Eager to get in the game for the next Air Force tanker, the Northrop Grumman-EADS team said Tuesday that it had submitted its KC-30 offering ahead of the April 12 request for proposal response date. In a company statement, Scott...

The race to secure the contract for USAF’s new aerial refueler, dubbed KC-X, is really in full swing now, with an April 11 announcement from Boeing that it submitted its proposal to the Air Force on Tuesday, as well. (See...

The Air Force expects to award the KC-X tanker replacement program late this summer, but it also expects the loser—whether it’s Boeing or Northrop Grumman—to protest the decision. A senior service official told reporters Monday, “I anticipate an immediate protest.”...

If the Iraq War debate between Congress and the Administration delays the supplemental funding bill, USAF’s immediate plan is to “roll forward” fourth quarter 2007 funds to cover the gap, a senior service official said Monday. A prolonged delay posits...

Gen. Paul Hester, commander of Pacific Air Forces, has told Air Force leaders that, if PACAF gains Predator unmanned aerial vehicles, he would prefer to station one squadron on the Korean peninsula and one at either Hawaii or Guam, according...

The Air Force has reached a milestone with Total Force Integration, Brig Gen. Allison Hickey, TFI director, tells the Daily Report. The service has developed 138 “mission sets” that are split between the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve....

The Air Force works “corporate approval” for each Total Force Integration mission set during its workup for the Future Years Defense Plan, Brig. Gen. Allison Hickey, TFI director, told the Daily Report. However, many of the 138 mission sets (see...

The 559th Flying Training Squadron at Randolph AFB, Tex., shed its last T-37 Tweet, saying so long to the 42-year veteran during a special ceremony April 6. Last month, Randolph had marked the last graduating class of T-37 instructor pilots,...

The Pentagon says that DOD analysts have identified the remains of 10 airmen who were deemed missing in action from World War II. They were crewmen aboard a B-24 returning to New Guinea on April 16, 1944, following a bombing...

Northrop Grumman has completed fuselage and empennage strength tests on its next generation Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle, exceeding Air Force strength and safety requirements. Each of three successive tests of the Block 20 RQ-4 Global Hawk surpassed USAF requirements...

New Defense Secretary Robert Gates has a markedly different style of dealing with the military services than Donald Rumsfeld, a senior USAF official explained earlier this week. Whereas Rumsfeld would grant audiences with the Service Chiefs on a rare, “as...

USAF doesn’t stand alone—entirely—in its recent push to become lead agent for higher flying unmanned aerial vehicles. We reported that Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) had expressed support for the plan. Now, a senior Air Force official says that a number...

The Air National Guard expects to have at its 60th birthday celebration this fall a few of a group whose numbers are diminishing more quickly now—the original airmen who returned from World War II to form Air Guard units in...

April 7, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 17 9 26 CAS/Armed Recon 48 48 96 Airlift 142 142 Air refueling 43 43 Total 65 57 185 307 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...