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RAND Corp. states that the US Air Force should seek variety in its refueler fleet in long-awaited analysis. The AOA also backs up the Air Force's contention that a multimission aircraft, rather than a pure tank is its best choice to support national strategy.

The US Air Force has taken cue from Quadrennial Defense Review and is focusing its nonclassified efforts at space superiority on systems that would enhance knowledge of what is in orbit as well as its ability to know if American space systems are under attack. Gen. T. Michael Moseley observed that this is what the US must do to avoid a Pearl Harbor in space with the emphasis on space situational awareness rather than attacks of adversary systems.

The new F-22 Raptor fighter aircraft is described in detail. It is ready to be deployed in combat missions and is expected to used for the next thirty years

The US Air Force's senior leaders bluntly indicated at the AFA's new Air Warfare Symposium that the Air Force must be prepared to fight across the spectrum of conflict. As a result of the Quadrennial Defense Review the service is shrinking. It will have to extend the use of many older aircraft and will have to increasingly depend on other armed forces branches for critical capabilities.

Long standing fears that the US military suffered from a serious airlift shortage were proved wrong by the findings of Pentagon's latest Mobility Capabilities Study (MCS) that indicate that there is sufficient air, sea and surface transport to meet the country's current and future needs. However, several critical factors were left out of the purview of the study and a follow-up study called MCS-6 is already under way.

The US Air Force (USAF) is updating many of its old intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance (ISR) models and is planning to replace them with more sophisticated models at reasonable price. The Predator, AWACS, Joint STARS and Rivet Joint aircrafts are believed capable of lasting into the 2020s, by which time new technologies might replace them.

Various targeting pods are developed and pressed into service to enhance bombing accuracy, as part of the US' intelligence surveillance reconnaissance (ISR) network. The airborne sensors help generate instant situation updates, either automatically or via the pilot to troops engaged in combat, vastly improving the ability to find and engage the enemy.

The capability of USAF's fleet will suffer and the Air Force may not be able to discharge its commitments if the defense leaders delay long postponed decisions about whether the bulk of USAF's fighters should be replaced or alternatively rehabilitated. The Air Force wants 381 F/A-22 Raptors as its high-end fighter element and about 1,700 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters as its backbone force where as Pentagon officials have declined to approve more than 179 Raptors.

The Pentagon's new report forecasts that robotic aircrafts, formerly called as unmanned aerial systems, will carry out airlift, long-range strike and even air-to-air combat missions, and it suggests that a broad reshaping of the US military aircraft fleet might take place. The Pentagon's new 'Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap: 2005-2030', which was released in August 2005, is discussed.