Daily Report

The Senate on Tuesday unanimously approved S.3254, its version of the Fiscal 2013 defense authorization bill, providing $631.4 billion for national defense programs and the war in Afghanistan. Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, told reporters following...

The Senate approved the nomination of Marine Corps Gen. Joseph Dunford to lead US and NATO forces in Afghanistan. Senators confirmed him on Dec. 3 by voice vote on the Senate floor, according to the Senate’s website. Dunford, currently the...

Beginning in January, the Air Force Officer Training School’s basic officer training course at Maxwell AFB, Ala., will be nine weeks long, three weeks shorter than it is now, announced school officials. The change results from finding efficiencies in the...

Concerned over repeated Syrian violations of Turkish territory in Syria’s civil war, NATO’s foreign ministers agreed during a meeting in Brussels on Tuesday to augment alliance member Turkey’s air defense capabilities by deploying Patriot missiles there. “Turkey has asked for...

The Air Force is slowly reducing the number of out-of-service B-52G bombers that still count as nuclear delivery platforms under the rules of the New START agreement with Russia by cutting up these airframes. There were 30 B-52Gs in the Air Force's aircraft boneyard in the Arizona desert still considered as "deployed heavy bombers" under New START's counting rules, according to the State Department's fact sheet, issued on Nov. 30, but reflecting the size of the US strategic nuclear arsenal on Sept. 1. That total was down by six airframes compared to the data in the previous fact sheet from June 1 detailing the arsenal's composition on March 1. The Air Force is separating the tail from each B-52G fuselage in a way that eliminates them from the nuclear-capable inventory for the purposes of the treaty. The service still had more than 140 B-2A, B-52G (all retired), and B-52H nuclear-capable bombers, according to the most recent fact sheet. The Air Force intends to draw down to a total of no more than 60 deployable B-2As and B-52Hs as part of the United States' overall reductions to meet New START's ceilings on strategic nuclear warheads and delivery systems by February 2018. Plans are in place to convert some B-52Hs to platforms capable of carrying only conventional munitions to meet that number.

The National Nuclear Security Administration announced that it exceeded its Fiscal 2012 goal for dismantling nuclear weapons in the US stockpile that the Obama Administration has deemed as excess. NNSA reached 112 percent of its dismantlement target last fiscal year,...

Gen. Hawk Carlisle, Pacific Air Forces commander, decided that uniform wear across the command will be at the discretion of the wing and numbered air force commanders, according to a PACAF release. Further, airmen in PACAF headquarters at JB Pearl...

The Air Force is holding a tryout on Dec. 6 at JB Langley-Eustis, Va., for aspiring special operations professionals. “We are looking for America’s best—individuals in top physical condition and ready to take their skills to the next level,” said...

The first MC-130J special-mission aircraft slated for conversion to the Air Force’s new AC-130J gunship configuration made its maiden flight this week from Lockheed Martin’s production facility in Marietta, Ga., announced the company. This airframe will feature the modular Precision...