BUFFer Zones

The Air Force is going ahead with the plan to maintain 76 B-52s and rotate its Stratofortress units at Minot AFB, N.D., and Barksdale AFB, La., in and out of the nuclear mission. Air Combat Command spokesman Maj. Tom Crosson...

March Madness/Grace Under Pressure

Air transportation requirements within US Central Command’s 27-nation area of responsibility reached an all-time high in March, but air mobility airmen responded by setting new one-month records for passengers and cargo moved, all while maintaining a 91 percent on-time delivery...

End of the Line

The Air Force formally retired the T-37 Tweet April 3 as the platform it uses for specialized undergraduate pilot training after some 50 years of service. The T-6 Texan II is replacing it in that role. That same day, airmen...

Scaling Back

The Air Force had 3,623 requests in 2007 to perform aircraft flyovers at events ranging from professional sports games to town fairs and community parades, a 37 percent increase over the previous year. But with tightening budgets and rising fuel...

Climbing Toward 50,000

The Air National Guard-led Operation Noble Eagle flew 175 sorties in March, making the operation total number since Sept. 11, 2001, nearly 49,000, as of April 1. Under the direction of 1st Air Force/Air Forces Northern, the operation has fighters,...

Road Show

Air Force medical service and medical readiness training, which is centered at Sheppard AFB, Tex., took an important step forward with the certification of the contingency aeromedical staging facility mobile training course in February. It is the first mobile training...

Fuel King

SrA. Rickey Easter, a fuels distribution operator with the 455th Expeditionary Logistics Readiness Squadron at Bagram AB, Afghanistan, recently reached the milestone of transferring his one millionth gallon of jet fuel from a fuel truck to an aircraft during his...

Mini Accord

The Air Force has awarded Raytheon a two-year, $80.3 million contract to continue development of the radar-jamming variant of the company’s miniature air launched decoy. This variant, known as MALD-J, recently completed developmental flight testing and adds the jamming capability...

Air Sorties From SWA

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaApril 7, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 28 9 37 2,625 CAS/Armed Recon 44 43 87 7,936 Airlift 123 123 11,848 Air refueling 42 42 3,651 Total 289 26,060...