Daily Report

Defense Secretary Robert Gates has decided to terminate the current KC-X tanker competition and leave it in the hands of the next Administration to decide how to replace the Air Force’s fleet of Eisenhower-era KC-135s, the Pentagon announced Wednesday morning....

Air Force officials are still formulating the plan for improving the service’s nuclear enterprise, but Gen. Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff, offered some insights earlier this month on the way forward during a visit to Peterson AFB, Colo. “We have...

Continuing F-22 production is “not a political nicety” for the Air Force but rather “a necessity” for the defense of the nation, says Rep. Phil Gingrey (R-Ga.). In an op-ed in yesterday’s Washington Times, Gingrey writes that 183 Raptors—the current...

The high-energy laser installed earlier this year on the Airborne Laser aircraft was fired for the first time aboard the aircraft in a ground test Sept. 7 at Edwards AFB, Calif., prime contractor Boeing announced Monday. The firing is a...

Sept. 3 was a significant day for the 777th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron as the C-130 unit completed its 25,000th combat sortie since beginning operations at Joint Base Balad, Iraq, in February 2006. “Getting convoys off the road is our job,”...

A candidate for Air Force flight training and an instructor pilot were injured Monday when their Diamond DA-20 trainer aircraft crashed near the Memorial Airport in Pueblo Colo., during touch-and-go landing drills. The Pueblo Chieftain reported Sept. 9 that the...

Making Rounds: The F-35 cockpit demonstrator arrived Monday at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, to give Aeronautical Systems Center personnel who are part of the multinational program’s management team a chance to experience the aircraft’s advanced capabilities close-up. “Our people have been...

Failure of a brake metering valve caused a B-1B bomber to roll forward into two rescue vehicles after engine shutdown March 7 at Andersen AFB, Guam, according to Air Combat Command. In a Sept. 3 release, ACC said an accident investigation board determined that “malfunction of the right hand brake metering valve caused depletion of the associated brake system accumulators, rendering the aircraft's brake systems inoperative when the engines shut down.” There were no injuries, but damage to the B-1B, which is assigned to the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth AFB, S.D., and the two firefighting vehicles totaled $5.8 million. Contributing factors included a slight taxiway declination, failure of the aircraft to be chocked in a timely manner, and the inability of the firefighting vehicles to get out of the way of the rolling B-1B, ACC said. (For more, read released portions of the AIB)

About 150 airmen from US Air Forces in Europe were in Iceland earlier this month with personnel from the US Navy and Canadian, Danish, and Norwegian militaries to take part in exercise Northern Viking 2008. Held Sept. 1-6 at Keflavik,...

Air Sorties in the Global War on TerrorismSept. 8, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 29 19 48 CAS/Armed Recon 28 70 98 Airlift 120 120 Air refueling 45 45 Total 311 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom...