The Air Force on Friday will issue the draft environmental impact statement for the proposed establishment of an F-35A pilot training center within the continental United States, announced service officials. Luke AFB, Ariz., is the preferred location for the center....

The Air Force and its industry partners successfully launched WGS-4, the fourth Boeing-built Wideband Global Satellite Communications spacecraft, into orbit aboard a United Launch Alliance Delta IV rocket that blasted off Thursday evening East Coast time from Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla. "The 45th Space Wing is proud to work this important Air Force launch of WGS-4 with [the] Space and Missile Systems Center, United Launch Alliance, and Boeing," said Col. Rory Welch, the wing's vice commander and the launch decision authority, in a release. Boeing announced that it received the first on-orbit signals from the satellite, indicating that it "is healthy and ready to begin orbital maneuvers and operational testing." WGS-4 joins three WGS Block I satellites already operating on orbit. It is the first spacecraft in the series in the Block II configuration that adds throughput support for airborne intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance platforms requiring ultra-high bandwidth and data rates. This week has been a busy one for the WGS program, with the United States on Tuesday detailing a new partnership with five nations to enable the purchase of WGS-9, which the Air Force then ordered on the following day. (See also SMC release.)

The Pentagon released the 64-page "Joint Operational Access Concept" document outlining anti-access, area-denial threats that the United States faces and ways to counter them. "A2/AD is not new, but it is a defining characteristic of today's operational environment," said Army Gen. Martin Dempsey, Joint Chiefs Chairman, in a blog post introducing the concept. Countering expected A2/AD capabilities will require preparing the operational area in advance, seizing the initiative with multiple deployments and operations, exploiting advantages in one domain to disrupt or destroy enemy capabilities in others, and protecting space and cyber assets while attacking the enemy's, according to the document (caution, large-sized file). JOAC, which builds upon the Obama Administration's new defense strategic guidance, identifies 30 operational capabilities that the future joint force will need to gain operational access in an opposed environment. "The implications of creating and maintaining these capabilities in the necessary capacity are potentially profound,” states the document. The concept appeared on the same day as the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments called for the Pentagon to reassess long-held assumptions in the Persian Gulf in light of Iran’s A2/AD capabilities. (See also AFPS report by Karen Parrish)

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta condemned sexual assaults in the military as he announced new policies aimed at curbing the problem. Such assaults are “an affront to the basic American values we defend, and it is a stain on the good...

Technology and new media innovation have fundamentally changed the conditions for statecraft and negotiating and implementing arms control agreements in the 21st century, said Rose Gottemoeller, assistant secretary of state for arms control, verification, and compliance. “My experience negotiating the...

Sixteen months ago, 35 percent of 7th Bomb Wing B-1 bomber sorties never made it off the runway at Dyess AFB, Tex. Sorties that did, lifted off an average of two-and-a-half hours late, prompting a top-to-bottom scrub of 31 key...

Army civil engineers completed final construction of a strategic airlift apron, freight loading dock, and new passenger terminal at Shindand Air Base in western Afghanistan. The $18 million expansion project “will play an important role as the coalition begins to...

Airlifting 45,000 pounds of humanitarian aid bound for Afghanistan gave an Air Force Reserve Command KC-10 crew from the 78th Air Refueling Squadron at JB McGuire-Dix-Lakehurst, N.J., a rare opportunity to fulfill the tanker aircraft’s secondary cargo role. These airmen...