The Air Force and its National Polar-Orbiting Environmental Satellite System cohorts—NOAA and NASA—have worked with prime contractor Northrop Grumman to restructure the budget and technology troubled program. It took a year’s effort, after DOD recertified the need for NPOESS, to...

US Air Forces in Europe plans to deactivate a wing it created in May 2004 to oversee disparate units around the command. Scott Schonauer of Stars and Stripes reports that USAFE will eliminate the 38th Combat Support Wing at Ramstein...

The Pentagon has just unveiled its new Joint Qualification System, which all the services will embrace come Oct. 1. The basic difference between this new system and the current Joint Officer Management System is that it awards points for "experience" in joint operations rather than simply considering joint professional military education and specified joint assignments. For instance, under the old system an Army officer who served for 19 months in the Multi-National Force-Iraq under an Air Force boss, supervising military personnel other services and from other countries would receive no automatic joint credit. And, the new system designates different points for different types of experience—it accounts for "the intensity, environment, and duration/frequency of each joint activity," awarding more points for combat. The new system also incorporates reserve officers, who can earn the same joint credit as their active duty counterparts. However, the new system does not eliminate the "traditional path," instead it adds the "experience path" to attain the status of joint qualified officer. The experience path officers still must attend PME to reach succeeding levels, and to attain four-star rank after Oct. 1, 2008 they must have served in a designated joint duty assignment. (DOD briefing transcript and briefing slides.)

The Air Force has lost two MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles in the space of two days. One crashed upon landing at Balad AB, Iraq, on July 30, and another crashed off base on July 31. There were no injuries...

The one-of-a-kind Air National Guard unit at Ft. Bliss, Tex., now is engaged in training other Air Guardsmen for an upcoming tour in Southwest Asia. And, the 204th Security Forces Squadron, a heavy weapons unit with a cadre of sharpshooters,...

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Defense Secretary Robert Gates met yesterday in Egypt with members of the Gulf Cooperation Council to “re-affirm that the Persian Gulf and the Middle East are an enduring vital interest to the United States,”...

A new Gallup Poll finds that the five “best-known” 2008 Presidential contenders score similarly with the public as far as their ability to handle the war in Iraq. And, two relative unknowns—hard to say about actor/Senator/actor Fred Thompson—are about 10...

TSgt. Kevin Allen reports that American Air Force and Army doctors at Kirkuk AB, Iraq, met with their local Iraqi counterparts recently, discussing not only patient transfer but also trauma treatment concepts and rebuilding the internal trauma care network in...

Air Force officials working the “hot bench” of the Global Cyberspace Integration Center at Langley AFB, Va., were busy all last month with time sensitive targeting, coalition building, precision engagement, machine-to-machine interfaces, and net-centricity, reports Capt. Larry van der Oord....

The Northrop Grumman-EADS North America team vying to produce the Air Force’s next aerial refueling aircraft says it is “ready immediately” to begin production. The team has just completed final airframe assembly on the first developmental KC-30. The aircraft would...

The House Armed Services Committee voted 32 to 25 to send to the full House its bill (H.R. 3159) to provide a minimum time period between deployments to Iraq for both active and reserve forces. Rep. Ellen Tauscher (D-Calif.) introduced...

July 29, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 16 10 26 CAS/Armed Recon 51 41 92 Airlift 141 141 Air refueling 46 46 Total 67 51 187 305 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...