Air Force Research Lab formally activated its new 711th Human Systems Wing at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, on March 25, with its recently named director, Thomas Wells, taking charge. • Pacific Air Forces will stage its first Red Flag Alaska of the season beginning April 3, when more than 1,700 personnel from the US, Australia, Britain, and Canada join in operations at the Pacific Alaska Range Complex; subsequent RFAs will take place in June and October. • Officials at McGuire AFB, N.J and from the Thomas B. McGuire Foundation broke ground last week at the base for the new C-141 Starlifter Memorial Park, to honor the aircraft and the airmen who flew them for some 41 years. • MSgt. Derek Ronning with the 338th Combat Training Squadron at Offutt AFB, Neb., has amassed 7,000 flight hours since he joined the Air Force in 1986 and is currently an airborne systems engineer training superintendent for RC/OC-135s.
The Air Force’s nascent KC-Z program, aimed at developing a next-generation family of systems for aerial refueling, will look to launch its analysis-of-alternatives study in 2024, years earlier than originally planned. Originally, the analysis of alternatives for KC-Z was set for “maybe in the 2030s,” Paul Waugh, program executive officer…