If Reuters news service is right, the Air Force could extend its timeline for issuing a final request for proposals for its new aerial refueling aircraft competition. Reuters reports that service officials may hold off until mid-February “to iron out...

The United States is likely to lose service members by the thousands each day in warfare of the future if the Air Force does not start “replacing its decrepit fleet of tankers” pronto, asserts Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute....

Pacific Air Forces is eagerly awaiting the first overseas deployment of F-22A Raptors, issuing a brief news release to highlight the “early 2007” venture. According to PACAF, the Raptor unit will head to Kadena AB, Japan, on the island of...

During 2006, the Air Force mobility crowd amassed some impressive stats for passengers delivered and cargo hauled. The total for all aircraft types—C-5, C-17, C-130, KC-10, KC-135, and commercial charters—is 1.4 million passengers and nearly 500,000 short tons of cargo. Of the three USAF primary airlifters, the C-17 was the chief workhorse, hauling some 470,000 passengers and more than 250,000 tons of supplies and equipment. The well-worn KC-135 tanker fleet airlifted more people (6,003 vs. 1,794) but less cargo (313 vs. 1,909) than the service’s newer and largest tanker/airlifter hybrid, the KC-10.

Gen. William Looney, head of Air Education and Training Command, just visited Pacific Air Forces headquarters at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, where he met with representatives of other countries’ air forces. Chief topic: how training must change to meet the demands...

The Air Mobility Warfare Center’s Air Mobility Battlelab at Ft. Dix, N.J., is now using the Halverson Air Stairs Kit, or HASK, instead of the loader’s traditional walk deck to easily load passengers and cargo. This passenger-stairs attachment kit deploys...

A new USA Today/Gallup poll shows that Americans hold an increasingly negative view of the situation in Iraq. The number who believe “things are going badly” has reached what Gallup calls a “record high” of 71 percent, up from 64...

The public also doesn’t trust President Bush’s ability to handle Iraq, according to the same USA Today/Gallup Poll (see above) released yesterday. Only about one in four Americans believe he has a clear plan for the war. Only 25 percent...

The Defense Department is changing how it uses military recruiting database information, following a settlement reached in a lawsuit brought by the New York Civil Liberties Union on behalf of five high school students. The suit challenged the legality of...

Sen. Daniel Akaka (D-Hawaii), the new chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, lost no time in setting priorities for the new Congress, vowing to avoid the marathon legislation session held just prior to the Christmas break by scheduling legislation markups...

Army National Guard Command Sgt. Maj. David Ray Hudson, who is the new senior enlisted advisor to Lt. Gen. H Steven Blum, chief of the National Guard Bureau, once wore blue. He served in both the active duty Air Force...

The Associated Press reports that two NASA Viking space probes visiting Mars in 1976-77 may have come across alien microbes and killed them by drowning and overheating them, according to a paper released at an American Astronomical Society meeting in...

Jan. 9, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 13 7 20 CAS/Armed Recon 30 31 61 Airlift 130 130 Air refueling 30 30 Total 43 38 160 241 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance