The Defense Department announced May 21 that 1st Lt. Roslyn L. Schulte, 25, had died May 20 of wounds received from an improvised explosive device near Kabul, Afghanistan. The St. Louis, Mo., native had deployed to Operation Enduring Freedom from Headquarters Pacific Air Forces at Hickam AFB, Hawaii. According to an Air Force release last year about a Virtual Flag exercise, Schulte had served as an intelligence and reconnaissance officer with the 613th Air and Space Operations Center, part of 13th Air Force at Hickam.

The Air Force plan to divest itself of 254 legacy fighters in Fiscal 2010 to free up funds to upgrade the remaining fleet shows a mix of 112 F-15s, 134 F-16s, and three A-10s under the 2010 budget proposal and five F-16s previously scheduled for retirement next year. The money to be saved—about $355 million in Fiscal 2010 and another $3.5 billion over the next five fiscal years—would go toward such things as precision weapons and advanced targeting capabilities to provide "bridge capabilities" for the legacy fleet to see USAF through to a fifth-generation force, said Gen. Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff, in a May 20 release announcing the Combat Air Forces restructure. In the same release, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said the service had "a strategic window of opportunity" that will enable USAF to field "a smaller, more flexible, and lethal" force, but he acknowledges that means "accepting some short-term risk." Several lawmakers have questioned whether the Air Force will now have too few fighters. However, Schwartz said service leaders had "taken this major step only after a careful assessment of the current threat environment and our current capabilities." He maintains that the CAF restructuring plan will enable USAF to sustain its advantage over potential adversaries, which he acknowledged is "eroding," until full-fielding of F-22 and F-35 fifth-generation aircraft. (Air Force 2010 fighter cut list)

Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) is among lawmakers questioning why the Air Force plan to cut 254 legacy fighters has hit units in their states, but Heinrich was particularly incensed since the New Mexico Air National Guard’s 150th Fighter Wing is...

During a May 19 House Armed Services Committee budget hearing, several lawmakers questioned Gen. Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff, about curtailment of F-22 production at only 187 aircraft and insistence by DOD officials that those 187 aircraft met military need....

Does the United States aim to remain the world’s sole superpower? Defense Policy Undersecretary Michelle Flournoy Tuesday said, “Yes,” but with some strings. Speaking at the Defense Writers Group in Washington, D.C., Flournoy said, “I think, as a nation with...

Japan and Australia had indicated that they wanted to buy the F-22 as an essential equalizer in the Asia-Pacific region, but no one at the Pentagon seemed to be dealing with the issue. (According to its recently released Defence White...

The Air Force faces the decision as soon as next month on how to shutter the F-22 production line, according to two officials in the F-22 program office at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio. Options range from closing down the line completely,...

With the termination of its CSAR-X helicopter replacement program, the Air Force is seeking $90 million to buy two UH-60M Black Hawk helicopters to replace two HH-60G Pave Hawk combat search and rescue helicopters it has lost. These UH-60Ms are...

The Air Force has marked Fiscal 2010 dollars for its program to replace Vietnam War-era UH-1N helicopters used primarily to help protect the nation’s ICBM fields, keeping alive the goal of having new platforms in place and ready for use...

There is nothing sacrosanct about the two-Major Combat Operations construct, as set forth in previous Quadrennial Defense Reviews as a force-sizing strategy, Undersecretary of Defense Michele Flournoy told the Defense Writers Group in Washington Wednesday. Her boss, Defense Secretary Robert...

Irregular warfare and counterinsurgency capabilities not surprisingly are among key focus areas to be scrutinized in the just-commenced Quadrennial Defense Review, Undersecretary of Defense for Policy Michele Flournoy told the Defense Writers Group Wednesday morning. Flournoy acknowledged that this QDR...

May 17, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 26 19 45 5,493 CAS/Armed Recon 24 56 80 13,341 Airlift 152 152 18,666 Air refueling 43 43 6,050 Total 320 43,550 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...