President Bush on Aug. 17 announced plans to nominate Michael W. Wynne to become the new Secretary of the Air Force. Wynne, a West Point graduate, has served as the principal undersecretary of defense for acquisition, technology, and logistics. Bush...

3,000 Sergeants in the Barrel?: The Air Force says it has notified more than 3,000 staff, technical, and master sergeants that they are vulnerable for retraining in 2006. If the service does not get enough sergeants to volunteer to retrain...

Praise the Lord and Pass the Parachutes: The Pentagon’s new Unmanned Aircraft Systems Roadmap says it will take longer to prepare UASes for use in airlift operations (planned for 2025-30) than for air combat operations (predicted for 2020-25). Why? According...

Air Force battlefield airmen from Eielson AFB, Alaska, who have been training for a year-and-a-half with the Army’s 172nd Stryker Brigade Combat Team from nearby Ft. Wainwright, left with the 172nd for Iraq Sunday—marking USAF’s first joint effort with a...

DOD’s latest selected acquisition report (SAR) for Congress says the Air Force’s Evolved Expendable Launch Vehicle program is running seven months late, moving full rate production approval from May to December. The culprit, per the Pentagon, is the time it...

Another SAR item notes that the IOC for the Global Broadcast Service satellite system will be nine months late—now set for December 2006. The reason: The need to integrate operational requirements document III changes into the test and evaluation master...

The plan to merge active and Air National Guard forces to create a squadron of C-17 airlifters at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, is now a year old and heading into the home stretch—the first of eight C-17s are due to arrive...

A California high-tech company said Tuesday that it had fielded its high-fidelity Night Vision Goggle simulation system at Luke AFB, Ariz. Silicon Graphics, Inc. developed the NVG system and integrated it into existing F-16 flight simulators. The technology enables Viper...

Northrop Grumman completed Block 20 upgrades to the E-8C Joint STARS. With the entire fleet of ground surveillance aircraft operating at the same “open systems” configuration, Northrop says the Air Force can make future hardware and software upgrades at a...

The Air Force’s new point man on values and vision—Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff—traveled to Southwest Asia on Aug. 12 to see how airmen are applying their principles in a combat zone. The Air Force named Resnicoff special assistant for values...

The Justice Department’s Aug. 10 memo saying the Pentagon could close or realign National Guard units without the consent of state governors was greeted with the derision that had been widely predicted. Maj. Gen Frank Vavala, Delaware’s Adjutant General, told...

Six in 10 Americans are concerned about the US progress toward goals in Iraq, and they hold President Bush responsible for what happens down the road, says the London Financial Times about an upcoming survey by Foreign Affairs, the journal...

Virginia Republican Sen. John Warner, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a letter to BRAC commission chairman Anthony Principi, blasted the commission on its decision to consider bringing back to life Cecil Field in Florida, as a replacement...

August 15, 2005 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 10 4 – 14 CAS/Armed Recon 46 21 – 67 Airlift – – 150 150 Air refueling – – 26 26 Total 56 25 176 257 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...