“Not So Much a Study”

It now turns out that a recent “study” touted by Pentagon leadership as the justification for terminating the F-22 fighter isn’t really a study at all, but a series of briefings by DOD’s Program Analysis and Evaluation shop and the...

F-15 Training Consolidation

The Oregon Air National Guard’s 173rd Fighter Wing at Kingsley Field is slated to become the Air Force’s sole F-15 training base,” Army Maj. Gen. Raymond Rees, adjutant general of the Oregon National Guard, has confirmed. “We are very pleased...

More on the F-22 Story

After we published “The F-22, Bagel and a Smear” on Monday, we had a conversation with R. Jeffrey Smith, the Washington Post reporter who wrote the story in question in that item. Mr. Smith vigorously disputed our statement that the...

Intel and Ops Come Together in 24th AF

Air Force Space Command is making progress on defining what direction it will take with its nascent cyber efforts and that direction may well include closer ties with the Intelligence Community, Gen. Robert Kehler, AFSPC boss, told a Capitol Hill...

Holloman Gets UAV Training Mission

Air Combat Command on July 13 announced that Holloman AFB, N.M. would indeed be the site of the Air Force’s new Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle formal training unit. The service in April issued a finding of no significant...

Worn Part, Faulty Work Down UAVs

According to Air Combat Command accident investigation boards a Predator and Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle crashed because of a quill shaft bearing failure and an improperly assembled oil system temperature control valve, respectively. The MQ-1 Predator that crashed Oct. 19,...

North Dakota Unwraps Minuteman Site

The first visitors began touring North Dakota’s Ronald Reagan Minuteman Missile State Historic Site July 13 when the state opened the site’s former missile alert facility and launch facility to the public. The state plans to hold a grand opening...

AFRC Activates 476th FG Flying Tigers

Air Force Reserve Command on July 11 formally activated the 476th Fighter Group at Moody AFB, Ga., where the unit’s 76th Fighter Squadron, 476th Maintenance Squadron, and 476th Aerospace Medicine Flight will participate in A-10C Warthog operations with the active...

Signing On for Cyber War

To aid in the war against cyber attacks, Air Force Research Lab's Rome, N.Y., directorate has awarded a $1 million contract to 21st Century Technologies, Inc., an Austin, Tex.-based company founded in 1999 by two Massachusetts Institutes of Technology scientists. According to a company release, the work, which will involve use of the company's "flagship intelligence analytics platform Lynxeon," will take place primarily at Lackland AFB, Tex., where USAF wants to install its new cyber-centric 24th Air Force. According to an Austin American-Statesman report, company CEO Irene Williams said Lynxeon analyzes data from cyber attacks to identify patterns and methods that could ascertain future targets. She told the newspaper, "This is a new battlefront for us, and we feel … very fortunate to be at the forefront of this area." The company release noted the widely reported July 4-8 attacks against numerous US government agencies and commercial Websites and stated that its pioneering software will aid discovery and prediction of such attacks to cut them off "long before it reaches its final destination."

Another Cyber Warrior

A recent Boeing release said the company received a $1.2 million contract from Air Force Research Lab’s Rome, N.Y., directorate to “study and demonstrate improved situational awareness, visualization, and automated course-of-action processing for network environments during cyber attack.” The company...

Lockheed Retains LANTIRN Depot Work

According to a recent release from Lockheed Martin, the Air Force awarded the company a five-year, $60 million contract to continue depot maintenance support for the LANTIRN navigation and targeting pods for USAF and foreign military sales customers. (LANTIRN stands...

Tinker Depot to Service F-22 Turbines

Technicians at the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB, Okla., reached an agreement with Lockheed Martin, Honeywell, and USAF to begin refurbishing F-22 air turbines and expect to garner work for more than 30 F-22 components, according to...

Air Sorties from SWA

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaJuly 9-11, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 72 81 153 7,944 CAS/Armed Recon 48 247 295 18,353 Airlift 417 417 26,068 Air refueling 176 176 8,746 Total 1,041 61,111...