The White House on June 26 sent the formal nomination for Michael Donley to serve as Air Force Secretary to Capitol Hill. The Senate Armed Services Committee must now set a date for a confirmation hearing. Meanwhile, Donley already is...

Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell offered the view during a press briefing that Defense Secretary Robert Gates will put his full imprint on the Air Force's tanker program rather than leaving the decision over the next course of action to the Air Force alone. That came as a surprise to some veteran journalists, one of whom tried to get some clarity, asking, "So the decision will come up to him, rather than staying internally within the Air Force?" To which Morrell replied, "This is something the Secretary is going to be involved in." And, he emphasized, "It's a procurement issue that's been going on seven years now, seven years probably too long." The service has 60 days before it must respond to the Government Accountability Office verdict upholding the Boeing protest. Only last week Morrell stood by the DOD position that USAF had conducted a "fair and transparent" contract award process, one that also received fairly intense scrutiny from DOD acquisition officials. This week, he appended "at this point" to that same declaration of faith and added, "That said, the GAO has identified some areas of concern … and we are going to closely examine the areas of their concern … and see what the best course of action is from here." (full, redacted version of the GAO tanker decision released June 25; Geoff Morrell tanker comments.)

Alabama Aircraft Industries Inc. has decided not to place too much stock in the Government Accountability Office’s recent rejection of its protest over the Air Force’s KC-135 depot maintenance contract award to Boeing. Instead, AAII (formerly Pemco) plans to file...

The US earlier this month signed the memorandum of understanding establishing the NATO strategic airlift capability program, the Air Force announced yesterday. Under this program, 15 nations, including 13 NATO countries and partners Finland and Sweden, will jointly operate three C-17s transports out of Papa AB, Hungary, starting with the first aircraft late this year. According to a June 26 statement from Bruce Lemkin, who runs USAF’s international affairs office, Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England signed the document on behalf of the US on June 11 during a meeting of alliance defense ministers at NATO headquarters in Brussels. The US joins Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Slovenia, and Sweden on the list of signatories, according to a NATO release from the event. Lemkin said the remaining eight nations (the Czech Republic, Estonia, Finland, Italy, Latvia, Norway, Poland, and Romania) are expected to sign the MOU within the next month. The US is providing one C-17 and the partner nations are purchasing the two remaining aircraft under a proposed foreign military sales arrangement that the Pentagon informed the Congress of in May. Current planning calls for delivery of the first C-17 in November and for having the second aircraft and third aircraft in place in early and mid 2009, respectively. SAC members will employ the C-17s to support national, NATO, European Union, or United Nations military operations as well as humanitarian relief.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), frequent Air Force critic and now presumed Republican candidate for President has instigated an investigation over whether senior Air Force officials had inappropriately assisted Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) and Sen. Ted Stevens (R-Alaska) in crafting a...

At this week's House Oversight and Government Reform hearing into the status of the Kaiserslautern Military Community Center project, lawmakers and the Government Accountability Office expressed continuing skepticism over delays, construction quality, and cost, which GAO says could rise above $200 million, some $80 million higher than originally projected. The GAO analysts in testimony did acknowledge that the Air Force "has made significant improvements in its oversight and internal controls." However, they said that since the GAO's review in June 2007 there has been limited construction progress—the mega-complex with hotel, theater, restaurants, and retail stores was to open in 2006—and there are "still no accurate estimates of how much the total project will cost or when it will be completed." In his testimony, Maj. Gen. Marc Rogers, vice commander of US Air Forces in Europe, noted that USAFE has beefed up its oversight capability, creating a Resident Director Office with a staff of 29, but the real changes must come from the German state entity charged with its construction. The failure on the part of the state agency to overcome management failures led USAFE, said Rogers, to ratchet up the issue to the federal level, enlisting the help of the US Embassy in Berlin. Unfortunately, the recovery pace has been slow. As Rep. Henry Waxman (D-Calif.), panel chairman, said that despite Air Force assurances otherwise, "The project has gone further over budget and has been further delayed." There are still ongoing criminal investigations into K-Town that involve US officials.

The Air Force has discovered that 106 dorms housing first-term airmen have deteriorated since the service implemented decentralized dorm maintenance funding after it completed upgrading all dorms, eliminating central latrines and making other improvements. Those 106 dorms represent just 10...

The Air Force has sent 35 medical personnel to participate in New Horizons-Peru 2008, which runs through Aug. 31 and will provide medical care to residents in the poorest regions of Ayacucho. In another facet of the US Southern Command-sponsored...

DARPA announced earlier this month its intent to pursue a novel high-speed propulsion system under a new program called Vulcan. This engine would be capable of accelerating future long-range strike or reconnaissance aircraft from rest to speeds greater than Mach...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaJune 25, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 25 13 38 5,358 CAS/Armed Recon 71 57 128 15,911 Airlift 142 142 22,285 Air refueling 59 59 7,488 Total 367 51,042...