Next graduates 14 in learning experiment's second iteration

    PTN is an experimental program under the “Learning Next” umbrella with a focus on understanding how Airmen learn, as well as exploring and potentially prototyping a flying training environment that integrates various technologies to produce pilots in an accelerated-and learning-focused manner.

  • Around the Air Force: Hacking Conference / DoD SAFE / Driving Simulator

    Today's look around the Air Force features the 27th Annual DEF CON Hacking Conference, major changes to Army Aviation and Missile Research, Development and Engineering Center's file transfer capability, or AMRDEC, and Ramstein Air Base's 86th Vehicle Readiness Squadron's new driving simulator.

  • CSAF Private Pilot Scholarship Program changing face of US aviation

    In 2018, almost half of all newly licensed female pilots between the ages of 17 and 19 were graduates of the Air Force Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps Flight Academy. This year, 150 cadets each received a scholarship from the Chief of Staff of the Air Force Scholarship Program to attend one of

  • Air Force mandates dedicated space for nursing mothers

    The policy enables commanders to support nursing mothers by outlining procedures and requirements for establishing a private, secure (lockable from the inside) and sanitary location for the purpose of breastfeeding and/or expressing breast milk.

  • Exercise New Horizons 2019 concludes in Guyana

    Exercise New Horizons 2019 came to an end with a closing ceremony at the Blueberry Hill community center, Aug. 22. Since the start of the exercise in May, the New Horizons team built three community centers and a women’s shelter, as well as participated in several medical outreach events in the

  • Wounded warrior talks resiliency during tactical pause

    In the wake of Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein’s Resiliency Tactical Pause directive, Master Sgt. Jose E. Rijos, Air Force Wounded Warrior ambassador, recounted the traumas of his career with his service dog, Cairo, at his side.

  • Space Flag holds first exercise with coalition partners

    Space Flag 19-3 integrated approximately 160 coalition participants, observers and distinguished guests in Air Force Space Command’s “Fight Tonight” exercise focused on using current capabilities to deter, deny and disrupt adversarial actions in the space domain.

  • BESPIN-AFIMSC alliance improves mission support capabilities

    BESPIN and AFIMSC are partnering to develop two mobile applications: an app connecting the military community to base events and an app to improve contractor accountability. The apps were two of the top three ideas chosen during AFIMSC’s inaugural Innovation Rodeo March 1.

  • 86th VRS rolls onto virtual highway

    Members of the 86th Vehicle Readiness Squadron at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, are doing exactly that by acquiring a new driving simulator to train Airmen that aren’t familiar with German roads and weather conditions.

  • DoD agency keeps file swaps safe

    Now in the wheelhouse of DISA, the file transfer capability has been rebranded DoD SAFE, or secure access file exchange. The DoD SAFE capability is part of DISA's Defense Collaboration Services suite of applications.