The Air Force Weapons School has conducted its first exercise showing weapons school crews how to meld airlift, fighter, space, sensor, and intelligence platforms during combat airdrop operations. C-130s and C-17s from Little Rock AFB, Ark., and McGuire AFB, N.J.,...

It didn't take long for a cadre of Senators to approach DOD after learning that defense officials had not revealed the outcome of "three separate reports" the department commissioned on the requirements for new F-22 fighters. (See "What They Won't Tell Us" from our Oct. 31 column.) The reports all concluded, say the six Republican Senators in a letter to Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England, that to "meet our national defense requirements a far larger number than 183 Raptors will need to be procured." Aha! The Senators are Robert Bennett (Utah), Saxby Chambliss (Ga.), Orrin Hatch (Utah), James Inhofe (Okla.), Johnny Isakson (Ga.), and John Thune (S.D.). They asked England to put the three reports—in full—before Congress and to publicly release the "conclusions regarding the minimum number of F-22As to be procured." The Senators do offer England an opportunity to provide his "thoughts and analysis" in a "detailed briefing, before January 15, 2008." Meanwhile, the 2008 defense spending bill would have USAF begin preparations to buy at least 20 more Raptors, but this is with existing funding and still falls short of the 381 fighters USAF says it needs. The Senators note up front that 381 is based on more than whimsy, citing the birth of at least two new fifth-generation fighters, the India-Russia Sukhoi T-50 and China's J-12.

The Environmental Protection Agency has issued a clean-up order “compelling the Air Force” to “properly conduct” a cleanup of Tyndall AFB, Fla. EPA put the base on its Superfund National Priorities List in 1997, and, according to an EPA release,...

Repeated efforts by DOD to eliminate the alternate engine program for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter have met equally repeated efforts by Congress to fund it, and so the program continues. Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee has begun initial...

Airmen of the 36th Contingency Response Group at Anderson AFB, Guam, deployed as part of US Pacific Command’s aid to Bangladesh following the devastation and deaths caused by tropical cyclone on Nov. 15. The airmen arrived in Thailand on Nov....

Back from a deployment to the Philippines under Operation Enduring Freedom is one of the C-12J turboprops now stationed at Yokota AB, Japan, and the airmen to fly and support it. Just this summer, Yokota traded its C-21s for C-12Js....

A team at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia believes it has developed a high velocity maintenance process that will increase aircraft availability. At heart of the HVM effort is shared information—between the home station and the ALC—about each...

Put a neurosurgical team in Afghanistan and it will get civilian referrals. Egyptian doctors referred an 8-month-old Afghan girl to the newly deployed neurosurgical team at the Air Force-led Craig Joint Theater Hospital at Bagram AB, Afghanistan. The neurosurgeon, Lt....

Air Force optometry specialists treated nearly 1,600 military personnel from Burundi, Africa, who were to deploy on a peacekeeping mission in Somalia. The airmen had deployed to Gakumbu military base from Ramstein and Spangdahlem Air Bases in Germany. Peacekeeping trainers...

The Pentagon has identified the remains of Capt. Stephen A. Rusch of Lambertville, N.J., who was listed as missing in action from the Vietnam War. During a March 7, 1972 mission, Rusch was a weapons systems officer on an F-4E...

The Air Force has awarded the Airman’s Medal to MSgt. Noel Murphy for his actions to help save other military personnel when their helicopter crashed into a lake in Iraq. Murphy is assigned to the explosive ordnance disposal flight of...

The Arnold Engineering Development Center in Tennessee has dedicated an F-4C Phantom it has on static display to two airmen who flew with the 555th Tactical Fighter Squadron during the Vietnam War. They are: Col. Lawrence Golberg and Maj. Patrick...

Nov. 25, 2007 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 24 6 30 CAS/Armed Recon 46 38 84 Airlift 135 135 Air refueling 46 46 Total 70 44 181 295 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...