Air Force Special Operations Command in developing tactics, techniques, and procedures for its new CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft recently completed a water operations exercise with Navy SEALs. The AFSOC CV-22 carried a “soft duck” boat in its cargo area and...

Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-La.) has added her knowledge of helicopter rescue operations during the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina to the debate over the right choice for a new combat search and rescue helicopter. Roxana Tiron of the Congressional newspaper, The...

According to statistics provided by US Central Command Air Forces, this year (as of June 1) and last year show a dramatic rise compared to the two previous years for close air support sorties flown in Afghanistan’s Operation Enduring Freedom....

Sue Payton, the Air Force’s top acquisition official, says the Air Force may have a “new plan” that would save the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile, according to Rebecca Christie of Dow Jones Newswires (article via CNNMoney.com). JASSM faces the chopping...

Not happy with the rebuff of its attempt to rein in the Administration’s conduct of the Iraq war via the war supplemental funding bill, the Senate now appears poised to try again with the 2008 defense authorization bill. The full...

The Defense Department has deviated from the long-standing policy that requires it to fully fund weapons in the year in which they are bought, prompting the Congressional Research Service to issue a new report laying out pros and cons. Although CRS notes that DOD's use of other funding profiles in recent years centered on purchase of Navy ships, other deviations have involved aircraft and satellites. What's the beef? CRS says such use of "non-conforming" funding approaches "could limit and complicate Congress's oversight of DOD procurement programs." At the very least, says CRS, Congress would "require different approaches" to exercise its control of the purse. Among examples cited in the report are USAF's failed lease-buy arrangement for tanker aircraft, incremental funding for the F-22, and, in the 2008 budget request, a bid to use incremental funding for large satellites bought in small quantities. CRS proffers six options that range from Congress letting such approaches slide to approving a non-conforming approach for a specific program but expressing support for the full-funding policy to rejecting such moves outright. A key downside: Approving incremental funding reduces the flexibility of future Congresses. A key upside: Incremental could "permit Congress to stop throwing good money after bad."

The Air Force has awarded a $1.7 billion contract to Lockheed Martin to provide mission qualification training and associated hardware and software for special operations forces and combat search and rescue crews. The contract falls under the Aircrew Training and...

Taking a leaf from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Defense Research and Engineering Directorate has initiated a prize effort to entice “inventive and novel approaches to solve problems of US military interest. DARPA has used big bucks to...

July 4, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 16 10 26 CAS/Armed Recon 70 35 105 Airlift – – Air refueling 50 50 Total 86 45 50 181 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...