Four Airmen Killed in MC-12 Crash

An MC-12 surveillance aircraft crashed in southern Afghanistan on April 27, claiming the lives of four airmen, announced Air Forces Central Command on Sunday. According to a Pentagon release, the deceased airmen are: Capt. Brandon L. Cyr, 28, of Woodbridge,...

Donley Announces Departure

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley will step down as the service’s leader on June 21, he announced on Friday. That will be five years to the day that he began his tenure, first as Acting Secretary and then, beginning on...

Obama Administration Thinks Sarin Used in Syria

The Obama Administration informed lawmakers in a letter on Thursday that it believes the regime of Bashar al Assad has employed the chemical agent sarin in the Syrian civil war. “Our intelligence community does assess with varying degrees of confidence...

Mainstreaming Responsiveness

The Pentagon’s Fiscal 2014 budget request proposes abandoning the Operationally Responsive Space Office in favor of integrating its business models and rapid-fielding practices into the service’s normal space acquisition processes, Gen. William Shelton, head of Air Force Space Command, told...

Back in Black

Don’t look for any details about the Air Force’s Long Range Strike Bomber project anytime soon, said Secretary Michael Donley. LRS-B details won’t emerge for “I think, several years down the road” because “we think the capabilities it will have...

CAP and Trade

Sixty-five combat air patrols will likely be “the high point” of medium-altitude remotely piloted aircraft, such as the MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper, said Air Force Secretary Michael Donley. There’s an internal debate within the service on “the balance between...

Suicide Prevention Requires Face-to-Face Engagement

Suicide prevention is not just a medical issue, but also a community and leadership matter, Lt. Gen. Thomas Travis, Air Force surgeon general, told lawmakers. Prevention requires contact and interaction in addition to raising awareness, he said in testimony before...

Robb Tapped to Lead Defense Health Agency

President Obama has nominated Maj. Gen. Douglas Robb for appointment to the rank of lieutenant general for his new assignment as director of the Defense Health Agency in the Pentagon, announced the Defense Department on April 25. Robb, a 1979...

DARPA Wants Generational Shift in Air Superiority

DARPA is in the early stages of an “air dominance initiative,” a collaborative effort with the Air Force and Navy to examine capabilities and technologies that could create a “generational shift” in US air superiority, said DARPA Director Arati Prabhakar....

Airborne Firefighting Units Hold Certification Training

Air Force Reserve Command’s 302nd Airlift Wing at Peterson AFB, Colo., held its annual certification training for the C-130 aircrews that operate the Modular Airborne Firefighting System, announced Air Mobility Command officials. “We are providing annual MAFFS certification training for...

Going after WMDs

The Defense Department and Energy Department have requested $2.6 billion in Fiscal 2014 to curtail the flow of weapons of mass destruction, said Sen. Kay Hagan (D-N.C.), chairwoman of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s emerging threats and capabilities panel, this...

Healthy Eating Campaign Initiated at Langley

Officials at JB Langley-Eustis, Va., announced they are implementing the “Better Foods, Better Bodies” campaign that the Air Force launched in March on a trial basis through May. Langley is one of the three BFBB pilot locations, along with JB...