The Air Force’s Defense Satellite Communications System III constellation has surpassed 200 years of on-orbit operations, Lockheed Martin announced Feb. 17. The company release notes that the DSCS III spacecraft generally exceed their expected 10-year design life “by several years”...

Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.) met last week with Air Force Gen. Duncan McNabb, new head of US Transportation Command, to advocate Grand Forks Air Force Base in his home state as the first operational site for USAF’s new KC-X tanker...

According to Col. Joe Westa, commander of the 5th Bomb Wing at Minot AFB, N.D., the last time a Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff visited Minot was 20 years ago, so it was a rare event when current...

Ask Maj. Gen. Roger Burg, commander of 20th Air Force, which oversees the Air Force’s ICBM force, and he says that the service’s nuclear enterprise “standards have not changed—did not change.” Burg, who was at Minot AFB, N.D., home to...

The Kyrgyzstan parliament voted Feb. 19 as predicted to oust the US military from Manas Air Base, which has served as a key mobility hub for US and coalition operations in Afghanistan. Fox News reports that the vote was 7801...

The Arizona Air National Guard’s 107th Air Control Squadron has moved from Papago Park in Phoenix to Luke Air Force Base, where it will continue its unique mission of training active duty and Air Guard weapons directors. The 107th ACS...

In a letter late last week to Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, and Rep. Solomon Ortiz (D-Tex.), leader of the committee’s readiness panel, call for a halt in converting DOD...

Boeing has delivered a new A-10 simulator and upgraded another for the Warthog force at Spangdahlem AB, Germany, giving the 81st Fighter Squadron pilots the ability to fly local two-ship missions and connect to USAF’s distributed mission network, not to...

Feb. 18, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 29 8 37 1,909 CAS/Armed Recon 39 75 114 4,917 Airlift 150 150 6,308 Air refueling 53 53 2,273 Total 354 15,407 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...