Is the Air Force suffering from severe readiness woes? That’s the charge from Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), ranking minority member on the Senate Armed Services Committee. USAF officers have told committee staffers that “readiness had dropped to historic lows,” said...

Sen. John Warner (R-Va.), powerful head of the Senate Armed Services Committee, has questioned whether the Air Force had gotten the requisite permissions for the “non-traditional funding strategy” it was proposing for the F-22A Raptor. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne...

According to the Air Force’s top civilian for logistics and installations, the current configuration of training airspace “is adequate to meet [USAF] needs.” William Anderson told the Senate Armed Services Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support last week that there...

NATO members would do well to buy or lease some C-17s for their strategic airlift needs, the Supreme Allied Commander, Europe, US Marine Corps Gen. James Jones said March 6 at a Pentagon press conference. According to Jones the European...

After a week of being at the center of Capitol Hill hearings, the C-17 fleet has provided direct evidence of the reason it now has awakened concern among USAF leaders—it has reached one million flying hours only 15 years after...

Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.)—chair of the House Armed Services Projection Forces Subcommittee—asked last week how aging tankers showing signs of heavy wear and tear can make it through depot maintenance so much faster these days. The answer is simple: The...

A new wooden walkway at the heart of Kandahar AB, Afghanistan, now features all the trappings of a stateside oceanside boardwalk, including fast food restaurants, a phone center, and gift shops. Stars and Stripes reports that the partially complete boardwalk...

The engineers of the 554th RED HORSE, currently stationed at Osan AB, South Korea, are in the process of moving to Andersen AFB, Guam, to provide the Air Force with a mobile civil engineer response force to support contingency and...

In preliminary suggestions released last week, the Defense Advisory Committee on Military Compensation suggests DOD should shift military pay to a “function of time in grade rather than years of service.” Such a move, says the panel, is a “growing...

Pentagon personnel chief David S.C. Chu told lawmakers the Defense Department plans to ask Congress to extend the military’s pay table to 40 years of service. At a Capitol Hill hearing March 2, Chu said the department wants to be...

Retired Lt. Gen. Kenneth L. Tallman, a former Air Force Academy Superintendent, died Monday in his Tallahassee, Fla., home at 80 years old. Tallman, who, in 1946, graduated from West Point and earned pilot wings at Stewart Field, N.Y., was...

March 6, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 13 6 – 19 CAS/Armed Recon 52 16 – 68 Airlift – – 160 160 Air refueling – – 31 31 Total 65 22 191 278 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...