Daily Report

Tanker Share Consensus Grows According to various news reports, the two rivals for the Air Force’s KC-X tanker replacement program and key lawmakers are ready to split the deal between Boeing and Northrop Grumman, despite continued Pentagon resistance. The Los...

The Air Force will argue “strenuously” in upcoming strategy and posture reviews for capabilities it believes are essential to national defense, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz asserted Friday at the Brookings Institution in Washington. Asked if he agrees that...

The reason the next-generation bomber got kicked down the road—yet again—is because Defense Secretary Robert Gates “wasn’t comfortable” with how the Air Force was defining the mission and consequently, felt it was premature to establish requirements for the aircraft. So...

The Air Force may establish a wing dedicated solely to irregular warfare, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Friday. Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Schwartz said the Air Force is “dedicated to establishing an appropriate institutional architecture”...

Efforts to give the F-35 joint strike fighter the capacity to deliver nuclear weapons appear to be gaining more attention. While the F-35 has an operational requirement to be dual-capable—that is, the ability to deliver either conventional or nuclear weapons—this...

The Air Force has a good record at avoiding civilian casualties in counterinsurgency operations when such strikes can be planned in advance, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Friday. Speaking at the Brookings Institution in Washington, Schwartz said that...

The Air Force’s buildup of unmanned aerial vehicles in the US Central Command area of responsibility has had a wide ranging effect on insurgent activity, particularly in Afghanistan, US Air Forces Central’s director of intelligence told defense reporters Thursday during a Pentagon bloggers roundtable. Col. Eric Holdaway said that since the early part of 2007, the overhead intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance capability the Air Force has deployed has increased by 150 percent in Iraq and 200 percent in Afghanistan. He said, too, that the infusion of stateside Air National Guard airmen into the exploitation and dissemination mission has been a "tremendous" benefit in getting sensor information to the fight as quickly as possible. The MQ-1 Predators and MQ-9 Reapers not only provide long loiter time and weapons for attack against time-sensitive targets, but also take away an adversary's weather advantage. Holdaway said the bad weather in Afghanistan is no boon to insurgents because "we still see these guys come out." Unfortunately, he said, the Taliban haven't been able to take out coalition airpower, so some commanders have turned to using "noncombatants as human shields." You could almost call it “Taliban air defense,” Holdaway said. And that makes the sensors and tracking capabilities of UAVs even more important, since many involve troops-in-contact situations where enemy fighters stage near civilians. Holdaway said that in these situations "typically we can afford to be patient. … [We can] keep working on the target and eventually get another opportunity."

Sen. Jeff Sessions (R-Ala.) in an April 23 statement said he was “pleased to lift my hold on Dr. [Ashton] Carter’s nomination” to take the Pentagon’s top weapons buyer job following a “productive conversation” Sessions and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.)...

Lt. Gen. Robert Elder Jr., who has led 8th Air Force, headquartered at Barksdale AFB, La., since June 2006, plans to retire, effective July 1, according to his official biography. The Shreveport Times reports that Elder will leave his post...

There is “no lack of morale, trust me” among rank-and-file airmen, especially those deployed to Afghanistan, chief of staff Gen. Norton A. Schwartz reported Friday. At a Brookings Institute program in Washington,. Schwartz said the deployed airmen are “fully invested”...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaApril 22, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 30 20 50 4,402 CAS/Armed Recon 29 75 104 10,976 Airlift 150 150 15,021 Air refueling 43 43 4,941 Total 347 35,340...