Daily Report

March 18, 2013

US Beefing Up Missile Defenses

The United States intends to spend nearly $1 billion to deploy an additional 14 anti-missile interceptors in Alaska in the next four years in order to bolster the defense of the US homeland against a limited long-range ballistic missile attack...

Light Air Support Work Proceeds

The Air Force last week notified the Government Accountability Office that it authorized Sierra Nevada to restart work on the Light Air Support program, under which the company will provide 20 A-29 light-attack airplanes to the Afghan air force. The...

Strategy, Opportunity, and the QDR

Maj. Gen. Steven Kwast, director of the Air Force’s Quadrennial Defense Review, said last week the Pentagon will undertake the upcoming review at a unique time for the country and the Pentagon. The United States is drawing down from Afghanistan,...

QDR Post-Sequestration

Despite sequestration, Maj. Gen. Steven Kwast, the Air Force’s Quadrennial Defense Review director, said completing the forthcoming review can be successful “as long as you’re strategic in the way you think.” “There’s still value even though we have sequestration hanging...

CyberPatriot V National Champions Crowned

Winners of the Air Force Association’s CyberPatriot V national finals competition are: Team “VOID” of Chantilly Academy in Chantilly, Va., in the Open Division, and the “Devil Dogs” of the Marine Military Academy in Harlingen, Tex., in the All Service...

Boosting State Partnerships in Africa, Europe

US Africa Command boss Army Gen. Carter Ham and US European Command head Adm. James Stavridis told lawmakers last week that the National Guard’s State Partnership Program offers the United States the “biggest bang” for the buck in their respective...

Preventative Measures

Army Gen. Carter Ham, head of US Africa Command, said last week Congress should consider approving additional authorities for Africa that are similar to “today’s overseas contingency operations authorities” for Afghanistan. However, they should not be as closely tied to...

New Squadron Stands up at Kandahar

The Air Force stood up the 430th Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron at Kandahar Airfield, Afghanistan, to oversee the operations of its small fleet of deployed E-11A Global Express communications-relay jets. The transition of E-11A operations from the 451st Tactical Airborne...

Another C-130J Delivered to Dyess

Maj. Gen. Richard Johnston, the Air Force’s assistant deputy undersecretary for international affairs, last week flew the Air Force’s newest C-130J transport to Dyess AFB, Tex., where it joined the 317th Airlift Group. With the arrival of aircraft number 5715...

New Saudi F-15 Variant Makes Maiden Flight

The Air Force and Boeing recently conducted the maiden test flight of the new F-15SA configuration that the company is building for the Saudi Arabian air force, announced service officials. The flight, which took place on Feb. 20 at Boeing’s...