Daily Report

June 27, 2012

Baptized by Fire

Air Force Academy cadets and personnel deemed mission-critical are holding their ground, as of midday on June 27 local time, as the Waldo Canyon fire rages in Colorado Springs, Colo., according to academy officials. Already, approximately 2,100 people living in...

NATO Stands with Turkey

NATO on June 26 condemned Syria’s shootdown of a Turkish RF-4 reconnaissance aircraft several days prior and stressed its solidarity with Turkey, one of the alliance’s 28 members. But the alliance stopped short of threatening Syria with military action, with...

T-6 Mishap, No Injuries

An instructor pilot and student pilot had to make a belly landing with their T-6A Texan II trainer at Columbus AFB, Miss., on June 25, after the aircraft’s landing gear malfunctioned during a training sortie, reported The Dispatch, a local...

Red Flag Raptor Milestone

F-22s earlier this month participated in their first multinational Red Flag-Alaska exercise, stated officials from JB Elmendorf-Richardson, Alaska. Airmen and F-22s from the joint base’s Active Duty 525th Fighter Squadron and associate Air Force Reserve Command 302nd FS flew 80...

FMS Contract Let for Saudi F-15 Upgrades

Boeing on June 26 received a $1.8 billion foreign military sales contract from the Air Force to supply 68 kits to convert Saudi Arabian F-15 fighters to the new advanced F-15SA configuration, announced the Pentagon in its daily list of...

Combat Talon from Son Tay Raid Retired

Members of Air Force Special Operations Command gathered at Cannon AFB, N.M., for the retirement of the MC-130E Combat Talon I aircraft that led the Son Tay Raid to free US prisoners of war from North Vietnam in November 1970....

Short Sell Policies Change for Service Members with PCS Orders

Service personnel who receive permanent-change-of-station orders will now be able to sell their homes in a short sale even if their mortgages are current, announced the Federal Housing Finance Agency. Previously, many service members struggled to maintain two mortgages or...

A Fitting Response

Several C-5 Galaxies recently received new structural fittings at the Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia to resolve cracking and corrosion issues under the aircraft’s cargo floor. The bulkhead end fittings, which join floor trusses to the C-5’s fuselage,...

F-35 Sensors Track Ballistic Missiles in Tests

Northrop Grumman announced June 26 that it recently demonstrated the ballistic missile detection and tracking capabilities of its AN/AAQ-37 distributed aperture system and AN/APG-81 active electronically scanned array radar. These sensors are featured on the F-35 strike fighter, but were...

Silent Eagle Bay Breezes through Tests

Boeing recently completed scaled wind tunnel tests of the conformal weapons bay for its F-15 Silent Eagle configuration, announced company officials. The tests were conducted at the company’s facility in St. Louis; they “validated the aerodynamics of the CWB design,”...