Daily Report

April 16, 2009

Not Chump Change

Splitting the work to supply new aerial tankers between Boeing and Northrop Grumman would likely increase the Air Force’s developmental costs by “somewhere around $7 billion to $14 billion” in just over the next five years, Defense Secretary Robert Gates...

Not so Fast

Contrary to a joint statement issued last month by members of Utah’s Congressional delegation, the Air Force has not made a decision to perform many of the maintenance tasks associated with MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles at...

More on War Supplemental

Here are a few more details on the Obama Administration’s $75.5 billion supplemental spending request for the Defense Department that went to Congress last week. Included in the Air Force’s $2.38 billion aircraft procurement section is $196 million to buy...

Raptor Revisionism

Looking back on the F-22 program’s evolution, the Air Force probably made an error in selecting Lockheed’s YF-22 in the advanced tactical fighter competition in the late 1980s, since Northrop Grumman’s YF-23 was the better model, Barry Watts, a senior...

Low-Swishability

Among the thousands of airmen serving in Iraq, SrA. James Debiase is unique in at least one regard: He’s the only one currently field-testing the Air Force’s modified physical training uniform. “It’s not every day you get the chance to...

Best of the Best

The 374th Force Support Squadron as Yokota AB, Japan, has won the Curtis E. LeMay Award for being the best force support, services, and mission support squadron in the Air Force. “This is a great achievement not only for the...

Getting in the Spirit

The 509th Bomb Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., the Air Force’s sole B-2A bomber unit, has adopted the service-wide practice of presenting its dedicated crew chiefs with coins that formally recognize their work and their responsibility for the aircraft that...

A Fitting End

SSgt. Ken Essick, a KC-10 boom operator with the 2nd Air Refueling Squadron at McGuire AFB, N.J., had the chance on April 9 to refuel an E-8C Joint STARS aircraft flying out of Robins AFB, Ga., on which his dad,...

Past Meets Present

Paul Rehm, a B-17 navigator on the first daylight bombing raid into Germany during World War II visited Dyess AFB, Tex., on April 13 to see a B-17 at the base’s air park and share stories with Col. Gavin Ketchen,...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest Asia

April 13, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 30 6 36 3,999 CAS/Armed Recon 27 27 79 10,148 Airlift 125 125 13,725 Air refueling 45 45 4,597 Total 285 32,469 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...