Daily Report

Beale AFB, Calif., will be the stateside home of USAF’s MC-12W Liberty fleet, Air Force officials announced. “We have a long history of operating intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance weapon systems and we are ready to add MC-12W to our Beale...

The Air Force may be able to field its first unit of combat-ready F-35A strike fighters in 2017 under the most recent restructure of the tri-service F-35 program, said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. “That is still not quite...

Officials with the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon AFB, N.M., have actviated the 522nd Special Operations Squadron. “We will commit ourselves to excellence, be dedicated and courageous, and we will always, lead the way,” said Lt. Col. Paul Pendleton,...

Sixteen airmen have graduated from the Air Force’s first intermediate network warfare training course at Hurlburt Field, Fla. “INWT takes cyber training to the next level, and we’re excited for the field to see what these graduates, and those who...

Gen. Martin Dempsey on Monday became Army Chief of Staff, succeeding Gen. George Casey. “Whatever challenges confront us in the future, your Army will respond with the same courage and resolve with which it has responded over the past 235...

Subsequent to our entry last week on President Obama approving the new unified command plan, the Defense Department has issued the map reflecting the revised areas of responsibilities for the US combatant commands that are reflected in the revised document. Among the revisions, responsibility for the Arctic region is now shared between US Northern Command and US European Command, rather than NORTHCOM, EUCOM, and US Pacific Command as was the case in the previous plan from 2008. NORTHCOM also has responsibility to advocate for Arctic capabilities. Further, Alaska now falls under NORTHCOM instead of Northern Command and PACOM. (DOD release) (UCP 2011 map; caution, large-sized file.)

Air Force personnel are among the more than 150 members of the US military participating in the two-week Allied Forces Humanitarian Exercise, or FA HUM 2011, at Cumuto Barracks in Trinidad and Tobago. The exercise will simulate a catastrophic earthquake...

Northrop Grumman announced Monday that the Missile Defense Agency’s two Space Tracking and Surveillance System demonstration satellites have done what no space-based sensors have done before: track ballistic missiles in flight over their entire flight trajectories. This is dubbed “birth-to-death”...

Officials at Kirtland AFB, N.M., have formally accepted an aircraft simulator for the HC-130P personnel recovery platform. The simulator provides a high-fidelity training environment for a five-person HC-130 aircrew, according to Maj. Martin Golden, assistant director of operations for Kirtland’s...

Engineers test fitted a “crashworthy” loadmaster’s seat to an HC-130P rescue tanker during depot maintenance last week at Moody AFB, Ga. The seat is meant to improve crew survivability in the event of a mishap. “Loadmasters have been asking for...