Daily Report

Jan. 28, 2013

Air Force Reserve Outlines Force Structure Changes

Air Force Reserve Command will add seven new units and make additional force structure changes, including inactivating several units, based on the language in the Fiscal 2013 defense authorization act, announced command officials. The legislation became law in early January....

Senate Panel Investigating ECSS

The Senate Armed Services Committee leadership has launched a probe to determine what went wrong with the Air Force’s Expeditionary Combat Support System that led the service to cancel the project after having invested more than $1 billion in it...

Air Mobility Command Investigates Airman’s Death

Air Mobility Command has convened the ground accident investigation board that will look into the death of SSgt. Emily Elizabeth Clayburn earlier this month at MacDill AFB, Fla., according to a command release. Clayburn died on Jan. 14 in a...

A Complex Issue

The amount of funding currently programmed to modernize the nation's nuclear weapons complex is "slightly below" the levels to which the Obama Administration committed, but this is not a sign that the White House isn't keeping its word, said Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.) at his confirmation hearing last week to be secretary of state. "I think it's fair to say this—that we have made significant progress toward a full funding of the amount of money that was committed," he told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee during his testimony on Jan. 24. "I don't think we're so far off that any senator ought to sit there and say somebody hasn't kept faith," he added. The Administration in 2010 pledged some $85 billion out to Fiscal 2020 to modernize the nuclear weapons complex in order to win bipartisan support for the ratification of the New START arms control agreement with Russia. Kerry, as SFRC chairman, played an instrumental role in securing the Senate's approval. "I made the commitment in a serious way," said Kerry. He continued, "It is important for any Administration to keep faith with the commitments it makes to senators and particularly in the course of an agreement to a treaty." (Kerry's prepared statement) (See also A Tall Order.)

The KC-46A’s Nuclear Support Mission

When the Air Force’s KC-46A tankers enter the fleet, they will be equipped with electromagnetic pulse protection that will allow their electronics to survive a nuclear blast, a service official told the Daily Report. The KC-46s, which will replace the...

Missile Defense Kill Vehicle Tested

The Missile Defense Agency said it launched a three-stage Ground-Based Interceptor from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., over the weekend that deployed an upgraded version of Raytheon’s Exoatmospheric Kill Vehicle in space. This flight test was not an intercept attempt of the...

Improving Afghan Casualty Evacuation

The Afghan air force and NATO Air Training Command-Afghanistan are working to improve the Afghans’ ability to evacuate Afghan battlefield casualties, according to a release from coalition air advisors. The commanders of both organizations signed two operational decrees on Jan....

Four Thousand Scrambles and Counting

F-16s from the District of Columbia’s Air National Guard earlier this month scrambled for the 4,000th time since September 2001 in response to a potential airborne threat to the nation’s capital, announced Air Forces Northern officials. Lt. Col. Christopher Hardgrave,...

Sleepy, Sloppy, but Good

Air Mobility Command cited pilot error as the cause of the surprise landing of a C-17 at a small airstrip four miles shy of its intended touchdown at MacDill AFB, Fla., last July, reported the Tampa Bay Times. “The young...