The General Electric-Rolls Royce team developing the alternate engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter has just finished a three-month-long preliminary design review—earning a “green light” to proceed to the next step, the Critical Design Review slated for late next...

Some 30 Senators and Congressmen of both parties sent letters to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld to urge the Pentagon buy more new C-130J transports. Rebecca Christie of Dow Jones Newswires reports that Georgia Republican lawmakers Sen. Saxby Chambliss and Rep....

Air Combat Command has activated the 42nd Attack Squadron at Creech AFB, Nev., whose mission is to operate the MQ-9 Reaper hunter-killer unmanned aerial vehicle. The Reaper can carry 15 times the amount of weapons than its smaller brother, the...

The Air Force has provided more details about the Orbital Test Vehicle program it announced Nov. 17—for starters it is dubbed X-37B and is about a fourth the size of the space shuttle. The service plans to use this unmanned...

The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center has created a partnership arrangement with Boeing on a system upgrade for USAF’s E-3 Airborne Warning and Control System aircraft fleet that lets the ALC technicians, working with L3 Communications personnel, perform the upgrades...

Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), incoming chair for the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters in a post-election conference call that the US military is losing senior captains and junior majors, who, he said, are “bailing out early.“ The losses appear...

Those words describe the experience of Lt. Gen. Michael Wooley, Air Force Special Operations chief, who got to fly his command’s first operational CV-22 Osprey to its home at Hurlburt Field, Fla., last week. The full Wooley quote is: “That...

The Air Warfare Center at Nellis AFB, Nev., had just graduated 35 new “aggressors,” the first crop from its new Aggressor 101 training course. The two-week course provides the baseline for airmen who “play the bad guy in various exercises,...

Defense Secretary-nominee Robert Gates made the rounds on Capitol Hill on Friday, holding private chats with senior Democratic and Republican Senators before his formal confirmation hearing on Dec. 5. Reportedly, he has passed his first test. According to Associated Press...

Lt. Gen. John Bradley, head of Air Force Reserve Command, has awarded MSgt. Bob Jackson, a munitions maintainer with the 442nd Fighter Wing at Whiteman AFB, Mo., the Airman’s Medal for his quick actions to defuse a white phosphorous mortar...

The airmen who diverted to support recent flood relief operations in Ethiopia was a combination effort all the way, with the aircrew getting direct loading/unloading help from assigned security forces airmen and running repairs by maintainers, reports Air Force journalist Maj. Ann Knabe. Six aircrew members from Dyess AFB, Tex., shifted from Southwest Asia to support Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa, ferrying 98.9 tons of relief supplies over four days and 15 sorties. Three Security Forces airmen assigned to protect the crew and aircraft pitched in to carry water jugs, medical supplies, or whatever the aircrew needed to get the aircraft back in the air. Maintainers worked to fix engines, change tires, and more to get the aircraft ready for the next flights.

Nov. 17-19, 2006 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 34 37 71 CAS/Armed Recon 108 120 228 Airlift 385 385 Air refueling 104 104 Total 142 157 489 788 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance