Airforce

The U.S. Air Force and commercial airline SkyWest Airlines are trying to learn more about a July 18 incident in which a North Dakota-based B-52 Stratofortress may have had a near miss with a passenger plane.
SkyWest said in a statement to Air Force Times that its flight 3788 was flying from Minneapolis to Minot, North Dakota, on Friday evening. Air traffic controllers cleared flight 3788 to approach Minot International Airport for a landing when “another aircraft became visible in their flight path,” SkyWest said.
The commercial plane aborted the landing and circled above the airport, before landing safely at the airport, the airline’s statement said. SkyWest said the company is now investigating the incident.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed a B-52 from Minot Air Force Base held a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair that evening, but stopped short of confirming the near miss happened or saying an investigation was underway.
“We are aware of the recent rep..

The U.S. Air Force and commercial airline SkyWest Airlines are trying to learn more about a July 18 incident in which a North Dakota-based B-52 Stratofortress may have had a near miss with a passenger plane.
SkyWest said in a statement to Air Force Times that its flight 3788 was flying from Minneapolis to Minot, North Dakota, on Friday evening. Air traffic controllers cleared flight 3788 to approach Minot International Airport for a landing when “another aircraft became visible in their flight path,” SkyWest said.
The commercial plane aborted the landing and circled above the airport, before landing safely at the airport, the airline’s statement said. SkyWest said the company is now investigating the incident.
An Air Force spokesperson confirmed a B-52 from Minot Air Force Base held a flyover of the North Dakota State Fair that evening, but stopped short of confirming the near miss happened or saying an investigation was underway.
“We are aware of the recent rep..

The White House has nominated Gen. Thomas Bussiere, head of Air Force Global Strike Command, to be the service’s next vice chief of staff.
The Pentagon announced Bussiere’s nomination Friday, and said Lt. Gen. Stephen Davis — now the Air Force’s inspector general — has been nominated to receive his fourth star and succeed Bussiere as head of Global Strike.
The White House has also nominated the Space Force’s Lt. Gen. Shawn Bratton to be vice chief of space operations. Bratton is now deputy chief of space operations for strategy, plans, programs and requirements.
If confirmed by the Senate, Bratton would succeed Gen. Michael Guetlein as vice chief of space operations. The Senate on Thursday evening confirmed Guetlein to head the Pentagon’s massive Golden Dome missile defense project.
Bussiere would succeed former Air Force Vice Chief Gen. Jim Slife. President Donald Trump fired Slife without explanation in February, alongside former Chairman of the Jo..

A KC-46A Pegasus refueling tanker was forced to conduct an emergency landing July 8 after its refueling boom was shredded in a mishap off the East Coast.
The unofficial Facebook page Air Force amn/nco/snco posted photos of the KC-46 Friday, which showed extensive damage to the plane’s refueling boom. The War Zone first reported the damage to the KC-46.
The photos show most of the boom is ripped off, with its remaining metal ripped and twisted and a chain hanging down. The underside of the plane’s tail was also dented and scraped, which may have occurred from the damaged boom.
John Van Winkle, a spokesperson at McConnell Air Force Base in Kansas, confirmed one of the base’s tankers was damaged and pictured in the post.
Inbox: “McConnell tail that landed at SJ for the boom”
Posted by Air Force amn/nco/snco on Friday, July 11, 2025The KC-46, which is from McConnell’s 22nd Air Refueling Wing, was refueling F-22 Raptors from Joint Base Langley-Eustis that afternoon when t..

Some A-10 Warthogs could get a reprieve from total retirement as Congress moves to reverse some of the Pentagon’s most dramatic Air Force cuts in its proposed fiscal 2026 budget.
The Pentagon’s budget, which the department released in June, calls for the Air Force to retire its remaining 162-plane fleet of A-10 attack aircraft in 2026, two years earlier than originally intended. It also calls for canceling the E-7 Wedgetail program in favor of E-2D Hawkeyes and space-based sensors, and cutting the planned purchase of F-35A Joint Strike Fighters down to 24, or nearly in half.
The proposed E-7 and F-35 cuts sent shockwaves through the Air Force community and prompted 16 retired four-star generals — including six former chiefs of staff — to speak out against the changes. They sent top congressional leaders a letter Monday urging lawmakers to change course.
The Senate Armed Services Committee on Friday announced it had approved its version of the 2026 National Defen..

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Thursday announced sweeping changes to the way the Pentagon buys and fields uncrewed air systems, or UAS, with a goal of establishing “UAS domain dominance” by 2027.
Hegseth announced the policy changes in a video recorded on the Pentagon’s front lawn. With Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” playing in the background, a quadcopter delivered a memo announcing the policy changes, which Hegseth then signed.
“While our adversaries have produced millions of cheap drones, before us we were mired in bureaucratic red tape,” he said in the video, which he posted from his official X account. “Not anymore.”
Unleashing U.S. Military Drone Dominance @DOGEpic.twitter.com/ueqQPc7rKI
— Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth (@SecDef) July 10, 2025The memo lists three broad goals: bolstering the U.S. drone manufacturing base, delivering thousands of low-cost systems to military units over the next few years and integrati..

PARIS — France proposed to partners Germany and Spain to “rethink” the work share on the Future Combat Air System project in order to stick to a schedule that would see a future fighter enter into service from 2040 onwards, the country’s Directorate General for Armament said.
While the program has made significant progress, including deciding on the shape of the fighter demonstrator, it’s currently encountering difficulties, the DGA told Defense News in an emailed reply to questions. France therefore recently proposed to its partners to redesign their cooperation based on “strengthening industrial leadership,” the armaments agency said.
“France, as the program’s lead nation, is proposing to its government and industrial partners that they draw lessons from the first years of cooperation in order to continue to ensure that the schedule is met and the project is successful,” the DGA said. “The principle and details of this..

PARIS — France proposed to partners Germany and Spain to “rethink” the work share on the Future Combat Air System project in order to stick to a schedule that would see a future fighter enter into service from 2040 onwards, the country’s Directorate General for Armament said.
While the program has made significant progress, including deciding on the shape of the fighter demonstrator, it’s currently encountering difficulties, the DGA told Defense News in an emailed reply to questions. France therefore recently proposed to its partners to redesign their cooperation based on “strengthening industrial leadership,” the armaments agency said.
“France, as the program’s lead nation, is proposing to its government and industrial partners that they draw lessons from the first years of cooperation in order to continue to ensure that the schedule is met and the project is successful,” the DGA said. “The principle and details of this..

A promising Air Force Research Laboratory system designed to integrate drones into air traffic management systems at military installations could one day be installed at bases around the world.
AFRL’s Collaborative Low-Altitude Uncrewed Aircraft System Integration Effort, or CLUE, fuzes data from radars, counter-UAS systems and other sensors to create a shared operating picture for air traffic controllers, security forces and UAS operators.
John Sawyer, a UAS analyst for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment — which is leading efforts within DOD to partner with the Federal Aviation Administration to improve airspace integration — said CLUE is a game changer.
“Your security teams see more than just what their Counter UAS sensors are seeing. Your air traffic controllers can now see the drones. Your UAS operators can now see everyone else,” Sawyer told Defense News on the sidelines of a June 25 Defense Innovation Unit ..

A promising Air Force Research Laboratory system designed to integrate drones into air traffic management systems at military installations could one day be installed at bases around the world.
AFRL’s Collaborative Low-Altitude Uncrewed Aircraft System Integration Effort, or CLUE, fuzes data from radars, counter-UAS systems and other sensors to create a shared operating picture for air traffic controllers, security forces and UAS operators.
John Sawyer, a UAS analyst for the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition and Sustainment — which is leading efforts within DOD to partner with the Federal Aviation Administration to improve airspace integration — said CLUE is a game changer.
“Your security teams see more than just what their Counter UAS sensors are seeing. Your air traffic controllers can now see the drones. Your UAS operators can now see everyone else,” Sawyer told Defense News on the sidelines of a June 25 Defense Innovation Unit ..