House Republican “budget hawks” are about the hit a pretty solid wall—Rep. Huncan Hunter (R-Calif.). They are proposing a wide-ranging two percent cut in so-called “discretionary spending” in order to free up federal funds for hurricane relief. (The term “discretionary,”...

Is Washington trying to give Israel the old freeze-out on the Joint Strike Fighter? Influential Israelis seem to think so. The Tel Aviv daily Haaretz reports that the US continues to delay Israel’s participation in the F-35 program, even after...

The Air Force is ramping up for flights in January to evaluate the effectiveness of the MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle with a new weapons capability, using the Multi-Mission Guided Dispenser Tube. The tests, to be conducted at the Nellis...

From Combat Ops to Disaster Relief: Repositioning from their roles in Operation Enduring Freedom, airmen at Bagram AB, Afghanistan, supported the first airlift of supplies and equipment into Pakistan in the aftermath of the devastating Kashmir earthquake on Oct. 8....

AMC Is Hauling in Helicopters and More: Air Mobility Command officials say command airlifters will be transporting 24 Army CH-47 Chinook helicopters to aid relief efforts in Pakistan. Stateside airlifters already have flown in contingency response airmen to set up...

The Air Force is scheduled to select an industry lead systems integrator for its B-52 Stand-Off Jammer program, moving the B-52H into the arena of radar-jamming. The Air Force will award $236 million for a 25-month contract to develop the...

USAF Gen. Charles Wald, deputy commander of US European Command, had some soothing words for Germans. (Some of them have been worried sick about possibly losing their beloved American troops—and their money.) Wald told Gunther Oettinger, the President Minister of...

Air Force Materiel Command personnel at Robins AFB, Ga., are about halfway through Phase 1 of USAF’s new Sniper pod program. Lockheed Martin originally designed the next generation Sniper targeting pod for use on fighters in a traditional bombs-on-target role. However, it has proved enormously successful in both Iraq and Afghanistan as an intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance device. (Read “Pilots Praise New F-15E Targeting Pods” here.) Personnel at AFMC’s Warner Robins Air Logistics Center gained a workload of about 4,300 hours when it took on the Sniper program in a work/share partnership with Lockheed. By June 2006, the ALC expects to enter Phase 2—increasing its workload to more than 7,000 hours—in which it will handle electro-optical test and repair. Lockheed technicians are training the ALC Sniper workforce eventually to handle the majority of repair work.

Air Force Col. Gail Wojtowicz told attendees at an American Enterprise Institute conference that the US military must improve its capability to “find” the target in the war against terrorists. (DR, 10/13/05) The Lexington Institute’s Loren Thompson cites the same...

What does shooting down ballistic missiles have to do with disaster relief operations? Plenty, according to the Missile Defense Agency. It seems that technology that was developed for the Ground-based Midcourse Defense element has been used to support recent hurricane...

The Air Force awarded Raytheon $45.5 million for the service’s Fiscal 2005 procurement of Paveway II laser guided bomb kits. The Paveway kits transform conventional bombs into precision guided weapons and were successfully deployed on 8,700 bombs dropped in Operation...

We reported last month (DR, 09/12/05) that Warner Robins ALC in Georgia had garnered the “nobel prize of manufacturing,” the Shingo Prize. WRALC took home the gold Shingo—a first for any government facility, says Air Force Materiel Command—but AFMC’s two...

October 12, 2005 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 8 4 – 12 CAS/Armed Recon 55 20 – 75 Airlift – – 160 160 Air refueling – – 34 34 Total 63 24 194 281 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...