More Weigh In on Tanker Action

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) isn’t the only one questioning the inclusion of questions about government subsidies and related World Trade Organization dispute resolution efforts in the Air Force’s new aerial refueling aircraft award decision process. McCain has Alabama Republicans Sen....

It Flew

By golly, the B-52 loaded up with a 50-50 blend of traditional jet fuel and a coal-derived alternative in two of its eight engines flew Tuesday with no ill effects. Flying in the bomber with the mission crew during the...

Full Blast from F-35

The Pratt & Whitney F135 engine powering the F-35 Lightning II ran up in full-afterburner mode—all 40,000 pounds of thrust—on Sept. 18 during the end of the first series of engine runs at the Lockheed Martin production facility in Fort...

White House to Limit Defense Cut

The Bush Administration has put Congressional appropriators on notice that it will tolerate no more than a $4 billion cut to its 2007 defense budget request, reports Government Executive. House and Senate negotiators wanted to cut defense funding by nearly...

Cutting Off Nose?

The Air Staff’s director of information services and integration, Maj. Gen. William Lord, told Government Computer News that the Air Force information technology personnel he spoke with during two town hall meetings “appreciated the candor” of being told they would...

C-17s at Home in New Roles

Air Mobility Command’s stationing of C-17s within the Southwest Asia theater has made it possible to shift the new airlifters into routine aerial drop missions, like their truly tactical brethren, the C-130s. For instance, C-17 aircrews stationed at Manas AB,...

The Right Thing To Do

House and Senate Veterans Affairs Committee leaders introduced parallel bills today enabling spouses and dependent children of severely combat-wounded troops to apply for VA education benefit assistance without first waiting for the injured military member to be discharged from active...

Cadets Tire of Surveys

The Pentagon plans to stop quizzing military academy cadets every year about sexual assaults and harassment because the cadets have developed “survey fatigue,” reports the Times Herald-Record of New York’s Hudson Valley. The Pentagon apparently got the Senate to include...

Another Island Preps for Storm:

Storm Misses Lajes: US Air Force elements at Lajes Field, Azores, in the Atlantic Ocean battened down in the face of Hurricane Gordon, but the Category 1 storm with winds expected to reach 70 mph packed less than half the...

What the Service Looks Like:

The Air Force’s latest accounting of its personnel shows that, as of Aug. 31, the service has 346,166 active duty members, comprising 71,691 officers and 274,475 enlisted airmen. Its civilian force has 145,620 employees, the majority (76.1 percent) of whom...

50 Years of the DSB:

The Defense Science Board has been around for 50 years, first forming up for its first meeting on Sept. 20, 1956, at the behest of the Second Hoover Commission. It has grown from 25 members to 42, drawn from industry,...

Air Sorties in the Global War on Terrorism

Sept. 19, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 18 4 22 CAS/Armed Recon 40 50 90 Airlift 155 155 Air refueling 40 40 Total 58 54 195 307 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance