“Seriously Flawed”

Boeing officially protested the outcome of the KC-X competition Tuesday, bringing work on the project to a halt while the Government Accountability Office evaluates the company’s complaints. Boeing received a debrief from the Air Force on Friday, and by late...

Surprise, Surprise

Although USAF acquisition chief Sue Payton claimed that the service had worked closely with each offeror in the tanker contest to resolve questions and ambiguities, the service added a significant change in the final request for proposals, Boeing tanker VP...

Size Really Does Matter

The Air Force never told Boeing it wanted a bigger airplane in the tanker contest, according to company officials. Had it done so, Boeing might have offered a larger aircraft or made other revisions to its tanker bid, Boeing tanker...

Expanding By Leaps And Bounds

The next 18 to 24 months will be quite significant for the Air Force’s space acquisition community as its works to place five new space systems in orbit and commence operations with them, Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of the...

Neighborhood Watch:

The Air Force is interested in working more closely with operators of commercial, civil, and scientific satellites to improve the mutual understanding of activities in space, especially in geosynchronous orbital belts that are becoming more congested and potentially more dangerous,...

Ground Truth:

The key point in the debate about space weaponization is understanding “how critically dependent” the United States is upon space capabilities, Lt. Gen. Michael Hamel, commander of the Space and Missile Systems Center, told defense writers March 10 in Washington,...

Right on Target:

A B-1B bomber destroyed an al Qaeda torture compound and prison with six 500-pound JDAMs during a coordinated strike with Iraqi and coalition forces March 10 in Zenbaraniyah, Iraq, south of Baghdad. “The airstrike removed “the last remnants of al...

Bad Economy, Good Recruiting?

Is it a case of economy woes fueling military recruiting or was the month of February just an oddball because all the active and reserve components made at least 100 percent of their respective goals for the month? The Air...

CENTCOM Boss Resigns

Adm. William “Fox” Fallon, head of US Central Command, will resign effective March 31, the Pentagon announced Tuesday. He has been in the post for just a year. The sudden move stemmed from a recent magazine story claiming he has...

Identified from 1942 Crash:

The DOD POW/Missing Personnel Office has identified the remains of an airman missing since the crash of an AT-7 aircraft during a Nov. 18, 1942 navigator training flight out of Mather Field, Calif. Aviation Cadet Ernest G. Munn of St...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest Asia

March 9, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 26 10 36 1,812 CAS/Armed Recon 52 38 90 5,584 Airlift 141 141 8,285 Air refueling 42 42 2,620 Total 309 18,301 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...