Daily Report

Jan. 12, 2011

Donley Identifies NAFs Eyed for Consolidation

The Air Force will consolidate numbered air forces in Hawaii, Texas, and Germany as part of the service’s broader efforts to shed about $34 billion in overhead and operate more efficiently, said USAF Secretary Michael Donley Wednesday. Thirteenth Air Force...

Pure Coincidence

Chinese President Hu Jintao assured Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Tuesday that news of the Chinese J-20 stealth aircraft making its first flight coming on the same day that Gates and Hu met in Beijing was purely coincidental and not...

Providing Assurance and Vision

Providing Assurance and Vision: A contingent of F-15s and airmen from RAF Lakenheath, Britain, has returned home from four months protecting the airspace of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania under NATO’s Baltic air policing mission. “Our tour was very successful,” Maj....

Barksdale Reserve Realignment Takes Place

Air Force Reserve Command’s B-52 bomber operations at Barksdale AFB, La., are now managed by the newly activated 307th Bomb Wing. The unit replaces the just-inactivated 917th Wing as the overseer of the Reservists’ activities, which include running USAF’s sole...

Phantom Rising

Members of the 82nd Aerial Target Squadron at Tyndall AB, Fla., have begun flying F-4 Phantoms to tow the banners that pilots shoot at during aerial gunnery training. “This is just another way the venerable Phantom continues to serve the...

Heavy Wing Goes Heavy

Airmen from the 12-nation Heavy Airlift Wing at Papa AB, Hungary, are gathered with airmen from the 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein AB, Germany, for four days of aerial port training in the area around Ramstein and Grafenwoehr, Germany. The...

Keeping Tabs on Every Bell and Whistle

Airmen at Aviano AB, Italy, are the first at any US Air Forces in Europe base to use the new asset marking and tracking system, or AMT, for keeping tabs on their parts and equipment inventory. The Air Force is...

Doolittle Raider Dies

Retired Col. Bill Bower, the last surviving pilot among the Doolittle Raiders, has died in Boulder, Colo. Boulder’s Daily Camera reports that Bower died Monday in his south Boulder home at age 93. “He was an exceptional human being,” said...

Global Observer Enters New Flight Test Phase

AeroVironment announced Tuesday that its Global Observer remotely piloted aircraft successfully completed its first flight while powered by its hydrogen-fueled propulsion system. During the four-hour flight on Jan. 6, Global Observer reached an altitude of 5,000 feet above sea level...