A half-dozen Aviation Resource Managers from the 353rd Combat Training Squadron have been busy up at Eielson AFB, Alaska, managing the annual Cope Thunder exercise. The ARMs are the specialists that coordinate and schedule the air-refueling, bombing, airlift, rescue, and fighter missions that are the core of the annual PACAF exercise, which just wrapped up. Lt. Col. Russell Quinn, the 22nd Fighter Squadron commander, noted that not many enlisted airmen have such an impact on the flight operations as the “one chucks” (the nickname for their career designation, 1COX2). “They make sure we make our schedules,” Quinn said.
The first flight of the secretive B-21 bomber has slipped to mid-2022, but the program is moving along well, Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office director Randall Walden said in an exclusive interview. The second copy of the B-21, which will be used for structural testing, is now on the production…