On Friday, a new FQ-42 Vengeance aircraft was delivered to Creech Air Force Base, according to a Monday company release, and will continue regular test and evaluation operations to experiment with the new jet.

“Every week, the Air Force is pushing forward with new and more impressive accomplishments using Vengeance. It’s amazing to think of how far this program has come in such a short amount of time,” Vice President of Advanced Programs Mike Atwood said in the release.

The announcement follows two months after Creech conducted an Agile Combat Employment exercise using Anduril’s FQ-44 Fury, allowing airmen to carry out sorties and build foundational tactics and procedures that will mold how CCA are integrated into the force.

Anduril has yet to announce which Air Force base will house Fury.

Vengeance, which has an internal weapons bay and other low observability and boosted survivability features, flew alongside F-35 and F-15E Strike Eagles in preparation for collaborative control operations with manned aircraft, per the statement.

Recently, Secretary of the Air Force Troy Meink revealed that the service expects to have at least 500 autonomous aircraft in service by 2032, with them meant to perform many of the same missions manned fighters complete currently.

“By then, our special operators will have the ability to employ thousands of autonomous one-way attack systems, and we will have autonomous fighters like the Collaborative Combat Aircraft,” Meink said during last week’s keynote address at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

General Atomics said the company completed a new “low-observable paint facility” aimed at supporting CCA production with increased manufacturing space, and the company is on track to deliver six aircraft per month.

Vengeance’s production is underway on General Atomics’ dime as “government funding plans mature,” per the statement, in an effort to prevent delays in delivery.

The service’s fiscal 2027 request included $996.5 million in procurement funding for the CCA program. It also requests $150 million in advanced procurement for the following fiscal year and $1.37 billion in continued research and development. The total program request is $2.37 billion.

The Air Force began a new initiative in 2025 called the Future of Undergraduate Pilot Training, shifting flight training from traditional military pilot training to civilian flight schools. The ability to add 1,500 pilots this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30, confirms the validity of the FUPT to bridge the gap of the service’s 2,407-pilot shortfall, according to a recent release.

“Reaching 1,500 pilots is a milestone, but it is not the finish line,” Lt. Gen. Clark J. Quinn, commander of Air Education and Training Command, said in the release. “FUPT was built to overcome long-standing constraints including instructor shortages and aircraft availability to deliver the aviators our combatant commanders require.”

In the FUPT model, AETC and civilian aviation programs are paired together to allow student pilots to complete foundational flight training at Federal Aviation Administration Part 141-certified civilian flight schools across Texas, Arizona, Florida and Georgia, before using military aircraft.

The framework allows the Air Force to reserve military aircraft, instructor capacity and flying hours for advanced military training, while permitting students to earn their private pilot license, instrument rating and multi-engine rating.

Student pilots enter the military pipeline with around 120 flight hours, instead of only 30 under the previous Initial Flight Training structure.

After the “civilian phase,” student pilots transition to a military syllabus focused on the T-6A Texan II trainer aircraft and advanced simulation to gain their wings, the release states.

Because the students arrive with foundational knowledge, military instructor pilots can focus on tactical fundamentals, rather than basic skills, according to the Air Force.

The 19th Air Force, which oversees and manages all formal aircrew flying training, redesigned the T-6 curriculum into a “competency-based syllabus” that matched operational requirements, reducing T-6 training days by 31%.

“Achieving 1,500 validates that we can scale future undergraduate pilot training, and we now continue the focus on refining the training to ensure the quality of our graduates matches the scale,” Quinn said.

“Our instructor pilots, maintainers, and support teams adapted this enterprise to meet the need, ensuring a steady flow of skilled aviators for our combatant commands,” he concluded.

In his first statement since being charged with 10 specifications under three UCMJ articles, Watson shared that his oath to the Constitution made him act, saying that it was nonpartisan and he would’ve protested any office that violated the law.

Chris Mutimer, Watson’s civilian attorney, said in the Friday preliminary hearing at Joint Base Anacostia-Bolling, Washington, D.C., that the case at hand is whether a crime was committed, not if his words were wise.

Watson is charged with three specifications of Article 88, contempt toward officials, five specifications of Article 92, failure to obey order or regulation, and two specifications of Article 133, conduct unbecoming of an officer.

The Air Force major called for the removal, conviction and impeachment of President Donald Trump and Vice President JD Vance on the steps of the U.S. Capitol in early July. A month prior, he interviewed with the Defenders of Our Republic Substack as well as CNN in August, which led to specifications in Article 88.

Watson’s defense argued that criticism is not a charge of contempt, and Article 88 is rarely charged and, when it is, it is inconsistent, saying that this case should be referred to a special court-martial instead of a general court-martial.

A special court-martial is for misdemeanor-level offenses, while a general court-martial is the most severe for felony offenses.

His defense rested heavily on the previous case of Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, a Marine Corps officer who spoke out against U.S. leaders in October 2021 over the withdrawal from Afghanistan while wearing his uniform in viral social media videos.

Scheller pleaded guilty to all six violations of the UCMJ that were levied against him: Article 88, Article 89, Article 90, two charges of Article 92, and 27 specifications of Article 133.

Scheller was sentenced to forfeit one month’s pay of $5,000 and to receive a punitive letter of reprimand. After serving in the Corps for 17 years, he later left in December 2021.

The Marine Corps officer was only in pretrial confinement for nine days, while Watson has been in solitary confinement for 35 days thus far as of Monday.

The defense showed a video of Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth praising Scheller on Fox & Friends at the time, telling him he “showed the kind of backbone the vast majority of politicians would never show, to cut against the grain and put their career on the line, to speak truth, to take accountability when no one else did.”

Scheller was later appointed by Hegseth as Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel and Readiness in 2025.

“The law will not make the same word a virtue in one officer’s mouth and a felony in another’s,” his lawyers argued, highlighting that Scheller’s case was resolved in special court-martial even though he had the same charges as Watson with more specifications.

Maj. Joshua Wendell, the hearing’s preliminary officer, questioned where the anchor is in these cases, saying, “Which one is the right outcome? Was Scheller properly disposed of and how do I determine that?”

Mutimer said that perception is the anchor, and while making his recommendations, the officer should look toward making both sides equal. But the government’s counsel rebutted, saying that “we cannot do [name calling],” referring to how Watson spoke of Trump.

The government’s counsel brought forth 29 evidence exhibits and one witness, Maj. Bethany Evans, the 811th Force Support Squadron commander, who took command in mid-July at JBAB to speak on Watson’s charge regarding his alleged refusal to wear his Physical Training Gear uniform while performing his duties on JBAB.

It was “quickly determined” that Watson would Permanent Change of Station to JBAB with Evans as his commander due to his investigation, instead of sending him back to his previous post in Bydgoszcz, Poland.

From the hearing date, Wendell has eight business days to make his recommendations to the Special Court-Martial Convening Authority.

A Texas Air National Guard F-16 assigned to the 149th Fighter Wing, housed at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, crashed in Grand Traverse County, Michigan, during a routine training mission from the Alpena Combat Readiness Training Center, according to a wing release shared with Military Times.

The pilot successfully ejected from the Falcon, the statement says.

The Michigan State Police directed all businesses and residences to evacuate around 4:30 p.m. local time within a one-mile radius of the crash site due to a “hazardous chemical spill” related to the crash, according to a social media post.

“Continue to avoid the area while first responders work to keep the community safe,” the post reads.

The evacuation order was lifted around 9:45 p.m., and residents were able to return to their homes near the crash site. However, as authorities continued to work in the area, some residents were not able to drive home, instead being told to park along a roadway.

Following the crash, several first responders were among the 30 people evaluated at a local hospital for possible exposure to hazardous chemicals. Most of the responders were treated and released, but six people remained in Munson Medical Center overnight and all were in stable condition, CNN reported.

“Munson Healthcare reminds residents that individuals within the one‑mile radius of the incident who are experiencing symptoms such as cough or trouble breathing should seek medical evaluation,” the post says.

Hydrazine, which is used in F-16s as an emergency fuel power in the Emergency Power Unit, can cause short-term effects such as trouble breathing or long-term ones such as organ damage.

In an Air traffic control audio clip captured by Live.ATC, the pilot can be heard saying emergency services need to be alerted due to a suspected bird strike.

“We have a possible mayday. My wingman, I believe, may have taken a bird,” the audio says, with the pilot continuing to say that one person was in the jet.

“He told me he was going to have to get out, and it’s going to be the town I’m overhead now,” the pilot says.

The wing did not say if the pilot sustained any injuries or was taken to the hospital following the crash.

The incident’s cause was not released by the wing, and the crash is under investigation.

As the force grapples with supply chain and maintenance issues as well as long aircraft service lives, sustainment funding is becoming increasingly necessary to bridge the gap, service officials said in a panel at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“If I can throw a number out there right now, we have a $14 billion hole in supply,” Commander of Air Force Materiel Command Lt. Gen. Linda Hurry said during a panel titled “Flying and Fixing to Fight and Win.”

“Let that sink in for a minute,” she continued. “I know we’re not going to get it all at once, but when we get it, we’re going to have to execute. We’re going to have to execute smartly so we can move the needle.”

Hurry said that the service is managing the fleet more globally through partnerships, looking at parts with the Defense Logistics Agency and individual pieces that the force can get from the depot back in the field.

“From a supply perspective, our increase in the supply rate, or the number of aircraft that are down from a supply perspective, has increased 87% over the last seven years,” Hurry said.

On average, around 53% of the force’s fleet is over 30 years old, with 55% of the fleet over its “useful” service life, she said.

Hurry added that the force is working to receive additional funding for spare parts through advocating for the budget request to pass. In the fiscal year 2027 budget, the Department of the Air Force requested a record $338.8 billion, with $4.2 billion allotted for the Consolidated Sustainment Activity Group, or CSAG, that manages spare parts and maintenance backlogs, according to budget documents.

“But once we get even a penny, we have to be ready to execute it,” Hurry said.

Hurry also said that the service is striving to improve its “forecasting accuracy” to better understand where the needs are and where to position those assets globally by using artificial intelligence models and additive manufacturing.

On top of those measures, the service is putting long-term contracts in place that build stability in the collective supply chain and multiple sources of supply.

“Gone are the days of monopolies; we can’t just have one person producing the one critical part,” she said. “I need five [industry partners] producing them because if we get down to the crunch, we’re going to have to have a healthy shelf so that we can fight globally.”

The officials touted the North Star Readiness Campaign, which is meant to increase the number of mission-capable B-52 Stratofortress and B-1 Lancer aircraft by accelerating the delivery of parts, engineering support and depot maintenance.

The campaign has been the “number one driver” of improving readiness in the bomber fleet because of the supply increase the force has received, Gen. Stephen L. Davis, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, said during the panel.

Specifically, Davis said that the campaign has increased B-52 readiness by 40%.

“As a commander, you don’t want everything to be a money problem to solve it, but this I think is a money problem,” he said. “We need more money for parts. It’s absolutely the case.”

The decision to extend the B-1 Lancer and B-2 Spirit comes amid moves by the force to further develop the B-21 Raider, the service’s next-generation stealth bomber with accelerated production.

Both the bombers will be extended, Gen. Stephen L. Davis, commander of the Air Force Global Strike Command, said during a panel titled “Flying and Fixing to Fight and Win” at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

The commander said that the experienced pilots from the bombers will be some of the first B-21 pilots.

The Raiders are on track for a 2027 delivery to Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota. The service aims to replace the aging B-1 and B-2 fleets in the coming decades with at least 100 B-21s.

Davis highlighted the Air Force’s Bomber Supplemental Trainer for Aircrew Readiness, or BSTAR, program, which is meant to address gaps and flight-hour readiness for B-1 pilots. In the program, XSTAR Aviation provides the force with HondaJet Elite light business jets.

“We’re bringing in a HondaJet to actually help experience some pilots, and also as some of these airframes have issues with readiness, it gives those pilots a chance to fly and get them time in the seat, which we know is very important,” Davis said during the panel.

The commander didn’t say how long the bombers’ service lives would be extended for, but the service intends to modernize and invest in the B-1 and B-2s in the coming years despite both aircraft being slated for retirement in the next decade.

Recently, the service launched an operation readiness campaign, dubbed the North Star Readiness Campaign, to increase the number of mission-capable B-52 Stratofortress and B-1s by accelerating the delivery of parts, engineering support and depot maintenance.

During the campaign’s announcement, the force said that while the B-22 and B-1 are being upgraded to continue service, the B-2 will be maintained for combat effectiveness until the B-21 is fully operational.

The force needs to be “clear-eyed” about the environment ahead as future conflicts will be progressively contested and defy simpler solutions, Caine said in a Wednesday keynote at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“We have to assume from now on that our formations will be hunted by autonomous systems, jammed across the spectrum and tracked in real time,” Caine said in his speech.

“We have to transition the joint force to be prepared to fight and win our future wars by generating and delivering lethality at scale with an agile, optimized, high-low mix of combat capabilities to give the young members of the 2.8 million-member all-volunteer joint force the tools that they need before they need them,” he continued.

While calling the American military and their families the country’s “ultimate insurance policy,” Caine asserted that the joint force needs to be ready for a fight before it begins.

Even as the country’s adversaries are geographically dispersed, they are connected through sharing technology, intelligence, weapons and economic support, he said. As the military branches study past and present American battlefields, they are looking for new ways to challenge the advantage, demonstrating the necessity for readiness and investment in a range of military capabilities before a crisis begins.

Recently, Russia and Iran have deepened their military partnership with a technological feedback loop amid the Ukraine war and the conflict in the Middle East. Moscow is sending Iran upgraded munitions, satellite imagery and targeting data that have been used against American forces in the Middle East.

Tehran first supplied Russia with Shahed attack drones for use in Ukraine in 2022 and has since arranged a license to build the Iranian-designed drones on Russian territory.

“The character of war is changing, and time is of the essence,” Caine said, emphasizing how the way and speed in which countries fight is altering on the modern battlefield as artificial intelligence, cyber capabilities and autonomous systems develop.

The chairman noted that the modern battlefield today operates from the seabed to the cislunar space, highlighting that the advantage will go to whoever can see, understand, decide and act first as a learning organization.

Caine highlighted the June rescue of two Army soldiers by way of a remotely piloted Navy unmanned surface as an example of how the military is adapting and utilizing AI and autonomous tools.

He also referenced how these tools are being used to change the threat in contested electromagnetic interference environments, such as in Ukraine, with first-person view drones.

“Take it together, these examples from the Strait of Hormuz to the front lines in Ukraine show how quickly technology is changing the character of war,” he said.

Caine spotlighted that it will be young service leaders who will be the ones in charge of the subsequent conflicts in these environments and will have to be adaptive and understanding of their environment with a plethora of information.

As technology, networks and software continue to change, the need for capable and lethal leaders will not, he said. The nation can bring autonomy and better networks to the force but none of it will matter without trusted leaders that can work under pressure.

“We must move together because the window to build the force that we need is closing,” Caine said. “We can buy almost anything in life, but we cannot buy time.”

To support the tanker aircraft and the anticipated mission capability rates, the Air Force should continue prioritizing available spare parts and modernization efforts for the aircraft, officials and industry experts said during a panel at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“The last KC-135 pilot has not been born,” Air Mobility Command Deputy Commander Maj. Gen. Gerald Donohue said during the panel, titled “Long-Range Airpower: Lessons from Midnight Hammer and Epic Fury.”

“That is just a statement of fact when you consider the time it takes to modernize, and so we will have to sustain our legacy platform as well as our newest platforms, and ensure that the joint force is supported by being able to execute the mission,” he continued.

The force primarily uses two tanker aircraft: the legacy KC-135 Stratotanker and the next-generation KC-46A Pegasus, which is in the first phase of recapitalization.

As the force continues to modernize its strategic bomber fleet, the service must increase optionality by modernizing the tanker fleet to better offer alternatives when needed.

Moving forward, recapitalization will be the command’s priority alongside modernization of existing aircraft, Donohue asserted, by emphasizing connectivity, survivability and technical viability.

“Epic Fury, Midnight Hammer underscore the importance that connectivity plays, not only to our own survivability, but more importantly, to the success of the joint force and the mission at hand, whether it’s passing information to the bomber force as they’re executing their refueling or to the combat air forces forward, we’ve got to have the connectivity to add that value,” Donohue said.

Donohue said that the service is currently going through recapitalization as it brings on the KC-46s and modernizes the KC-135s, highlighting that once the acquisition of the KC-46 is completed, the service will still have hundreds of KC-135s.

As future conflicts and operating areas get more and more contested, getting the bomber or fighter force to their last Air Refueling Control Time, or ARTC, puts the force at risk, he said, furthering the need for survival platforms with additional tanker systems that propel the viability of legacy and future aircraft.

“We can never walk away from the idea that our young airmen out there on the line today and for decades still will have to sustain 70-year-old-plus airframes,” Donohue said.

The panelists argued that partnership with industry matters most as the “biggest enabler” for getting capability into the hands of the warfighter faster and at a lower cost to the service, saying that more opportunities to rethink the work upfront boosts efficiency for the operator.

Jamie Burgess, Boeing’s vice president and general manager of Mobility, Surveillance and Bombers, said that the work the company did on the KC-46 aircraft, such as upgrades to the vision system for refueling, altered the way they think about the development work.

“Getting teams together — operators, subject matter experts, engineers — come to agreement on design up front so we can get after the detailed design work and get it built and tested and out to the operators,” he said in the panel.

The growth will hinge on the service recruiting more than 200 guardians and civilian specialists to fill instructor roles in anticipation of the large increase in students, Space Training and Readiness Commander Maj. Gen. James E. Smith told reporters Tuesday at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference.

“We understand the requirements behind right-sizing the Space Force, and we are fully postured to meet those goals for FY27,” Smith said.

“Adding 10,000 Guardians over the next five years represents our target, with a significant portion of that growth occurring in the first year,” he continued. “Predictable budget resources will remain vital as we scale operations to maintain our FY27 momentum.”

As of 2024, the Space Force employed more than 14,000 civilian and military guardians, according to the service, with around 9,400 active-duty guardians.

The 200 instructor roles include officer and enlisted basic training, commissioning pipelines, initial skills training and professional military education, according to a STARCOM release. They’d be assigned to Air Force ROTC detachments across the country, Officer Training School and the Air Force Academy, as well as three enlisted initial skills training locations and enlisted PME courses.

STARCOM will work to rapidly onboard and qualify the new personnel to handle the incoming number of students, the release says. In fiscal 2027, STARCOM plans to expand its Basic Military Training channel by more than 90% to accommodate 1,400 recruits at Joint Base San Antonio-Lackland, Texas, with initial skills courses also facing expansion to match the increase in students.

Enlisted professional military education will grow by nearly 120% to train more than 1,300 students annually, and the Officer Training School will “scale its pipeline” by nearly 600% to prepare around 850 officer trainees, per the statement.

Air Force ROTC anticipates a 100% jump in commissions to around 200 guardians next year.

After commissioning, new officers enter OTC, which is housed at Peterson Space Force Base, Colorado, with enrollment expected to increase 275% to more than 1,350 officers in fiscal 2027.

Eventually, officer professional military education will absorb an additional 1,600 students for a 330% increase.

“While we currently have a great partnership with the U.S. Air Force for many of our development courses,” Smith said, “ultimately, Guardians require space-minded education and rigorous, domain-specific training to ensure combat credibility, integrate seamlessly with the joint force and protect national interests.”

The news of the growth comes as the White House announced plans in late August to establish a NASA-led Space Force Academy in an effort to expand education opportunities as the nation continues to register space as a “critical domain.”

Chief of Space Operations Gen. Douglas Schiess said in a Tuesday media roundtable at the AFA conference that the Space Force is working with NASA to support the development of the academy, but the service will continue to graduate 100 guardians a year from the Air Force Academy.

“I think we’re at the very beginning stages, and so I think anybody that’s space-minded and is going to have that background that can then get a job in the Space Force as a civilian, that’s great,” he told reporters.

Air Force Secretary Troy Meink announced Monday at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference that the service has on-orbit space control weapons capable of defending the joint force against “hostile adversary action.”

Meink announced in a keynote address Monday at the Air & Space Forces Association’s 2026 Air, Space & Cyber Conference that the service has on-orbit space control weapons that are capable of defending the joint force against “hostile adversary action.”

Meink offered no other details, saying only that the phrasing was “well thought out.” He said maintaining and being able to depend on U.S. space capabilities is necessary as adversaries develop their own capabilities to threaten them.

“It is critically important that we maintain our dominance not only in the air but in space, and so that we’ve had to take steps to make sure that when we’re threatened, we can take care of that,” he said during his speech.

During a media roundtable following the keynote, Meink declined to comment on the type of weapons or why the announcement was made now.

Meink’s statement is the most direct public acknowledgment by a U.S. official to date regarding space control weapons, but he did not say when the weapons were launched or how many are in orbit.

Meink said that for more than a decade, the U.S. has been aware that adversaries such as China and Russia were developing their own capabilities to threaten U.S. systems.

“We need to maintain dominance in space as it becomes more and more important to how we function, how we operate militarily and economically, civilian-wise,” he told reporters.

The secretary called it necessary for deterrence, but he would not give more details about the weapons, saying that would negate its purpose.

“I’m not going to talk about the specifics of what we’re doing, whether we’ve tested or not tested or anything else,” he said.