The Bids Are In (Again):

Boeing, Lockheed Martin, and Sikorsky have handed in their updated CSAR-X helicopter proposals to the Air Force, meeting the Jan. 7 deadline. USAF plans to announce the winner of the hotly contested competition around July. The winner will build 141...

Parting Thoughts:

The war on terror continues to place stress on the Air Force, as the number of 365-day deployments increases and the need remains for airmen to fill in-lieu-of positions to support the Army, says Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, exiting USAF...

A Matter of Survival

This unit lost 33 percent of its workforce but had its workload cut by only 20 percent—the classic “do more with less.” So it did. The airmen of the 354th Maintenance Squadron’s Aerospace Ground Equipment Flight at Eielson AFB, Alaska,...

Downrange Perspective

Gen. Arthur Lichte says his first trip as commander of Air Mobility Command earlier this month to Southwest Asia left a lasting impression. “We’re saving lives every day and playing a vital role in the war on terrorism,” he said....

USAF Laptop Goes Missing

The Air Force misplaced (or lost or had stolen) a laptop computer with personal identification information, including social security numbers, for more than 10,000 current and former airmen, all either in public affairs, bands, or the Air Force Honor Guard....

East African Shuttle Service

With the Army-Air Force C-27J Joint Cargo Aircraft still on the horizon to carry out such roles, Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently granted a waiver to the Combined Joint Task Force-Horn of Africa to use a commercial airline based in...

Buying More Time

Boeing and Lockheed Martin each have won six-month contract extensions valued at $75 million to continue risk-reduction activities on the Transformational Communication Satellite space segment as part of their ongoing competition. This period of performance runs until July 7, 2008,...

Seoul Searching

South Korea’s plans to acquire US-built RQ-4 Global Hawk unmanned aerial vehicles have hit a snag as the country’s parliament has axed nearly the entire initial budget earmarked for the high-flying surveillance airplanes. The Korea Times reports that the National...

The New “Red Ball” Runs

McGuire AFB, N.J., one of USAF’s new hubs for shipments to Southwest Asia (McGuire and Dover AFB, Del., have supplanted Charleston AFB, S.C. in that role) sent off its first “Red Ball Express” flight on New Year’s Eve. The Air...

Going to Supreme Court

According to various news reports, the American Federation of Government Employees has asked the Supreme Court to consider its lawsuit against the labor relations rules in the Pentagon’s new National Security Personnel System. A union coalition lost its appeal before...

Air Sorties in the Global War on Terrorism

Jan. 6, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total ISR 21 3 24 CAS/Armed Recon 43 45 88 Airlift 128 128 Air refueling 44 44 Total 64 48 172 284 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance Airlift includes Horn...