U.S. Air Force

U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff General Charles Q. Brown was confirmed by the U.S. Senate as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff on Wednesday. He succeeds Army General Mark Milley, who has held the position since October 2019. An F-16 pilot with more than 3,000 flight hours, Brown has logged 130 combat hours […]

The National Museum of the U.S. Air Force has officially welcomed a PT-17 to its collection after a ceremonial transfer at Joint Base Andrews in Maryland this week. According to the museum, the aircraft is significant in that it is one of only two PT-17s still in existence that saw use during World War II […]

The U.S. Air Force took its first T-7A Red Hawk training jet for its initial flight on Wednesday, about a week after the model completed taxi testing. The flight lasted one hour and three minutes and officially kicked off the engineering and manufacturing development (EMD) phase of the T-7A program. Boeing was awarded a $9.2 […]

The U.S. Air Force plans to conduct flyovers across all 50 states on June 27 as a tribute to 100 years of air-to-air refueling efforts. Aircraft scheduled to take part in the event include KC-135 Stratotanker, KC-10 Extender and KC-46 Pegasus aircraft. More than 150 tankers from 26 installations are expected to participate. “Air refueling […]

Boeing announced on Tuesday that the T-7A Red Hawk military training jet has successfully completed taxi testing. While the model flew for the first time in 2016 as the T-X, further flight testing is expected to take place at Boeing’s facility in St. Louis later this summer then at Edwards Air Force Base this fall. […]

Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft developer Joby Aviation has received a $55 million extension on its contract with the U.S. Air Force. The extension is the company’s third, bringing the overall contract value to a maximum of $131 million. The recent agreement also includes provisions for the delivery and operation of up to […]

The U.S. Air Force has awarded a $184 million contract to Boeing to improve the communications capabilities of its KC-46A Pegasus tanker aircraft. According to Boeing, upgrades will include line-of-sight and beyond-line-of-sight communications technologies with antijamming and encryption features. The first KC-46As were delivered to the Air Force in 2019. “This upgrade demonstrates long-term investment […]

A U.S. Air Force MQ-9 Reaper drone went down in the Black Sea on Tuesday following an encounter with two Russian Su-27 aircraft. U.S. European Command (USEUCOM) released a declassified video showing the intercept, stating that the MQ-9’s propeller was damaged after a collision with one of the Su-27s which resulted in the Air Force […]

Boeing and Leonardo are beginning low-rate initial production of the MH-139A Grey Wolf helicopter following the recent award of a $285 million contract from the U.S. Air Force. The contract, which is part of a $2.4 billion deal for up to 84 helicopters, training systems and support equipment awarded to the Boeing-Leonardo team in September […]

The U.S. Air Force has awarded Boeing a $2.3 billion contract for 15 additional KC-46A Pegasus tanker aircraft. Boeing delivered the first KC-46As to the Air Force in 2019 and the aircraft was approved for global operations last year. According to Boeing, 128 Pegasus tankers are currently on contract with the Air Force with 68 […]