The Air Force portion of the Bush Administration’s 2008 budget—to be released today—compels an “unnecessary and unreasonable” decline in the Air Force into the future, a senior service official told reporters in a background briefing Friday. The Air Force plans...

The Air Force has been engaged in combat in the Middle East for more than 16 years—from Desert Shield through the no fly zone operations to today’s fighting in Afghanistan and Iraq—and funding constraints of the past few years are...

During a background briefing Friday, a senior Air Force official revealed that the 2008 defense budget cuts the number of Combat Wing Equivalents—a 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review construct—from the 86 CWEs mandated in the QDR to 78 CWEs. It would...

The Air Force now believes it should only reduce the service by 20,000 people, rather than 40,000. However, a senior service official speaking on background Friday said that the reduction number depends on getting additional funding (see above)—without that the...

USAF F-16s and A-10s deployed to support operations in Iraq provided close air support—in spades—to coalition ground forces under attack near An Najaf on Jan. 28, according to a Feb. 3 US Central Command Air Forces release from Balad AB, Iraq. The F-16s operating out of Balad and A-10s from Al Asad Air Base dropped more than 3.5 tons of precision munitions and some 3,000-plus rounds of cannon fire over a five square mile area. The operation killed more than 200 insurgents and led to the capture of another 100. The F-16s are from the 510th Fighter Squadron, Aviano AB, Italy; 14th FS, Misawa AB, Japan; and 332nd FS, Balad. The A-10s are from the 74th FS at Pope AFB, N.C.

The Long Range Strike program, a Quadrennial Defense Review-mandated new bomber-like capability, will slip per the budget to be released today, but “less than 12 months, more than six,” a senior USAF official told reporters Friday on background. He said...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates is recommending that Adm. Timothy Keating take over US Pacific Command and that Air Force Lt. Gen. Victor Renuart replace Keating at NORAD and US Northern Command. Keating would replace Adm. William Fallon who is under...

An AC-130U Spooky gunship at Hurlburt Field, Fla., is now armed with the 30 mm Bushmaster cannon. The new gun replaces the elderly 40 mm cannon and the newer 25 mm cannon, both of which are hard to maintain. The...

The Air National Guard’s 186th Air Refueling Wing in Meridian, Miss., will gain a new Joint Cargo Aircraft mission and an Air Force War Fighting Headquarters detachment by Fiscal 2011, announced Gov. Haley Barbour last week. Under BRAC 2005, the...

How Much??: In an estimate on the cost of President Bush’s planned 20,000 troop surge in Iraq, the Congressional Budget Office points out that the surge doesn’t include necessary support personnel. CBO notes that the norm for DOD “over the...

Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering III, director of the Missile Defense Agency, told reporters in Washington last week that US efforts to position missile defense assets in Eastern Europe are designed to counter rogue-nation capabilities. He said US officials...

The Pentagon has just hosted 39 students from area high schools for IT Job Shadow Day, knowing that some 10,000 information technology civilian employees will be eligible to retire at the end of the year. Leaders of the Defense Department’s...

The Defense Department has been developing a competence modeling tool, which will guide procurement professionals in doing self-assessments of their skills and training, reports Government Executive. The tool will incorporate the department’s target capabilities, showing how they compare with the...

Jan. 31, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 13 11 24 CAS/Armed Recon 41 26 67 Airlift 150 150 Air refueling 28 28 Total 54 37 178 269 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance