Daily Report

The Air Force is “hoping” to make a presentation to Defense Secretary Robert Gates on the new long-range strike aircraft before Gates decides what the platform’s requirements will be, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Tuesday. Schwartz told the...

Longtime observers of Air Force leaders have grown accustomed to hearing that the service’s capabilities include the ability to strike targets anywhere on the globe. However, there was a subtle change in that regard in the remarks made Tuesday by...

The Air Force isn’t breaking with tradition in embracing a single engine type for the F-35 strike fighter, Gen. Norton Schwartz, USAF’s Chief of Staff, said Tuesday. Speaking at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., Schwartz noted that the...

The Air Force can expect flat budgets in the years to come, and has developed a rule of thumb as to how it will afford what it has to do, says Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. In...

Contrary to new speculation, the Air Force says its X-37B orbital test vehicle remains in space. “The X-37B mission is still ongoing,” Air Force spokeswoman Maj. Tracy Bunko told the Daily Report Tuesday. She added, “No landing date has been...

The Air Force is interested in upgrading the avionics on 28 of its C-21A aircraft between 2012 and 2015, according to a notice posted at the Federal Business Opportunities website. This upgrade would enable these aircraft, which shuttle VIPs and...

President Obama has suspended the US arms embargo on China as it pertains to the C-130 cargo aircraft. “[I]t is in the national interest of the United States” to issue “temporary munitions export licenses for exports” to China so that...

Members of the House want to establish a badge honoring airmen who have served as part of combat medical evacuation missions over the past six decades. Language they have included in H.R. 5136, the House's version of the Fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill, would authorize the Air Force Secretary to issue this badge to airmen who have served as "a pilot or crewmember of a helicopter medical evacuation ambulance" in combat on or after June 25, 1950. The language leaves it up to the SECAF to prescribe the requirements for the badge. The House lawmakers also included language for similar badges for Army, Marine Corps, and Navy combat medevac personnel. The House passed H.R 5136 in May. The Senate has not yet passed its version of the bill, which, coming out of the Senate Armed Services Committee, did not include similar language.

With springtime in Antarctica comes the resumption of Operation Deep Freeze, the US military’s logistical support mission to US scientific researchers in Antarctica. C-17s from JB Lewis-McChord, Wash., will join ski-equipped LC-130s from the New York Air National Guard’s 109th...

India’s first C-130J has made its maiden flight from Lockheed Martin’s assembly plant in Marietta, Ga., the company announced. Lockheed officials expect to deliver this airplane, the first of six “stretch-model” C-130J-30s being built for the Indian air force, in...

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, Oct. 4-5, 2010 Sortie Type OND OEF OND/OEF Total YTD ISR 41 142 183 20,643 CAS/Armed Recon 12 189 201 27,030 Airlift 346 346 48,205 Air refueling 104 104 13,445 Rescue 64 64 6,153 Total...