Daily Report

The Air Force would like Congress’ blessing to retire 17 C-5A transports in Fiscal 2011, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Tuesday on Capitol Hill. Schwartz—just as Air Force Secretary Michael Donley divulged last week—said the Pentagon’s new Mobility...

From an Air Force perspective, having too many C-17 transports in the fleet “is a bad thing,” Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, military deputy to USAF’s top acquisition executive, said Tuesday. Speaking at an Air Force Association-sponsored Air Force Breakfast Series...

Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, top uniformed officer in USAF’s acquisition shop, said Tuesday the service has proceeded “right down the middle” in formulating the final version of the KC-X tanker solicitation so that the document is not unfairly biased toward...

The Air Force doesn’t definitively know when Northrop Grumman will indicate formally whether it intends to remain in the KC-X tanker contest once the final request for proposals is out, says Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, military deputy to the Air...

Given the Air Force’s wide-ranging needs and budget constraints, a dual buy of new tanker aircraft isn’t viable, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley told the House Armed Services Committee Tuesday. “This would be an expensive way to proceed,” he said....

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley told House lawmakers Tuesday that the business case for maintaining two engine suppliers for the F-35 strike fighter isn’t convincing. “It just looks too cloudy to us,” he said while defending the Obama Administration’s decision...

The Air Force's list of unfunded priorities for Fiscal 2011, issued Feb. 19, totals $548 million and is dominated by logistics support, although there are requests for some communications gear and simulators as well as command and control equipment. Topping the five-section list is $337.2 million for weapon system sustainment, including funds to cover preprogrammed depot maintenance on one B-2, two C-5s, and 11 KC-135s. The second category, theater posture, entails $70 million for expeditionary airfield equipment including some fuel gear. Third is $55 million for the distributed common ground system integrated collaborative command and control processing, exploitation, and dissemination system. In the fourth spot is $28.7 million for battlefield airmen equipment and joint terminal attack controller modeling and simulation. Fifth, is $57.1 million to procure 674 vehicles and some support equipment for the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve. (Unfunded Priority List)

The Air Force, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve Command, as with the other military services and their reserve components continue to recruit and retain sufficient personnel, according to the latest data released by the Pentagon. USAF and AFRC...

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger (R) on Feb. 2 appointed Air Force Brig. Gen. Mary Kight to be Adjutant General of the California National Guard, the 45th in the state’s history. She becomes the first female to hold this position in...

Feb. 17-19, 2010 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 81 113 194 2,846 CAS/Armed Recon 48 232 280 4,390 Airlift 537 537 7,955 Air refueling 120 120 2,069 Total 1,131 17,260 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...