The industry Airborne Laser team has installed all six Chemical Oxygen Iodine Laser modules aboard the ABL, giving the prototype aircraft its full megawatt-class power laser beam. And that, says Northrop Grumman VP and president of space technology sector in...

Airmen deployed to the 379th Expeditionary Communications Squadron in Southwest Asia are employing a roll-on communications package, dubbed Mobile Viper System, to aid secure communications for US Central Command top brass and other high-level folks visiting the theater. The package, like another in use in the theater to aid ground communications and called Jackpot, rolls on and off transport aircraft, which for Viper includes potentially either C-130s or C-17s, according to an article in Intercom. As TSgt. Charles Brown, a satellite communications maintainer deployed from Schriever AFB, Colo., says, "Some aircraft don't have the defensive communication capabilities necessary for high-threat areas." (379th AEW report by SrA. Tong Duong)

Air Force Reserve Command plans to swap eight C-130H3 Hercules airlifters from the 914th Airlift Wing at Niagara Falls ARS, N.Y., for eight C-130H2 Herks currently flown by AFRC’s 934th AW at Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport ARS, Minn., to facilitate the...

Raytheon is close to finalizing a contract with the Air Force to supply a new version of its laser-guided Maverick air-to-surface attack missile, according to company officials. The new Laser Maverick, which Air Combat Command designates the AGM-65E2, will be...

Israel’s Ambassador to the US predicts that his country will have a “significant need” for the capabilities that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter offers, but he would not confirm that any formal request for airframes is on the way. “We...

Notwithstanding the recent US National Intelligence Estimate that has “high confidence” that Iran stopped its nuclear weapons work in 2003, Israel’s Ambassador to the US said Tehran’s pursuit of the means to produce a nuclear weapon remains his country’s “No....

Air Force Special Operations Command has renamed two streets to honor TSgt. Sean Corlew and SSgt. Anissa Shero, who were killed in the crash of an MC-130H Combat Talon II in Afghanistan in June 2002. Corlew and Shero, who were...

Senior Executive Service member Thomas Wells has been named to head the new 711th Human Performance Wing at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, where BRAC 2005 mandated USAF consolidate human research functions from Brooks City-Base, Tex., and Mesa Research Site, Ariz. •...

Feb. 24, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 13 7 20 1,398 CAS/Armed Recon 60 37 97 4,295 Airlift 149 149 6,414 Air refueling 46 46 2,040 Total 312 14,147 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...