The costs of the Air Force’s RQ-4 Global Hawk remotely piloted aircraft program grew significantly through the end of 2010, the Defense Department informed Congress last week. The aircraft’s program acquisition unit cost increased 14 percent compared to its current...

Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz has assigned Maj. Gen. Lawrence Wells to take command of 9th Air Force at Shaw AFB, S.C. He succeeds Maj. Gen. Stephen Hoog, who’s been in charge of 9th AF since last August. Wells...

Adm. Mike Mullen, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, last week presented the Bronze Star with Valor Medal to three pararescuemen during a ceremony at Nellis AFB, Nev. Mullen individually recognized TSgt. Jeffrey Hedglin, TSgt. Ryan Manjuck, and SSgt....

The Air Force and its industry partners last week launched a classified National Reconnaissance Office payload into space aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket from Vandenberg AFB, Calif. “Without a doubt, every launch is a major feat, and...

Two specially modified C-130s from Air Force Reserve Command’s 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson AFB, Colo., on Sunday dropped about 12,000 gallons of fire suppressant and retardant on raging wildfires in the northern Mexico state of Coahuila during four missions....

The F-35 strike fighter program "is much more realistic now," after its most recent restructure, Ash Carter, Pentagon acquisition executive, told lawmakers last week. This makes Carter confident that the program will proceed as planned. "Going too fast is inefficient, going too slow is inefficient. You're looking for the sweet spot between them, and we think that's where we are now," he told members of the House Appropriations Committee's defense panel. This is the second restructuring of the program in as many years, but Carter said he is happy with the direction that Vice Adm. David Venlet, F-35 program executive officer, has taken the program. The technical baseline review that Venlet led proved Pentagon officials had been "overoptimistic" in the past and underestimated the cost of F-35 testing, said Carter. "I'm sure that we'll discover things in flight test. . . . But I don't think they'll be changed as dramatic as between two years ago and one year ago and this year because I think our knowledge is much solider," he said. He also said during the April 13 hearing Defense Department officials need to start looking beyond the F-35's initial acquisition costs and focus more on the sustainment costs. (Carter's written testimony)

Providing housing to single airmen remains a top priority under the Air Force’s military construction budget, Terry Yonkers, USAF’s assistant secretary for installations, environment, and logistics, told members of the Senate last week. Testifying before the Senate Appropriations Committee’s military...

After more than five years of training Iraqi UH-1 Huey pilots aboard their helicopters, US Air Force instructor pilots of the 721st Air Expeditionary Advisory Squadron at Camp Taji have turned over that responsibility to Iraqi instructors. “[O]ur Huey advisors...

Airmen with the 305th Air Mobility Wing and Air Force Reserve Command’s 514th AMW at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., put the KC-10’s refueling capacity through a rigorous test during an exercise at Travis AFB, Calif. Neptune Falcon blended combat, mobility, and...

The Defense Information Systems Agency last week held the ribbon-cutting ceremony to celebrate the official opening of its new headquarters facility in Fort Meade, Md. DISA Director Army Lt. Gen. Carroll Pollett hosted the event in the main building on...