Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) said Thursday morning that he expects “at least” 20 F-22s to be funded in the Fiscal 2010 defense budget. Speaking with defense reporters in Washington, D.C., Abercrombie, who leads the air and land forces panel of...

The House Armed Services Committee’s addition of $369 million in long-lead funding for 12 F-22s in its version of the Fiscal 2010 defense authorization bill is a welcome move for F-22 supporters, but raises some thorny issues about just how...

The House Armed Services Committee trimmed the Air Force’s F-35 request by one aircraft (from 10 to 9), added one C-130J transport (from three to four), and added funds for concept studies of a future bomber (see below). The committee...

The House Armed Services Committee has approved the addition of $215 million to the Pentagon’s Fiscal 2010 budget spending request to fund classified work on the Air Force’s next-generation bomber. Dave Helfert, spokesman for Rep. Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii), confirmed this amount to the Daily Report yesterday. Abercrombie, chairman of the committee's air and land forces panel, last week included $140 million for the future bomber in the subcommittee’s markup of the Pentagon’s proposed budget for next fiscal year. There was no money included for the bomber in the Pentagon’s request, but the Air Force had listed the $140 million as a classified line item in its list of Fiscal 2010 unfunded priorities (see item No. 9 on the list). It later surfaced that this classified request would support technology studies for the future bomber. Abercrombie’s panel supported that unfunded request. According to Helfert, the full committee, which completed its markups yesterday, built upon the subcommittee’s move by adding an additional $75 million. It is not known how the additional $75 million would be applied. Defense Secretary Robert Gates had put the future bomber program on hold earlier this year, saying a better understanding of requirements was necessary.

Less than two weeks after its arrival in theater, the MC-12W Liberty is paying dividends to commanders in Iraq and across Southwest Asia, Col. Michael Fantini, commander of the 332nd Expeditionary Operations Group at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, told reporters...

Air Force and Northrop Grumman officials plan to roll out the first RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 aircraft June 25 at Air Force Plant 42 in Palmdale, Calif. The Block 40 is the only iteration of the high-flying unmanned reconnaissance...

Boeing said it successfully transferred control of the second wideband global satcom satellite to the Air Force on June 15. This came after the system was declared ready for operational testing upon completion of a thorough on-orbit checkout, the company...

Officials in the Air Force Smart Operations for the 21st Century program office at Altus AFB, Okla., along with members of the base’s 97th Maintenance Directorate, have significantly reduced the time needed to perform home station checks on C-17 transports,...

Afghan National Army Air Corps Lt. Faiz Mohammed Ramaki, the first Afghan officer to receive pilot training in the United States in nearly 50 years, received his pilot wings June 12 after completing the Air Force’s aviation leadership program (ALP)...

June 14, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 25 10 35 6,703 CAS/Armed Recon 13 54 67 15,984 Airlift 130 130 22,531 Air refueling 40 40 7,429 Total 272 52,647 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...