The Air Force’s fifth Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite is set to launch Aug. 8, marking the first launch under the recently reorganized Space and Missile Systems Center. AEHF-5 is part of an effort to replace the older Milstar military communications constellation with electronic jamming-resistant technology that can transfer larger batches of information. One AEHF satellite provides more capacity than all five Milstar satellites, according to Lockheed Martin. The satellite, which is built by Lockheed and costs $1.1 billion, will launch from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. The program is comprised of six satellites. AEHF-5 was originally slated to head to space June 27. For the first time, the Atlas V will also drop off an experimental Air Force cubesat to test orbital debris tracking before the rocket delivers AEHF-5. Read the full story by Rachel S. Cohen.

Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth Wright is pushing to improve the Air Force’s physical fitness test to focus more on “overall fitness, health, and wellness,” the service’s top enlisted airman said. The test is “too heavily weighted on the negative side,” Wright said, causing the service to pass over airmen who are good at their jobs but bad at PT tests, while airmen who do not belong in leadership can be promoted after faring well on the assessment. Read the full story by Brian Everstine.

US airstrikes in Afghanistan saw a slight uptick in May compared to April, clocking in at the second-highest number of monthly airstrikes conducted in the country so far this year. American aircraft in May expended 635 munitions—up from 548 in the prior month—from manned and unmanned aircraft, for a total of 2,646 airstrikes in Afghanistan in 2019, according to statistics Air Forces Central Command released Aug. 4. The monthly total is the highest for a month of May since at least 2009, according to public strike tallies. Between April and May, US forces also reported about 1,600 surveillance flights, 935 airlift and airdrop sorties, and 422 tanker sorties. As of May 31, US aircraft had flown nearly 7,190 intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance sorties, along with about 1,560 tanker sorties and 4,570 airlift sorties in 2019. All are on a pace to surpass last year’s levels as Afghanistan entered its heaviest fighting season of the year. Meanwhile, air operations against the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria continued to slow. In May, US and coalition aircraft expended 54 munitions in Operation Inherent Resolve, the fewest since the war began and a steep drop-off from April’s 90 strikes. —Brian Everstine

The Air Force on Aug. 2 awarded Boeing $55.5 million for continued work on the KC-46’s refueling boom to address a “Category 1” deficiency that is limiting the aircraft’s ability to refuel any USAF plane. The contract covers “system-level hardware and software critical design review of the boom telescope actuator redesign,” with work expected to be completed in February 2021, according to a Defense Department announcement. Currently, the KC-46’s boom is not sensitive enough to disengage from slower aircraft like the A-10—meaning that as of now, the Pegasus is not refueling Warthogs. Boeing is redesigning the boom to meet changes to the Air Force’s requirements. The Air Force is footing the bill to fix the boom, while Boeing is on the hook for other deficiencies with the KC-46’s remote vision system. —Brian Everstine