The Air Force intends to convene a summit later this year to plot the way ahead to reinvigorate its nuclear mission. USAF officials told the Daily Report that the summit will convene sometime after the service’s newly created nuclear task...

Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Rep. Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.), the chairman and ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee, aren’t happy with the move of NORAD functions out of Cheyenne Mountain AFS, Colo., and are including an amendment in the Fiscal 2009 defense authorization bill that would block further relocation activities until there is more analysis. In a July 2 letter to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Skelton and Hunter said they are concerned, based on the recent briefing they received from the Government Accountability Office, that the relocation of NORAD functions from the mountain complex into a new joint command center with US Northern Command at nearby Peterson AFB, Colo., “may jeopardize the nation’s ability to respond to a wide range of threats.” Indeed, they write that the move places NORAD’s ability to protect North American airspace “at risk.” Initial cost estimates of the consolidation have proved to be too low and there is still no comprehensive security plan in place to protect the new facility, they said. The two lawmakers call on Gates to “thoroughly review the additional costs and the resultant vulnerabilities” stemming from the move. Press reports surfaced last month claiming that the Pentagon had misled the Congress on the move, citing a GAO classified assessment. NORAD and NORTHCOM disputed these claims. The combined center opened in May.

Crews from the California Air National Guard’s 129th Rescue Wing at Moffett Federal Airfield are now certified to operate 660-gallon water buckets from their HH-60G Pave Hawk helicopters, making the wing USAF’s only rescue unit qualified for fighting fires. The...

Loss of consciousness by the pilot from high G forces induced during a “planned high-speed turning maneuver” on a training mission caused the crash of an F-16C fighter aircraft 71 miles northwest of Luke AFB, Ariz., on March 14, according...

Air Force and industry representatives last month successfully completed a two-day technical review of the new software and computing architecture for the B-2A stealth bomber, lead contractor Northrop Grumman announced yesterday. The new architecture defines standardized hardware and software interfaces...

F-15Es dropped 500-pound laser-guided bombs and 500-pound and 2,000-pound joint direct attack munitions on enemy combatants engaging friendly forces in the vicinity of Jalalabad, Afghanistan, on July 5, Air Forces Central said in a release. Also, A-10s attacked anti-Afghan government...

Lt. Col. Richard Piazza, director of operations with the 23rd Operations Support Squadron at Moody AFB, Ga., has won the 2008 Lt. Gen. Claire Lee Chennault Award that recognizes the Air Force’s outstanding aerial warfare tactician. Piazza will receive his...

The Russian Air Force expects to have a fifth-generation fighter aircraft enter its inventory early next decade to challenge the supremacy of the F-22 and F-35, RIA Novosti, the Russian News and Information Agency, reported yesterday. “We will begin test...

Capt. Shannon Lippert, an F-15E pilot with the 336th Fighter Squadron at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C., has received the American Fighter Aces Association’s Francis S. Gabreski Award. She is the first female pilot to win the award, which honors the...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaJuly 3-5, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 72 38 110 5,723 CAS/Armed Recon 161 148 309 16,945 Airlift 431 431 23,485 Air refueling 168 168 8,045 Total 1018 54,198...