The long-awaited Mobility Capabilities Study will call for just 180 C-17s, a level that Gen. Norton Schwartz, head of US Transportation Command, agrees with. Schwartz told reporters in Washington today that 222 C-17s is “more organic capability than is required”...

All commanders want more capability than they they’ll need, Schwartz said, and “in a perfect world,” he’d buy both more C-17s and a new aerial tanker, one that can double as a freighter, like the KC-10. However, if he is...

Gen. Paul Hester, head of US Pacific Air Forces, predicts bomber rotations to Andersen AFB, Guam, will continue “for the next decade,” and fighter rotations might increase. Hester talked with reporters on a recent visit to Guam. (DR 12/02/05) The...

In an interview with Reuters news service, new Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne said that the Air Force may want to re-engine some of its current KC-135 tanker force, so the number of new tankers the service might buy may...

USAF and friends have struck numerous targets in Afghanistan and Iraq over the past few days. US Central Air Forces says USAF A-10s used their rockets to mark enemy locations, then strafed them to aid coalition troops near Deh Rawood....

Air Force Reserve Command’s 301st Fighter Wing in Fort Worth enlisted the aid of the Lewisville, Tex., SWAT team to help the wing’s Security Forces train to fight in an urban environment. The wing wanted realistic training—it got it in...

New Wynne Letter Addresses Resource Management: Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne tells airmen that the Air Force must “examine” everything from platforms to personnel to determine where there are “stresses, inefficiencies, and strains.” He wants to maximize “persistent...

Three Air Force Materiel Command personnel—one military and two civilians—will be attending the University of Tennessee’s Aerospace Master of Business Administration program, which is in its second year and in its first year as a USAF sponsored program, say AFMC...

It should be no surprise that Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne has signed a letter of support for Utah’s legislators who are fighting a move to put a nuclear waste dump near the Utah Test and Training Range. The Air...

Air Force firefighters from the 349th and 60th Civil Engineer Squadrons at Travis AFB, Calif., won the World Firefighter Combat Challenge team competition for the second year in a row. The Travis team beat more than 240 firefighters from around...

If all goes well during site inspection this month at a Japanese air base northeast of Tokyo, the US and Japan may agree to install a radar system there for a joint missile defense effort. The missile defense system deployment...

Currently within Southwest Asia, the Air Force has some 110 C-130 Hercules loadmasters—active duty and Air National Guard from various units around the globe—who are key to getting passengers and cargo around the theater, reports Air Force journalist TSgt. Mark...

The Southeastern European Defense Ministerial met this week in Washington, D.C., agreeing to deploy forces to Afghanistan to participate in a six-month peacekeeping mission. NATO had requested SEDM to provide troops to assume the mission as the headquarters of the...

The Air Mobility Command’s Air Mobility Battlelab, located at Ft. Dix, N.J., set up a show and tell on neighboring McGuire Air Force Base to demonstrate its wares and seek new ideas. This was one of several showcase events the...

USAF has awarded MTC Technologies, a Dayton, Ohio, a $13.8 million contract to provide and sustain visual threat recognition and avoidance training devices for active duty, Air Guard, and Reserve aircrews to help them recognize and respond to a variety...

Pentagon officials say that the Office of Personnel Management has given “provisional” certification for DOD’s new senior executive service performance appraisal system. Officials call the OPM approval an “important milestone” in the Pentagon’s effort to “attract, retain, and reward top...

DOD has asked 74,000 military spouses to participate in an online survey. The results, say officials, will help the department to “shape family programs” in a period dominated by deployment issues. The surveys come in two flavors—one directed at active...

The Air Force named the 436th Services Squadron Port Mortuary, Dover AFB, N.J., as the winner of the 2005 Specialized Program Award—the second year in a row the unit has won the honor. It is DOD’s only port mortuary in...

December 6, 2005 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 14 4 – 18 CAS/Armed Recon 58 24 – 82 Airlift – – 145 145 Air refueling – – 33 33 Total 72 28 178 278 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...