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No. 018-11 February 24, 2011 Air Force KC-X Tanker Contract Award to be Announced Deputy Secretary of Defense William Lynn, Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition Technology and Logistics Ashton Carter, Secretary of the Air Force Michael Donley and Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz will announce the KC-X tanker contract award at 5:10 p.m. EST, Feb. 24, in the Pentagon Briefing Room (2E973). Journalists without a Pentagon building pass will be picked up at the River Entrance only. Plan to arrive no later than 45 minutes prior to the event; have proof of affiliation and two forms...

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — Japanese police are treating the death of a Kadena airman over the weekend as a homicide, a police spokesman said Monday evening. Tech. Sgt. Curtis Evan Eccleston, 30, was found dead around noon Sunday in an off-base apartment he shared with his wife in the Mihama district near Camp Lester, according to Japanese police. An autopsy by Japanese authorities determined the airman bled to death from a cut on his neck, a police spokesman said. The death is under joint investigation by Japanese authorities and the U.S. military. The Air Force issued a statement of condolence...

WASHINGTON: American First Lady Michelle Obama wants to visit India again, this time with her daughters Malia and Sasha, President Obama told India's national security advisor Shivshankar Menon when he dropped in on Menon's meeting with his US counterpart Tom Donilon at the White House last week. There was more to the remark than politeness. As if to emphasize he was not saying it for form's sake, Obama reportedly added that the First Lady is a "very determined" woman and she usually has her way. The Obama children did not make it to India during their parents' visit last November...

Shocked! Shocked at the very idea! What do you mean, there are no chocolate-covered strawberries? What are you saying? I Must Have Chocolate-Covered-Strawberries whenever I Travel At Taxpayer's Expense! You Better Speak to that Five Star General of yours before a whole lot of weapons' systems are suddenly out of funds.The Very Idea! Activist group Judicial Watch is appealing a decision by the Air Force to withhold documents related to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s use of military airplanes. Documents released by the Air Force show Pelosi was provided chocolate-covered strawberries on one flight to celebrate the California Democrat’s birthday,...

MASCOUTAH, Ill. (AP) -- A military jury on Friday sentenced a chief master sergeant of the Air Force to a year and eight months in prison and a dishonorable discharge for committing adultery with four married female subordinates and making unwanted sexual advances toward several others. A six-man jury of officers from Scott Air Force Base, in southwestern Illinois, deliberated for about four hours before rendering their sentence on Chief Master Sgt. William Gurney, who was the top-ranking enlisted man at the Air Force Materiel Command at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio, when the allegations of sexual misconduct...

I would like to say that I believe in a strong national defense. We cannot have one without the troops being able to train somewhere. Makua, Pohakuloa, NIMBY. [ snip ] Surely there is a compromise here. Limit night flights to earlier hours, when people may still be awake. Share the wealth and use Maui's runway half the time, if they don't already. I did not think when I got discharged I would ever again feel like I was living 300 yards from the flight line at DaNang. Some nights I wonder.

WASHINGTON, Jan. 19, 2011 – More than three decades after the war’s end, the Defense Department has begun a project to pay tribute to the nation’s Vietnam War veterans. The 50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Commemoration was spawned from the 2008 National Defense Authorization Act. “It was a very important time period for veterans, because most Vietnam veterans as a whole never received the homecoming that our troops receive now,” said Army Lt. Col. Hunter Holliday, public affairs officer for the commemoration. At the center of the project is a website, “50th Anniversary of the Vietnam War Commemoration,” at...

Defense: While America has stopped production of its stealth fighter, China prepares to challenge U.S. air supremacy in the Western Pacific with its own. China is on another Long March, one it hopes will lead to military supremacy over the U.S. at least in the Western Pacific. It is deploying a carrier-killing mobile missile, the Dong Feng 21D, and is expected to launch its first aircraft carrier this year, the refurbished ex-Soviet carrier Varyag. China is also conducting preflight tests on a fifth-generation stealth fighter expected to challenge the best the U.S. has to offer. Photographs reportedly showing China's J-20...

Body of murdered cyberwar expert found in landfill Military man dumped into three-ring whodunit Dan Goodin January 5, 2010 The body of a decorated US Army officer was found dumped in a Delaware landfill on New Years Eve day, a few days after he expressed concern that the nation wasn't adequately prepared for cyber warfare, according to news reports following the bizarre whodunit. Events surrounding the murder of John P. Wheeler III, who most recently worked part-time for defense contractor Mitre Corporation on cyber defense topics, read like a Tom Clancy novel. The 66-year-old worked for three Republican administrations, was...

With Air Force's new drone, 'we can see everything'By Ellen Nakashima and Craig Whitlock Washington Post Staff Writers Sunday, January 2, 2011; 12:09 AM In ancient times, Gorgon was a mythical Greek creature whose unblinking eyes turned to stone those who beheld them. In modern times, Gorgon may be one of the military's most valuable new tools. This winter, the Air Force is set to deploy to Afghanistan what it says is a revolutionary airborne surveillance system called Gorgon Stare, which will be able to transmit live video images of physical movement across an entire town. The system, made up...

'Blow up all soldiers' the pair shouted during attack A former serviceman was left bloodied and bruised when two drunken thugs beat him up for wearing an RAF blazer and poppy.Anthony O'Brien, 69, was attacked by the thugs, aged between 17 and 20, after meeting friends to plan the funeral of a former colleague. Mr O'Brien said today that as they attacked him they shouted: 'Blow up all soldiers. F****** shoot all you b*******s - death to all soldiers.' The pair - described as being of Asian or mixed race - then headbutted and punched him to the floor...

Fort Walton Beach - Authorities believe that between 30 and 40 illegal aliens were employed in the construction of the 7th Special Forces Complex, but by the time the very thorough 3-month investigation was wrapped up, so was most of the work, and the great majority of the workers were unaccounted for. Authorities did arrest three illegal aliens, and plan to continue to investigate what they call a case of identity fraud by employees working on critical infrastructure at the 7th Special Forces Complex on Eglin Air Force Base. Arrested were 23-year old Marlo Contreras of Fort Walton Beach, 27-year...

In an age when many Americans do not recognize that we are at war, most Americans still respect the sacrifices that our military men and women make on their behalf. According to a Rasmussen poll last May, the military continues to have the highest favorable and lowest unfavorable ratings of any group or institution in the United States Whether it is on the flight deck of an aircraft carrier, on the mean streets of a third-world hell-hole, or as a silent sentinel on the Korean border, the servicemen we place in harm's way perform with dedication and excellence. They do...

A test of the United States' only long-range missile defense system failed Wednesday -- the second failure this year in two tries. The Pentagon's Missile Defense Agency said both the intermediate-range ballistic missile target and the long-range interceptor missile launched successfully, radar and sensors worked properly and the "kill vehicle" deployed. But the "kill vehicle" didn't hit the target. "Program officials will conduct an extensive investigation to determine the cause of the failure to intercept the target," the agency said. "The next flight test will be determined after identification of the cause of the failure." The last test, in January,...

09:05 GMT, December 2, 2010 MOSCOW | The Russian Air Force will procure over 1,500 new aircraft and significantly increase the number of high-precision weapons in its arsenal by 2020, a deputy Air Force commander said on Wednesday, according to RIA Novosti. "Overall, we are planning to acquire and modernize about 2,000 aircraft and helicopters by 2020...including more than 1,500 new aircraft and about 400 modernized," Lt. Gen. Igor Sadofyev told reporters in Moscow. According to the general, in 2011 the Air Force plans to adopt Su-27SM, Su-30M2 and Su-35S multirole fighters, Su-34 fighter-bombers and Yak-130 combat trainers as well...

Marine Commandant Gen. Jim Amos and Air Force chief of staff Gen. Norton Schwartz will tell a Senate panel Friday they do not recommend Congress change the law to allow gays and lesbians to serve openly in the military. “Based on what I know about the very tough fight on the ground in Afghanistan, the almost singular focus of our combat forces as they train up and deploy into theater, the necessary tightly woven culture of those combat forces that we are asking so much of at this time and finally the direct feedback from the survey, my recommendation is...

Franklyn Wynne (Tony) Plemmons, age 86, born September 8, 1924 in Asheville, NC and formerly of Oglethorpe, GA, residing in Marble, NC passed away Thursday, November 25, 2010 at his residence. Affectionately called (Tony) by his family and friends, Tony was very proud of his Native American heritage as an enrolled member of the Ioway Tribe of KS and NE. He was also a decorated veteran of WWII serving in the US Army Air Corps in the Pacific Theater with the 7th Air Force, 11th bomb group, 431st squadron as Flight Engineer and machine gunner on a B‐24 bomber participating...

Defense Department scientists are set to conduct a second test launch next year of the Falcon HTV-2 experimental superweapon after the first flight this year ended when the autopilot deliberately crashed the unmanned glider into the ocean as a safety measure. The Falcon Hypersonic Test Vehicle is designed to skim the top of the atmosphere just below space, and is a key element of the Pentagon's Conventional Prompt Global Strike (CPGS) capability — a program to build non-nuclear strategic weapons that can strike conventionally anywhere in the world in less than an hour.

Beware a Hollow Air ForceIf we intend to maintain American military dominance abroad, the U.S. Air Force cannot be relegated to a supporting role. As the youngest of America’s military branches, the Air Force has sometimes suffered from an inferiority complex. Despite the popular images of the glamorous fighter jock or steel-nerved bomber pilot, Air Force personnel are well aware of their lack of traditions comparable to the Halls of Montezuma or John Paul Jones.   Perhaps this relative lack of pedigree has resulted in fewer champions for the Air Force on Capitol Hill. Whatever the reason, today’s budget restrictions...

The Air Force mistakenly gave rival companies sensitive information that contained each other's confidential bids in a long-standing, multibillion dollar competition to build a new refueling tanker. Chicago-based Boeing Co., and the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), parent of Airbus, are in an intense competition for a $35 billion contract to build 179 new Air Force tankers based either on the Boeing 767 jetliner or the Airbus A330. Boeing received detailed proprietary information about the EADS bid; corresponding information was given to EADS North America concerning the Boeing bid.