Daily Report

Sept. 19, 2012

Pacific Vision

Pacific Vision: Even though the new defense strategy clearly articulates a shift in focus from the Middle East to the Asia-Pacific region, Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Hawk Carlisle said he doesn’t foresee a significant increase in force structure in...

Building Relationships in the Pacific

Building Relationships in the Pacific: Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Hawk Carlisle said continuing and even increasing military-to-military engagements will be crucial in the coming years. However, he cautioned that the relationship has got to be one of mutual trust....

Former PACAF Boss Issues Cautions on Pacific Pivot

Former PACAF Boss Issues Cautions on Pacific Pivot: The American economy needs to make a come back before the US can successfully help bring peace and stability to the Middle East or remain relevant elsewhere in the world, said former...

Pacific Focus

Pacific Focus: The Pentagon is “walking the walk” of rebalancing its forces to the Asia-Pacific region as it continues to drawdown in Afghanistan, said Deputy Defense Secretary Ash Carter at AFA’s Air & Space Conference outside Washington, D.C., on Sept....

Hugging It Out

Hugging It Out: Belying recent headlines over a strain in the Total Force relationship surrounding the Fiscal 2013 Pentagon budget submission, Director of the Air National Guard Lt. Gen. Harry “Bud” Wyatt told attendees Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space...

Credibility, the Guard, and a Place at the Table

Credibility, the Guard, and a Place at the Table: Speaking with reporters after his speech Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Bud Wyatt said a contributing factor to the tension surrounding the Guard...

Defending Airpower

Defending Airpower: The Air Force needs to do a better job of promoting airpower and airmen need to believe in its power. That was the general consensus of the “Air-Minded Airmen” panel at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, Sept. 18....

New Rockets, On Sale

New Rockets, On Sale: For certain kinds of launch vehicles, the price of getting to orbit may be coming down substantially given new entrants in the industry, Space Command chief Gen. William Shelton said Tuesday. In a press conference at...

The Emperor Has No Clothes

The Emperor Has No Clothes: The United States is “trending backwards” in its ability to place humans in space and must plot “a change of course” to reinvigorate this vitally important national mission or risk falling out of the human...

Ospreys on the Move

Ospreys on the Move: Air Force Special Operations Command will not start relocating the first of 10 CV-22 Ospreys to RAF Mildenhall, Britain, until next summer, AFSOC Commander Lt. Gen. Eric Fiel told reporters during AFA’s Air & Space Conference...

A Commando’s Job is Never Done

A Commando’s Job is Never Done: Air Force Special Operations Command has gotten “a little rusty” in some of its special tactics skills after focusing primarily on counterinsurgency operations in Iraq and Afghanistan for the last 11 years, said AFSOC...

In a Good Place

In a Good Place: At about one-fifth of the way through its development phase, the Air Force’s KC-46A tanker program is “currently in a good place,” said Maj. Gen. John Thompson, KC-46A program director and the service’s tanker program executive...

Not a Pretty Picture

Not a Pretty Picture: Budget sequestration could have a “near-catastrophic” effect on the Air Force’s KC-46A tanker program, said Maj. Gen. John Thompson, who oversees the project, in a briefing at AFA’s Air & Space Conference outside Washington, D.C., on...

Lower Expectations

Lower Expectations: The prospects are “promising” that US providers of suborbital space launches can carve out a stable market niche, said Pamela Melroy, a former astronaut, who is currently a senior technical advisor in the FAA’s office of commercial space...

Staying Relevant

Staying Relevant: Making the ICBM force more affordable, survivable, and controllable are perhaps the best ways to help it withstand its biggest potential nearer term threat: the budget axe, said Richard Colby, principal analyst at CNA. Speaking Sept. 18 at...

B-52 Denuclearization Plan OK

B-52 Denuclearization Plan OK: The Pentagon approved Air Force Global Strike Command’s technical plan to denuclearize a handful of B-52 bombers to keep them from counting against force levels stipulated under the New START agreement with Russia. “The proposal on...

From Khyber Pass to Mountain Home

From Khyber Pass to Mountain Home: Air Force Global Strike Command is adapting convoy security techniques learnt in Afghanistan to better defend warheads and ICBM components during transit, said AFGSC boss Lt. Gen. James Kowalski. “We’ve had a decade of...

Nuke Fad in the Gulf

Nuke Fad in the Gulf: In light of Iran’s nuclear weapons program, there is little the US can do to halt or roll-back nuclear proliferation elsewhere across the Middle East, said regional analyst Stephen Grand with the Brookings Institute. “I...

Sweden’s Wary Eye on the Bear

Sweden’s Wary Eye on the Bear: The Swedish Air Force is carefully watching Russian Air Force modernization, though the country’s massive revitalization does not yet pose a direct threat, said Swedish Air Force Chief Maj. Gen. Micael Bydén. At the Moscow Air Show several weeks ago, “President Putin announced that his plan is [to procure] 1,000 new helicopters and 600 new fighter aircraft,” said Bydén, speaking at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Tuesday. “Normally it’s pretty sensitive to point fingers, and I’m not doing it, but my country as well as other countries will follow the development in Russia closely,” emphasized Bydén. Following the US and Western European model, “there are clearly signs of modernization and upgrades of all the conventional forces including the acquisition of new systems,” he said. “It’s difficult to assess the result” of Russia’s modernization push “but we follow it closely,” concluded Bydén.

Talking About a New Generation of Airmen

Talking About a New Generation of Airmen: Today’s Air Force comprises young, tech savvy airmen—the “millennial generation” —who have different quality of life preferences than previous generations, and this will have to be understood as the Air Force transitions to...

Demand for SOF Outpacing Growth

Demand for SOF Outpacing Growth: US Special Operations Command has grown from about 45,000 people in 2001 to about 68,000 today, and it has plans to continue that growth to 71,000 through Fiscal 2018, said Garry Reid, principal deputy assistant...

It’s All About Adaptability, Agility

More than 80 percent of all of US special operations missions are conducted in the US Central Command area of responsibility, so the majority of SOF assets have been optimized for the hot, mountainous, desert region, said Garry Reid, principal...

The Abiding Strength of Nuclear Peace

Nuclear deterrence utterly changed the mission of the Air Force from combat, to preventing enemies from aggression in the first place, according to Vice Admiral C. R. Bell, former vice director of the Joint Strategic Target Planning Staff during the...

Tried Precepts for Post-Combat Resilience

Tried Precepts for Post-Combat Resilience: Moral character, faith in God, and love for one’s comrades and family are common threads that pulled World War II airmen through combat trauma, giving a lesson in “resiliency” today, said Glenn Schiraldi, former mental...

AFSPC Dedicates Education Center

AFSPC Dedicates Education Center: Air Force Space Command officials have dedicated the command’s space professional development center the Moorman Space Education and Training Center, naming it after retired Gen. Thomas Moorman Jr., a former AFSPC commander who retired in 1997...

Contract for Second Lot of F-15E AESA Radars

Contract for Second Lot of F-15E AESA Radars: Raytheon announced it’s received the contract to build the second lot of APG-82(V)1 active electronically scanned array radars for the Air Force’s F-15E fleet. The company is scheduled to start delivering these...

DOD Launches Helpline Mobile App

DOD Launches Helpline Mobile App: The Defense Department has introduced a mobile device application to assist service members who have been victims of sexual assault in their transition back to civilian life. The DOD Safe Helpline mobile app, which is...

Dyess Gets 23rd New C-130J

Dyess Gets 23rd New C-130J: The 317th Airlift Group at Dyess AFB, Tex., took delivery of its 23rd factory-fresh C-130J transport, leaving the unit only five airframes shy of its planned full complement of Super Hercules airplanes. The new aircraft...

Goodbye, Old Friend

Goodbye, Old Friend: Members of the 79th Rescue Squadron at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., executed the unit’s final mission in the HC-130P personnel recovery airplane. The squadron is transitioning to the new, more capable HC-130J model and expects to commence operations...