The recent decision by Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England to deny the Air Force executive agency status for medium- and high-altitude unmanned aerial vehicles did not sit well with Gen. Ronald Keys, head of Air Combat Command. During the Four-Star...

China’s test of an anti-satellite system earlier this year was “irresponsible,” Air Force Space Command chief Gen. Kevin Chilton said yesterday during AFA’s Air & Space Conference. Not only was the test of an ASAT a provocative move, but it...

Air Education and Training Command will be taking over training efforts for the Air Force’s unmanned combat fleet soon, AETC boss Gen. William Looney said. Air Combat Command is on track to hand off UAV training at Creech AFB, Nev....

On a recent trip to China, Gen. Paul Hester asked a large unit commander how China would integrate that nation’s anti-satellite capability into its war plans. The Chinese commander politely sidestepped the question, but admitted to Hester that he had...

Newly minted Air Mobility Command chief Gen. Arthur Lichte said Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington that he hopes “within 60 days” to have final data from the Army and Marine Corps about how those two services...

Air Education and Training Command boss Gen. William Looney said that AETC has managed to sort out a lot of the confusion surrounding an uptick in the number of airmen filling in-lieu-of requests for ground forces. Looney said: “Now, every...

Gen. William Looney, head of Air Education and Training Command, told reporters in Washington Tuesday that he expects a decision on the new Common Battlefield Airmen Training center by January. AETC plans to consolidate and expand the Air Force’s specialized...

An inadequate engine for its duties is the most critical shortcoming for the A-10C right now, Maryland Air National Guard Lt. Col. Kevin Campbell told reporters Tuesday afternoon at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington. Current combat operations require...

The 1970s-era Maverick air-to-ground missile has been in-demand in Southwest Asia to support Air Force close air support operations. So much so, that service officials recently asked whether Maverick-maker Raytheon could restart the line. Company officials at AFA’s Air &...

The Airborne Laser’s lethal shootdown demonstration will take place in August 2009, Boeing ABL program manager Greg Hyslop told reporters in Washington Tuesday afternoon at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. The high power integration is coming next year, and the...

Maj. Gen. Allen Peck, the lead on the Air Force’s updated irregular warfare doctrine, explained for attendees at AFA’s Air & Space Conference on Tuesday afternoon the impact of IW in today’s fight. Command and control, information operations, and non-kinetic...

The Northrop Grumman-EADS North America team confirmed that its KC-X entrant, the KC-30, had taken its first flight Sept. 25. Company officials at AFA’s Air & Space Conference said aircraft D-1 flew for nearly four hours. The KC-30 is in...

Ray Tanter, counterterrorism specialist, told attendees at AFA’s annual Air & Space Conference Sept. 25 that he has an option for dealing with Iran that avoided both fruitless diplomatic negotiations and a military air strike alternative. He argued that the...

The ARC-210 radio installed on the A-10C Warthog is essentially a “quantum leap” in secure radio communications aboard the aircraft, said Lt. Col. Kevin Campbell, of the Maryland Air National Guard’s 175th Fighter Wing, talking with reporters at AFA’s Air...

There are innovative airplane technologies in development at the NASA Langley Research Center, Anna-Maria Rivas McGowan, project manager of NASA’s Aeronautics Research Directorate, told attendees Tuesday afternoon at AFA’s Air & Space Conference, but she said some are viable and...

Asked during AFA’s Air & Space Conference Tuesday about the division of labor on “near space” systems—high-flying ISR vehicles that would not be at orbital altitudes—Gen. Kevin Chilton, head of Air Force Space Command,said he and Air Combat Command chief...

Recent cuts in Air Force flying hours have had a very concrete effect, said Lt. Gen. Raymond Johns, USAF’s deputy chief of staff for strategic plans and programs, at AFA’s Air and Space Conference Tuesday. The decline has degraded some...

The Air Force’s planning director, Lt. Gen. Raymond Johns told attendees at AFA’s Air & Space Conference on Tuesday afternoon that the $20 billion annual shortfall the service has identified in its budget undercuts the service’s ability to reach its...

Just like the Navy must protect sea lanes for waterborne commerce, a military cyber organization must protect commerce that travels through Cyber Space, according to Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, head of 8th Air Force. Elder, who oversaw the efforts to...

Besides myriad mysterious ways that individuals or groups can corrupt, disrupt, and exploit cyberspace by keystrokes, Lt. Gen. Robert Elder, head of 8th Air Force, said that good old-fashioned mayhem can work just as well. He told attendees at AFA’s...

SrA. Sarah McRae has managed to amass 1,000 combat hours as an airborne maintenance technician—a feat that in normal times would take such techs eight years. SSgt. Mike Andriacco reports McRae did it in two. She is with the 41st...

The Defense Department has sent Congress an action plan to address the shortfalls in mental health care identified in June by the DOD Task Force on Mental Health, a Congressionally chartered group. The task force made 95 recommendations, including a...

Sept. 23, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 19 9 28 CAS/Armed Recon 49 42 91 Airlift 150 150 Air refueling 47 47 Total 68 51 197 316 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...