Free Republic

The U.S. Air Force abandoned an experiment aimed at boosting pilot training graduation rates for women and minority pilots after the 2021 initiative failed to achieve the intended results and officers privately warned it could violate anti-discrimination policies, according to documents obtained by the Daily Caller News Foundation. As part of the larger military-wide effort to promote diversity in the service’s pilot ranks, the 19th Air Force command near San Antonio, Texas, “clustered” racial minorities and female trainees into one class, dubbed “America’s Class,” to find out if doing so would improve the pilots’ graduation rates. However, not only did...

The US Air Force has been trying for years to retire its aging fleet of A-10 Warthog planes. During a Thursday hearing, the service secretary said the aircraft "doesn't scare China." "It still has some limited utility, but we have to get on with things," Frank Kendall told Congress. The US Air Force has long butted heads with Congress over plans for the retirement of its aging A-10 Thunderbolt II attack aircraft — flying cannons also known as Warthogs, and on Thursday, service leadership stressed to legislators that it's time to move on because the warplane is less useful than...

Paraguayan President Mario Abdo Benítez appears to be collaborating in the US-led, WEF coup against his own nation. Mario Abdo Benítez, the President of Paraguay, visited the United States Air Force Special Operations Forces (SOF) Command Hub in Hurlburt Field, Florida in late March, in the middle of a US-led World Economic Forum election coup that threatens to turn his nation into the next Brazil. According to the US Air Force, Benítez’s visit to the SOF Hub included high-level meetings with the military officers behind “unconventional warfare” and “psychological operations.” President Mario Abdo Benítez, or “Marito” as he is known...

The Air Force is reportedly loosening its body composition requirements and allowing recruits to have higher percentages of body fat. "The Air Force is looking to open the aperture on qualifying a broader pool of young Americans for service in the Air Force. These changes bring the Air Force in line with DOD policy," Air Force Recruiting Service spokeswoman Leslie Brown said in a statement. "While recruits will be allowed to join with greater body fat percentages, they will still be expected to meet the same fitness standards as everyone else to stay in the service," she added. "That means...

Among the items seized were two SureFire firearm suppressors, a barrel for a Daniel Defense internally suppressed rifle, eight upper assemblies for Geissele Automatics brand rifles, two suppressor alignment rods, two suspected rocket launcher tubes, and approximately 6,000 rounds of unopened ammunition.

Collaborative Combat Aircraft will be able to carry out missions without direction from crewed aircraft and may not always fly as their “wingmen,” in order to maximize employment flexibility, Air Force leaders developing and testing the new platforms said March 27. In a panel discussion presented by Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies, the four generals charged with bringing the CCA concept to fruition said the service has embarked on on a modeling and simulation campaign to figure out how to make CCAs as useful and cost-imposing on an enemy as possible, while making progress on developmental, operational and testing fronts...

The U.S. Air Force has contracted Boeing to build the first two of potentially 26 E-7A Wedgetail radar planes. Boeing is to kick off work on the U.S. Air Force’s new airborne early warning and control (AEW&C) aircraft, with a contract to develop a version of the E-7 Wedgetail radar plane for the service. The Air Force will use the E-7 to replace at least some of its 31 remaining 707-based E-3 Sentry Airborne Warning And Control System, or AWACS, aircraft, which have been struggling with poor mission-capable rates — the Air Force’s metric that reflects levels of operational readiness....

Something was off with a key component used to literally hold many U.S. Air Force aircraft together—and it resulted in the service grounding 207 vital aircraft according to a Time Compliance Technical Order issues in February. No—it’s wasn’t the Air Force’s numerous F-16 tactical fighters. Nor its new F-35 stealth jets, or venerable B-52 bombers and A-10 ground attack jets. Foremost, it was the workhorse keeping all of those planes refueled in the sky: the service’s airliner-based KC-135 Stratotanker. It also affected RC-135 and WC-135 surveillance aircraft extensively deployed to monitor the activity and technologies of foreign militaries (particularly China,...

In the days since the U.S. Air Force shot down three unidentified objects out of the sky, questions linger about just what these objects actually were. On Thursday, a report by Aviation Week offered an intriguing hypothesis about what one of those three objects could be: a "missing in action" globe-trotting balloon belonging to an Illinois-based hobbyist club. The Northern Illinois Bottlecap Balloon Brigade’s (NIBBB) silver-coated, party-style "pico balloon" reported its last position on Feb. 10 at nearly 40,000 ft. off the west coast of Alaska.

According to FlightRadar24.com, a USAF KC-135 tanker flying without a callsign is boring holes in the sky in restricted airspace. This implies something is on the way to that location that will need gas.

TAMPA, Fla. - As several investigations are underway over classified documents found at the homes of President Joe Biden, former President Donald Trump and former Vice President Mike Pence, a retired Air Force Intel boss was caught with hundreds at his home. This investigation dates back to January 24, 2017 when the Air Force's Office of Special Investigations (AFOSI) received information indicating that Robert Birchum had been storing classified information on a thumb drive at his home in Tampa. A search of his home that same day found a thumb drive containing 135 files that were marked as containing Top...

Comments by Air Force Gen. Mike Minihan, the head of Air Mobility Command, about a potential war with China in the next few years have generated international headlines and led the Department of Defense to formally distance itself from the remarks. Minihan, who is known for his energetic, passionate style, prepared a memo saying that Airmen under his command at AMC should prepare to be at war with China within two years. “I hope I am wrong. My gut tells me we will fight in 2025.” Minihan wrote in the memo, which circulated on social media and was confirmed as...

The U.S. and Israel kicked off a massive combined weeklong military exercise Jan. 23, the largest since Israel was moved to U.S. Central Command’s area of responsibility in 2021. U.S. officials told Air & Space Forces Magazine the exercise, dubbed Juniper Oak, was notable in both size and scope. CENTCOM said everything from space assets, a carrier strike group, strategic bombers, stealth fighters, electronic warfare aircraft, Special Operations forces, and crews operating HIMARS precision artillery launchers would drill in a “combined joint all-domain exercise.” The exercise will run from Jan. 23-27 and involve 180,000 pounds of live munitions and 6,400...

Washington -- Nine military officers who had worked decades ago at a nuclear missile base in Montana have been diagnosed with blood cancer and there are “indications” the disease may be linked to their service, according to military briefing slides obtained by The Associated Press. One of the officers has died. All of the officers, known as missileers, were assigned as many as 25 years ago to Malmstrom Air Force Base, home to a vast field of 150 Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile silos. The nine officers were diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma, according to a January briefing by U.S. Space...

There are an unending number of interesting facts about the SR-71 Blackbird, probably the coolest aircraft ever produced by any Air Force, anywhere in the world. It’s the only airframe that’s made of 85% titanium, titanium that was purchased by the CIA from the Soviet Union – the country the aircraft was built to spy on. It’s capable of cruising at more than three times the speed of sound at 85,000 feet – and that speed and altitude are its only defenses. **SNIP** It’s also the only Air Force aircraft ever made with the “SR” designation. The reason for that...

A Shaw Air Force Base airman shot an individual who attempted to illegally get into the property in South Carolina on Friday. According to a press release, the individual who attempted to enter the base is being described as a "gate runner," WCBD reported. The individual was taken to a local hospital....

A day after publicly disclosing a safety stand-down for its entire fleet of B-2 Spirit bombers, the Air Force clarified that the nuclear-capable B-2 can still fly—if absolutely necessary. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense is investigating the Dec. 10 incident at Whiteman Air Force Base, Mo., involving a B-2 that sparked the safety stand-down in the first place. In a statement released Dec. 20, the 509th Bomb Wing, which operates the Air Force’s fleet of 20 B-2s, said the stealth strategic bombers ”can be flown if directed by the commander in chief to fulfill mission requirements.” Short of that, all...

The Air Force has grounded its entire fleet of B-2 stealth bombers following an emergency landing and fire earlier this month, and none of the strategic aircraft will perform flyovers at this year’s college bowl games. A bomber experienced an in-flight malfunction on Dec. 10, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, where it caught fire. The fire was extinguished and there were no injuries. The standdown is significant in that there are fewer than 20 stealth bombers in the entire fleet and the aircraft provides, along with the B-52 Stratofortress, the air...

The Air Force has grounded its entire B-2 Spirit fleet and will inspect each stealth bomber after one of the aircraft caught fire during an emergency landing earlier this month. The multi-role bomber, which was first unveiled in 1989, is capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions. The 20-aircraft fleet is based out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. A B-2 Spirit experienced an undisclosed in-flight malfunction that resulted in an emergency landing at Whiteman on Dec. 10. No one was injured. …

Searchers have located the wrecks of five B-24 bombers that crashed into the Adriatic Sea during World War II, three of which are associated with 23 still-missing crew members. The search mission – conducted over a two-week period in August off the coast of Croatia – was a partnership between Project Recover and the Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. It was the culmination of a lengthy process of researching military records and obtaining needed permits from Croatia, Mark Moline, the mission leader and a cofounder of Project Recover, said in a phone interview Thursday. Along with the B-17, the B-24 Liberator...