The timing isn’t right yet for the United States and Russia to come to the table to hash out the next round of bilateral nuclear weapons cuts beyond the New START agreement, said Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms...

Missile defense has long been an area of tension in US-Russian relations, but it’s also the issue where the United States, NATO, and Russia could build cooperation from the ground up, said Ellen Tauscher, undersecretary of state for arms control...

Lockheed Martin received a $238 million contract from the Air Force for the third and fourth Global Positioning System III satellites. “The acquisition of the next two GPS III satellites at one time will allow the Lockheed Martin-led team to...

A C-17 aircrew supporting Operation Deep Freeze was called to the rescue when a Korean fishing vessel erupted in flames in the Ross Sea near Antarctica on Wednesday. The National Science Foundation icebreaker Nathaniel B. Palmer reached the burning vessel,...

BAE Systems announced Thursday that L-3 Link Simulation and Training is joining its industry team that is offering the Hawk Advanced Jet Training System as a replacement for the Air Force’s T-38 trainer. Hawk AJTS integrates live and synthetic air...

Air Frame: Year in Review, September 2011: The nation commemorated the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Here, President Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama, along with former President Bush and former First Lady Laura Bush, pause at the North Memorial Pool of the National Sept. 11 Memorial in New York City. Also in September, NATO extended operations in Libya for another three months. And, Obama presented Marine Corps Sgt. Dakota Meyer with the Medal of Honor, making Meyer the third living MOH recipient from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Also in the month, the Air Force announced it had completed all closures and realignments mandated under BRAC 2005. Air Combat Command accepted its first HC-130J Combat King II personnel recovery aircraft and USAF's first Commercially Hosted Infrared Payload went into space. White House photo by Chuck Kennedy

Elevating the cyber security mission, Air Force Reserve Command’s 934th Airlift Wing communications flight achieved squadron status during a re-designation ceremony at Minneapolis-St. Paul Air Reserve Station. TSgt. Terry Neff, 934th Communications Squadron client services craftsman, said the re-designation gives...

General Atomics Aeronautical Systems, manufacturer of the Air Force’s MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft, announced the availability of a new trailing arm design for the Reaper’s main landing gear. The company is currently in contract talks with the Air Force...

H.R. 1892, the Fiscal 2012 National Intelligence Authorization Act, contains a provision directing the Office of the Secretary of Defense and Director of National Intelligence to submit a report that assesses the feasibility of implementing a certification program for training defense intelligence personnel. The language also calls for a description of the existing training, education, and professional development standards used for these personnel. The report is due within six months of the legislation's enactment, meaning by early July, since President Obama signed H.R. 1892 into law on Jan. 3. The defense intelligence workforce spans the services' intelligence elements, Defense Intelligence Agency, National Geospatial Intelligence Agency, National Reconnaissance Office, and National Security Agency. In addition to that report, the intel act calls for the estalishment of a formal record of the May 1, 2011, operation that resulted in Osama bin Laden's death and information on the recidivism of terrorist detainees currently or formerly held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, Cuba. (H.R. 1892 full text)

Delayed response to an approaching thunderstorm caused the loss of a tethered blimp at Lajas, Puerto Rico, last August, according to the findings of Air Combat Command's accident investigation board. Caught by gusting winds, the tethered aerostat radar system dragged its securing winch truck into an embankment, partially due to the ground crew incorrectly placing the vehicle's chock blocks, states the AIB report (caution, large-sized file). Grounded against the embankment, the blimp's tether was drawn taut against a safety cable. Severed by the resulting friction, the blimp slipped its mooring, promptly climbed to above 7,000 feet in altitude, and ruptured. The rig spilled some 71 gallons of fuel, but caused neither injury nor property damage. Total loss of equipment is estimated at $8.1 million, not including the cost of spill clean-up and site remediation. (Langley release)