The Airborne Laser program is on track for the first intercept test against an in-flight ballistic missile in August 2009, but last week’s proposal by House authorizers to cut $400 million from it in the 2008 defense authorization bill “would...

Air Combat Command chief Gen. Ronald Keys is a big fan of the B-1B bomber, dubbing it recently a “Burger King jet” because “you can have it your way and load it however you want.” Keys, who was talking with airmen deployed to Southwest Asia, went on to declare the B-1B “can stay airborne for a long time and provides the precision and persistence we need.” SSgt. Jasmine Reif reports that the ACC boss also noted that USAF is working two upgrades that will improve the bomber’s ability to pass information to other airborne platforms and adding a laser pod for more precision. On the latter, he said, “We’re currently working through technical issues, and it’s just a matter of getting the pieces and parts and putting them on the airplane.”

The Air Force’s top doctor, Lt. Gen. James Roudebush, says the Air Force is facing “major challenges” in its medical arena. He told lawmakers last week that the drive to become ever more efficient has caused the USAF medical force...

Air Force and other service medical teams are operating “closer to the front than ever before,” USAF’s Surgeon General told the House Appropriations defense panel last week. Lt. Gen. James Roudebush said the new system of joint en route care...

If the House Armed Services readiness panel has its way, the Pentagon would establish a permanent corrosion policy and oversight office directly under the Undersecretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology, and Logistics. Currently, there is a corrosion office about “three...

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne compares Billy Mitchell’s efforts to prove airpower’s potential to the effort facing USAF today to prove that cyberspace is a critically important warfighting domain. He writes in a new letter to airmen, “Our cyber airmen’s work is a prerequisite to all military operations: ensuring freedom of action across the electromagnetic spectrum (EMS), which in turn contributes to freedom from attack and freedom to attack in all other domains—land, sea, air, and space.”

Lawmakers don’t understand the Transformational Communications Satellite program, writes Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute, so have “slashed” funding and cast doubt on whether the TSAT constellation “will ever be built.” The long-time defense analyst declares, “Losing TSAT would be...

Elements of the Air Force’s elite construction crews are working at such places as Forward Operating Base Hammer near Baghdad to provide facilities for US ground surge forces. Capt. Ken Hall reports, in the second of a two-part article, that...

The chapel at Balad AB, Iraq, has named its new Airmen Ministry Center “Troy’s Place,” after F-16 pilot Maj. Troy Gilbert killed in a crash in Iraq last year. The project was the inspiration of chaplain assistant SSgt. Brian Marts...

Shaw AFB, S.C., is the first Air Force base to employ a new hybrid refueling truck and plans to operate it in a one-year test to determine whether the 72,000-pound vehicle will indeed save money and reduce emissions. Shaw currently...

Six F-16s and an untold number of airmen have traveled from the 51st Fighter Wing at Osan AB, South Korea, to Singapore to participate in the third installment of Commando Sling. The exercise with the Singapore Air Force will run...

May 6, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 16 8 24 CAS/Armed Recon 49 44 93 Airlift 165 165 Air refueling 40 40 Total 65 52 205 322 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...