Boeing will provide the Air Force’s new combat search and rescue aircraft, announced Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne late Thursday. Boeing’s entrant in the CSAR-X competition is a variation of its combat-proven CH-47 Chinook helicopter. The Air Force plans to...

Gen. Ronald Keys, head of Air Combat Command, for one is ready to restart the B-52 standoff jammer program. Speaking with defense reporters in Washington Thursday morning, Keys acknowledged, as Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley had earlier,...

ACC chief, Gen. Ronald Keys told Washington-based defense reporters Thursday that there are other platforms, besides a B-52 standoff jammer, and other capabilities that could share in the jamming mission. He said he is considering using systems such as the...

Thousands of airmen are filling in for Army troops—known as in-lieu-of taskings—in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Gen. Ronald Keys, head of Air Combat Command, says it costs him money he doesn’t have. Keys told defense reporters as a Washington breakfast...

Gen. Ronald Keys, ACC commander, thinks the $50 billion requested by the Air Force for the Fiscal 2008 emergency supplemental would be used for force recapitalization—primarily to offset loss and wear from operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He told defense...

Air Combat Command will “hang onto everything” right now as the new cyberspace command stands up because ACC owns 8th Air Force, said Gen. Ronald Keys, ACC commander, at a Thursday breakfast meeting for defense reporters. Keys reiterated the plan...

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne says that Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s “acumen led the Air Force to become lean, lethal, and agile, expanding [the service’s] mission areas for a stronger joint team.” Wynne’s comment follows Wednesday’s announcement that Rumsfeld would...

The day after President Bush announced the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, the two-time SECDEF appeared at Kansas State University for the Alf Landon Lecture Series, offering his view of the way forward in the war on terror. Among...

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman says that the transition from outgoing Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to nominee Robert Gates will work smoothly with all Pentagon staffers focusing on the job at hand. Whitman elaborated: “We are engaged in combat operations in...

Rumors already are spreading about which Pentagon officials will follow Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld out the door. Fox News reports that at least two top personnel will be looking for a new venue—Pentagon comptroller Tina Jonas and intelligence chief Steve...

It may seem strange, but the Air Force is still in the hiring game even as it begins to shed some 40,000 personnel over the next three years. However, the gate is not wide open. The service needs new entrants...

The Air Force plans to cut some 25 percent of its Public Affairs force that produce base newspapers, slicing 200 out of 800 airmen. The remaining 600 will shift—if they haven’t already—to full court press on the World Wide Web....

Nov. 8, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 16 9 25 CAS/Armed Recon 35 52 87 Airlift 125 125 Air refueling 38 38 Total 51 61 163 275 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance