The Long Range Strike Dilemma:

Pentagon research and engineering director John Young told defense reporters in Washington Thursday that the Air Force needs to move out on developing requirements for a new long-range strike platform, saying that delaying the research will push the effort beyond...

The C-17 Line Final Countdown

Boeing officials have told the Air Force that the company cannot wait beyond August to know whether the service will buy more than the 180 C-17 airlifters currently planned. Without a firm commitment, the company will have to notify its...

The Heavily Used Compass Call

The Heavily Used Compass Call: The Daily Report got to see an EC-130 Compass Call aircraft up close and personal at Andrews AFB, Md., Thursday, receiving crew briefings on the functions of the electronic combat aircraft. One of the most...

The Total Force Takedown

The Total Force Takedown: Air National Guard Chief Lt. Gen. Craig McKinley told the Daily Report that the evolving air and space expeditionary force concept has featured growing “synergy” between the active and reserve cultures. McKinley said, in a Tuesday...

Another Bad Report From VA IG

The latest report from the Veterans Affairs Inspector General is “highly critical” of the way the VA managed the May 3 theft of VA data, says Sen. Larry Craig, chairman of the Senate Veterans’ Affairs Committee. He goes on to...

Alaska Gears Up for Another Red Flag

Alaska Gears Up for Another Red Flag: The soon-to-be-renamed Cooperative Cope Thunder begins next week and, like the US-only Cope Thunder, will be dubbed a Red Flag-Alaska exercise. The upcoming “cooperative” version features allied participants from Australia, Canada, Germany, Japan,...

A Mississippi Hawk Takes Shape

A Mississippi Hawk Takes Shape: Northrop Grumman says that the company’s new unmanned systems center in Moss Point, Miss., has begun assembling the center’s first Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicle right on schedule, despite last year’s disastrous hurricane season. The...

Terror War Spawns New Technology

Fielding new technologies in the war on terror is a big priority for director of defense research and engineering, John Young. Speaking to defense reporters Thursday, Young described some of the fielded DOD projects, including a biometric tool that collects...

Budget Woes for Research

The defense research chief, John Young, told defense reporters Thursday, acknowledged that the Pentagon’s lengthy budget process poses the biggest obstacle to quickly fielding new technologies. Young says that he is specifically focusing on technology transition from the lab to...

Materiel Command’s ICE-Breaker

Materiel Command’s ICE-Breaker: Air Force Materiel Command plans next week to hold the first Air Force Integrated Collaborative Environment (ICE) Breaker—an annual event to demonstrate modeling and simulation capabilities. The basic idea is to field advanced computer network and software...

A Convoy Trainer of Its Own

A Convoy Trainer of Its Own: The Air Force has just received its first Virtual Combat Convoy Trainer—the apparatus the Army has been using to train soldiers and airmen destined for convoy duty in Southwest Asia. Unlike its mobile Army and Marine Corps counterparts, this one will be a fixed-site trainer, and Lockheed Martin officials say it is the first such VCCT to be located at Camp Bullis, Tex., the main site for convoy training. The Air Force decided it needed to have a VCCT itself because of the increasing numbers of airmen that are deploying to fill “in lieu of” positions for the Army. USAF uses Camp Bullis for its Basic Combat Course for airmen.

Flying a Typhoon

A recent US Air Forces in Europe news release describes a major thrill for most airmen, getting to fly a hot fighter of another air force. Maj. P.K. Carlton, who was participating in an exchange program at RAF Coningsby, Great Britain, got to fly solo in the RAF’s Typhoon. The USAF F-16 pilot called the flight characteristics of each aircraft similar. The biggest problem for him was the RAF’s different “rules to fly by.”

Air Sorties in the Global War on Terrorism

July 12, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 17 7 24 CAS/Armed Recon 46 25 71 Airlift 140 140 Air refueling 39 39 Total 63 32 179 274 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance