Raising Spirits

The B-2 bomber fleet set a record in April for sorties and hours flown in a single month, according to officials at Whiteman AFB, Mo., home to these stealth bombers. Members of Whiteman’s 509th Bomb Wing, together with their partners...

Holmes Nominated for Air Staff Post

President Obama tapped Lt. Gen. Mike Holmes for assignment as the Air Force’s next long-range planner, leading the Air Staff’s A8 office, according to the Defense Department. The Pentagon announced Holmes’ nomination to be deputy chief of staff for strategic...

Luke Conducts First Local F-35 Training Sortie

Airmen at Luke AFB, Ariz., completed the base’s first local training sortie with the F-35A strike fighter, according to a base release. “Our first sortie [on May 5] represents a significant milestone in the F-35 program at Luke,” said Lt....

Emerging Threats

By John A. Tirpak
The Pentagon’s research and engineering enterprise—the overall effort overseen by the assistant secretary of defense for research and engineering—has just published its new strategic guidance. The 11-page document, dated May 1, lays out the enterprise’s approach to new technology and...

It May Not Be a Platform

By John A. Tirpak
New platforms may not always be the answer to rising military technology needs, according to strategic guidance just issued by the Pentagon’s research and engineering office. “In the near past, technology surprise” came from systems like revolutionary airplanes or ships,...

Hagel Visit Follows Large Saudi Military Drill

By Marc V. Schanz
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s visit to the Middle East comes on the heels of an unprecedented unilateral military drill by Saudi Arabia, according to Middle East press reports. Abdullah’s Shield, which concluded at the end of April, was reportedly the...

Left for the Fishes

Officials called off searching for the MQ-9 Reaper remotely piloted aircraft that crashed last fall in Lake Ontario because currents since have spread the debris over too wide an area, reported Syracuse’s Post-Standard on Monday. The Reaper, assigned to the...

The Cone of Combat

Joint terminal attack controllers from the Oklahoma Air National Guard began training at Will Rogers ANG Base near Oklahoma City on the Air Force’s first virtual-reality simulator designed to support their combat mission. The $2 million ANG Advanced Terminal Attack...

Scattered to the Four Corners

NATO deployed 17 E-3 AWACS aircraft to forward operating locations in Greece, Turkey, Italy, and Norway to allow runway work at the fleet’s home at Geilenkirchen AB, Germany. “Supporting operations from these locations is something the [AWACS] component envisioned and...