Pacific Air Forces has deployed Block 50 F-16s from the 35th Fighter Wing at Misawa AB, Japan, to Iraq, marking the first time for Block 50 Vipers to operate in Iraq, according to an Air Force release. The 14th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron now serves as a third fighter squadron assigned to Balad AB, Iraq. The Block 50 F-16s offer an improved data link, along with other advances. Misawa deployed some 250 pilots and maintainers to Balad.
The Air Force rolled out new interim height standards for Career Enlisted Aviators aimed at improving aircrew diversity and “safely meeting accession demands,” as the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center works to update a 1967 anthropometric study used to establish USAF flight requirements for more than half a century.…