The Senate on Aug. 2 approved Gen. Mark Welsh to become the Air Force’s 20th Chief of Staff, replacing Gen. Norton Schwartz, who is stepping down and retiring from the service. The next step is for President Obama to formally...

Luke AFB, Ariz., will host the Air Force’s F-35A pilot training center, announced Secretary Michael Donley. The base will bed down a total of 72 F-35As in three squadrons, according to an Aug. 1 Luke release. The first strike fighters...

President Obama said he intends to nominate Navy Deputy Undersecretary Eric Fanning to be the next Air Force undersecretary. If the Senate confirms him, Fanning would fill the service’s No. 2 top leadership post that’s been vacant since June with...

The Senate Appropriations Committee on Aug. 2 passed its version of the Fiscal 2013 defense spending bill by a vote of 30 to zero, announced the committee. This clears the way for the full Senate to take up the legislation. The committee adopted the July 31 mark-up of its defense panel that met the President's spending request by providing $604.5 billion for the Pentagon next fiscal year. That total includes $511.2 billion for the Pentagon's base activities and $93.3 billion to fund the war in Afghanistan and other overseas contingency operations, according to the committee's bill summary. Of note, the bill retains the defense panel's language that calls on the Air Force to take a "strategic pause" in making force structure adjustments next fiscal year.

The Air Force on Aug. 2 announced a one-day delay to the scheduled launch of a National Reconnaissance Office payload into orbit. Liftoff of the Atlas V rocket carrying the NROL-36 payload from Vandenberg AFB, Calif., is now set for...

Sixteen-year-old Gabby Douglas, daughter of Virginia Air National Guard SSgt. Timothy Douglas, on Aug. 2 in London became just the fourth American to a win an Olympic gold medal in women’s all-around gymnastics. A $500 grant from Our Military Kids...

The 418th Flight Test Squadron at Edwards AFB, Calif., is putting the new High Speed Container Delivery System through the wringers. HSCDS, an evolution of the proven Container Delivery System airdrop method, would allow for the aerial delivery of supplies...

The Air Force marked the 40th anniversary of the first F-15 flight. At Edwards AFB, Calif., on July 27, 1972, an F-15A took to the skies on the type’s inaugural flight, according to an Aug. 1 Edwards release. Prime contractor...

Raytheon announced that it successfully completed the critical design review for software iteration 1.4 of the OCX, Air Force’s Next Generation Operational Control System for the GPS satellite constellation. This shows that the OCX design is at a high level...

The USNS Howard O. Lorenzen (T-AGM 25), the US military’s newest missile range instrumentation ship, arrived at Port Canaveral, Fla., last month to begin at-sea testing as part of its year-long integration and test phase, announced the Navy. Once the...