According to Reuters news service, an independent review commissioned by the Air Force finds that the service’s plan to establish a multiyear procurement program for the last 60 F-22As will not be the big money saver USAF had expected. That...

Lockheed Martin put out the red carpet in Marietta, Ga., Tuesday, heralding completion of the first of 111 C-5 airlifters the company is expected to modernize for the Air Force. Designated C-5M, the airlifter has new General Electric CF6 engines...

B-1B To Get Radar Boost: The Aeronautical Systems Center at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, is working with Boeing and its subcontractor Northrop Grumman to provide the first significant radar upgrade for the B-1B bomber in more than 20 years, say ASC...

SBIRS Moves Forward: Lockheed Martin has completed development of the interim operations software for the Highly Elliptical Orbit payloads of the Space Based Infrared System. The company already has delivered the two HEO payloads under its current contract, which also...

McCain Wants Inquiry into Boeing Deal: Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) told reporters Tuesday that he has questions about the arrangement the Justice Department has worked out with Boeing. McCain said he would talk with Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), chairman of...

Mixing and Matching A-10s: We reported yesterday that airmen of Air Force Reserve Command’s 442nd Fighter Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., were deploying to Afghanistan with their A-10s. What we didn’t know at the time was that they were forming...

A group of Congressmen have lobbied appropriators to provide the same 2.7 percent pay raise for federal civilian employees as the House approved for military personnel in the 2007 defense authorization bill. Leading the effort are Rep. Tom Davis (R-Va.)...

The College Football Hall of Fame on May 16 elected former Air Force Academy football star Chad Hennings to its roll of honor, among 12 other players and two coaches out of a field of 77. Hennings played defensive lineman,...

A Texas B-1B Munition Sparked Range Fire: A training munition released by a B-1B bomber on the Melrose Bombing Range near Cannon AFB, N.M., on November 30, 2005, started a fire that eventually burned 26,000 acres of grazing and farmland,...

Air Force Space Command airmen are competing in the 2006 Guardian Challenge, the first in two years since AFSPC canceled the comp last year. Various elements are competing on different dates. For instance, missileers at Minot AFB, N.D., began competition...

The Oregon Air National Guard’s 173rd Fighter Wing will represent US Air Forces in Europe next month during an air-to-air exercise with the Bulgarian Air Force. US Embassy officials in Sofia, Bulgaria, say the exercise will help foster shared tactics,...

Ogden Partners With BAE Systems: The Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, Utah, has signed a partnering agreement with BAE Systems. The venture will enable BAE to make use of the center’s industrial and technical foundation and Ogden to...

May 15, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 13 4 17 CAS/Armed Recon 36 24 60 Airlift 160 160 Air refueling 33 33 Total 49 28 193 270 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance