Gen. Tom Hobbins, head of US Air Forces in Europe, believes the Air Force may reduce the number of personnel it plans to cut over the next three years from 40,000 to 27,000. Stars and Stripes reports that Hobbins told...

An Alaska Air National Guard C-130 aircrew deployed to Bagram AB, Afghanistan, got a last minute mission change on Christmas Eve to airdrop food, water, and other supplies to 50 soldiers guarding and working on a Army helicopter that made...

The Air Force Research Lab’s Space Vehicles Directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M., reports that the TacSat-2 spacecraft launched Dec. 16 from Wallops Island, Va., has begun its on-orbit operations, expected to continue over the next six-12 months. Among the experimental...

The Expeditionary Theater Distribution Center at Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, provides airmen with all the force protection gear they will need when going downrange in Afghanistan. The Manas ETDC has more than $7.8 million in chemical gear, $8.5 million in body...

The 57th Weapons Squadron, part of the Air Force Mobility Weapons Center at McGuire AFB, N.J., runs the masters of weapons systems course for C-17 pilots. Each year, the squadron offers two 5.5-month courses, comprising 300 academic hours, 140 flight...

Air Force Space Command will be deploying civilian logistician Michele Kantak—at her request—to Southwest Asia in January to serve as a base-level planner. It’s not the first time AFSPC has sent a civilian volunteer—David King served 133 days in SWA...

A unit of the Tennessee Air National Guard at McGhee Tyson Airport near Knoxville now is operating US Strategic Command’s first Distributive Command and Control facility. (We missed this STRATCOM release on Dec. 1.) STRATCOM expects the DCCs to ensure...

The Wall Street Journal reported Thursday that the Air Force might be searching for an outside firm of engineers to oversee systems integration of its new GPS III satellites, according to “industry and government officials.” The Air Force has run...

Airmen at Barksdale AFB, La., worked with a television crew filming a segment on the B-52 bomber for its “Weapons That Changed the World” series. The venerable bomber’s piece is slated to air in January.

Nine Air Force civil engineer units contributed airmen to form a Prime BEEF team sent to help improve conditions at Contingency Operation Base Speicher, some 100 miles northwest of Baghdad. The COB is home to airmen, soldiers, sailors, and marines....

Arnold Engineering and Development Center in Tennessee has shut down its more than 50-year-old Basic Plant air conditioning facility—one that provided, on the ground, the right pressure, temperature, and humidity to test turbine engines at simulated high speeds and altitudes....

The Air Force has presented the John L. McLucas Basic Research Award to Craig Denman, a physicist with Air Force Research Lab’s Directed Energy Directorate Laser Division at Kirtland AFB, N.M. Denman’s work with adaptive optics at the Starfire Optical...

Veterans Affairs officials recently concluded two yearlong reviews, opting to retain inpatient facilities at Poplar Bluff, Mo., and Muskogee, Okla. The reviews were part of the VA’s effort to eliminate old, underused inpatient facilities in favor of more community-type clinics,...

Dec. 27, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 8 12 20 CAS/Armed Recon 24 33 57 Airlift 130 130 Air refueling 29 29 Total 32 45 159 236 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance