The US has agreed to return 40 percent of the airspace controlled by Yokota AB, Japan, to Japan. A US Forces Japan spokesman told Stars and Stripes that the deal would not impact either US or Japanese military operations. The US agreed to “redesign” Yokota airspace to aid commercial air traffic around Tokyo and the planned expansion of Tokyo’s Haneda Airport in 2009. The agreement, reached Friday after months of negotiation and speculation, would have the turnover take place by September 2008. Yokota is home to USAF’s only tactical airlift unit in the Pacific region.
Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.