Polar Route
One option being explored by US Transportation Command as it prepares to move an additional 30,000 troops and their equipment into Afghanistan by mid-2010 is the use of air routes that stretch directly there from the US over the North...
Looking Ahead
The Air Force on Wednesday issued a new energy plan that lays out the service’s long-range—to 2035—institutionalized energy goals and how it aims to reduce energy demand, increase supply through alternative and renewable energy sources, and change the service’s culture...
A Chip Off the Old Block
Northrop Grumman announced Tuesday that the first Air Force RQ-4 Global Hawk Block 40 unmanned reconnaissance aircraft “performed beautifully” during its maiden test flight in November. This airframe, designated AF-18, flew for approximately two hours from the company’s production facility...
Contingency Thinking
Airfield support experts from across the Air Force developed a method for standardizing expeditionary airfield operations in austere locations during a recent powwow at Air Mobility Command headquarters at Scott AFB, Ill. They used the processes developed under the Air...
Get on With It
A new nuclear-capable bomber is essential to the nation because it will reinforce the US policy of extended deterrence that dissuades friends and potential foes alike from acquiring nuclear weapons, says retired Gen. Mike Loh, former Air Force vice chief...
Upgrade
Come next March, the 80th Flying Training Wing at Sheppard AFB, Tex., will have a command chief in place for the first time as its senior enlisted leader instead of a wing superintendant as has been its practice. The change...
Mark Your Calendars
The Air Force’s Thunderbirds air demonstration squadron on Wednesday announced its airshow schedule for 2010, its 57th season of performances. The first of 65 planned shows will kick off March 20-21 at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. In mid-June and mid-August, the...
Vietnam POW Purcell Dies
Retired Col. Robert B. Purcell, an F-105 pilot and the 17th American taken prisoner during the Vietnam War, died Dec. 6 at his home in Fort Worth, Tex., at age 78. He had been in declining health since a 2005...
Air Sorties from SWA 121009
Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, Dec. 6-7, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 58 62 120 16,215 CAS/Armed Recon 30 167 197 33,137 Airlift 317 317 46,262 Air refueling 86 86 16,205 Total 720 111,819 OIF=Operation Iraqi...