Time for Another Roles and Missions Scrub:

The House Armed Services Committee believes that the services may have blurred the “lines of responsibility for unmanned aerial vehicles, space systems, and mobility systems, … along with traditional lines between naval, expeditionary, and ground forces.” The result, states the...

B-52 Retirement Opposition:

House defense authorizers reaffirmed their desire that USAF keep 76 B-52 bombers, rather than dropping down to 56 as proposed in the President’s 2008 budget request. In their version of the new defense bill, they provide $106.4 million to upgrade...

Still Hope for a B-52 SOJ?:

The Deputy Defense Secretary’s Advisory Working Group (DAWG) may provide the go-ahead within a month to develop the Core Component Jammer, the electronic attack system USAF would like to field on the B-52 bomber. Col. Bob Schwarze, Air Staff chief...

Justify the Jammer, DAWG Said:

The Air Force could initially field eight sets of Core Component Jammer pods by 2015 if the service gets its 2008 unfunded priority money, Col. Bob Schwarze said in an interview with the Daily Report. (See above.) That unfunded priorities...

Surprise TSAT Support:

If the House Armed Services Committee has its way, the Transformational Communications Satellite program will continue, with no cut in 2008 funding—depending on which page of the committee’s summary you read. In its summary text the committee cites its strong...

Keep C-17 Line Open and Other Pluses:

The full House Armed Services Committee supports the markups of its subcommittees on several programs, including the need to keep the C-17 line open, so increased the budget request by $2.4 billion to procure 10 more of the new airlifters....

Air Strike Takes Out Three Terrorists:

A coalition close air support strike in Sadr City in Iraq killed three terrorists, suspected of being members of a secret cell known for “facilitating the transport of weapons and explosively formed penetrators,” according to a Multi-National Force-Iraq release. Ground...

Energizing a Mobilization Mindset:

House authorizers do not believe the Pentagon or the nation, for that matter, has the right attitude about sustaining military readiness. Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, says in a statement on the 2008 defense...

Romania OKs US Military Use of Bases:

Word came from the Romania government that its parliament had approved US military use of Romania bases just as US Air Forces in Europe airmen were concluding a 10-day exercise with their Romanian counterparts. Sniper Lance 2007 was the second...

AAF Pilot Gets Overdue DFC:

Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Art Cader received a Distinguished Flying Cross during a ceremony at Travis AFB, Calif., May 7. Cader earned the award for his participation in a Sept. 30, 1944, B-24 bombing mission to strike Japanese refineries...

Air Sorties in the Global War on Terrorism

May 8, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 17 10 27 CAS/Armed Recon 50 50 100 Airlift 160 160 Air refueling 47 47 Total 67 60 207 334 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...