There is “increasing unease” among the Pentagon’s civilian employees about how budget sequestration will affect them, Robert Hale, Defense Department comptroller, told lawmakers last week. “I don’t blame them. I’m very worried for them,” said Hale in testimony before the...
The United States completed the drawdown of its surge forces from Afghanistan, announced Defense Secretary Leon Panetta last week. The return of those 33,000 troops, first authorized by President Obama in December 2009, marks an “important milestone” in the gradual...
If the Air Force must break its fixed-price contract with Boeing for the KC-46A tanker due to budget sequestration, it might end up paying more for the new tankers and perhaps acquiring less of them over time, said Gen. Larry...
The Air Force’s ancient T-38 trainers are “an icon” of the service, said Heidi Grant, the Air Force’s deputy undersecretary for international affairs, but they also represent something else, “perhaps an opportunity.” Over the past 10 years, 1,500 international students...
The Air Force Reserve will soon have to grapple with many of the force structure issues that have been at the heart of the debate between the Air Force and Air National Guard, said Lt. Gen. James Jackson, new Reserve...
On the tactical level, the US, British, and French air forces integrate very well, but intelligence sharing, and command and control must be improved to ensure success in more demanding future air campaigns, said senior representatives from each air arm....
If Congress fails to reach an agreement to stave off sequestration’s automatic budget cuts next year, the defense industry will feel the pain well beyond 2013. Why? Because the largely across-the-board budget cuts brought on by sequestration will reduce the...
A package of F-22s from JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, recently deployed to the western Pacific, joining an expeditionary contingent of Raptors that arrived in the region in late July from JB Langley-Eustis, Va. Elmendorf’s F-22s flew to Andersen AFB, Guam, according...
Air Force Special Operations Command deployed AC-130U gunships to South Korea for the first time in more than a decade to participate in live-fire close air support training with South Korean special operations forces. During Exercise Teak Knife, the South...
Flight testing of an engine-efficiency retrofit for legacy model C-130s recently began at Edwards AFB, Calif., announced manufacturer Rolls-Royce. A Wyoming Air National Guard C-130H earlier this month flew with a single Series 3.5 enhanced T56 turboprop and three standard...
