Ukrainian pilots with prior experience flying other fighters could learn to fly the F-16 in as short as five months, the Air Force said. The Air Force said data gathered in this operational prototype test will help it further develop hypersonic capabilities such as ARRW and HACM. Countering anti-access, area-denial capabilities has become U.S. Air Forces in Europe boss Gen. James Hecker's top priority. The Air Force is trying to map out how it might operate, organize and support a fleet of autonomous drones flying alongside crewed fighters. “Our mobility fleet can no longer operate forward with relative impunity,” Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said at the AFA Warfare Symposium. The long list of heroes who died in 2022 includes a legendary Army Ranger, a Code Talker, a Tuskegee Airman and more. “This ... is not only a war against Ukraine,” said Maj. Gen. Serhii Salkutsan, its NATO military liaison. “This is a war against the ... civilized world." The Air Force's annual pilot production goals often prove elusive. "The odds are against it happening" by 2030, John Venable of the Heritage Foundation said. "In the last 25 or 30 years, nothing’s come in on time.” Air Combat Command head Gen. Mark Kelly said the 2018 Air Force We Need study, which called for 62 fighter squadrons, was on the money. Load More