Taking Laser JDAM to War

The Air Force has successfully employed its newest precision strike weapon in combat during an Aug. 12 mission over Iraq, the service confirmed Wednesday. F-16s with the 77th Expeditionary Fighter Squadron at Joint Base Balad used the GBU-54, better known...

A Long Agenda

Acting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, and a small herd of senior generals convened at Bolling AFB, D.C., for an off-site meeting Wednesday to plot a way ahead on a host of pressing Air...

Not Going “To Be Timid”

The views of the new Chief of Staff of the Air Force, Gen. Norton Schwartz, are emerging through his confirmation hearing testimony, a few public forums, and now in one of his first media interviews. Schwartz clearly disagrees with some...

The HC/MC Fleet Not a Done Deal

The Air Force is still mulling over options that would take it from the 14 HC/MC-130Js being purchased over the next few fiscal years to the required 115 tails, and, according to a senior acquisition official, the service is not...

AMP Test Flights Good

Talking with Pentagon reporters Aug. 26 (see above), Maj. Gen. David Gray, a senior Air Force acquisition official, said the paperwork-induced delay in a low-rate initial production decision—now set for Oct. 15—for C-130 avionics modernization program has not affected the...

Good for Awhile Longer

Apparently the missive from Illinois lawmakers to National Guard Bureau chief Army Lt. Gen. Steven Blum to intercede with USAF for the Air National Guard units at Springfield had a beneficial effect. In a joint release Aug. 26, Sen. Dick...

Plotting a Path for the Air Guard

Some 500 senior Air National Guard officer and enlisted leaders and state Adjutants General gathered in Wisconsin earlier this month to talk about a number of subjects, including safety and quality of life issues, but the capstone event was an...

No End of Work

Since they deployed to Afghanistan in February, some 70 airmen from Air Force Reserve Command’s 943rd Rescue Group at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., saved 185 people, assisted 120 others, and performed 124 escort missions. On Aug. 25, another batch of about...