On Monday afternoon, the Air Force’s top acquisition official, Sue Payton, released a draft request for proposal amendment for the combat search and rescue helicopter replacement program “to foster open communications with our partners in industry, the Department of Defense,...

The F-22A Raptors that deployed in February to Kadena AB, Japan on the island of Okinawa have returned to Langley AFB, Va., the last arriving Monday evening, according to an Air Combat Command spokesperson. Most left Kadena May 10, but...

The Air Force’s new Predator unmanned aerial vehicle wing at Creech AFB, Nev., has been poised to help with rescue and recovery in areas of Missouri hard hit by flood waters. Activated earlier this month, the 432nd Wing put airmen...

Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne last week was at Eielson AFB, Alaska, where the 3rd Air Support Operations Squadron was among his stops at a base that Wynne said would “be a major base for us well into the future.”...

Air Force Reserve Command’s 53rd Weather Reconnaissance Squadron’s Hurricane Hunters tracked a tropical disturbance off the coast of Georgia May 9, although the 2007 hurricane season doesn’t “officially” start until June 1. The hunters used the latest WC-130J Hercules with...

The Air Force sent a team to Grand Forks AFB, N.D., last week to begin preparations for the base’s new unmanned aerial vehicle mission. According to Associated Press news service, Air Combat Command sent a 10-member team of civil engineers,...

Okinawa residents expected to have enough people to ring Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa during a weekend protest, but their numbers fell short of their 20,000-person goal by nearly 5,000, reports Stars and Stripes. Many island...

The US and Turkey have agreed to Turkey’s purchase of 30 F-16 Block 50 fighters. A Lockheed Martin statement says the new F-16s would have the same advanced features the company currently is installing on Turkey’s current F-16 fleet. Lockheed...

The US has contracted with Lockheed Martin to provide 18 Sniper advanced targeted pod for the Block 52 F-16s going to Pakistan. A Lockheed statement notes that Pakistan will be the eighth international customer for the Sniper ATP. The company...

The prototype Airborne Laser successfully used its passive sensors to autonomously locate, acquire, target, and track an afterburning F-16 fighter moving vertically at a rapid rate of ascent, Air Force Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, head of the Missile Defense Agency,...

A Pentagon release on May 11 confirmed an earlier news report that DOD analysts had identified the remains of an airman missing in action from World War II as those of Army Air Forces 1st Lt. Archibald Kelly of Detroit....

May 10-12, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 47 30 77 CAS/Armed Recon 143 140 283 Airlift 441 441 Air refueling 134 134 Total 190 170 575 935 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...