Daily Report

March 1, 2012

Handle With Care

The Air Force may not have handled 9/11 victims’ remains with all the “reverence” it should have, but it followed the disposition instructions of the then Pentagon leadership, said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz Wednesday. Speaking to defense reporters...

Disappointed

Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz called it “a profound disappointment” that the Air Force apparently botched the Light Air Support aircraft contract award. “There’s no way to put a happy face on this,” said Schwartz during a meeting with...

MC-12 Eyed in Counternarcotics Role

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said the service’s MC-12 Liberty intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance fleet would boost the National Guard’s ability to counter drug smugglers. Beginning in Fiscal 2014, the Air Force intends to transfer its 42 Liberty aircraft to the Air National...

Moore Tapped to Lead New Acquisition Center

The Air Force has assigned Lt. Gen. Clyde Moore to command the Air Force Life Cycle Management Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, announced the Defense Department on Wednesday. Air Force Materiel Command created the center last fall as part of...

Thinking Beyond the F-22

Research into a sixth generation fighter to succeed the F-22 is “going forward,” according to Lt. Gen. Hawk Carlisle, Air Staff lead for operations, plans, and requirements. “We’re learning a lot . . . but we’re in a learning stage,”...

The Battle for the Narrative

It has become almost a cliché to say the United States cannot kill its way to victory in Afghanistan. Success depends upon winning the hearts and minds of Afghanistan’s populace that must choose to reject terrorism and the Taliban. This...

Measles, Mountains, and a Message

The United States is attempting to proactively control the narrative in Afghanistan, said Brig. Gen. Les Kodlick, USAF’s director of public affairs. Speaking at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., last week, Kodlick recounted how a measles outbreak struck...

Nuclear F-35s Still in Abeyance

It’s still undecided when and how the Pentagon will incorporate nuclear weapons on the F-35, said Lt. Gen. Hawk Carlisle, deputy chief of staff for operations, plans, and requirements. Speaking with reporters after an AFA-sponsored speech Tuesday in Arlington, Va.,...

Pinpoint Practice

A C-130J Super Hercules assigned to the 317th Airlift Group at Dyess AFB, Tex., completed the unit’s first stateside training drop with the Global Positioning System-guided Joint Precision Airdrop System. “Before this, the first time most aircrews ever dropped JPADS...

Ohio’s Bio Boys

A pair of Ohio Air National Guard F-16s successfully switched between a biofuel blend and standard JP-8 fuel in mid flight for the first time during a training drill last month. Running on a mix of camelina-derived biofuel and JP-8,...

AFRL’s New X

Air Force Research Lab officials revealed the service’s new “X” airplane—the remotely piloted X-56A Multi-Utility Technology Testbed, jointly developed with NASA and Lockheed Martin. Featuring quick-change wings, AFRL engineers will use the experimental twin-turbojet aircraft jet to investigate control problems...