Daily Report

Once again, despite Congress’ consistent action supporting an alternate engine for the F-35 Lightning II Joint Strike Fighter, the Pentagon’s Fiscal 2010 budget proposal, released May 7, has no funding for a competitive engine. Less than two months ago, Rep....

In addition to having to work ever harder to sustain its elderly fleet of fighter aircraft, the Air National Guard has other “equipment challenges,” Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt III, ANG director, told the House Armed Services airland panel last week....

Even before the May 7 release of the 2010 defense budget proposal, word had leaked that the Pentagon planned to cut the C-27 Joint Cargo Aircraft from 78 to 38 aircraft, prompting Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.) at the May 5...

The Air Force announced Friday afternoon that CMSgt. James Roy will be the new top enlisted airman, replacing CMSAF Rodney McKinley, who announced his retirement earlier this year. Schwartz called Roy, who currently serves as the command chief master sergeant for US Pacific Command, a "worthy successor" to McKinley, who Schwartz said has been a "tremendous leader and advocate" for enlisted airmen. Roy entered the Air Force in 1982 and served initially as a heavy equipment operator and subsequently in various supervisory positions in civil engineering units. He has served as command chief at wing, numbered air force, and joint levels. He will become the 16th Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force during a June 30 ceremony.

The Senate on May 7 confirmed Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz to retain three stars and take leadership of the new, nuclear-centric Air Force Global Strike Command. In a May 8 release, Klotz said, “I really look forward to serving alongside...

Congress has asked the services for their 2010 unfunded requirements, if any, as has been the tradition for at least the last 10 years. However, on April 30 Defense Secretary Robert Gates sent each service chief and combatant commander a memo—we obtained a copy–admonishing them to run any unfunded priority lists through him before they go to Congress. He wrote, “Should you determine there are FY 2010 unfunded requirements that are responsive to the request from Congress, I expect you to first inform me of such a determination so we can schedule the opportunity for you to brief me on the details.” There are varying viewpoints on the value of these unfunded lists—some believe they skew needs toward individual services rather than the joint force, while others believe they have given Congress unfettered insight into military requirements. Certainly, on an Air Force priority list we would expect to see an additional number of F-22s, given that USAF Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz has stated that he believes the US military needs 243 F-22 Raptors, not the 187 the Office of the Secretary of Defense has declared sufficient. Both Schwartz and Air Force Secretary Michael Donley have acknowledged fiscal reality, saying buying more F-22s means doing without something else.

r: The Fiscal 2010 defense budget proposal reflects an increased investment in intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance assets, DOD Comptroller Robert Hale told reporters May 7. That includes the Air Force and Army plans to field versions of the modified Hawker Beechcraft aircraft designated...

The Air Force’s $16 billion request for overseas contingency operations (OCO) in Fiscal 2010 (i.e., to cover the cost of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq), is $3.5 billion less than its war supplemental requests for this fiscal year. Briefing reporters May 7, Maj. Gen. Larry Spencer, head of USAF’s budget office, said the smaller request is due in large part to the reduced list of aircraft being sought in Fiscal 2010. Otherwise, the operations and maintenance and military personnel requests are “almost flat”—meaning roughly equal—to Fiscal 2009, and military construction is only slightly higher, he said. As for procurement, the service requests one C-130J at $72 million to replace a wartime C-130 loss and $18 million to purchase the BD-700 aircraft that it is currently leasing. The BD-700 is serving an important role in Southwest Asia as a battlefield airborne communications node and it makes sense to purchase it outright, given how long the Air Force intends to operate it, Spencer said. That’s it for airframes. By comparison, the Air Force requested six C-12s, four F-22s, and 15 MQ-9s in Fiscal 2009 supplementals. Spencer noted that the $475 million OCO request for milcon would support 23 projects, all in Afghanistan, where the US military is beefing up its presence. (For more on the OCO request, see p. 15 of the briefing charts on the Air Force’s Fiscal 2010 budget proposal.)

The Obama Administration cancelled the reliable replacement warhead program in March. But Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of US Strategic Command, says the pressing need remains for a nuclear weapons stockpile that is more reliable, more secure, and safer...

Predator Crashes in Afghanistan Air Forces Central reported Friday that an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle had crashed that afternoon in eastern Afghanistan. AFCENT stated the “crash was not due to hostile fire,” despite some news reports to the contrary....

An Air Mobility Command-convened accident investigation board has determined that the Jan. 30 incident in which a C-17 set down at Bagram AB, Afghanistan, with its landing gear still retracted was caused primarily by “failure of the pilots to lower...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaMay 5, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 13 22 35 4,931 CAS/Armed Recon 9 80 89 12,227 Airlift 110 110 16,874 Air refueling 49 49 5,501 Total 283 38,533...