Welcome 19th Chief of Staff

Gen. Norton Schwartz formally became the new Air Force Chief of Staff during a ceremony yesterday at Bolling AFB, D.C. Schwartz said he is “humbled and honored” to serve in the post. He replaces Gen. Michael Moseley whom Defense Secretary...

Russian Assurances

The US received “assurances” that Air Force C-17s bringing a Georgian brigade home from Iraq wouldn’t be attacked, the new Air Force Chief of Staff, Gen. Norton Schwartz, said Tuesday during a Pentagon press briefing. The operation “went off without...

“Stinger” Will Fill Critical Need

The AC-27J, a light gunship modeled on the C-27J airlifter, is in the works for special operations forces to fill an “urgent and compelling requirement,” according to Air Force Special Operations Command’s requirements chief. Brig. Gen. Brad Heithold said in...

Countdown

Weather permitting, the Air Force plans today to fire a Minuteman III ICBM from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., as part of a routine test to verify the reliability and accuracy of the strategic nuclear weapon system. This test comes almost 40...

Making a Difference

Nineteen airmen from Air Force Reserve Command’s 433rd Medical Group at Lackland AFB, Tex., treated 2,373 patients over a six-day period early this month in the Ayacucho region of Peru. They were part of New Horizons-Peru 2008, a three-month US...

Too Good to be True?

Recruiting is still up across the board, according to the latest Pentagon figures that cover the month of July. Staying way ahead, for the sixth month in a row, is the Air National Guard, which achieved 129 percent of accessions...

Manufacturing Improvements

Boeing is introducing a new “pulse line” at its manufacturing plant in El Segundo, Calif., to assemble satellites more efficiently, thereby resulting in faster build times and reduced costs, the company announced Aug. 11. The first satellite that will be...

Right on Target

The AIM-120D, the newest version of the advanced medium-range air-to-air missile that the Air Force is buying, destroyed an unmanned target drone during a recent developmental flight test, according to Raytheon, the missile’s maker. A Navy F/A-18F fighter fired the...

Denied

In what would be soothing words to the ears of Air Force acquisition officials nowadays, the Government Accountability Office on Aug. 8 denied Lockheed Martin’s protest of the Navy’s April $1.16 billion contract award to Northrop Grumman to develop and...

Airpower Summary Hiatus

The Air Force informed us yesterday that it is reviewing its practice of issuing daily summaries of coalition air activities in Afghanistan and Iraq and, until further notice, has stopped providing the data we used to update the airpower chart...