Both the House and Senate hurriedly passed the 2007 defense authorization bill, approving, as in the just-signed-into-law appropriations measure, the Air Force’s multiyear procurement plan for 60 F-22A Raptors over the next three years. Lawmakers have asked for a new...

The 2007 defense authorization bill confirms Congressional desire to keep a second engine program going for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, despite Pentagon objections. The authorization act requires DOD to keep two engines in development and procurement and to provide...

Congress has decided that USAF can retire some of its older aircraft—namely 29 KC-135Es, 51 C-130Es, 10 F-117s, and 18 B-52s in 2007—however it has placed various restrictions on these retirements. Lawmakers want the Air Force to maintain all the...

In the just passed 2007 defense authorization bill, Congress prohibits the Air Force from retiring any U-2 high flying reconnaissance aircraft in 2007 and requires a stringent certification of no need in subsequent years. Lawmakers want the Secretary of Defense...

The 2007 defense authorization bill ends Pentagon plans to raise Tricare fees—at least for 2007. Key lawmakers have said that they recognize the dilemma facing DOD with the rising cost of health care, but they did not believe the Pentagon...

Buried within the 2007 defense spending bill is a notation that prohibits the Air Force from using any 2007 funds to transfer “any test and evaluation facility or test and evaluation activity” from Eglin AFB, Fla., currently located or conducted...

Air Force Space Command is trying an experiment that would change the long-held standard two-man missile combat crew working 24-hour shifts to three-man crews working 72 hours. Each three-person crew would have two commanders and one deputy commander, operating the...

Air Force Materiel Command has begun an effort to make its test & evaluation process—a major mission in a weapon system’s development and procurement—more efficient and, hopefully, more economical. At the end of August, a group of 31 from AFMC...

Vandenberg AFB, Calif., is now the site for the Joint Functional Component Command for Space, headed by 14th Air Force commander Maj. Gen. William Shelton. The head of US Strategic Command, Marine Corps Gen. James Cartwright, presided over an activation...

US military and joint service command officials saluted their German counterparts in a ceremony Sept. 28, thanking them for their three-year contribution in performing entry control and vehicle search duties at US Air Forces in Europe bases. The last German...

Robert Howard, the newest assistant secretary for information and technology for Veterans Affairs, told Senators during his confirmation hearing Sept. 30 that close to 15,000 VA laptops are now encrypted, one of hundreds of security measures taken in the wake...

USAF’s 55th Mobile Command and Control Squadron, Offutt AFB, Neb., officially stood down Sept. 27, closing out nearly 30 years of service as the alternate, mobile command center in the event of a Cold War nuclear attack upon the United...

Sept. 29-Oct. 1, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 43 22 65 CAS/Armed Recon 126 140 266 Airlift 440 440 Air refueling 112 112 Total 169 162 552 883 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance