C-17 Has “Greatest Potential”: Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), head of the influential appropriations defense panel, told Megan Scully of CongressDaily that he advocates buying more new C-17 airlifters—possibly at least another 30—as the system with “the greatest potential for serving...

In a meeting with Washington defense reporters yesterday, Air Force Gen. Lance Smith said he thinks NATO’s efforts to “buy into the C-17 will help keep that line open for some short period of time.” Smith serves as both NATO...

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley proposed to the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves that the Air National Guard should more closely resemble the Air Force Reserve “alignment” with the Air Force, that “our Governors” should...

Air Combat Command chief Gen. Ronald Keys, plugging the Air Force’s push to be executive agent for all the Pentagon’s high-flying unmanned aerial vehicles, said there’s “no good reason” why the sensors on Army and Air Force UAVs should be...

Air Force Reserve boss Lt. Gen. John Bradley, speaking with reporters at Bolling AFB, D.C., on March 26, said his C-130 mobility crews are going into the Air Expeditionary Force mix—on a volunteer basis. He thinks that will be a...

Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, head of US Joint Forces Command, told defense reporters in Washington yesterday that commanders, including Air Combat Command chief Gen. Ronald Keys, “understand” that airmen and sailors are needed to fill “skill shortages,” i.e. to...

US Joint Forces Command plans to use unmanned aerial vehicles as an element of Noble Resolve, its “experimentation campaign” to find ways to improve homeland defense and military support to civil authorities, according to Air Force Gen Lance Smith. The...

Airmen will soon see “combat skills training” added to their specialty technical training, Lt. Gen. Dennis Larsen, vice chief of Air Education and Training Command, said earlier this week. Meeting with reporters at Bolling AFB, D.C., Larsen explained that the...

Air Force Reservists at Whiteman AFB, Mo., are partnering again with their Afghanistan deployment mates—active duty airmen from Spangdahlem AB, Germany—to provide the Spang A-10 crews some badly needed training time. US Air Forces in Europe has sent 20 A-10...

Retired Gen. Louis Theodore Seith, a World War II B-17 pilot, died March 6 of natural causes in Washington, D.C. He was 86. Seith graduated in 1943 from West Point, entering the Army Air Corps. He flew 261 combat hours...

The 517th Airlift Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, flew its last sortie in a C-130 Hercules tactical transport on March 23. The unit, which has flown Herks for some 43 years, is transitioning to the new C-17 Globemaster III airlifter....

March 25, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 16 7 23 CAS/Armed Recon 62 47 112 Airlift 135 135 Air refueling 42 42 Total 81 54 177 312 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance