No Two-Tier Budget

The Air Force won’t be submitting a double budget proposal for Fiscal 2016 to Congress next month: one that anticipates sequester reductions and one that doesn’t. There will be a single set of numbers, said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee...

Help for the Crispy RPA Force

The Air Force’s cadre of remotely piloted aircraft fliers and sensor operators is getting worn down by an ever-escalating demand, requiring injections of more people to the career field and incentives to keep them in it, said the Air Force...

Welsh: F-35A IOC at Risk

Initial operational capability for the F-35A—scheduled for August of 2016—is “at risk,” if Congress turns down the new force structure proposals from the Air Force in the service’s upcoming Fiscal 2016 budget, said Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh. In...

No Apologies For A-10 Plans

The Air Force wants to retire the A-10 fleet to pay sequestration bills, but today the aircraft is not only still in the inventory due to Congressional intervention, but is also deployed to the Middle East and conducting missions against...

Bend, Don’t Break

Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James rolled out new initiatives to speed up the service’s acquisition process and get better value for the dollar. Speaking at the Atlantic Council in Washington, D.C., on Jan. 14, James said, “We in the...

Guinea Pigs

The first programs the Air Force will try its newly announced acquisition practices on will be the T-X jet trainer, Long Range Standoff Missile, Multi-Adaptive Podded System, and Space Based Infrared System follow-on, said Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James....

Closing the One-Room Schoolhouse

Air Force Global Strike Command is changing the training paradigm at all three of its missile bases. The series of incremental block changes, which were first beta-tested at Minot AFB, N.D., started rolling out to the missile wings at F.E....

Revamping B-52 Training

Air Force Global Strike Command will unveil a whole new training program for B-52 crews within the next month, said AFGSC boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson. The changes are based on recommendations made during the recently completed Force Improvement Program...

Air Guard Learns Commercial Flight Safety Practices

Air National Guard safety officials recently visited the American Airlines flight training center in Fort Worth, Texas, and other civil aviation and government oversight facilities across the country to see how they could better incorporate commercial air safety practices into...

Airpower Alone Won’t Beat ISIS

Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh on Thursday clarified the Air Force’s role in the fight against ISIS, explaining that the service has neither the mission nor capacity to defeat the Islamist threat alone. At a Pentagon press conference to...