The Senate Armed Services Committee is not convinced that buying 38 C-27J transports is enough to provide direct airlift support to deployed Army units and still meet any needs at home such as responding to disasters. "Absent other information, it would appear to the committee that the department merely assumes that it can muster the appropriate support for domestic missions from within those forces that are derived from warfighting requirements," write committee members in the SASC report completed late last month that accompanies the draft version of the Senate's defense authorization bill for Fiscal 2012. That's a risky proposition, they contend. Accordingly, the Senators direct the Air Force Secretary to conduct a cost/benefit analysis of buying more C-27Js versus the current plan of procuring 38 and augmenting the direct support mission with some C-130s. The committee wants the results of the analysis no later than the submission of the Pentagon's Fiscal 2013 budget request. Along similar lines, a bipartisan group of Senators last month called on the Air Force to consider revising the C-27J basing plan and possibly up the fleet size to 42 aircraft. (SASC report; caution, large-sized file.)

A QF-4 Phantom from Holloman AFB, N.M., crashed Wednesday southwest of Roswell, N.M., at about 10:30 a.m. local time, according to base officials. The pilot ejected safely and was in good condition, said Col. David Krumm, commander of Holloman’s 49th...

Boeing on Tuesday announced that it is moving forward with adding three new capabilities to the B-1B bomber fleet thanks to a $99.5 million contract it received from the Air Force. This contract covers procuring the first lot of kits...

Two joint terminal attack controllers from the Washington Air National Guard’s 116th Air Support Operations Squadron in Tacoma played a pivotal role in helping US and Afghan soldiers fight off hundreds of insurgents who ambushed them in a remote valley...

Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs thanked senior Air Force, Army, and Navy leaders for each service’s participation in Operation Tomodachi during a ceremony in Tokyo. “On behalf of the Japanese people, I would like to say thank you to all...

The United States will keep its promise to the Iraqi government and pull all US troops out of the country by Dec. 31, said Pentagon spokesman Marine Col. Dave Lapan Wednesday. He was refuting a Los Angeles Times report indicating...

Concerned in particular about the pace of fielding the nation's future weather-monitoring satellites, the Senate Armed Services Committee has instructed the Air Force to develop a strategic weather modernization plan. This plan is meant to aid the Air Force's long-term planning so that the service remains "at the cutting edge" of weather observation, forecasting, and speedy information dissemination, state committee members in the report that goes with the draft version of the Senate's defense authorization bill for next fiscal year. The committee wants this plan no later than one year after the bill becomes law. Committee members note that the National Oceanographic and Atmospheric Administration's Joint Polar Satellite System program is "now approximately one year behind schedule." Further, the current launch of the Air Force's first Defense Weather Satellite System may come after the expected operational life of the spacecraft it will replace, they state. "Given the criticality of these satellite constellations, this strategic weather modernization plan should include the weather satellites and options if the launch and deployment of JPSS and DWSS are delayed further," they write. (SASC report; caution, large-sized file.)

US joint terminal attack controllers and supporting personnel joined forces with their counterparts from 14 NATO partner countries in Grafenwoehr, Germany, for exercise Allied Strike 2011. “The value of this event is the fact that we can bring so many...

Robert H. Widmer, the aeronautical engineer who designed the Air Force’s first operational supersonic bomber, the Convair B-58 Hustler, died in Fort Worth, Tex., at age 95. Widmer died June 20, according to his New York Times obituary. Born on...