Daily Report

May 10, 2011

Northrop Grumman Unveils the Firebird

Northrop Grumman has lifted the veil on the Firebird, an all-new intelligence-gathering aircraft capable of operating multiple sensors at once in manned or unmanned configurations. Industry partner Scaled Composites designed, built, and tested Firebird, while Northrop supplied the universal payload...

Kandahar Airlift Unit Reaches New Heights for Airdrops

Airmen with the 772nd Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, completed 81 airdrops in April, setting a new mark for the busy C-130J unit. The April tally eclipsed the squadron’s previous record of 72 airdrops conducted in March. The...

Engineers Examine Damaged C-130s

Engineers from the Aerospace Sustainment Directorate at Robins AFB, Ga., poured over the three C-130s at Little Rock AFB, Ark., that were damaged last month when a tornado ripped through the Arkansas air base. The four members of the directorate’s...

B-2 Communications Upgrade Advances

Northrop Grumman announced Monday that it has received a $372 million contract to design the advanced electronically scanned array antenna that will vastly improve the B-2 bomber’s ability to send and receive battlefield information securely over satellite links. This antenna...

Laying the Foundation in Africa

Bolstering US and African partnerships will help strengthen strategic military-to-military relationships, while enabling the United States to respond to crises when needed, said Maj. Gen. Margaret Woodward, commander of US Air Forces Africa (17th Air Force), at the 2011 African...

A Treasure Trove, including Videos

Information collected from Osama bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, proves that the terrorist leader was still very much in control of al Qaeda, a senior US intelligence official told reporters. “The materials reviewed thus far reveal that bin Laden...

Who’s the Next Osama?

Now that Osama bin Laden is dead, who’s taken his place as the leader of al Qaeda? That’s not such an easy question. “I wouldn’t want to speculate at this time. I mean, there are a number of senior al...

Virtual Learning

The Air Force is looking to the virtual world to recruit and train new airmen. Officials in the innovations and integration division at Air University at Maxwell AFB, Ala., have created several prototype virtual learning communities in Second Life—an online...

Pratt Delivers Modified F135 Engine

Pratt & Whitney delivered the first F135 lot 3 production engine for the F-35 strike fighter program last week. The engines in this batch incorporate modifications and improvements based on F-35 flight testing. “Delivery of our 21st production engine is...

We Happy Few

They braved the highest mountains in the world, terrible weather, Japanese fighters, and routine equipment malfunction to supply troops during World War II. This month they met for the last time, reports the Associated Press. The pilots who flew the...