After about one week of delay, the Air Force and its industry partners successfully launched the first Global Positioning System Block IIF satellite into space late Thursday aboard a Delta IV rocket from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. The launch went...

An amendment introduced by Rep. Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) late Thursday on the House floor to strip funding for the F-35 strike fighter’s competitive engine program in next year’s defense policy bill failed by a vote of 193 to 231, thereby...

Air Force officials are examining the service’s headquarters-level organization to determine if changes are necessary to ensure that USAF achieves its energy goals, Erin Conaton, undersecretary of the Air Force, said Thursday, said at the service’s energy symposium in Washington,...

The Air Force has been at the forefront of national efforts to increase energy efficiency and adopt renewable, environmentally friendly forms of power. And that’s not about to change, Erin Conaton, undersecretary of the Air Force, told reporters Thursday. “I...

Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz and his Navy counterpart Adm. Gary Roughhead were expected to sign a memorandum of understanding Thursday outlining the two service’s cooperation on their respective RQ-4 Global Hawk and Broad Area Maritime Surveillance remotely piloted...

Air Force officials say Wednesday’s flight of the experimental X-51A scramjet-powered air vehicle off the coast of southern California represents a groundbreaking—perhaps even paradigm-shifting—development in aerospace. “We equate this leap in engine technology as equivalent to the post-World War II...

Martha Radditz, veteran ABC News correspondent, says she recently did what no reporter before her has done: fly in an Air Force fighter on an actual combat mission. In fact, she spent 5.5 hours in the back seat of an...

Thursday’s column included an item on the Obama Administration’s just-issued National Security Strategy. That document, which replaces the March 2006 iteration, identifies economic power as the bedrock of national influence and calls for approaching statecraft from a “whole-of-government” perspective as...

If it takes about 170 personnel today to operate one combat air patrol of MQ-1 or MQ-9 remotely piloted aircraft, how many are needed for a single high-flying RQ-4 Global Hawk CAP? Maj. Richard Johnson, Air Force spokesman for intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...

President Obama has nominated Army Gen. Raymond Odierno to take command of US Joint Forces Command. Odierno has been the top US general in Iraq since September 2008. He would replace Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis, who had led JFCOM...

Building upon the US declaration of the size of its nuclear inventory several weeks ago, Britain revealed Wednesday that it has an arsenal of 225 nuclear warheads and would not exceed that level. Foreign Secretary William Hague made the disclosure...

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, May 19, 2010 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 27 48 75 8,746 CAS/Armed Recon 20 82 102 12,976 Airlift 187 187 23,744 Air refueling 49 49 6,031 Rescue 53 53 2,269 Total...