Daily Report

May 23, 2011

Carter Meets with Industry on New Bomber

Pentagon weapons buyer Ash Carter traveled to southern California earlier this month to meet with industry officials to discuss the Air Force’s future long-range strike aircraft. Carter met separately with executives from Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Northrop Grumman, reported the...

Travis Wing Stands Up Advisory Squadron

The 615th Contingency Response Wing at Travis AFB, Calif., last week activated the 571st Mobility Support Advisory Squadron. The new unit, only the second of its kind in the Air Force, will employ teams of expeditionary air mobility air advisors...

Disciplined Negotiations

Pentagon officials are in the early stages of reviewing Lockheed Martin’s proposal for the F-35 Lot 5 low-rate initial production contract. “The government fully expects to get the benefit of learning wherever we land,” Vice Adm. David Venlet, F-35 program...

PLA General: China No Threat

The Chinese military poses no threat to the United States, asserted Gen. Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, during his official visit to the United States last week. “The United States has far more...

US, Chinese Militaries Pledge Greater Cooperation

Gen. Chen Bingde, Chief of the General Staff of the People’s Liberation Army, said last week he had a “very frank, in-depth and fruitful discussion” with Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, on “further building” the...

Iraq Casualties Lowest Since War Began

As US military operations wind down in Iraq, casualties are at their lowest levels there since 2003, say defense officials. Medical airmen operating in northern Iraq are seeing that trend in the patients they treat . . . and aren’t...

New Uniform a Sign of Responsiveness

Fielding a new uniform earlier this year for airmen in Afghanistan demonstrates the Air Force’s ability to react quickly to support its deployed forces, said Lt. Gen. Loren Reno, deputy chief of staff for logistics, installations, and mission support. “This...

Hueys in Force

All four of the UH-1N Huey helicopters assigned to Yokota Air Base, near Tokyo, last week took to the skies together for a formation flight—something that hasn’t happened there in nine years. “For Yokota, this was an opportunity for the...

A Mine-Blowing Experience

Explosives ordnance disposal technicians at JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska, responded to a rare call to dispose of a stranded World War II-era sea mine. Several hikers stumbled upon the rusted contact mine on a rocky coastline north of Sitka, Alaska, and...