Airdrops Reach New Heights

Airdrop poundage in Afghanistan has nearly doubled each year since 2006, according to Air Forces Central. In 2010, USAF aircraft dropped a record-shattering 60.4 million pounds of material to forward areas in Afghanistan, compared to 32.2 million pounds in 2009....

Launch Success

Airmen of the 30th Space Wing and their industry partners on Thursday successfully launched a United Launch Alliance Delta IV Heavy rocket into space from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. This was the first-ever West Coast launch of the Delta IV Heavy....

More Details on F-15 Radar Modernization

The Air Force will hasten the upgrade of its F-15C and F-15E fighters with active electronically scanned array radars by moving more of the radar units into its Fiscal 2012 budget plan, service officials told the Daily Report Thursday. Last...

General Ready to Advance Out of the Laboratory

President Obama has nominated Maj. Gen. Ellen Pawlikowski, Air Force Research Lab commander at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, to receive a third star for her new assignment as head of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles AFB, Calif.,...

Lest You Dash Your Foot Against a Stone

Flight testing of a new parachute known as the Guardian Angel is underway at Edwards AFB, Calif. The system is optimized for use in the thinner air of high-altitude locations like Afghanistan. “With the current systems, the descent rate is...

Australian Tanker Mishap

An Airbus A330 tanker built for Australia was involved in a refueling accident with a Portuguese air force F-16 Wednesday during a training flight for Airbus staff from the company’s facility in Madrid, Spain, the Australian defense department announced Thursday....

McKinley: Homeland Response Units’ Standup on Track

Plans are progressing well toward the standup of the National Guard’s first two homeland response force units in this fiscal year, according to Gen. Craig McKinley, the Guard’s top boss. “I was briefed by my team last week, and this...

Boeing Reduces C-17 Production Rate

Boeing will complete the transition to its new C-17 production rate—10 aircraft a year—by this summer, company officials announced Thursday. This planned reduction, announced last February, is meant to extend the production line beyond 2012 as the company looks to...

STSS Spacecraft Complete Another Hurdle

The nation’s two Space Tracking and Surveillance System demonstration satellites are ready to participate fully in ballistic missile defense system tests following completion of on-orbit sensor calibration, according to prime contractor Northrop Grumman. The company, together with infrared sensor payload...

A Half Century of C-130s over Abilene

Officials at Dyess AFB, Tex., plan this spring to celebrate 50 years of C-130 transports operating at the northcentral Texas base. The celebration will take place April 28-30 in conjunction with the Dyess Big Country Airfest at the Abilene regional...

Proper Designation

The military designation of the General Electric turbofan engines going on 52 modernized C-5 transports is: F138-GE-100. Wednesday’s entry Lockheed Inducts Next C-5 for Upgrades now reflects that. For those of you wondering, the engine’s commercial designation is: CF6-80C2.