A New Tanker Wrinkle?

Two of the lawmakers intent on overturning USAF’s selection of the Northrop Grumman-EADS tanker over the Boeing model now want to know why the Air Force did not consider additional military construction as part of its source selection process. In...

“Matter of Choices” in Tacair

According to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Michael Mullen, the mid-air breakup of an F-15 has elevated his “level of concern” and “certainly increased the risk of this whole Tacair [tactical aircraft] plan.” However, Mullen told...

Let’s Talk

At a May 20 Senate Appropriations defense panel hearing, Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.), an avid Boeing tanker proponent (see above), chided Defense Secretary Robert Gates when he responded to a question about the tanker competition, in which Northrop Grumman and...

Air Guardsman Dies in Africa

According to a May 21 Pentagon announcement, Lt. Col. Joseph A. Moore with the Idaho Air National Guard’s 124th Wing died of natural causes on May 20 while deployed for Operation Enduring Freedom. Moore, 54, died in Djibouti. According to...

More Airlift to Burma, China

The Air Force has provided five more C-130 loads of supplies to cyclone-stricken Burma, according to Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman. He told reporters at the Pentagon May 20 that 36 total flights have delivered more than 800,000 pounds of relief...

Air Strikes in Afghanistan

A US Air Force F-15E Strike Eagle on May 20 dropped 2,000-pound GBU-31 and 500-pound GBU-38 joint direct attack munitions on enemy combatants fighting friendly forces in Asadabad, Afghanistan, according to Combined Air and Space Operations Center officials in a...

Indicted in Tennessee

A retired professor and a Knoxville-based technology company are the subject of an 18-count indictment by a federal grand jury in the Eastern District of Tennessee. According to a Department of Justice May 20 release, J. Reece Roth and Atmospheric...

Tough Act?

The Air Force is seeking information from the munitions industry on ammunition for the gun system on the new F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the close air support replacement for the A-10 and F-16. The rub is that the ammo must...

Iraqi Air Force Surges

According to US Air Force officials, the fledgling Iraqi Air Force at not quite mid-year already has produced 80 percent more sorties than it did last year. “We are now seeing concrete evidence that they have returned to the skies...

Cannon Has Two

Air Force Special Operations Command now has two operational squadrons at its new western base. Officials of the 27th Special Operations Wing at Cannon AFB, N.M., on May 16 activated the 318th Special Operations Squadron. The 318th SOS will fly...

Air Sorties from SWA

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaMay 19, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 26 13 39 4,083 CAS/Armed Recon 67 54 116 12,175 Airlift 139 139 17,786 Air refueling 0 0 5,670 Total 299 39,835...