Flight hours plunged during COVID, but aircraft mishap rates ticked up Stephen Losey
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Two Air Force F-16 Fighting Falcons, assigned to the 77th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron, fly in formation with two Royal Saudi Air Force F-15E Strike Eagles during an exercise over Southwest Asia Dec. 15. The Air Force recorded fewer major mishaps in 2020 but a steep decline in flight hours during the pandemic meant the mishap rate actually ticked up last year. (Staff Sgt. Taylor Harrison/Air Force) The Air Force saw the fewest of the three most serious classes of mishaps involving manned aircraft in at least a decade in fiscal 2020.
Kirtland AFB receives body armor tailored for women February 24 Senior Airman Kiah Cook, 377th Security Forces Group defender, wears the new female body armor on Kirtland Air Force Base, New Mexico, Feb. 4. (Airman 1st Class Ireland Summers/Air Force) New body armor specifically tailored for women is arriving at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico part of a larger effort within the Air Force to provide women better-fitting equipment. Female airmen with the 377th Security Forces started receiving the new body armor in January, the Air Force said in a news release Feb. 17. Unlike the armor designed for men, the new body armor features several key changes to better accommodate women.
As mission-capable rates languish, Pentagon should embrace digital engineering Ben Kassel and Bruce Kaplan February 3 (Photoraidz/Getty Images) While many Pentagon initiatives face a change of course under new Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, its digital engineering strategy deserves a push forward. The strategy, issued in 2018 by then-Under Secretary of Defense for Research and Engineering Michael Griffin, aimed to help military services harness modern sustainment methods like additive manufacturing, digital twin and augmented reality. For the Department of Defense, enterprisewide implementation of these techniques would lower costs, increase weapon systems’ mission-capable rates and afford flexibility in fleet modernization. But digital engineering requires digital, 3D data and the DoD doesn’t have enough.
Cheating scandal during COVID lockdown ensnares 249 Air Force Academy cadets January 29 Academy basic cadets participate in the first phase of basic cadet training with marching drills on July 8 on the Terrazzo at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado. The academy has investigated 249 cadets for alleged cheating last spring, after three-quarters of the academy s students were sent home in the early days of the coronavirus pandemic. (Trevor Cokley/Air Force) In a Friday release, the academy said those cadets are suspected of violating the school’s honor code in a variety of ways from failing to properly cite sources and looking up answers on unauthorized tutoring websites while taking exams to completing final exams in small groups.
Former Air Force Chief Goldfein Joins Blackstone
The retired general picked the investment firm over opportunities at defense companies.
Dave Goldfein has joined New York investment firm Blackstone as a senior advisor, the retired Air Force general said this week.
Goldfein, a former fighter pilot who retired as the Air Force’s top general in August, will advise the firm’s leaders on strategic and investment decisions and the hiring of more veterans throughout Blackstone’s portfolio companies.
“I don t think I ll ever be the guy at the table to look at a spreadsheet and know what I m looking at,” Goldfein said in an interview with