Host-nation sensitivities have made it difficult for the Air Force to quantify its contribution to the fight against the ISIS terror organization, but the service is leading the way and can expect to continue to do so. So said Secretary...
The Air Force has asked the Pentagon leadership for extra monies, separate from its regular accounts, to fund nuclear modernization, said service Secretary Deborah James on Tuesday. The Air Force argued that its two legs of the nuclear triad (i.e,...
The campaign against ISIS announced by President Obama last week doesn’t have a name yet, and there’s been no indication so far of a congressional appropriation to pay for it, Air Force Chief of Staff Mark Welsh said Monday. He...
A strong and trusting relationship between civilian leadership and senior military officials is vital for the Air Force, and US military overall, to carry out its mission, said Gen. Mike Hostage, Air Combat Command boss, in his speech at AFA’s...
Pacific Air Forces boss Gen. Hawk Carlisle said on Tuesday his command has “significantly more mission than resources and time, and it will get more so in the future.” Dealing with that difficult situation will require greater innovation, he said...
Gen. John Hyten, Air Force Space Command boss, said the United States, along with the rest of the world, needs to recognize space as a warfighting domain, and needs to act, accordingly. “We need a resilient space architecture that can...
The idea of offensive space capabilities is “a little bit of a misnomer,” said Gen. John Hyten, head of Air Force Space Command, on Tuesday. “If the United States is attacked, wherever we’re attacked, whether it’s by radical terrorists in...
The Air Force has to break out of the mold of building new things that replicate the function of old things, and take advantage of new technologies and new thinking, said Gen. Darren McDew, head of Air Mobility Command, on...
The Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve already provide a huge percentage of the nation’s organic airlift capability, and those percentages are likely to go higher, said Air Mobility Command boss Gen. Darren McDew on Tuesday. In his address...
Pacific Air Forces is looking at expanding its B-52 bomber rotations to Australia, which may require some infrastructure improvements to Australian air bases, Gen. Hawk Carlisle told Air Force Magazine. “Our intention is not to be there continuously,” but rather...
Sustaining current levels of operations on any aircraft while simultaneously recapitalizing it is a big challenge, especially when it comes to the E-8 JSTARS ground-surveillance fleet, Lt. Gen. Stanley Clarke, Air National Guard director, told reporters Tuesday at AFA’s Air...
Maj. Gen. John Thompson, program executive officer for tankers, said Tuesday the next six months “are absolutely critical for the execution” of the KC-46A tanker program. After Boeing identified an anomaly with some electrical bundles in the first KC-46 test...
? The first flight of the 767-2C provisional freighter that forms the basis of the Air Force’s KC-46A tanker has slipped from this summer to “mid-to-late November,” said Maj. Gen. John Thompson, program executive officer for tankers, on Tuesday. In...
Air Force Global Strike Command is driving a comprehensive program to increase its manning, modernize its weapons and facilities, and improve the morale and quality of its nuclear deterrence airmen, said command boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson on Tuesday. The...
Air Force Global Strike Command boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson said 8th Air Force has wrapped up its Force Improvement Program and he expects to get briefed from the teams on Sept. 19. “What we found is that many of...
The Air Staff’s new A5/8 office will stand up on Oct. 1, Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh told an audience in National Harbor, Md., on Tuesday during his address at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. Air Force leadership announced...
Hypersonics and directed energy have exited the realm of the perpetually promising and will soon become programs of record, said Air Force Research Lab Commander Maj. Gen. Thomas Masiello on Tuesday. The success of the X-51 demonstrator program proved “hypersonics...
Air Mobility Command is looking at doing more research on adding greater autonomy to its aircraft, said Maj. Gen. Michael Stough, the command’s director of strategic plans, requirements, and programs, on Tuesday. “We think that there’s great promise in autonomy,”...
Power that, in recent decades, only belonged to nation states has now dispersed. That makes it much more difficult for the United States to predict what threats it will face, said retired Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden, former National Security...
Retired Gen. Michael Hayden had a blunt question for airmen during his talk at AFA’s Air and Space Conference on Tuesday: What is the Air Force’s contribution in a post industrial age security environment? “I don’t say this to other...
The tyranny of distance and transnational threats, such as drug and human trafficking, are the biggest challenges to African nations, said Gen. Frank Gorenc, commander of US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa, during AFA’s Air & Space Conference in...
When US Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa supported the “noncombatant evacuation” of US personnel in Libya this summer, the command sent five tankers, three F-16s, C-130s, and a C-17, said USAFE-AFAFRICA Commander Gen. Frank Gorenc on Monday. During that...
The Defense Logistics Agency’s biggest supply chain issue regarding the Air Force deals with spare parts, because “if [airmen] don’t have all the parts, they can’t fix an engine,” said DLA Director Vice Adm. Mark Harnitchek on Tuesday. Understanding that,...
The new approach the Air Force has adopted for aircraft maintenance is providing welcomed improvements, but still requires optimization, said Lt. Gen. Bruce Litchfield, Air Force Sustainment Center commander, on Monday. “I’m not telling you we’re anywhere close to where...
