Thirteen NATO allies have signed a letter of intent to buy C-17 transport airplanes, unveiling a much-needed airlift plan. Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, Supreme Allied Commander Europe, predicted last month that a proposal to buy Boeing C-17s was imminent,...

Maj. Pat Houtman, a Delaware Air National Guard C-130 pilot, has received a Distinguished Flying Cross for his actions during a November 2004 supply mission over Afghanistan. The transport had a heavy load and 10 passengers when it came under...

The Air Force MQ-9 hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle, called by its maker General Atomics Aeronautical Systems a Predator B, has officially been dubbed “Reaper.” Gen. Michael Moseley, Air Force Chief of Staff, chose the name, which came from airmen in...

The Air Force needs to test non-lethal, high-power microwave weapons in the US for mob control before it uses them overseas on the battlefield, said Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne. That tidbit of news seemed to excite more news media...

The 1st Air Force Air and Space Operations Center at Tyndall AFB, Fla., has undergone many upgrades since 9/11, speeding up the process of identifying aircraft entering the US and flying within the country. One prime addition are radios that...

USAF awarded Lockheed Martin a $589 million contract to be the weapons systems integrator to “standardize, modernize, sustain, and transform” the Air Force’s 20 worldwide Air and Space Operations Centers. Lockheed must turn the AOC’s 48 discrete systems into one...

The Air Force plans to hold a selective early retirement board—SERB—targeting lieutenant colonels and colonels beginning on Jan. 8. In July, the service said it must shed in Fiscal 2007 some 8,000 officers, including hundreds of twice-deferred 0-5s and 0-6s...

Lt. Gen. John A. Bradley, head of Air Force Reserve Command, teamed with CMSgt. Jackson Winsett, AFRC’s top enlisted man, on a recent swing through Southwest Asia. According to the Rock Slate newspaper, Bradley promised to “look at” an idea voiced to him by many Reserve airmen. They said they were willing to volunteer for a longer deployment in theater if AFRC could send more members of their units at the same time.

California has dispatched 30 of its Air National Guardsmen, along with 30 civilian emergency medical specialists, to Ukraine for a week to participate in disaster response drills with more than 200 military and civilian counterparts from four Caucasus nations. In...

A 53-person team of airmen, DOD employees, and contractors landed on Wake Island on Sept. 13 to begin an intensive assessment of the damage caused by Super Typhoon Ioke, which struck the island Aug. 31. The group, which arrived on...

Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) and Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.) have sent a letter to House Armed Services Committee chair Duncan Hunter (R-Calif.) to urge that the committee hold a hearing to look into “recruiter improprieties, including sexual harassment and assault by military recruiters on recruits and potential enlistees.” They referred to an Associated Press news report earlier this summer that more than 80 recruiters from all branches had been disciplined in 2005 and a recent Government Accountability Report criticizing DOD for its lack of recruiting oversight. Skelton and Snyder noted that the “majority of military recruiters are doing a tremendous job.”

A pilot from the 22nd Fighter Squadron at Spangdahlem AB, Germany, ejected safely from his F-16 fighter Thursday about 10 miles north of the base, but the fighter crashed into trees and a field. The pilot was on a routine...

USAF’s medical specialists fanned out across the globe recently, providing badly needed medical care, equipment, and instruction. A team from Soto Cano AB, Honduras, has been in Nicaragua, assisting with people in Leon who were poisoned from a batch of...

Five Army Air Forces airmen finally received Bronze Stars for their heroic actions in World War II. The airmen—whose paperwork was misfiled and rediscovered 62 years later—received their medals during a ceremony in Washington. They were unaware they were up...

Sept. 13, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 15 6 21 CAS/Armed Recon 40 35 75 Airlift 170 170 Air refueling 39 39 Total 55 41 209 305 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance