Daily Report

US Strategic Command is replacing the old Strategic Air Command headquarters with its deeply buried command post that STRATCOM has inhabited since its creation in 1992, Gen. Kevin Chilton assured lawmakers last week. Responding to a comment by Sen. Bill...

The Pentagon placed the Wideband Global SATCOM on its latest list of Nunn-McCurdy breaches, but Boeing said in a statement April 2 that the government had validated pricing for the fixed-price contracts "as fair and reasonable." The Pentagon's December 2009 data shows the average procurement unit cost for WGS "increased 27.2 percent" over the acquisition program baseline, automatically qualifying it for a Nunn-McCurdy-directed program review. However, the Pentagon release attributed the discrepancy to "a significant downturn" in the commercial satellite market that wiped out some commercial components meant to keep the price down and the fact there was a three-year production break. The Air Force just last month took control of the third WGS spacecraft, in what Boeing says USAF and independent reviewers has lauded "as an example of a solid and successful program." USAF requested funding in its 2011 budget for a seventh WGS.

According to just-released December 2009 data, USAF’s C-130 avionics modernization program breached Nunn-McCurdy protocols, showing a 17.9 percent increase in average procurement unit cost; the “significant breach” threshold is 15 percent. In its release, the Pentagon noted that the increase...

The Air Force and Office of the Secretary of Defense decided as part of the Quadrennial Defense Review that USAF could operate with about 200 fewer fighters—from 2,200 to 2,000—electing to up the risk factor from low-medium to moderate, Lt....

During a House Armed Services subcommittee hearing last month, lawmakers heard from senior Government Accountability Office analyst Michael Sullivan that “updated analysis indicates” competition between the Pratt & Whitney F135 powerplant for the F-35 strike fighter and the alternate F-35...

A blue-suit, civilian, and contractor test team at Edwards AFB, Calif., has been taking the RQ-4 Block 20 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle through a series of taxis at various speeds on a wet runway to ensure this version of...

Air Force Space Command’s Guardian Challenge, which kicked off in early March at various locations and runs through May 19, this year has cyberspace forces, all seven wings from AFSPC’s acquisition arm, the Space and Missile Systems Center, and Air...

At a Pentagon ceremony last week, Yia Kha, a former Royal Laos Air Force pilot who served with USAF forward air controllers during the Vietnam War, received belated recognition for aiding American and Laotian forces, flying FAC missions as a...

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, March 29-30, 2010 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 56 87 143 5,332 CAS/Armed Recon 42 170 212 8,072 Airlift 379 379 14,772 Air refueling 96 96 3,716 Rescue 62 62 711 Total...