Daily Report

The Government Accountability Office has sustained Boeing’s protest over the Air Force’s KC-X tanker award to Northrop Grumman-EADS in February. In a three-page document just issued by the agency, GAO found fault with USAF’s evaluation methods on seven counts, thereby recommending that the Air Force “reopen discussions with the offerors, obtain revised proposals, re-evaluate the revised proposals, and make a new source-selection decision.” More to follow.

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell said yesterday (June 17) that the Office of the Secretary of Defense had not altered its view about the soundness of the Air Force’s KC-X tanker decision since the contract award was made to Northrop Grumman-EADS...

The Air Force on Monday (June 16) began a series of public scoping meetings mandated by US environmental laws to discuss its proposed expansion of the Power River Complex near Ellsworth AFB, S.D., to provide more realistic air combat training...

Among the 48 close air support missions flown by coalition aircraft on June 16 in Afghanistan were sorties by A-10s against enemy combatants in Bagram, Air Forces Central said in a June 17 statement. These Warthogs fired cannon rounds and...

The Alaska Air National Guard’s 168th Air Refueling Wing will host a KC-135 nose art unveiling this Friday (June 20) at the wing’s maintenance hangar on the grounds of Eielson Air Force Base. The new nose art will feature the seals of the City of Fairbanks and the City of North Pole to honor these two communities, which are home to the vast majority of the wing’s personnel, the wing said in a June 16 statement. The mayors of both cities will be on hand for the unveiling.

Effective July 1, the nation’s three Minuteman III ICBM wings will revert from their current designation as space wings back to their pre-1997 designation as missile wings. Maj. Laurie Arellano, an Air Force Space Command spokeswoman, confirmed the date to...

The Air Force Research Lab’s munitions directorate at Eglin AFB, Fla., announced earlier this month that it has successfully tested the Voyeur, a compact, proof-of-concept rotary wing unmanned air vehicle designed for real-time bomb damage assessment missions, even in cluttered...

Engineers with the Air Force Research Lab’s materials and manufacturing directorate at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, say they have successfully integrated two existing technologies to create a new thermal control system for future satellites. The new active-temperature control system is compact...

The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency has demonstrated the ability of an unmanned aircraft to continue flying even after the loss of a large portion of a wing, such as could occur from battle damage. Employing damage-tolerant flight control technology...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaJune 15, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 25 12 37 5,016 CAS/Armed Recon 40 45 85 14,906 Airlift 121 121 21,075 Air refueling 49 49 6,962 Total 292 47,959...