At long last, the Air Force has taken the formal first step toward replacing its elderly KC-135 aerial refueling fleet. Aeronautical Systems Center has issued a request for information, seeking to learn what contractors want to vie for the effort...

The Air Force makes it clear in the just-released tanker replacement RFI that any potential candidate should not only handle aerial refueling but also secondary missions, such as cargo and passenger hauling, aeromedical evacuation, and command, control, communications, and computer...

The Air Force wants to know whether potential tanker replacement bidders are receiving any government financial contributions, including subsidies—and it wants specifics. Inclusion of this question in the tanker RFI came as welcome news for lawmakers who have long questioned...

A key House Armed Services panel would increase the Administration’s Fiscal 2007 defense budget request by $1.4 billion to purchase 20 F-22A fighters, instead of approving the Air Force’s request to use an incremental funding approach to purchase subassemblies in...

The House Armed Services Committee’s tacair panel believes that having an alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter will bring significant savings and offer improved performance and maintainability, so it proposes adding $408 million to the Administration’s 2007 defense...

Rep. Curt Weldon says his tacair panel is concerned about the buying-before-testing approach the Pentagon is taking with the Joint Strike Fighter. The panel recommends that Congress “not increase Fiscal Year 2008 production above the five aircraft planned in Fiscal...

There is still much Congressional concern over management of two key space programs—the Transformational Satellite and Space Radar—leading the strategic forces panel of the House Armed Services Committee to recommend cutting the Administration’s 2007 budget request for TSAT by $80...

The House Armed Services strategic forces panel want to prohibit the Air Force from retiring its high-flying U-2 reconnaissance aircraft indefinitely “unless” the Pentagon certifies that it does not need the U-2 to fill in any of the intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance “gaps...

TSgt. Bradley Reilly, the Air Force combat controller introduced to lawmakers in March by Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, formally accepted the Silver Star and Purple Heart he earned for actions in Afghanistan. Reilly, who serves with the 23rd...

C-130 tactical cargo aircraft of the 774th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron at Bagram AB, Afghanistan, have been hauling supplies—food, water, ammunition, and you name it—for coalition forces participating in Operation Mountain Lion since it began on April 12. Officials say the...

Sen. Bill Frist (R-Tenn.) has told his colleagues that he agrees with the President’s desire to hold the 2006 emergency supplemental bill (meant to cover operations in the war on terror and hurricane recovery) to the Administration’s $92.2 billion proposal....

No to Tricare Fee Hikes: Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.), chairman of the House Armed Services military personnel panel, will not include the Administration’s proposed Tricare fee increase for military retirees under age 65 in his subcommittee’s markup of the Fiscal...

Riding With the Prez: For some airmen at Travis AFB, Calif., being members of the base’s mountain bike club brought an unexpected dividend—cycling with the President. The White House asked for four riders from the Travis Hawks to join President...

April 25, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 14 6 20 CAS/Armed Recon 52 22 74 Airlift 160 160 Air refueling 36 36 Total 66 28 196 290 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance