Rhetoric heated up fast at the Senate Armed Services Airland Subcommittee’s Tuesday hearing on USAF’s proposed multiyear procurement approach for the new F-22A fighter. Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), chairing the hearing, said he did not believe the Air Force had...

Comptroller General David Walker of the Government Accountability Office told the Senate’s airland panel at Tuesday’s hearing that he still had “serious concerns” over the proposed F-22 multiyear buy, adding that GAO’s analysis indicated that stretching the production line would...

An internal Pentagon study reviewing the procurement of new F-22A Raptors says the Air Force could save more than $500 million if it buys 40 more fighters than the 183 now specified by DOD. Reuters news service surfaced this finding based on comment from an unnamed source that has seen the draft of the study conducted by the Program Analysis and Evaluation Office. The conclusion—if upheld—mirrors that of an independent review conducted by the consulting firm Whitney, Bradley, & Brown. Commissioned last fall by Defense Undersecretary Gordon England, the WBB study is due next month, but word of its “surprising” finding leaked last month.

US Air Force B-2 bombers flying from Andersen AFB, Guam, are dropping weapons on Australia’s Delamere bombing range this week as part of a bi-national exercise worked out last year. (News of the plan last year sparked a local outcry,...

Airmen of the 56th Rescue Squadron—lately of NAS Keflavik, Iceland—have flown their first mission from their new home at RAF Lakenheath, England. Currently, the 56th RQS has some 75 airmen—air and ground crews—that made the move from Iceland to England...

Not all the American evacuees fleeing Lebanon have been flown to Cyprus, some took buses to Incirlik AB, Turkey, where the airmen quickly set up their new deployment processing center to handle the more than 1,600 Americans seeking a way...

KC-135 tankers from RAF Mildenhall, England, have been providing the aerial refueling needed to keep the airlift of people and supplies moving to and from the Middle East. Last week airmen of the 100th Air Refueling Wing helped the transit...

Sen. Wayne Allard (R-Colo.) says that the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee approved, at his request, more than $10 million for space-related activities at the US Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, Colo. If approved in the final 2007 defense appropriations...

The Air Force has decided that Jan. 1, 2007, will be the date when enlisted airmen must make the switch back to wearing US insignia with circle. The service announced earlier this month that it planned to make this change,...

Technicians of the 537th Aircraft Maintenance Squadron at Ogden Air Logistics Center in Utah have earned a gold level Shingo Prize for their depot-level maintenance work on the F-16 fighter. The Odgen maintainers join their counterparts at Warner-Robins ALC in...

According to a new Harris Poll, Americans now are more inclined than they were in the past two years to believe that Saddam Hussein possessed weapons of mass destruction. However, Harris questions this changing attitude since, as it points out,...

USAF air controllers participating in Exercise Immediate Response in Bulgaria have not found it hard to communicate with their Bulgarian counterparts. In fact, TSgt. Richard Walker says, “I just stand back and observe the operations. If needed, I will help...

Two Alaskan Air National Guard HH-60 Pave Hawk helicopters worked with a Coast Guard helicopter on Monday to rescue 23 sailors from an Asian cargo ship, named Cougar Ace, that had begun taking on water and listing Sunday night, somewhere...

July 24, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 17 9 26 CAS/Armed Recon 46 32 78 Airlift 160 160 Air refueling 35 35 Total 63 41 195 299 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance