The Air Force will be “potentially, $20 billion shy of what we need in this Air Force budget each year across the [future years defense program],” Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said Wednesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference...

“We are in an impossible situation in Congress,” Rep. Curt Weldon (R-Pa.) said Wednesday during AFA’s Air and Space Conference in Washington. Over the past five years defense spending has increased greatly, but now it’s about to hit a ceiling,...

Curt Weldon, chairman of the House Armed Services Tactical Air and Land Subcommittee, says he supports all three of the military’s tactical aircraft programs—the F-22, F-35, and F/A-18E/F. However, he told attendees Wednesday at AFA’s Washington conference that all three...

It was premature to cut defense spending 15 years ago, said Rep. Curt Weldon Wednesday, adding that the long hiatus in modernizing—which he characterized as “sitting around singing ‘Kumbaya’… because the world was at peace”—has made the current situation almost...

“I’ve got a hell of a lot of money in my budget” for the Long Range Strike program, Air Combat Command chief Gen. Ronald Keys told reporters Wednesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington. Referring to the program...

Maj. Gen. Frank R. Faykes, Air Force deputy assistant secretary for Budget, said that his “first look” at the 2007 defense appropriations bill passed by the House Tuesday night—to be taken up in the Senate today—showed Congressional appropriators have handed...

Maj. Gen. Frank Faykes, a senior Air Force budget official, says that the Air Force was forced to levy the upcoming 40,000-person drawdown to pay to modernize weapon systems as DOD’s budget flattens. Faykes laid blame for Fiscal 2007 budget...

Maj. Gen. Frank Faykes, USAF’s deputy assistant secretary for budget, says that the estimated cost to get cut some 40,000 full-time positions—shedding military and civilian personnel—could amount to about $500 million. However, he told attendees Tuesday at AFA’s Air &...

Lt. Gen. Craig McKinley, director of the Air National Guard, will not be losing personnel as part of the Total Force’s reduction of 40,000 airmen, but that concession came at a price. To pay for its airmen, McKinley said at...

Boeing officials said Wednesday morning that the Air Force just yesterday declared the Small Diameter Bomb operationally ready, giving the green light for full rate production. Boeing’s vice president for weapons, Virginia Barnes, told reporters at AFA’s Air & Space...

Speaking with reporters at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Tuesday afternoon, Boeing VP for Tanker Programs Mark McGraw announced that the Chicago aerospace company had made history on Sept. 21 with a flight test of its fifth-generation KC-767 tanker boom....

During a briefing outlining Boeing’s tanker offerings, Mark McGraw, the company’s point man on tankers, revealed that Boeing also will offer its larger 777 aircraft as an option in the upcoming tanker replacement program. He said that the larger tanker...

Lt. Col. Dirk Smith, commander of the 1st Fighter Wing’s 94th Fighter Squadron, the second F-22 squadron, said Raptors racked up only a 241-to-2 record in mock air-to-air combat with F-15Cs and Es, F-16Cs, and F/A-18s in Alaska earlier this...

“Mature” fighters—those long since fully developed, and with a logistics train well established—are expected to turn in a mission capable rate of about 70 percent. Lt. Col. Dirk Smith, 94th FS commander, said his Raptors are achieving MC rates of...

Recent official discussions about transferring command of forces in South Korea to Seoul have focused exclusively on ground forces, according to Gen. Paul Hester, commander of Pacific Air Forces. Defense officials from both sides have denied reports that the discussions...

New Air National Guard commander Lt. Gen. Craig McKinley said that a philosophical difference over economics has spelled the end of an experiment that placed young active duty airmen in a community with experienced Air Guardsmen to learn F-16 maintenance....

Gen. Kevin Chilton, new head of Air Force Space Command, says there is only one Space Command recapitalization program that he’s dissatisfied with—the lack of a program to replace AFSPC’s old and underperforming UH-1 helicopter fleet. The command identified a...

The Air Force’s budget proposal for the Space Radar is 50 percent of what the service thinks the funding level should be. “We think [the intelligence community] should put up the other 50 percent,” said Gen. Kevin Chilton, head of...

In budget drills, the space radar, along with all other space systems, is subjected to the same three questions, Space Command boss Gen. Kevin Chilton explained. “What do you need? When do you need it? And what’s the risk of...

There are 36 F-22s at Langley AFB, Va., already, with two more joining the 1st Fighter Wing every month. The wing will be fully equipped in 2007, after which Elmendorf AFB, Alaska will start getting its own Raptors. Lt. Col....

When will the F-22 production line reach the point at which it will start shutting down without more orders? Sometime in summer of 2008, according to Larry Lawson, Lockheed Martin’s F-22 program manager. The long-lead items on the Raptor need...

Boeing is running low power ground tests for the Airborne Laser, Greg Hyslop, vice president of Boeing’s missile defense systems, said Tuesday at AFA’s Air and Space Conference. Hyslop explained, “The meat of what we are doing is testing the...

Sept. 25, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 15 7 22 CAS/Armed Recon 45 45 90 Airlift 155 155 Air refueling 39 39 Total 60 52 194 306 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance