Daily Report

July 9, 2012

Morin Appointed Air Force Acting Undersecretary

President Obama appointed Jamie Morin to serve as acting undersecretary of the Air Force. Morin temporarily fills the leadership void now that Erin Conaton, Air Force undersecretary since March 2010, has moved on to become the Pentagon’s new undersecretary for...

Afghanistan Declared Major US Non-NATO Ally

President Obama designated Afghanistan a major non-NATO ally of the United States, a move meant to reinforce the bilateral defense relationship, according to the State Department. “We see this as a powerful symbol of our commitment to Afghanistan’s future,” said...

WGS Satellites Gets Bandwidth Boost

The Air Force awarded Boeing a $111 million contract to modify a component of the eighth and ninth Wideband Global Satellite Communications spacecraft to nearly double their communications bandwidth, announced service space acquisition officials. Under the terms of the contract,...

No Krasni Flag

Russia won’t be participating in an Air Force Red Flag exercise this year, according to an exercise spokesman at Eielson AFB, Alaska. What? Russia at Red Flag? Several media outlets—including the Voice of Russia radio network’s English-language website—ran stories last...

BRAC 2005 Net Savings Revised Downward

Projected 20-year net savings from BRAC 2005 have decreased by about 72 percent, dropping from an estimated $35.6 billion in Fiscal 2005 to some $9.9 billion in Fiscal 2011, according to a recent Government Accountability Office report. Higher than expected...

Senators Seek Info on Sequestration’s Impact

A group of seven senators, including Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.), sent a letter to 15 major defense companies to gain perspective on how sequestration would affect the defense industry. The letter seeks answers to questions,...

A New Approach to Reserve Compensation

Can the US military maintain the size of its reserve forces and cut costs? It can, according to a new study by RAND. Every four years, federal law calls on the Defense Secretary to assess military compensation. The 11th quadrennial...

Port Dawgs Help Move a Piece of Space History

Members of the 62nd Aerial Port Squadron at JB Lewis-McChord, Wash., helped to move a section of NASA’s full fuselage trainer—the full-scale mockup of the space shuttle, without the wings, that shuttle astronauts trained in—to the Museum of Flight at...