Daily Report

A B-52 bomber from the 23rd Bomb Squadron at Minot AFB, N.D., leads a formation of US and Japanese fighters and electronic attack aircraft during a segment of Cope North, which 13th Air Force wrapped up for US Pacific Command...

An improper stabilizer trim setting caused the crash of a B-52 near Guam last July, an Air Force accident investigation board reported Friday. Brig. Gen. Mark Barrett, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing at Langley AFB, Va., and president of...

Mark Bowden’s article “The Last Ace” in the March issue of Atlantic Monthly does a great job relating the wartime tale of retired Air Force F-15 pilot Cesar Rodriguez, who narrowly escaped being shot down by an Iraqi MiG-29 during...

The budget will be late and it will not include—entirely—the costs of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, so Defense Secretary Robert Gates told reporters at the Pentagon last week. And that is because of “today’s economic realities,” he said,...

It’s a babe in the woods compared to its brethren, but the Predator operators in Iraq say flying their latest acquisition is a treat because of its low miles, reports SSgt. Kenya Shiloh at Ali Base, Iraq. The new MQ-1...

Air Forces Northern conducted its first individualized warfighter training event for homeland defense operations employing its Distributed Mission Operations technology late last month, according to Feb. 11 AFNORTH release. It was a goal set four and a half years ago,...

The US military is virtually unchallenged in the air, sea, and “open land” like deserts, says Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, head of US Joint Forces Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander for Transformation. The one area where it is...

Marine Corps. Gen. James Mattis, commander of US Joint Forces Command, acknowledged last week that he’s taken some heat for his stance last year against effects-based operations. In fact, he said he was “pleased to be invited anywhere” after his...

A Maricopa County Superior Court judge took the state's side in the dispute over land use around Luke Air Force Base, reports the Arizona Republic. Arizona Attorney General Terry Goddard, who filed the lawsuit to protect Luke from potential residential encroachment generated by building permits issued by Maricopa County, said in a Feb. 10 statement, “This is a victory for the state, but more importantly for the West Valley communities that depend on Luke and for the dedicated airmen training there.” One of the West Valley group, Glendale Mayor Elaine Scruggs, told the newspaper: "I'm just happy it's behind us, and I feel it came out the way we always thought it would come out, that the state law applied to everybody, including Maricopa County." Arizona considers Luke a "finalist" in the running to operate as a training facility for the new F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter. Goddard said he will "continue to fight" to "make Luke the home of the next great fighter jet and extend the base’s mission for another 40 to 50 years." (The ruling)

Air Force and Army intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance experts gathered at McChord AFB, Wash., in December, according to a Feb. 13 Air Combat Command release, to pursue cooperative ISR training initiatives. Over two days, one thing the soldiers and airmen concluded they can...

Feb. 12, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 26 11 39 1,661 CAS/Armed Recon 43 57 100 4,258 Airlift 120 120 5,488 Air refueling 43 43 1,984 Total 302 13,391 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...