After announcing earlier this year its intention to continue funding supplier procurement past the 190th C-17, Boeing is closing in on whether to keep its suppliers in business, company officials said Monday at AFA’s Air and Space Conference. John Sams,...

Highlighting the effectiveness of the airlifter, John Sams, Boeing’s vice president for Air Force programs, told reporters Monday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington that the C-17 fleet achieved an 85 percent mission capable rate in 2006—the highest...

Echoing comments from Air Combat Command officials from the August declaration of the A-10C initial operational capability, John Sams, Boeing’s vice president for Air Force programs, said that the company’s $2 billion contract award in June for 242 wing sets...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has enlisted the help of retired Gen. Larry Welch, former Air Force Chief of Staff, to review the circumstances that lead to the B-52 weapons misadventure to provide “an independent outside assessment,” stated Pentagon spokesman Geoff...

Despite praise for its new block approach toward new space acquisition efforts, the Air Force is getting little benefit of the doubt from Congress. The Government Accountability Office this summer noted that USAF’s block approach represented “good steps,” the Congressional...

The leaders of the National Guard Caucus, Sen. Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.) and Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.), have managed to add “key components” of the National Guard Empowerment Act to the Senate’s 2008 defense authorization bill, now on the Senate floor....

The Air Force is still toting up and verifying claims it has received following the New Jersey fire sparked by an Air National Guard F-16 earlier this year, but the service has revealed that one claim, filed Aug. 1 by...

Boeing has just finished refurbishing one of the Air Force’s four E-4B National Airborne Operations Center aircraft. In a company statement, Boeing E-4B program manager Andy Reheis says, “With a small fleet of four aircraft, it is critical that we...

F-16 maintainers from various shops at Nellis AFB, Nev., worked together recently to overcome a problem that required replacement of the throttle cables on all the unit’s Block 52 Vipers. One of the Nellis fighters with the Air Force Weapons...

Two U-2 pilots have just achieved a milestone in their careers—2,000 flying hours in the high-flying reconnaissance aircraft. Maj. Brian Peck, a U-2 instructor with the 1st Reconnaissance Squadron, Beale AFB, Calif., is No. 20, and Maj. Michael Means, 1st...

The 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., has just marked the 10th anniversary of the loss of four of its airmen, when a B-1 crashed during a training flight on Sept. 19, 1997, reports A1C Kimberly Moore Limrick. Killed...

Three generations of Air Force chief master sergeants in the Shreiner family have served a total of 72 years. Harold Shreiner, Larry Shreiner, and Glenn Shreiner have a history with USAF that dates back to 1943, when Harold joined the...

Sept. 19, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 16 9 25 CAS/Armed Recon 47 38 85 Airlift 170 170 Air refueling 56 56 Total 63 47 226 336 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...