The Air Force will present a range of options to the new Administration on how to proceed with a revamped tanker competition, but it’ll be at least a year until a new award is made, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton...

The conclusion of the C-17 line is “in sight,” according to Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz. In a Dec. 22 interview, Schwartz said he still believes that a fleet of 316 strategic airlifters is “about right,” and that 205...

In a Dec. 22 interview (see above), Gen. Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff, also said the end of F-22 production is “in sight,” saying it should wrap up in a few years. However, he declined to provide a specific number...

There were no surprises and few substantive changes resulting from the quadrennial roles and missions review recently completed by the Pentagon, says Gen. Norton Schwartz, Air Force Chief of Staff. However, the exercise “crystallized … our thinking about what the...

The Air Force announced last week before the Christmas holiday the imminent release of a new draft request for proposal for the transformational satellite communications program. This new solicitation will reflect the changes that are being incorporated into the TSAT program under a restructure directed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense earlier this month. These changes are meant to ensure “a clear and affordable path” to fielding these sophisticated communications satellites by balancing “affordability, technology maturity, and program complexity to meet required demand,” the Air Force said. The new solicitation will supersede the previous RFP that the service is closing without a contract award. The new draft document covers the first increment of five TSAT satellites that will be known as the Block 10 constellation. First launch of them is planned in 2019. Under the restructure, the Block 10 spacecraft will rely upon Internet protocol routing for network management and moving data to deployed forces on the move. Only later increments will now incorporate laser and Ka-band links for enhanced communications support. Still the Block 10 constellation will provide “at least a factor of five growth” in throughput capacity over the advanced extremely high frequency communications satellites that will precede the TSAT birds in space, the Air Force said. Boeing and Lockheed Martin are competing to supply the TSAT satellites.

Active duty airmen retiring or separating from overseas areas on or after Jan. 1 will no longer be required to travel to a stateside separation processing base to conduct final outprocessing actions, the Air Force Personnel Center announced earlier this...

The first E-8C joint surveillance target attack radar system aircraft fitted with new engines made its maiden flight Dec. 21 in Melbourne, Fla., lead contractor Northrop Grumman said in a release. The flight of the modified E-8C test bed aircraft...

Airmen of the 33rd Fighter Wing at Eglin AFB, Fla., earlier this month tested their ability to respond rapidly to defend the nation’s airspace during an Operation Noble Eagle exercise. Base members had to scramble the wing’s F-15 Eagles as...

Explosive ordnance disposal airmen stationed at Sather AB, Iraq, recently destroyed 13,000 pounds of confiscated Iraqi explosives, one of the larger weapons caches to be collected at one time in Iraq. Four three-person teams assigned to the 447th Expeditionary Civil...

President Bush signed an updated unified command plan on Dec. 17. Chief among changes, UCP 2008 codifies US Africa Command with its specific missions, responsibilities, and geographic boundaries, the Pentagon said in a release Dec. 23. AFRICOM assumed full operations in October. The plan also shifts the Bahamas, Puerto Rico, the US Virgin Islands, and the Turks and Caicos Islands from US Southern Command’s area of responsibility to US Northern Command’s purview. And, it cements US Pacific Command’s responsibility for homeland defense operations in Hawaii, Guam, and other US territories in the Pacific. The new document is the first UCP to assign all combatant commanders responsibility for planning and conducting military support of stability, security, transition, and reconstruction operations as well as humanitarian assistance, and disaster relief activities. It is also the first to assign central planning authorities to individual commands for certain global missions. For example, NORTHCOM is assigned the new “pandemic influenza” mission, with responsibility for planning efforts across the Department of Defense in support of the US government’s response to an outbreak. Similarly, US Special Operations Command is assigned responsibility for global operations against terrorist networks, and US Strategic Command becomes responsible for combating weapons of mass destruction, global missile defense, and cyberspace operations. “This is a new concept,” said Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. He added, “What it means is the assignment of responsibilities to a single coordinator to coordinate missions that exceed the responsibility of any one commander.” Assignment of the cyberspace mission to STRATCOM recognizes cyberspace as a warfighting domain that is critical to joint military operations, DOD officials said. (Includes AFPS report by Donna Miles) (New map of unified command areas of responsibility)

Lockheed Martin rolled out the first weight-optimized F-35A test aircraft from its assembly plant at Fort Worth, Tex., on Dec. 19, the company said in a release. The new F-35A, designated AF-1, is “at its core, the same aircraft that...

Airmen are now eligible for 10 days of nonchargeable paternity leave following the birth of their newborns, based on a passage included in the Fiscal 2009 defense authorization act. The Air Force said in a release Dec. 15 that the...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaDec. 21, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 29 17 46 13,136 CAS/Armed Recon 40 71 111 36,453 Airlift 140 140 45,970 Air refueling 49 49 17,672 Total 346 113,231...