Nineteenth Air Force Commander Maj. Gen. Craig Wills is doubling down on publicizing pilot height waivers to encourage a more diverse population of USAF aviators, he told Air Force Magazine in a Nov. 14 interview. “The reason for now is that we want to get the word out because we want to have more female aviators, we want to have more aviators from ... underrepresented groups, and we want to make sure that our Air Force looks like our nation to the max[imum] extent because we think that that leads to a more combat-capable force,” he said. Wills acknowledged that the service’s pilot height standards may change, but said the extent of those changes and the timeline for their implementation is as of yet unclear. But he said he takes heart in the fact that the current waiver process’ design means no airmen will fall through the cracks in the meantime. Read the full story by Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory.

A newly formed organization under US Space Command is looking to strengthen its ties to foreign nations, other parts of the federal government, and commercial industry, its boss said Nov. 15 in Washington, D.C. Maj. Gen. Stephen Whiting, who runs the Combined Force Space Component Command under SPACECOM at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., is in charge of providing military officials around the world with space services from GPS-enabled navigation to communications and missile warning. The CFSCC was created in August when SPACECOM stood up as the military organization that manages daily space operations. Since then, Whiting has made a “deliberate effort to widen our support to international, interagency, and commercial partners,” he said at an industry breakfast hosted by AFA’s Mitchell Institute for Aerospace Studies. Read the full story by Rachel S. Cohen.

The Air Force’s biggest F-35 operating base recently unveiled its new $45 million runway, bringing to a close a nine-month project that sent the base’s F-35s to other locations across the world. While construction was underway, Hill sent its F-35s to Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, along with deployments to the Middle East and Europe. The new runway is expected to help F-35 operations through a reduction in foreign object debris. Read the full story by Brian Everstine.

Four B-52s and about 300 airmen returned to Barksdale AFB, La., after a four-week task force deployment to Europe that included training exercises throughout Europe and the Middle East. The bombers from the 2nd Bomb Wing flew 32 sorties at its deployed home base of RAF Fairford, England, and trained with 13 total partner nations since first deploying last month. Read the full story by Brian Everstine.