Daily Report

Aug. 22, 2011

F-35 Grounding Lifted

The F-35 joint program office authorized developmental test aircraft at Edwards AFB, Calif., and NAS Patuxent River, Md., to resume flight operations Aug. 18, following a three-week grounding. Both ground and flight ops were suspended Aug. 3 after the integrated...

The Budget Axe is Swinging

The White House budget office has ordered federal agencies to slash their Fiscal 2013 budget requests by as much as 10 percent below Fiscal 2011 discretionary spending. The announcement comes on the heels of the recent passage of the debt...

Getting RPAs Into National Airspace

Despite the boom in remotely piloted aircraft operations, domestic operations for the Air Force’s fleet of MQ-1 Predators, MQ-9 Reapers, and RQ-4 Global Hawks remains highly restricted, according to the Air Force’s lead official on RPA airspace efforts. Today, the...

The RPA Homecoming

Pentagon officials continue to push for the integration of remotely piloted aircraft into the national airspace as operations in Afghanistan wind down. The Air Force anticipates a shift in the strategic footprint of its RPA forces over the next three...

Tomodachi’s Constant Vigil

Three RQ-4 remotely piloted aircraft checked off several firsts for the Global Hawk fleet as they maintained continuous imagery and monitoring of Japan’s severely damaged Fukushima nuclear facility at the height of contamination fears in Japan this spring, a Northrop...

Warren Tests Missile Facilities

Missileers of the 90th Missile Wing at F. E. Warren AFB, Wyo., last week electronically simulated the launch of a Minuteman III ICBM, assuring launch facility readiness. Unlike Minuteman launches from the test facility at Vandenberg AFB, Calif., Simulated Electronic...

Air Force Two Joins AMC Museum

A Douglas VC-9, which flew vice presidents and US dignitaries for 35 years, touched down at Dover AFB, Del., where it will remain on permanent display at the Air Mobility Command Museum on base. Assigned to the 89th Airlift Squadron...

A Hercules at Last

A Hercules transport assigned to the Arkansas Air National Guard’s 189th Airlift Wing landed at Wright Patterson AFB, Ohio, last week, filling a notable gap in the National Museum of the Air Force’s collection. On April 15, 1972, the crew...

Vehicle Chips Expected to Cut Costs

Maintainers at Robins AFB, Ga., are testing a new system on 17 of the base’s ground vehicles that will tell them exactly how a vehicle is being used and flag potential problems before major repairs are needed. The Automotive Information...