Daily Report

March 16, 2011

Some F-35s Return to Flight after Temporary Grounding

The F-35 program leadership has cleared some, but not all, F-35 test aircraft to resume flight operations after an in-flight anomaly with one aircraft last week temporarily suspended operations. F-35 spokesman Joe DellaVedova told the Daily Report Tuesday that three...

Air Force Opting against Sole-Source Strategy for CVLSP

Despite reports that the Air Force might be close to inking a deal to procure Army Blackhawk helicopters to replace its Vietnam-era UH-1N Hueys that protect the nation’s ICBM fields, senior service leaders told House lawmakers Tuesday “that’s not the...

Upfront Costs

Implementing a no-fly zone over Libya would cost US taxpayers many millions, if not billions, of dollars, according to the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a Washington, D.C.-based think tank. In fact, enforcing an NFZ would cost between $15...

Waverider Set to Surf Again

The Air Force’s second X-51A Waverider experimental hypersonic air vehicle is set to fly at the end of the month, aiming for speeds in excess of Mach 6, said Charles Brink, Air Force Research Lab’s X-51A program manager. “We plan...

It’s a Family Affair

Air Force officials believe three Minotaur rockets planned for use in upcoming space launches may share some “common hardware” with the Taurus XL rocket that malfunctioned during a NASA mission earlier this month. The Taurus was carrying an Earth-observation satellite...

More Egyptians Flown Home

The Air Force on Tuesday airlifted 175 Egyptians home from Djerba, Tunisia, to Cairo aboard C-130Js assigned to Ramstein AB, Germany. With these flights, Air Force and Marine Corps aircraft have now returned more than 1,100 Egyptians to Cairo at...

Bagram’s First Herk House

Workers completed the first permanent C-130 maintenance hangar in Afghanistan at Bagram Airfield this week. Sheltering Herks and maintainers of the 455th Expeditionary Aircraft Maintenance Squadron from Afghanistan’s harsh climate, the double bay, 60,000-square-foot facility will “boost the C-130 sortie...

Commercial Satellites to the Rescue

Commercial satellite providers can do a lot to help the government reduce costly delays and overruns that have plagued its space procurement programs, said Intelsat CEO David McGlade. Although there will always be secure satellite communications that the government wants...

Another Strong Recruiting Month

The Defense Department continues to post excellent recruiting results so far for Fiscal 2011, with all active and reserve components, except for the Air National Guard, meeting or exceeding their year-to-date accession goals through February. Even the Air Guard is...