5 Photos Showing What a Blast Working for the USAF Must Be

Tracing its roots back to 1907, when a sort of ancestor of the military branch was created within the ranks of the U.S. Army, the USAF is presently the largest Air Force in the world, both in terms of the number of aircraft it fields, and the number of people it employs.

Some of the most recent numbers published on the matter make that clear as daylight. At the time of writing, the specialists from Global Firepower say the USAF has a total of some 13,000 aircraft in operation, of which over 1,900 are fighter planes and over 6,000 are helicopters. In terms of manpower, there are well over 300,000 people working for the military organization.

Although the jobs these people have are inherently dangerous, many of them seem to have a blast working for Uncle Sam, and that's made clearly obvious by the pics I mentioned earlier, showing instances and glimpses of airmen's working lives. And we chose five of them, from USAF's release of pics for last week, that best highlight this fact.

5. When your company car is the newest Black Hawk variant

There are many companies in the U.S. handing over cars to their employees to use while on the job, and sometime even when not on the job. Naturally, the USAF does not do that, but it does hand over helicopters.

The HH-60W Jolly Green II is one of the latest helicopter variants to be included in the USAF arsenal of hardware. Based on the mighty Black Hawk, it received Initial Operational Capability (IOC) in the fall of 2022, and is now in the process of spreading through the ranks, as a replacement for the HH-60G Pave Hawk.

Primarily meant for search and rescue roles, the helicopter has an upper hand over its predecessor thanks to a new fuel system meant to double the aircraft's fuel capacity, but also the latest in terms of sensors, defenses, weapons, and cyber-security.

So, basically, one of the most badass company cars you can get your hands on today. And that's exactly what these guys working for the 34th Weapons Squadron out of Nellis Air Force Base, Nevada got.

You see them here in a close-up of the aircraft in action, as it was returning from an air-to-air combat training exercise that took place at the end of July over the Nevada training range.

4. When your garage holds a fifth-gen aircraft everybody secretly admires

There are just two American-made sixth-generation aircraft in operation today, both made by Lockheed Martin: the F-22 Raptor and F-35 Lightning. Even so, just two are more than enough to divide the nation when it comes to opinions on which one is better.

Chronologically the Raptor is older, and for many Americans (and the world in general), better than the F-35. It's no longer in production though, as the main role it was assigned, taking on technologically-matched adversaries, is no longer a reality of the modern world.

There still are some 180 of these in operation today, all of them in the service of the American military, which decided against sharing the machine with allies like it did with the F-35.

One of these planes, assigned to the Hawaiian Raptors Squadron (199th Air Expeditionary Squadron), can be seen in this pick in a rare instance, parked in an open airplane hangar. The plane is seen here resting after an outing during the Talisman Sabre 23 exercise which took place in late July at Royal Australian Air Force Base Tindal in the country's Northern Territory.

3. When you refuel your state-of-the-art bomber high-up in the air

Although when looked at superficially military pilots do a lot of the things everyday drivers do, many of these things are not only different in scope but also spectacular in nature. Take refueling for instance.

For us drivers, refueling (and even the more recent recharging) is a mundane operation, devoid of any thrills. For military pilots, the same operation takes place high up in the air, at high-speed, and needs perfect coordination between the flying gas station and the plane in need of fuel.

America is the operator of the largest aerial tanker fleet in the world, with some 700 planes taking on the role of flying gas stations. They supply the much-needed substance to pretty much all of the other planes the USAF is operating, including strategic bombers.

One of these birds, a B-1B Lancer deployed with the 28th Bomb Wing, is seen here as did exactly that during the Red Flag 23-3 exercise held over the Nellis Air Force Base in Nevada in late July. Now compare this with a photo of you refueling your Mitsubishi Mirage.

2. When the drive out with friends looks like this

We've all driven out in packs, with a bunch of friends, heading out for a weekend of fun and games somewhere, in a location far away from our homes. And we all like to do that, as nothing beats a day on the road as part of a convoy of partygoers.

Pilots do that too, only they're not heading out to have fun, and the convoys they create are usually packs of high-tech gear. Kind of like we have in this photo here.

What we're looking at is a group of F-35 Lightnings and F-16 Fighting Falcons flying a joint mission over the waters near South Korea. The image was snapped at the end of July, and shows the planes operated by the South Korean Air Force (F-35s) and the USAF (F-16s) flying together in a live-fire training mission.

1. Chilling with a Lightning in tow