Daily Report

The unfunded requirements that Air Force Space Command has had for items to improve the overall security, maintenance, and handling of the nation’s silo-based Minuteman III fleet have moved up in priority now that reinvigorating the nuclear enterprise is the...

Flight testing of the C-5M Galaxy, which wrapped up in August, showed about a 20 percent improvement in fuel efficiency and a takeoff reliability of 82-85 percent, Lockheed Martin mobility programs VP Jim Grant said Wednesday. The C-5M is the...

The existing C-130J can carry “95 percent of everything the Army wants to carry” today, Lockheed Martin VP Jim Grant told reporters Wednesday. If current Army expectations about the size of Future Combat System vehicles hold, the C-130 will still...

The force of 1,100 UAV pilots that the Air Force anticipates building by Fiscal 2012 will be no token group. In fact, this set of fliers will be second in size only to the service’s F-16 pilot community, Brig. Gen....

Rated to Fly: The Predator and Reaper operators that the Air Forces wants to churn out of its new UAV pilot training program starting next year (see below) will not be rated pilots in the service’s traditional sense of the...

CMSgt. Dick Smith, command chief for the Air National Guard, told attendees Sept. 16 at AFA’s Air & Space Conference that the Air Guard has “had a great year.” He said the Air Guard has almost completed all BRAC 2005...

Maj. Gen. Allan Poulin, vice commander of Air Force Reserve Command, told attendees at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Tuesday that AFRC has faced unique challenges since 9/11, including BRAC 2005 changes, new Total Force initiatives, and its own personnel...

Vickers Predicts “Painful Choices”: Michael Vickers, the assistant secretary of defense for special operations/low intensity conflict and interdependent capabilities, told attendees Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference that all the services will have to balance their recapitalization wants with...

The unmanned aerial vehicle mission is “a good one” for the air reserve components, Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Tuesday during a media session at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington, D.C. He noted that the Air...

The Air Force envisions building a force of 1,100 unmanned aircraft operators—up from today’s pool of about 450—by Fiscal 2012 to support 50 continuous MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper combat air patrols under two new initiatives announced Tuesday at AFA’s...

The Air Force’s top space airman told the audience at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Tuesday that many of the concerns he had a year ago when he first arrived at Air Force Space Command are still very much on...

Gen. Robert Kehler, boss of Air Force Space Command, the command charged with the nation’s ICBM mission, said work has been ongoing to shore up the Air Force’s nuclear enterprise since the two highly publicized nuclear incidents. He told attendees...

The Administration taking office in January will receive from the Air Force a stack of options regarding further production of the C-17 and F-22, and how to pursue a new tanker—all decisions punted by Defense Secretary Robert Gates to the...

Acting Secretary Michael Donley told reporters Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference that senior USAF leadership has closely studied last week’s task force report on nuclear weapons management, but hasn’t yet chosen a course of action in addressing its...

The Air Force needs to raise Irregular Warfare and Counterinsurgency operations from an ad-hoc mission, often evolved on-the-fly, to a marquee capability on a par with things like major regional operations, nuclear operations, and airlift, Acting Air Force Secretary Michael...

Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour and the state’s Congressional delegation announced Sept. 16 that the Air Force plans to put a temporary mission qualification training detachment for the RC-12 aircraft with the Air National Guard’s 186th Air Refueling Wing. The Key...

In a joint letter to airmen Sept. 16, Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley and Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz commented on the service's new mission statement, which still includes cyberspace as a mission domain, saying they plan to convene top leaders "several times over the coming months" to "quickly come to closure on near-term issues," among them the fate of the proposed new Cyber Command. The letter also outlined their five "broad priorities" for the Air Force: reinvigorate the Air Force nuclear enterprise; partner with the Joint and Coalition team to win today's fight; develop and care for airmen and their families; modernize our aging air and space inventories; and acquisition excellence.

The Air Force will probably see a fair number of volunteers for assignments direct to unmanned aerial vehicles, Gen. Stephen Lorenz, the new commander of Air Education and Training Command, told reporters at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Tuesday. The...

Despite cost growth in one of the Air Force’s major satellite programs, Air Force Space Command’s Gen. Robert Kehler expressed optimism that an award for the Transformational Satellite Communications Program (TSAT) will be decided by the end of the year....

Adding capability to the B-2 bomber such that it will be able to communicate using the Advanced Extremely High Frequency satellite will be “a very big challenge,” Northrop Grumman B-2 upgrade manager Dave Mazur told reporters Tuesday. To install the...

The Northrop Grumman-Raytheon team upgrading the radar on the B-2A bomber anticipates going under contract around early December to start building the radar units for the 20-aircraft fleet, Dave Mazur, Northrop’s point man for B-2 modernization efforts, said Tuesday. Mazur...

China views the United States as its top security competitor, but it has taken a decidedly non-Soviet approach to dealing with the US, according to China expert Bernard Cole, professor of international history at the National War College. China has...

The future ability of F-35 pilots to see entirely around the stealthy fighter aircraft via the electro-optical distributed aperture system that Northrop Grumman is designing will be revolutionary, Pete Bartos, Northrop’s marketing director for combat avionics systems, said Tuesday. “With...

On Monday, Acting Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley spelled out the top priorities for the Air Force in the months before a new Administration takes office. Speaking at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington, Donley said the top...

Following test misfires and a Nunn-McCurdy breach, the Air Force-industry team behind the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile conducted an ambitious scrub that scrutinized everything from suppliers to testing practices, ending with one of the service’s most ambitious cruise missile test...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaSept. 14-15, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 59 34 93 9,193 CAS/Armed Recon 20 140 160 26,343 Airlift 154 154 33,387 Air refueling 114 114 12,998 Total 521 81,921...