Senate defense authorizers, who already are on record adding $1.75 billion to the Pentagon’s Fiscal 2010 budget request for the purchase of seven additional F-22s, want the Air Force Secretary to deliver a plan by next March on how the service will execute the air sovereignty alert mission over the next two decades. They called for this in the newly released Senate Armed Services Committee report that accompanies the Senate’s version of the Fiscal 2010 defense policy bill. The committee members said they are concerned about the viability of the ASA mission since the planned retirement of legacy F-15s and F-16s will leave the Air National Guard, which carries the brunt of the mission, “short of the required number of aircraft” next decade. They want the report to give full consideration to factors such as stationing those additional F-22s at strategic ANG locations and transitioning earlier model F-22s and F-35s to the Air Guard “at the first possible opportunity.” Interestingly, they cited Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt, ANG director, as saying in a “recent” letter that basing F-22s and eventually F-35s at ANG locations while simultaneously making them available to support worldwide contingency operations is “the most responsible approach to satisfying all of our nation's needs.” In a similar move, House authorizers last month also had added language to their version of the defense bill that mandates a report by next March on filling the looming ASA gap. (SASC report; caution, large file)

The Air Force is now using a unique Internet-based process to build, update, and modify its plans to equip and field future intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance capabilities, senior Air Force leadership told reporters Monday at the Pentagon. Encompassing the entire process from strategy...

Lt. Gen. David Deptula, deputy chief of staff for intelligence-reconnaissance-surveillance on the Air Staff, said the Air Force’s new Internet-based process for fielding ISR capabilities, which has been captured in a newly unveiled ISR flight plan (see above), connects everyone from USAF headquarters to the joint task force and combatant commanders in the field. “This is a culture change within the Department of Defense. You’re giving all [combatant commanders] direct access to providing input into this flight plan,” Deptula told reporters during a briefing in the Pentagon July 6. He added, “We’re using technology to shorten the decision chain.” The ISR flight plan will be constantly revised and updated, and currently features more than 900 already fielded capabilities, plus information from industry on greater than 2,700 developmental capabilities and more than 800 technology briefs on future capabilities. “If you want to play in this game, you want to be in the Air Force ISR Flight plan,” Deptula said. “Because if you’re not,” he continued, “quite frankly, you’re not going to get looked at.” (Deptula’s briefing slides)

The Air Force has released its draft environmental assessment of the proposed airspace boundary changes to the Mountain Home Range Complex for Mountain Home AFB, Idaho. The service wants to expand the lateral and vertical boundaries of the Paradise East and Paradise West portions of the complex, increasing the total training airspace from 7,501 square nautical miles to 9,680 square nautical miles. The draft EA finds that implementing this action “would not result in significant impacts to human health or the natural environment.” (Draft EA; caution, large file) The document states that the changes would allow for more realistic training scenarios for the airmen of Mountain Home’s 366th Fighter Wing, who fly F-15s and F-15Es. The public comment period on the draft EA began June 15 and concludes on Aug. 1. (For more, read Mountain Home’s release.)

So says Alan Jackson, Lockheed Martin’s director for the stealthy cruise missile and its extended-range variant, the JASSM-ER. In a Reuters news wire service report Monday, Jackson said the missile program had achieved “significantly over 80 percent reliability” and was...

The 75th Fighter Squadron at Moody AFB, Ga., is preparing to deploy this fall to Southwest Asia with a new capability: Lockheed Martin’s Sniper targeting pod. “It’s the Air Force’s pod of choice and is already in use in combat...

More than 150 airmen from Alaska, Guam, Hawaii, and Washington will join with Army solders from Texas to participate later this month in Operation Pacific Angel 2009, a multinational humanitarian assistance exercise in Southeast Asia. The first round of Pacific...

CMSgt. William Brown, a native of Bristol, Conn., has received a Bronze Star Medal for his meritorious service during a four-month deployment to Afghanistan last year. The Bristol Press reported Monday that Brown led more than 500 airmen at Kandahar...

Robert Chamberlain, 63, a record-setting B-1B test pilot, died July 4 in an airplane crash near Tehachapi, Calif., after a July 4th air show. The Denver Post reported Monday that Chamberlain and a copilot where killed when their L-29 Delfin...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaJuly 4, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 18 24 42 7,603 CAS/Armed Recon 0 62 62 17,732 Airlift 100 100 25,131 Air refueling 36 36 8,392 Total 240 58,858...