Air Force 
battlefield airmen from Eielson AFB, Alaska, who have been training for a year-and-a-half with the Army’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from nearby Ft. Wainwright, left with the 172nd for Iraq Sunday—marking USAF’s first joint effort with a Stryker unit. Some 20 tactical air control party airmen—members of Eielson’s 3rd Air Support Operations Squadron— will direct combat and ISR aircraft from their Strykers, each manned with an Army driver and gunman, reports the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. (Read here about TACPs and ALOs.)
Sustainment of the F-35 is rapidly becoming the most profitable part of the program, as growing numbers of jets, bases and depots drive a greater demand for parts and services, top Lockheed Martin officials said in an April 20 corporate earnings call. The comments come against a backdrop of criticism…