An amendment tagged onto the 2008 defense authorization bill by the House Armed Services Committee would impose a March 1, 2008 deadline on DOD to select an executive agent for medium to high altitude unmanned aerial vehicles. Rep. Jim Marshall...

The House Armed Services Committee push for a roles and missions review also would require DOD to identify each service’s core competencies and provide justification for any duplication of capabilities. In his opening remarks at the committee’s markup of the...

The active duty recruiting picture for the month of April was rosy, with all four services reaching 100 percent or more of their goals. The Marine Corps achieved a whopping 141 percent. However, data shows four out of six of...

The Air Force’s top acquisition official, Sue Payton, told Rebecca Christie of Dow Jones Newswires that the service’s review of the operations and support costs for the combat search and rescue helicopter replacement program proposals would “do more than just...

According to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, the Pentagon already has taken $1.6 billion from the Air Force and Navy to turn over to the Army. The Air Force share is around $880 million, which came out of personnel accounts and...

Lockheed Martin last week delivered the 150th C-130J Super Hercules it has produced to the Air Force for use by the California Air National Guard’s 146th Airlift Wing at Channel Islands ANGS, Calif. Brig. Gen. Darren McDew, vice commander of...

The Pentagon said May 10 that President Bush will nominate Vice Adm. Eric T. Olson, for a fourth star and to head US Special Operations Command, replacing Army Gen. Bryan Brown, who plans to retire. Olson currently serves as SOCOM...

An accident investigation board convened by Air Mobility Command to review last fall’s crash of an Air Force Flight Standards Agency C-21 at Decatur Airport in Illinois. The board found that the pilot, who was in aircraft commander upgrade training...

The Alaskan portion of the large-scale Ardent Sentry/Northern Edge 2007 exercise currently running in several states comprised a mass casualty event bringing together civilian first responders and Air Force and Army emergency response specialists and “victims.” A US Northern Command...

Some Air Force C-130s flying out of Balad AB, Iraq, are not delivering supplies; instead they are flying members of the Joint Airborne Battle Staff to watch over convoy communications. The capability once was a haphazard affair, conducted by chance...

A new multi-national survey by the Chicago Council on Global Affairs and WorldPublicOpinion.org shows that a majority (64 percent) of residents of the 14 countries that make up 56 percent of the world’s population favor creation of a standing United Nations peacekeeping force. Large majorities also would give the UN authority to investigate violations of human rights (64 percent) and regulate international arms trade 55 percent). Twelve of the 14 countries polled have large majorities that favor a standing UN force. Only Argentina and Philippines had less than 50 percent of their respondents in favor of the idea.

May 9, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 16 11 27 CAS/Armed Recon 47 49 96 Airlift 150 150 Air refueling 49 49 Total 63 60 199 322 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...