News
Key tests for latest F-35s will begin in 2026, two years after rollout
An important series of tests for the latest upgrades to the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will likely not begin until two years after these jets started hitting the field — and at least three years following their original due date.
Trump nominates Air Force veteran to oversee special operations forces
President Donald Trump tapped Michael Jensen, an Air Force veteran with experience in special operations forces, to take a high-level Pentagon job as assistant secretary of defense for special operations and low-intensity conflict.
US steps up intelligence flights for border mission with RC-135 and P-8 spy planes
The U.S. military is carrying out intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance missions along the southern border and off the coast of Mexico using U.S. Air Force RC-135 Rivet Joint and U.S. Navy P-8 Poseidon aircraft as part of the Pentagon’s effort to secure the southern border at the direction of President Donald Trump.
Growler’s precautionary arrested landing diverts other Navy flights in Japan
Several U.S. Navy aircraft were diverted to other airfields in Japan on Wednesday after an E/A-18G Growler made a precautionary arrested landing that temporarily closed the runway at Marine Corps Air Station Iwakuni, according to the Marine Corps.
Air Force
1,000-year-old discovery unearthed at Alaska base
Air Force engineers and archaeologists in Alaska have discovered a food cache on the Upper Cook Inlet southwest of Anchorage used 1,000 years ago to store salmon, moose, caribou, and berries.
Air Force tells commanders to hold standards reviews every quarter
Air Force leaders are directing unit commanders to conduct four “standards and readiness reviews” of their troops per year starting March 31, as part of a recent push for new standards and stricter enforcement.
Bulgaria upgrades its airpower with handover of first US-made F-16s
Bulgaria will soon be flying American-made F-16s as it transitions from Soviet-era aircraft to modern jets, with some help from U.S. airmen based in Italy.
RC-135 Rivet joint surveillance jet just flew unprecedented mission off Mexico
A U.S. Air Force RC-135V Rivet Joint conducted a highly unusual flight in the Gulf of California yesterday, between Mexico’s Baja Peninsula and the rest of that country, according to online flight tracking data. The strategic intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (ISR) plane looks to have done the same today.
Air Force places career training on hold while services scrub DEI content
The Air Force has temporarily halted career development courses as part of a broader effort to remove diversity, equity and inclusion-related content from military training and education.
F-15 EW suite eeclared ‘effective,’ but tull extent of capabilities in combat less clear
The electronic warfare suite which will protect the Air Force’s F-15E and F-15EX in contested airspace has been declared “operationally effective,” the Pentagon’s test director said in its recent annual report. But the system can’t be evaluated to the very limits of its capabilities because of test range limitations, and because the Air Force doesn’t want to expose what the system can really do in open-air testing.
Veterans
After kicking six different medications, this veteran now studies ‘overmedication’ in VA care
Derek Blumke was on a cocktail of six different medications prescribed by doctors with the Department of Veterans Affairs. It was 2017 and the 12-year veteran of the Air Force and Michigan Air National Guard was taking Adderall for attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD), Ambien for insomnia, Gabapentin for anxiety, and others.
