U.S. Air Force laments that it’s short of pilots

A member of the U.S. Air Force stands in front of an F-22 Raptor at Seoul Airport in South Korea, on Oct. 19, 2015. The Air Force says it faces an imminent shortfall of 700 pilots by the end of 2016. SeongJoon Cho Bloomberg

 

 

The U.S. Air Force faces a shortfall of 700 fighter pilots by the end of the year and as many as 1,000 pilots within a few years, Air Force officials said Wednesday.

“It is a crisis,” said Gen. David Goldfein, the Air Force chief of staff. “Air superiority is not an American birthright. It’s actually something you have to fight for and maintain.”

Aggressive hiring by commercial airlines has helped thin the ranks of Air Force pilots, and lengthy deployments overseas, long separations from family and reduced flying time when back on U.S. soil have exacerbated the problem, Goldfein said.

US to lack full space launch capability beyond 2019 without Russian engine

America continues to suicide itself out of existence any way it can, with space also being a frontier:

 

In January, the US Air Force awarded contracts to Orbital ATK and SpaceX to develop prototypes of US-built rocket engines to replace the RD-180.

 

Full US space launch capability may be delayed beyond 2019 if it cuts its supply of Russian-made RD-180 rocket engines, US Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James told the Senate Armed Services Committee on Wednesday.

The Top Secret Pentagon Project That Had Its Own Super Bowl Commercial

 

A secret U.S. bomber is set to exit the black budget’s shadows and enter the public eye

The U.S. Air Force’s newest bomber is poised to emerge from the shadows of the Pentagon’s so-called black budget.

As soon as this month, the government will pick Northrop Grumman Corp. or a Lockheed Martin Corp.-Boeing Co. team to lead the Long-Range Strike Bomber program. It’s a decision that will expose the multibillion-dollar program to Washington adversaries long before the jet sees combat in the 2020s or beyond.

US receives 2 Russian rocket engines RD-180 under contract

In case you didn’t realize how dependent the United States is on Russia, this shows you the depth. Today, America also can’t even send humans into space without renting a seat from Russia. The U.S. is willfully committing suicide and is beyond the point of no return.

 

 

 

RD-180 rochet engines are produced at Moscow region’s Khimki-based power engineering company Energomash

WASHINGTON, August 21. /ITAR-TASS/. US company United Launch Alliance (ULA) has received Wednesday first two Russian rocket engines RD-180 under a contract to buy 29 such engines, ULA spokesperson Jessica Rye told ITAR-TASS.

‘Culture of toleration’ rampant at U.S. nuke base led to ‘rot’ worse than originally reported

It’s good to know America’s nuclear deterrence received a “D” grade boost as opposed to an “F” because it’s held up by cooks, facility managers and a ‘highly rated training program’ where cheating has been running rampant, as of late.

WASHINGTON — Failings exposed last spring at a U.S. nuclear missile base, reflecting what one officer called “rot” in the ranks, were worse than originally reported, according to Air Force documents obtained by The Associated Press.

Airmen responsible for missile operations at Minot Air Force Base, N.D., passed an inspection in March 2013 with a “marginal” rating, the equivalent of a “D” in school. But it now turns out that even that was only because of good marks received by support staff like cooks and facilities managers, as well as a highly rated training program. Launch officers, or missileers, entrusted with the keys to the missiles did poorly and, on their own, would have flunked, the records show.

More nuclear missile officers accused in cheating probe

The number of nuclear missile launch officers under investigation for allegations of cheating has nearly doubled, a U.S. military official said Tuesday.

On Jan. 15, the Air Force announced that 34 nuclear officers were under investigation for either cheating on tests or knowing about the cheating ring and not reporting it.