U.S. Air Force B-52 Stratofortress bombers — America's longest-serving bomber aircraft — are expected to get an upgrade that will allow them to drop bombs like never before.
Editor’s Note: This article by Oriana Pawlyk originally appeared on Military.com, the premier source of information for the military and veteran community.
The U.S.-led coalition’s three-year bombing campaign against ISIS may have reached unprecedented levels in August, but Air Force Secretary Heather Wilson is worried about a potential source of friction at home: Congress.
Nestled in the southwest corner of the Mojave Desert, California’s Naval Air Warfare Center Weapons Division — “China Lake” — is one of the finest military testing ranges in the continental United States. Home to 85% of the Navy’s weapons research and development, it covers an area larger than the state of Rhode Island. A cradle for destruction, the range has given birth to the Sidewinder, Hellfire, and Tomahawk missiles; the Joint Direct Attack Munition in high demand by both the Navy and Air Force; and a plethora of unusual testing facilities for electronic warfare to unmanned aerial vehicles.
Secretary of Defense Jim Mattis “personally intervened” in the Department of Defense’s fiscal year 2018 budget request to maximize the number of munitions procured by the Pentagon, Defense News reported May 23.
The U.S. has deployed the largest nonnuclear bomb in its inventory on an ISIS target in a remote part of far northeast Afghanistan, the Pentagon confirmed on Thursday.
