Task Force Falcon Strike will utilize one-way attack drones composed of unmanned systems from above, on and below the sea, managed by U.S. military support staff and regional partners, according to a Thursday release.

The move to launch this unit follows CENTCOM’s establishment of Task Force Scorpion Strike in December 2025, a Middle East-based task force equipped with one-way attack drones as the military strived to integrate drone technology across the services.

“Task Force Falcon Strike will expand on Scorpion Strike’s success given the tremendous innovation happening among our regional allies and partners,” Adm. Brad Cooper, CENTCOM commander, said in the release. “Integrating and deploying our new capabilities together will help us rapidly realize the new possibilities that are on the horizon.”

Scorpion Strike was the first to launch an aerial attack drone from a U.S. Navy warship last December, the month of its announcement. The unit also deployed one-way unmanned aerial systems during Operation Epic Fury and during strikes on Iranian port facilities in July with unmanned attack vessels at sea, the statement highlights.

CENTCOM began consulting with and officially inviting regional partners to join Falcon Strike, aiming to expand attack-drone capabilities across the Middle East into a “unified multi-domain, multinational deterrent.”

“The United States military has a lot of strong partnerships and friends in the region,” Cooper said. “We are collectively stronger when we integrate and deploy new capabilities together.”

The release did not specify which regional partners CENTCOM is working with on the unit.

Personnel from the U.S. Special Operations Command Central, located at MacDill Air Force Base, Florida, will lead Falcon Strike’s staff of U.S. and regional representatives after it launched Scorpion Strike, the release states.

The announcement comes as the U.S. continues its war with Iran, which has depleted the U.S. munitions stockpile and caused military leaders to weigh the possibility of developing cheaper anti-drone technology at a faster pace.

Joint Base Andrews, Maryland, will receive 26 HH-60Ws, an advanced combat search and rescue helicopter, to replace their 26 UH-1N medium utility helicopters, according to a Wednesday release.

As part of the transition to the HH-60W “Whiskey,” the base will gain 60 active-duty manpower positions, per the statement.

JBA will stand up the 5th Helicopter Squadron on Aug. 27 as the first unit on base to receive the new helicopters. The 1st Helicopter Squadron will continue to fly the Hueys until it converts to the Whiskey mission. The release did not specify when that switch would occur.

Both squadrons are tasked with supporting contingency response operations for the federal government, defense support of civil authorities and senior leadership transportation, according to the announcement.

The announcement comes a month after a UH-1N Huey from JBA’s 1st Helicopter Squadron made an emergency landing in Washington, D.C., after the crew reported “vibrating mechanical sounds” while in flight.

“The current UH-1N fleet is 49 to 59 years old and lacks the speed, range, and lift capacity required to provide cost-effective, modern mission support,” the release states.

“The HH-60W delivers significant increases in payload capacity, maximum airspeed, and mission range to ensure the aircraft can meet tasked mission requirements,” the statement continues.

Operational capability of the HH-60Ws is slated for 2030, the release says.

Andrews, located in Prince George’s County, is home to the presidential Air Force One and the 89th Airlift Wing, which provides airlift and communications for the president, vice president, cabinet members and senior leaders.

The department will now process screening requirements and the force’s Board for Correction of Military Records jointly and employ case managers to speed up the return, according to the release.

“The Department of the Air Force has a resolute commitment to rapidly return affected service members to the ranks,” Assistant Secretary of the Air Force for Manpower and Reserve Affairs Honorable Richard L. Anderson said in the statement.

“By running medical certifications and record-correction board actions in parallel rather than sequentially, and establishing dedicated reinstatement case managers as single, proactive points of contact for applicants, we aim to increase the speed and ease of returning former members to service under the DAF COVID-19 reinstatement program,” he continued.

The move comes as the Pentagon struggles to reinstate troops that left service after refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine. Only 3% of those eligible have opted to return out of the 8,700 service members who involuntarily separated in 2021.

The Pentagon’s 8,700 figure was contested by data from the branches released in late 2022 that showed the number was actually closer to 8,400 service members: 3,717 Marines, 2,041 Navy sailors, 1,841 Army soldiers and 834 Air Force and Space Force members.

The department stated in the release that the updates to the process align with the Department of Defense’s May establishment of a Reinstatement and Reconciliation Task Force that directed all services to identify and remove roadblocks to the reinstatement of affected service members.

The Air Force now allows for medical certifications and board-corrected actions to proceed at the same time, instead of sequentially, removing the average 30-day barrier related to medical clearances, per the release.

Alongside the workflow change, case managers will now serve as points of contact for applicants and are instructed to remove delays caused by missing documents, help members throughout the process and ensure fast reintegration.

The appointment of case managers also allows the Air Force Review Board Agency COVID Reinstatement team to focus solely on finalizing cases, according to the announcement.

Airmen and guardians pursuing a return to service under the January 2025 executive order are subject to these updates, the release states. The expedited program is under a one-year extension that remains open until April 2027, as directed by Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth.

As warfare continues to be shaped by AI, autonomy and cyber operations, the Department of the Air Force should invest in targeted “just-in-time” training for officer and warrant officer airmen and guardians, according to a Tuesday report published by the RAND Corporation, a nonprofit research institute based in Arlington, Virginia.

“In an era of constrained resources, technological fluency may increasingly need to be treated as a core element of warfighter readiness, not a niche skill or one-time educational requirement,” the report reads.

The training should focus on AI, data literacy and cyber-enabled operations, according to RAND. The authors argue that the framework could also be applied to enlisted and civilian personnel down the line to offer a force-wide approach to AI integration.

A “stackable, scaffolded continuous” training through a certificate model in AI and advanced technologies could be beneficial to officers because it allows for a measurable pathway for technology fluency and tailors training while reducing costs to the department, per the report.

Stackable certificates can be incorporated into the department’s existing training and education systems through implementing the programs tailored to career fields and mission areas that need a technological skill set as well as updating professional military education, or PME, curricula to include the stackable certificates, according to the report.

“As AI and advanced technologies increasingly shape military effectiveness, airmen and guardians must be prepared not only to operate alongside these capabilities but also to lead with them,” the authors say.

A stackable certificate is part of a sequence of credentials that can be built up over time to increase an individual’s qualifications and allow them to work up a career ladder, according to the Department of Labor.

A lack of assessments of stackable certificates in military or government organizations leads the authors to recommend pilot programs and outcome assessments before implementing stackable certificate programs at scale.

The paper argues that the use of stackable certificates in training and existing PME is well aligned with the department’s reestablished warrant officer group.

“WOs can leverage stackable certificates to complete ongoing training on AI, advanced technologies, cyber capabilities, and other mission-specific requirements while assigned to their units and performing their standard duties,” the report says.

The authors recommend that the department assess whether ongoing and advanced technical training fits within the realm of service members’ primary responsibilities and in which method it can best be delivered. The department should also consider updating promotion and assignment processes to take the stackable certificates into account to better retain talent and support career growth.

The service chose 12,671 senior airmen out of the 39,774 who were eligible for promotion, resulting in a selection rate of 31.86%, according to a Monday Air Force Personnel Center release.

The 2026 staff sergeant promotion list will be made publicly available on Thursday, according to the statement.

In 2025, nearly 15,900 senior airmen were promoted out of approximately 47,000 eligible, resulting in a selection rate of 33.81%, marking the largest number of staff sergeant promotions in almost a decade.

The Air Force last selected a large number of senior airmen for promotion in 2016, with a total of slightly over 16,500 at a selection rate of 42.25%.

The largest selection class was in 2002, less than a year after the 9/11 terrorist attacks, when 19,448 airmen were selected at a rate of 62.98%.

The number of those promoted in the 2026 cycle is still a large increase from the lowest number of promotions in the past decade of around 9,700 and 9,000 seen in 2022 and 2023, respectively.

To advance from senior airmen, E-4, to staff sergeant, E-5, those eligible need to undergo a testing process and attend a leadership school, as well as meet the basic requirements of a minimum of three years of total active service, six months in a grade as senior airmen and have a 5-skill level in the Air Force Specialty Code.

The Pentagon announced late last month that the base, located in North Charleston, South Carolina, would be renamed after Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. The renaming took place Monday with a ceremony attended by Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, as well as state and local officials.

A late July memo, signed by Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink, directed staff to begin working with Air Mobility Command and Joint Base Charleston to rename the base, attributing the honor to Graham’s “decades of distinguished service to the United States Congress and the United States Air Force.”

Graham spent 33 years in the Air Force as an active-duty staff judge advocate, a South Carolina Air National Guard officer and a senior lawyer in the Air Force Reserve.

He died unexpectedly from an aortic dissection at the age of 71 in mid-July.

Graham was elected to the House of Representatives in 1994 and the Senate in 2002.

Graham was a member of the Senate Budget Committee, leading efforts to further military funding. Before his death, he secured $212 million for the Charleston base to go toward the Coast Guard for enhanced readiness.

“Beyond the uniform, Senator Graham has been a vital supporter to this base,” base Commander Col. Kenneth Shirley said during the unveiling ceremony. “His unwavering support to the installation’s mission was not just words. His support was cemented into the foundation that makes this base.”

In a speech Monday, Hegseth applauded Graham for “taking on a radical leftist ideology that had run rampant in the media, in academia and even among a few members of Congress,” which he said had curbed the military’s recruiting numbers under former President Joe Biden’s administration.

The defense secretary pointed to the historic $1.5 trillion fiscal 2027 defense budget currently under consideration by Congress, saying that Graham told Hegseth it was the “best military budget” he has seen since taking office.

“This department pays tribute to Lindsey Graham in the naming of this base, but there could be no greater tribute that Congress could give than to invest in our warriors for the full $1.5 trillion,” Hegseth said.

The base mainly houses the 628th Air Base Wing, 437th Airlift Wing and the reserve 315th Airlift Wing, with a total force of over 90,000 airmen, sailors, soldiers, Marines, Coast Guardsmen, civilians and retirees across four installations. The base manages the force’s largest fleet of C-17 Globemaster II cargo aircraft.

Frank Kendall, who served as the 26th Air Force secretary from 2021 to 2025 during former President Joe Biden’s administration, recently spoke with news outlets and has been quoted in their stories concerning the Qatari-donated jet’s security features.

Sean Parnell, a Pentagon spokesperson, said in a Friday social media post that Kendall’s access to classified information and his ability to hold any “sensitive” position is forfeit, effective immediately.

“This action follows his unauthorized disclosure of classified information regarding Air Force One’s capabilities to a media outlet,” Parnell said in the post.

“Safeguarding classified information is a non-negotiable duty,” he continued. “Those who violate that trust forfeit the privilege of access and any role requiring it.”

Former high-ranking officials, such as Air Force secretaries, usually retain access to sensitive information after leaving their posts, allowing them to serve as consultants to the current administration or as contractors as needed.

Following his departure as Air Force secretary, Kendall now serves as a national director on the Air & Space Forces Association board and as a nonresident senior fellow at the Center for American Progress.

AFA and CAP did not immediately respond when contacted by Military Times.

Although Parnell did not name a specific publication to which Kendall supposedly shared unauthorized information, the former Air Force secretary has recently been quoted in The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal, expressing skepticism on the short time frame of the Air Force One’s modification schedule.

In a July article, two sentences in The New York Times are attributed to Kendall, in which he says that a mix of security, communications and support is missing from the jet since “time didn’t permit all the normal Air Force One modifications.”

“With the Iran situation, this could be of concern,” Kendall told the Times. “Frankly, I’m surprised to see this plane used outside the U.S.”

Earlier this month, Kendall was also quoted in a Wall Street Journal article published less than a week before his clearance was revoked, voicing uncertainty about the plane being “maxed out” with more security features fit for presidential use after President Donald Trump announced a month prior that the jet would be sent for upgrades.

The temporary Boeing 747 has faced scrutiny over its use by Trump as the Air Force awaits the 2028 delivery of two Boeing VC-25Bs that have succumbed to scheduling delays and cost overruns.

Trump first traveled within the U.S. in the modified jet in July, but then a week later made a last-minute switch to an older Air Force One, instead, following the NATO summit in Turkey as tensions escalated with Iran.

The president said he flew on the older plane for “old times’ sake,” but also told reporters in Ankara that he was “number one on the kill list” for Iran, which borders Turkey.

As the service projects to spend $21 billion in modernizations for 76 active long-range strategic bombers, the Government Accountability Office argues that advancing such efforts, such as new engines, with “little to no” developmental flight testing will increase the risk that the system will not function as desired.

The Boeing B-52 Stratofortress has been in service since 1955 and was originally given a life expectancy of 20 years. The Air Force now expects to utilize the aircraft, which can conduct conventional and nuclear bombing missions, through 2050.

“The scope of the cumulative B-52 modernization effort, combined with the inherent complexity associated with simultaneously executing multiple independent and concurrent programs, results in technical, programmatic, and operational challenges for the entire community tasked to develop, integrate, test, and field these upgrades,” the report says.

Ten of 13 modernization efforts are experiencing cost, schedule or performance challenges.

In particular, since 2023, the engine replacement, which is the largest and most expensive upgrade, faced a cost increase of around $3 billion and delayed operational capability by more than 15 months because the Air Force proceeded with the production with minimal developmental flight testing, the report reads.

The GAO said the service is also not consistently using digital engineering tools that provide real-time data that access overall performance for decision makers, causing the Air Force to potentially miss opportunities to for efficiencies that would help avoid future sustainment and supportability issues.

The current maintenance plans of bringing B-52s to a repair depot every four years does not account for possible schedule delays from the Commercial Engine Replacement Program, or CERP.

“B-52 maintenance is already struggling with finding sufficient parts for the current engines,” the report says. “Without planning for the possibility of engine delays from CERP, the Air Force risks falling behind on planned B-52 maintenance, which could impact readiness.”

The GAO made six recommendations to the Air Force to improve B-52 planning and management, including delaying the CERP production until the program office analyzes the associated risks, as well as updating sustainment plans and evaluating the benefits of using digital engineering.

The program, described as “extreme teaming” with industry partners, entered the phase with “unprecedented maturity,” Gen. Dale White, director of Critical Major Weapon Systems, said in a Wednesday keynote address at an event in Dayton, Ohio.

The engineering and manufacturing phase includes maturing, integrating and testing all parts of the F-47. It will produce a small number of test aircraft for evaluation and includes priced options for low-rate initial production. White did not specify the number of test aircraft being produced.

The first Boeing F-47 is on track for its first flight in 2028. The Air Force plans to buy at least 185 F-47s, matching the size of the F-22 Raptor fleet it intends to replace.

“The F-47 will fly in this administration,” White said during his speech at the Life Cycle Industry Days, hosted by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center.

White, who also acts as direct reporting portfolio manager to the deputy defense secretary, is tasked with managing weapons systems, such as the F-47 and B-21 programs.

In March 2025, President Donald Trump announced that the force will proceed with development of sixth-generation Boeing F-47s under the Next Generation Air Dominance program, or NGAD, intended to replace the F-22 Raptor.

“In terms of all of the attributes of a fighter jet, there’s never been anything even close to it, from speed to maneuverability, to what it can have, to payload,” Trump said at the time, insisting that the aircraft will be built and in the air during his administration.

“And this has been in the works for a long period of time,” he continued. “America’s enemies will never see it coming.”

NGAD is a “family of systems” that includes the F-47 and Collaborative Combat Aircraft designed to achieve air superiority. The F-47’s modular design is intended to accommodate emerging technology and integrate long-range strike capabilities to counter threats in contested environments.

The F-47 program was allotted $3.45 billion in fiscal year 2026 funding and over $5 billion in the fiscal 2027 budget request.

B-21 Raiders, the service’s long-range stealth bombers currently in initial production, will be “on the ramp” at Ellsworth Air Force Base next year, Gen. Dale White, director of Critical Major Weapon Systems, said in a Wednesday keynote address at an event in Dayton, Ohio.

White, who also acts as direct reporting portfolio manager to the deputy defense secretary, is tasked with managing weapons systems, such as the F-47 and B-21 programs.

At the Life Cycle Industry Days, hosted by the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, White confirmed that the first operational aircraft of the stealth bombers are on track for a 2027 Ellsworth delivery as initially projected in February.

The program, which White deemed “the physical proof our warfighting-focused acquisition mindset can and will work,” has increased its production capacity by 25%, boosting its delivery timeline.

The deal between the Air Force and Northrop Gumman, the defense company tasked with B-21 manufacturing in a 2024 contract award, first bolstered the program with already authorized funding of $4.5 billion in a reconciliation bill, which was signed in fiscal 2025 as the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” part of the Pentagon’s fiscal 2026 defense budget.

For fiscal 2027, the historic $1.5 trillion budget request proposes $6.1 billion for the B-21 program.

The first next-generation stealth bomber began flight testing in 2023 at Edwards Air Force Base, California, with the second following in 2025 as the force moved to integrate weapons and critical mission systems into the aircraft.

The program contains a gradual increase in production, with an eventual production rate of approximately seven aircraft every year.

The force seeks at least 100 B-21s to replace the aging B-1B Lancer and B-2 Spirit fleets in the coming decades.

“This is what disciplined acquisition delivers,” White said in a February release announcing the expanded production capacity. “This decision reflects our confidence in the program’s performance and the stability of the industrial base. By increasing production capacity now, we are responsibly accelerating delivery of a critical, combat-effective capability to the warfighter.”