The Budget Sacrifice

Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), chairman of the Senate Armed Services airland panel, wants to know whether the decision by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to stop production of F-22 Raptors at 187 aircraft (the program of record 183 plus four authorized...

The Deterrent Factor

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has made irregular warfare his budget centerpiece, however, as retired Gen. Richard Hawley pointed out during a Senate hearing last week (see above), “We also need to maintain our deterrent posture to make sure that somebody...

Building Better Space Situational Awareness

By Marc V. Schanz
About a decade ago, Air Force Space Command and the Pentagon tracked and cataloged about 8,000 pieces of debris and objects on orbit, while today that number has exploded to more than 19,000, Maj. Gen. Thomas Deppe, vice commander of...

Tying Them Together

Air Force Space Command is totally embracing its new cyber arm, the 24th Air Force, the command’s No. 2 official said May 1 on Capitol Hill. AFSPC is transferring its ICBM mission to the new Air Force Global Strike Command,...

USAF Supplies Bulk of Acquisition Force

According to Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the military deputy for Air Force acquisition, the Air Force fills about 70 percent of the contracting manpower positions for the joint force in Afghanistan and Iraq. Responding to a question about areas needing...

And In the Future

At the House Armed Services oversight and investigations panel hearing last week (see above), DOD’s director of procurement and acquisition policy, Shay Assad, acknowledged the Air Force contracting contribution to operations in Afghanistan and Iraq, saying, “We anticipate that the...

Off Into the Sunset

The F-15 West Coast demonstration team flew its final performance May 1 at Eglin AFB, Fla. The Eglin unit is formally disbanding as the base transitions from operating F-15s to become the F-35 initial joint training site per BRAC 2005....

Jumping Ahead

For the last time, seven C-130Es from the 37th Airlift Squadron at Ramstein AB, Germany, flew to Grafenwoehr Army Airfield, also in Germany, on April 22 to conduct jump qualification training with hundreds of Army paratroopers. The 37th AS, which...

Reservist Shuffle on Guam

A contingent of airmen and four KC-135 tankers from Air Force Reserve Command’s 434th Air Refueling Wing at Grissom ARB, Ind., completed a four-month deployment May 1 to Andersen AFB, Guam, where they provided refueling support to US aircraft in...

Anti-Climatic

When six airmen took off April 29 in Doom 94, a B-52H bomber from the 96th Bomb Squadron at Barksdale AFB, La., to participate in the Navy’s multinational UNITAS exercise, their mission was to bomb the ex-destroyer USS Connolly that...

Getting Up to Cyber-Speed

Air University held the first cyberspace operations executive course April 23-24 at the LeMay Center for Doctrine Development and Education at Maxwell AFB, Ala. Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz approved the course so that senior leaders would better understand...

ABC Graduates Honored

Air University honored the first group of graduates of the Air Force’s Associate-to-Baccalaureate Cooperative (ABC) program on April 22 by presenting a plaque of recognition to SSgt. Lisa Kilpatrick, an Airman Leadership School instructor from Eglin AFB, Fla., who was...

Air Sorties from SWA

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaApril 30, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 25 19 44 4,739 CAS/Armed Recon 34 74 108 11,781 Airlift 160 160 16,201 Air refueling 47 47 5,294 Total 359 38,015...