Air Force officials continue to push the need to acquire a replacement aircraft for the service’s fleet of worn-down HH-60 combat search and rescue helicopters. Maj. Gen. Stanley Gorenc, the air staff’s director of operational capability requirements, told lawmakers yesterday...

The Air Force added the CV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft to its list of 2007 unfunded priorities to try to answer a US Special Operations Command request that “this critical capability be fielded as soon as possible,” Maj. Gen. Stanley Gorenc told...

The Eye of the Beholder: Deputy Secretary of Defense Gordon England took exception with Air Force leaders who would rather retire C-5As and buy additional C-17s with the savings. England told the Senate Armed Services Committee Wednesday, “In my judgment,...

Despite telling Senators that he believes the current plan to upgrade C-5As will win out, Deputy SECDEF England acknowledged that the “higher-than-anticipated usage of the C-17” means the Pentagon “will need likely a few more airplanes.” However, England said that...

Lawmakers heard again the aerial refueler “dilemma” facing the Pentagon, this time from Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England. It’s a case of buying the current KC-135 tankers in high numbers and being forced—by “affordability issues”—to replace them at a low...

We reported that the head of US Transportation Command, USAF Gen. Norton Scwhartz, in testimony last week said that he could use additional C-17s—20 would be his number. That is correct. However, he also said that, from a “combatant command...

A Guardsman for the JCS?: Resurrecting a battle fought and lost eight years ago, two Senators plan to introduce legislation that would make the chief of the National Guard Bureau a four-star general with a seat on the Joint Chiefs...

There’s More—Guard Deputy for NORTHCOM: Legislation being proposed by Sen. Christopher Bond and Sen. Patrick Leahy, co-chairs of the Senate National Guard Caucus, would not only put a four-star Guardsman on the JCS, but also it would ensure “that there...

Did anyone think that dropping the alternate Joint Strike Fighter engine would be easy? The Senate Armed Services Committee plans to meet next week with international partners in the JSF program and, in a separate hearing, with the deputy secretary...

Breaking Records in the C-17: Airmen who operate the C-17 out of Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, typically put in 18-hour days, often flying back and forth to Afghanistan multiple times. The new airlifter and its air and ground crews are in...

Air Force officials note that the 621st Contingency Response Wing has just celebrated its first birthday. The Air Mobility Command wing, headquartered at McGuire AFB, N.J., got a major workout during its first year, when it took on more than...

Officials at Keesler AFB, Miss., say that base airmen have contributed more than 38,000 volunteer hours to support the post-hurricane rebuilding efforts in the area surrounding the base. The base still gets about 10 calls each week for assistance from...

The New York Air National Guard’s 109th Airlift Wing at Scotia, N.Y., has flown the final sortie this year for Operation Deep Freeze, capping a season of records compiled by the ANG unit and the 62nd Airlift Wing at McChord...

According to The Harris Poll, the US military again leads the list of institutions in which most Americans express “great confidence.” Small business, at 45 percent, is hard on the heels of the military, at 47 percent. And, if you...

The Harris Poll indicates that the percentage of Americans placing “a great deal of confidence” in the US military over the past six years has dropped from a high in 2002 of 71 percent to 47 percent in 2006, but...

March 8, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 11 5 – 16 CAS/Armed Recon 46 22 – 68 Airlift – – 165 165 Air refueling – – 37 37 Total 57 27 202 286 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation...