Lt. Col. Dave Anderson of the 394th Combat Training Squadron at Whiteman AFB, Mo., on Feb. 17 reached his 1,000th flight hour piloting a B-2A stealth bomber. Anderson, chief of B-2A training systems for the unit, became only the 26th B-2 pilot to reach that pinnacle. “It is a privilege and honor to fly such a magnificent machine,” he said upon reaching the milestone. Anderson has been flying B-2s since 1993, having previously flown B-1Bs for seven years. “I’ve loved every second of it,” he said of his time with the B-2. He added, “Not every minute or hour, but every second.” (Whiteman report by A1C Torey Griffith)
Whether the F-35 fighter will get new engines from the Air Force’s cutting-edge Adaptive Engine Transition Program is a question that needs to be resolved at the Defense Department level, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall told lawmakers May 17—and he anticipates an answer in the 2024 budget.