Airmen have been keeping plenty busy in Afghanistan this year, flying more than 162,000 total sorties. That includes about 90,000 combat sorties, 22,000 close air support missions, and 15,000 aerial refueling sorties, said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley during AFA’s Air and Space Conference in National Harbor, Md., Sept. 17. Airmen also have transported more than 1.2 million troops and delivered more than 380,000 tons of cargo, he added.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…