Daily Report

Sept. 3, 2009

The Axe Man Cometh, Again

To meet spending caps imposed by the Office of the Secretary of Defense for Fiscal 2011 and beyond, the Air Force proposes cancelling the C-130 avionics modernization program, foregoing new engines on E-8C ground-surveillance aircraft, and cutting major items like...

Missile Transport Accident at Minot

A semi-trailer truck carrying engine parts from a Minuteman III ICBM from Minot AFB, N.D., overturned on a gravel road into a ditch Monday near the north-central North Dakota base. Minot’s local KXMC TN news station reported Tuesday that Air...

C-17 Training Center for Scott

Boeing announced Monday that the Air Force has tasked it to develop a C-17 distributed training center at Scott AFB, Ill., headquarters of Air Mobility Command. The center, projected for standup in January 2012, will serve as the hub for...

New Wing Deploys Airmen for First Time

A contingent of US Air Forces in Europe’s new 435th Air Ground Operations Wing from Ramstein AB, Germany, arrived in Nis, Serbia, Aug. 25 in support of the Medical Training Exercise in Central and Eastern Europe that runs through Sept....

Mountain Showdown

The 366th Fighter Wing at Mountain Home AFB, Idaho, is set to host the first “Gunfighter Flag” air combat training exercise later this month. Gunfighter Flag 2009 starts Sept. 14.and runs through Sept. 25. It will include: F-15Cs and F-15Es...

Stall Brought Down Predator

A disconnected vacuum line caused the engine of an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle to stall during the aircraft’s April 28 flight from Creech AFB, Nev., ultimately leading to the aircraft making a hard landing in rough terrain west of the base, sustaining significant damage, Air Combat Command said Wednesday. ACC’s accident investigation board report said the cost to repair the Predator, assigned to Creech’s 11th Reconnaissance Squadron, is $543,178. The vacuum line controls the flow of air that mixes with fuel to power the aircraft. There were no injuries or damage to other property or equipment, said ACC. (AIB report) (ACC release)

Proving Up to the Challenge

Lockheed Martin and Raytheon both said Tuesday they successfully debuted new Air Force-related technology at the recent US Joint Forces Command-sponsored Empire Challenge intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance demonstration. Lockheed said it sent signals intelligence data from a targeting pod on an F-16 fighter...

Robins Employee Receives Bronze Star

Roy Bowden, now a civilian air conditioning mechanic with the 78th Civil Engineer Squadron at Robins AFB, Ga., on Aug. 21 received a Bronze Star Medal for his service in leading combat convoy patrols in Iraq from May 2005 to...

New Flame

After a three-year hiatus, the hard-copy version of the Air Force’s Afterburner retiree newsletter is returning via a special funding grant, the service announced Tuesday. The reason is because not every retiree has computer access to view the electronic version....

Air Sorties in SWA 090309

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, Aug. 30, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 25 30 55 10,518 CAS/Armed Recon 28 83 111 23,309 Airlift 137 137 31,851 Air refueling 56 56 11,397 Total 359 77,075 OIF=Operation Iraqi...