Africa Crash Claims Two Airmen: Pentagon officials said that two airmen were among the 10 US service members killed when two Marine Corps CH-53 helicopters crashed on Feb. 17 into the Gulf of Aden near northern Djibouti. The airmen were:...

Penny Wise Meets Modest Risk: Lawmakers lost no time challenging the Pentagon’s plan to cancel the Joint Strike Fighter alternate engine. At one of the first hearings on the new defense budget, Rep. David Hobson (R-Ohio) questioned Defense Secretary Donald...

Rep. Peter Visclosky (D-Ind.) at the House Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing on Feb. 16, pursued the attack. He wanted to know whether Defense Secretary Rumsfeld had weighed his determination that canceling the alternate F-35 engine would provide “minimal risk today”...

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) is back in action, lambasting the Air Force for obfuscating the C-130J program and slow-rolling Congressional demands for more information. The Air Force apparently has not moved fast enough to convert the C-130J commercial contract to...

The Air Force has revised its guidelines to contractors vying for the new combat search and rescue aircraft, asking them to plan to introduce more capability sooner. According to Reuters news service, over the next five years, USAF plans to...

Four USAF F-15E Strike Eagles worked with other coalition forces to target and strike a terrorist facility in southern Baghdad. The four F-15Es launched precision-guided munitions at the target after coalition helicopters scanned the area for civilians to ensure there...

The head of the North Dakota National Guard believes the transition of the Air National Guard’s 119th Fighter Wing at Fargo, N.D., from F-16s to Predator unmanned aerial vehicles could signal an increase in personnel for the Happy Hooligans. Maj....

Air Force efforts to encourage junior officers to volunteer to leave active duty have delivered more than a third of the 4,000 airmen the service must cut to reach its authorized Fiscal 2006 end strength. As of last week, the...

Rep. Jerry Lewis (R-Calif.) believes some “pork” is good. Amid a renewed effort to end “pork-barrel spending,” Lewis cites the case of the funds earmarked for USAF’s Predator UAV as ample proof that sometimes the practice is a true benefit...

More than 20 airmen from the Alaska Air National Guard’s 168th Air Refueling Squadron at Elmendorf Air Force Base nearly missed their opportunity to participate in Cope Tiger 06 because of problems with their boom. Arriving late to the multinational...

The Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile flight test program racked up two more successes, making it 11 out of 13 since January 2005. One test featured launch from a B-1B, the other from an F-16. Both “navigated planned waypoints and struck...

US Air Forces in Europe airmen are in the Darfur region of the Sudan to provide logistics support for members of the Rwandan Defense Forces. USAFE has provided the airmen and contracted for airlift transport for some 1,200 RDF troops...

The folks at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., want to spread some “good” words about the northern tier facility, so they have organized the “Tanker Winter Games.” Capt. Michael Meredith told the Associated Press news service that the event, which kicks...

Adm. Tim J. Keating, commander of US Northern Command, gathered his disaster response senior “crew” at Peterson to “roll up [their] sleeves and ask questions” to prepare for the 2006 storm season. The group included nine adjutants general, who head...

Rep. Steve Buyer (R-Ind.) thinks Veterans Affairs should have more than a “minimal role” in the National Response Plan. Buyer, who is chairman of the Veterans Affairs Committee, says he plans to “examine more thoroughly the VA’s fourth mission”—supporting DOD...

Gen. Tom Hobbins, US Air Forces in Europe commander, recently traveled to Afghanistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Qatar to visit with airmen deployed from Ramstein AB, Germany. He said it was a “promise” he made. Hobbins also took time to pursue some...

According to a new Pew Research Center poll, the American attitude toward news media has improved of late, rising seven points in just over a year. Americans also have relented in their desire to have the government censor the press....

It has been about 10 years since USAF retired the last of its F-111 aircraft, but aircraft spotters in Nevada have a chance to see the Aardvark, as US airmen knew it, fly again as Royal Australian Air Force F-111s...

February 15, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 11 4 – 15 CAS/Armed Recon 40 20 – 60 Airlift – – 160 160 Air refueling – – 29 29 Total 51 24 189 264 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...