The Air Force plans to power its entire fleet of B-52 bombers with a synthetic fuel blend by year’s end, if the “detailed analysis” of recently completed testing, including extreme weather conditions at Minot AFB, N.D., and physical inspection of the test BUFF “prove out,” says Michael Aimone, USAF’s top civilian loggie. Aimone told Senators at a Finance Committee hearing Tuesday that preliminary inspections have found “no deleterious effects” from use of a synthetic blend jet fuel in the B-52, which has just returned from Minot to Edwards AFB, Calif. He expects to see a full test report this summer. The motivating factor in converting to synfuel, of course, is to reduce some of USAF’s staggering $7 billion annual energy bill. Aimone noted that fueling Air Force aircraft accounts for 80 percent of that bill. Next, the service may introduce synfuel for its tanker fleet.
The top Air Force commander on on the Japanese island of Okinawa has clamped down alcohol and issued a curfew for junior enlisted Airmen and Guardians at Kadena Air Base for the next month. The order came roughly two weeks after a U.S. Marine was arrested for allegedly robbing and…