Air & Space Forces Magazine

07/01/2025

So far, the Air Force and Space Force have contracted with around 30,000 recruits, 25,000 of whom have already begun basic military training, according to the Air Force Recruiting Service. The rest will complete BMT by the end of September, when the fiscal year comes to a close.

The Space Force and Air Force hit their fiscal 2025 recruiting goals with months to spare, a promising trend, officials annnouced June 30.

07/01/2025

The accident occurred May 13, 2024, after an uneventful training flight for Robertson and an international student pilot, a member of the Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program.

A new Air Force investigation found a partially installed safety pin and loose straps caused a fatal ejection for a T-6 instructor pilot.

07/01/2025

Procurement budget documents, which could shed some light on the spending plans for the new Air Force One, have yet to be released. An Air Force spokesperson declined to elaborate on the secretary’s remarks.

The Air Force diverted funding it didn’t use for the Sentinel nuclear missile program to turn a Qatari jet into Trump’s Air Force One.

07/01/2025

Among the key findings, respondents reported moderate overall wellness satisfaction, with an average rating of 6.58 out of 10. Respondents rated their environmental, spiritual, and intellectual wellness highest, while they rated their physical and emotional wellness satisfaction the lowest.
MORE: https://www.airandspaceforces.com/military-spouses-survey-loneliness-insomnia/

06/30/2025

The Air Force spent $4.8 billion on munitions in fiscal 2024, a figure that fell to $2.57 billion in the ’25 budget. The ’26 request includes a modest rise in the base budget, to $2.85 billion, but with the reconciliation add of $1.94 billion, it rises all the way to $4.78 billion.

Air Force munitions spending returns to recent highs in the fiscal 2026 budget request, but it's not clear if the surge will continue.

06/30/2025

The budgetary moves largely mirror the amounts in the reconciliation bill currently being debated in Congress. The fighter numbers, however, come well short of the Air Force’s longstanding goal of acquiring 72 fighters a year.
MORE: https://www.airandspaceforces.com/2026-budget-air-force-fighter-fleet/

06/30/2025

Instead, the Pentagon now hope to buy five more Navy E-2D Hawkeye planes to fill the airborne early warning role before relying on satellites to share data on enemy aircraft and missile movement—a move critics say would hinder the U.S. military’s ability to wage air combat in the years ahead.

The Air Force plans to cancel its effort to purchase E-7 Wedgetail airborne target-tracking jets, a senior defense official confirmed.

06/30/2025

IT security for the U.S. military is a patchwork—each network or system commander has the power to make their own decisions about what risks to accept. So when one commander makes a risk calculation, others are under no obligation to accept it...

The Army blocked the generative AI chatbot, NIPRGPT, from all its networks, citing cybersecurity and data governance concerns. The unusual move highlights the lack of reciprocity across commands and entities over what technologies are safe for use on military networks.

06/27/2025

To McHenry, non-kinetic effects need to be buttons on the cockpit controls. Just as pilots have a red button to fire a missile, they need to have a “blue button there that’s going to launch the cyber effect."

Fighter pilots should value non-kinetic weapons like cyber and electronic warfare—or they will lose the next wars, a DARPA official argues.

06/27/2025

For the Space Force and Golden Dome, it’s unclear how much can be accomplished with a $13.8 billion down payment on space-based missile interceptors and new tracking and targeting satellites.

The Space Force says its 2026 budget request is roughly $40 billion, an increase of more than 30 percent driven by reconciliation.

06/27/2025

Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Dan Caine on the incredible crews and the team that supported them on Operation Midnight Hammer.
MORE: https://www.airandspaceforces.com/inside-story-b-2-mission-bomb-iran-nuclear-sites/

06/27/2025

As the United States faces increasingly sophisticated threats, the importance of resilient, persistent space sensing has never been greater. Join the Mitchell Institute for an important discussion on this critical portfolio.
REGISTER: https://tinyurl.com/27t7amvb