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5/16/2008 - SATHER AIR BASE, Iraq (AFPN) -- Members of the Iraqi air force integrated and synchronized with Iraqi special forces in an effort to dissolve the al-Qaida in Iraq influence since early May in Mosul, Iraq. In less than two weeks, the Iraqi air force members have moved more than 3 tons of cargo and 251 passengers into Mosul using both fixed-wing and helicopter operations. "It's a new thing for Iraq's air force to back the forces in the Mosul's operations," said General Mohammed al-Askari, a spokesman for Iraq's ministry of defense. In addition to "bullets and beans" to...

WASHINGTON, May 16, 2008 – The battle against improvised explosive devices takes place on the streets of Iraq and Afghanistan every day, but this week coalition members took the fight into a conference room, tucked away on an air base in Southwest Asia. Arranged by the Combined Air and Space Operations Center’s Combined Theater Electronic Warfare Coordination Cell, the conference put IED experts from Iraq and Afghanistan together with William Hughes, director of the Joint IED Defeat Organization’s test board and test board members to exchange information during the two-day conference. “We’re here to see if we’re meeting the warfighters’...

(See video at end of story) BAGRAM, Afghanistan — A 200-pound bomb dropped from a U.S. warplane can end a firefight in a heartbeat. That same bomb, however, slightly off target, can be tragic for troops on the ground. The margin of error, the difference between helping allies and making a horrific mistake, is microscopically thin for pilots thousands of feet in the air. Bad judgment, poor communication or both can alter fate in seconds. Pilots with the Spangdahlem, Germany-based 81st Fighter Squadron know the risks all too well. When the squadron last deployed to Afghanistan in 2006, a pilot...

The USAF wants to make its own botnet to combat forign and domestic threats. (IMG:J.Anderson) Are we in a cyber arms race? The Cyberspace Command, a US Air Force project designed to defend the cyber domain from threats, is alive and kicking with millions of dollars spent on PR and marketing. The USAF says that there is an urgent need to defend the IT infrastructure on US soil, and a recent opinion article written by COL. Charles W. Williamson III details that they are serious in this mission. The goal is to use botnets to help defend the new cyber...

The sniper never knew what hit him. The Marines patrolling the street below were taking fire, but did not have a clear shot at the third-story window that the sniper was shooting from. They were pinned down and called for reinforcements. Help came from a Predator drone circling the skies 20 miles away. As the unmanned plane closed in, the infrared camera underneath its nose picked up the muzzle flashes from the window. The sniper was still firing when the Predator's 100-pound Hellfire missile came through the window and eliminated the threat. The airman who fired that missile was 8,000...

Air Education and Training Command has lifted the stand down of its T-38C trainers that was imposed May 1 after the fatal crashes of two T-38s in separate incidents between April 23 and May 1. AETC Commander Gen. William R. Looney cleared the trainers to resume flying operations May 6, according to a command release. They will resume normal operations after individual aircraft are cleared for flight. A T-38C crashed April 23 during a training sortie at Columbus AFB, Miss., killing the student pilot and instructor. Eight days later, the second T-38C went down at Sheppard AFB, Tex., similarly claiming...

Every time the Shuttle launches from Cape Canaveral, there is an Air Force officer overseeing events for the first two minutes of the mission. So who is this officer and what does he/she do? The launch safety officer has very big responsibility, not only to the people in mission control, but to the astronauts on board the launching Shuttle and the people on the ground in towns and cities under the flight path. Should the Shuttle spin off course, it could crash, killing hundreds or even thousands of civilians. This is why the Shuttle's two solid rocket boosters are armed...

5/7/2008 - SALT LAKE CITY (AFPN) -- Don't let the education office fool you; there are some people out there who have become commissioned officers without having their bachelor's degrees. Retired Col. Bernard Francis Fisher, a Medal of Honor recipient, received his diploma in fine arts from the University of Utah during a commissioning ceremony of nine second lieutenants from ROTC Det. 850 May 3, almost 57 years after he originally attended the university. Colonel Fisher received the diploma for his remarkable career in the Air Force, bravery in combat, numerous awards including the Medal of Honor and faithful service...

5/6/2008 - CREECH AIR FORCE BASE, Nev. (AFPN) -- Lt. Gen. Norman Seip, the 12th Air Force (Air Forces Southern) commander, congratulated Airmen at Creech Air Force Base May 6 as the 432nd Wing marked its first year as the Air Force's only MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicle wing. "The 432nd Wing has grown exponentially over the last year, in manpower, demand, flying hours, sorties, technology, reach, support for the warfighter and in battlefield capability," said General Seip. "From day one, the 432nd Wing Airmen have been 'all in' in the support of ongoing operations; particularly in...

    ~The FReeper Canteen Presents~ Road Trip: Langley Air Force Base, Virginia Langley Air Force Base (IATA: LFI, ICAO: KLFI) is the home of the United States Air Force's 1st Fighter Wing (1 FW) and the 480th Intelligence Wing (480 IW). It also hosts Headquarters, Air Combat Command (ACC).As the host unit at Langley Air Force Base, Va., the 1st Fighter Wing operates and maintains one of the largest fighter bases in Air Combat Command. Throughout its history, the 1st FW has led the way, wherever and whenever called upon. The 192nd Fighter Wing is an Air National...

BALAD AIR BASE, Iraq, May 2, 2008 – An Air Force Reserve pilot deployed here broke his own world record for hours spent flying the F-16 Fighting Falcon when he surpassed the 6,000-hour milestone today. Air Force Reserve Lt. Col. Michael Brill, a 421st Expeditionary Fighter Squadron pilot, prepares to don his helmet at Balad Air Base, Iraq, before flying a combat mission May 2, 2008. Brill broke the world record he previously set for F-16 flying hours when he surpassed the 6,000-hour milestone. Brill is deployed from Hill Air Force Base, Utah. U.S. Air Force photo by Senior...

5/2/2008 - SHEPPARD AIR FORCE BASE, Texas -- Sheppard officials have identified the pilots killed when their T-38C Talon crashed during a May 1 training mission. Maj. Brad Funk, 35, a 90th Flying Training Squadron instructor pilot, and 2nd Lt. Alec Littler, 23, a student pilot in the 80th Flying Training Wing's Euro-NATO Joint Jet Pilot Training program, died when the aircraft crashed on approach during a training mission at about 7:55 a.m. A board of officers is investigating the accident. More information will be released as it becomes available.

The U.S. Air Force’s Air Education and Training Command suspended all T-38C Talon jet trainer flights on May 1 after a second fatal crash in as many weeks. Two pilots were killed on the morning of May 1 when their aircraft assigned to the 80th Flying Training Wing at Sheppard Air Force Base crashed. Names of the victims of the latest accident have not been released. The other crash occurred during takeoff of a T-38 at Columbus Air Force Base, Mississippi on April 23. Instructor pilot Major Blair Faulkner of the 43rd Flying Training Squadron and student pilot 2nd Lt....

Highlighting reasons the U.S. Air Force selected the KC-45 Tanker as best for our men and women in uniform. WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria. Despite this fact, the losing bidder wants the Government Accountability Office to overturn the Air Force decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman. Starting today and regularly in the coming weeks, “Why We Won� will provide detailed examples of why Northrop Grumman was selected, drawing...

5/1/2008 - RANDOLPH AIR FORCE BASE, Texas (AFPN) -- Air Education and Training Command officials suspended flights of T-38C Talon aircraft May 1 following a fatal crash at Sheppard AFB, Texas. The crash was the second in two weeks involving a T-38, following an April 23 accident in which two pilots were killed when their T-38 crashed at Columbus AFB, Miss. General William R. Looney III, AETC commander, directed the stand-down. "We have no evidence that these incidents are related," General Looney said. "But until we have a more complete understanding of the causes of both accidents, it's prudent to...

WASHINGTON (AFP) - The United States Air Force had considered a plan to drop nuclear bombs on China during a confrontation over Taiwan in 1958 but it was overruled, declassified documents showed Wednesday. When he learned about it, President Dwight Eisenhower instead required the Air Force to initially use conventional bombs against Chinese forces if the crisis escalated, according to previously secret US Air Force history. The president's instructions seemingly astounded the Air Force top brass but the author of one of the studies released said US policymakers recognized that atomic strikes had "inherent disadvantages" because of the fall-out danger...

KOREAN VILLAGE, Iraq, April 28, 2008 – A hard-fought transition brought one Marine from shooting photos to shooting rifles. Marine Corps Cpl. Andrew M. Oquendo, a scout with Company D, 2nd Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, Regimental Combat Team 5, stands in front of a light armored vehicle at Camp Korean Village, Iraq, April 16, 2008. Oquendo, 22, from Paterson, N.J., joined the Marine Corps infantry after being a photographer for the U.S. Air Force. Photo by Marine Corps Cpl. Ryan Tomlinson, Regimental Combat Team 5   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Cpl. Andrew M. Oquendo, a scout with...

The US air force will this week call for the world's top scientists to come together in a 21st-century Apollo-style programme to develop greener fuels and tackle global warming. It wants universities, governments, companies and environmental groups to collaborate on a multibillion-dollar effort to work out greenhouse gas emissions of existing and future fuels. William Anderson, an assistant secretary of the air force, said the project aimed to calculate the overall carbon footprint of the world's energy sources, rather than merely measure their direct emissions. ... Anderson said the effort required was the modern equivalent of the Apollo missions to...

Making it crystal clear to Iran, Adm. Michael Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said Friday that the United States is preparing for "potential military courses of action" against it if Tehran does not stop aiding insurgents in Iraq and fails to stop building nuclear weapons. Admitting that a third conflict in the region would be "extremely stressing" for America's military, he warned Iran that it was mistake to suggest the United States did not have the resources to strike Iranian military targets. "I have reserve capability, in particularly our Navy and our Air Force, not just there,...

The Air Force just marked a historic milestone -- 1 million sorties, operational military flying missions, flown in support of the Global War on Terrorism. Airmen at Balad are contributing to those missions by putting F-16 Fighting Falcons in the air on a daily basis. Each career field in the Air Force impacts the generation of sorties in some way or another, from the Airmen who provide nutritional meals to help fuel and maintain the health of the pilots to those who fuel and maintain the aircraft. "No matter what goes in any other career field, we're here 24-hours a...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business."Gates said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth."Addressing officer students at the Air Force's Air University, the Pentagon chief praised the Air Force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to do more and to...

In the four years that Master Sgt. Tony Roy's electronic combat unit has been deployed, he's spent nearly two years away from home. Roy is one of roughly 140 airmen based at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base who have been constantly at war since March 2004, deploying several times to provide electronic cover to troops in Iraq and Afghanistan. Members of the 55th Electronic Combat Group hop back and forth from combat zones to Tucson for months at a time, coming home only long enough to retrain, regroup and head back.

4/17/2008 - BAGRAM AIR BASE, Afghanistan (AFPN) -- The Air Force high deck patient loading platform was designated operational with the transfer of five patients during a KC-135 Stratotanker channel mission from Afghanistan to Germany April 9. The HDPLP is a special-purpose vehicle with an enclosed lighted and climate-controlled cabin designed to access high deck platform airframes, such as KC-135, Civil Reserve Air Fleet B-767 and KC-10 Extender, for servicing and enplaning/deplaning patients. The platform has various configurations, but the most common is for mixed capacity which holds up to six litters and 10 ambulatory patients or staff. There are...

Unlike earlier armed conflicts, a large number of those serving today in the U.S. armed forces in Iraq and Afghanistan are women. Five such women, stationed at Edwards Air Force Base, recently discussed their experiences overseas in the combat zone. Their job titles and duties range from public affairs within the U.S. Embassy to training Iraqi police as a security forces patrolman. Four of the woman served in Iraq, primarily in Baghdad, while one was stationed in Bagram, Afghanistan, supporting the contracting activities in the area. Despite the general equality of women serving with men in today's military, there are...

4/11/2008 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- Since 3-year-old Al Amreeki left Balad Air Base, Iraq, with more than 45 percent of his body burned from a stove fire at his home, he has come a long way due to treatment from Airmen and medics throughout the world. The young boy's uncle brought him to the Air Force Theater Hospital in Iraq Jan. 25, and since then the boy has traveled aboard a C-17 Globemaster III to Landstuhl Regional Medical Center in Germany and onto Andrews Air Force Base, Md., and finally arriving by commercial air bus to...

NEW YORK, April 11 (Reuters) - Boeing Co (BA.N: Quote, Profile, Research) said on Friday it would use its own money to carry on production of its C-17 military transport plane, despite a lack of firm new orders, in the expectation that Congress will ultimately fund further U.S. Air Force purchases of the plane. The future of Boeing's C-17, the workhorse airlifter for the U.S. armed forces, has been in doubt for some time as the Pentagon has refused to add funding for planes beyond the 190 it has on order, and international sales have been weak. Citing Congressional support...

The U.S. Air Force trusts Lt. Col. Martha McSally to fly its fighter jets. In fact, in the last decade McSally was the first woman to fly one in combat. But when McSally leaves the base where she is currently stationed, the Air Force won't let her drive a car. If she even travels in a car, she must be in the back seat. She must be accompanied by a man. And in or out of a car, she must wear a black robe that covers her body from head to foot. McSally is stationed in Saudi Arabia, whose ...

DOD briefing. Rescue underway. Nothing follows.

B-1 went down around 11:30am EST.

BREAKING ON TV!!

4/10/2008 - WESTHAMPTON BEACH, N.Y. (AFPN) -- A retired chief master sergeant was awarded the Air Force Cross 40 years after the mission which earned him the Air Force's second-highest honor April 5 here. Nearly 300 members of Chief Master Sgt. Dennis Richardson's former unit attended the ceremony for the flight engineer with the 106th Rescue Wing for 30 years as he was recognized for his actions during a rescue mission in Vietnam March 14, 1968. Twenty-one enlisted Airmen have been awarded the Air Force Cross since its inception. Since the end of the Vietnam War, only three Air Force...

4/10/2008 - HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. (AFPN) -- MH-53 Pave Low helicopter tail number 68-10357 flew its final mission and last flight supporting special operations forces March 28 in Iraq after 38 years of service. The helicopter was the lead command and control helicopter for a mission to rescue approximately 50 American prisoners of war from the Son Tay prison camp in North Vietnam in 1970, which became a significant event for Air Force special operations. From Iraq, the MH-53 known as 357 will be transported to the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force in Dayton, Ohio, where it will...

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colorado, April 10 (Reuters) - The United States is set to start operating a powerful new military communications satellite over the Pacific next week, the first of a planned six-satellite network that will boost data flows 10-fold, the Air Force Space Command said Thursday.

The Empire Strikes Back--at Schwalier: Defense Chief Robert Gates, top Pentagon lawyer Daniel Dell'Orto, and unnamed Justice Department confreres have struck yet another blow at Terryl J. Schwalier, Washington's designated Khobar Towers scapegoat. They have forced USAF to halt and reverse its efforts to restore Schwalier's second star after a 10-year struggle. The new decision was elaborated in a March 28 letter from Secretary of the Air Force Michael W. Wynne to the Air Force Review Boards Agency, ordering it to halt implementation of its recent decision to correct "an injustice" and retroactively promote Schwalier to major general. That corrective...

Last Colorado Air Guard MIA Laid to Rest in Arlington Cemetery Story by Tech Sgt. Mike Smith Posted on 04.08.2008 at 01:43PM ARLINGTON, Va. - The remains of Colorado Air National Guard Maj. Perry H. Jefferson, who vanished during an observation flight 39 years ago over the jungles of South Vietnam, were at last laid to rest at Arlington National Cemetery. Three days of events here were a high-profile attempt to put closure to a missing-in-action mystery, but what exactly happened to the intelligence officer and his Army Reserve pilot, then-1st Lt. Arthur Ecklund, during their fateful observation flight may...

A great inside look at a Pentagon after-action report on that embarrassing nuke flub where the Air Force flew a couple doomsday weapons across the US without even knowing it. Let's hope this report doesn't just collect dust on some general's shelf and that the recommendations are actually implemented. From our friends at Popular Mechanics: One might think that the United States' nuclear weapons -- the cornerstone deterrent in the country's arsenal -- would be treated with the utmost precision. This comfortable illusion was shaken on Aug. 31, 2007, when crews loaded six live nuclear warheads onto a B-52 bomber...

FORWARD OPERATING BASE KALSU, Iraq, April 7, 2008 – When an Air Force engineer first stepped foot in Hawr Rajab, it was an al-Qaida in Iraq safe haven. The thought that came to mind was a scene from an old western movie. Airmen from the 557th Expeditionary Rapid Engineer Deployable Heavy Operational Repair Squadron Engineers, or RED HORSE, Squadron teach masonry to Village of Hope students at Patrol Base Stone in Hawr Rajab, Iraq, April 2, 2008. Two hundred Hawr Rajab men, in four classes of 50, are scheduled to graduate from the vocational school. Courtesy photo   (Click photo...

9:40 p.m. Guam - Air Force officials are investigating the collision of a B-1 Bomber with emergency vehicles on the taxiway up at Andersen Air Force Base. Air Force Spokesman Capt. Joel Stark confirms that the B-1 Bomber was in transit from Singapore to Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota and had landed at AAFB for an inflight emergency. Capt. Stark couldn't disclose what the emergency was but did say the B-1 Bomber apparently had rolled while on the taxiway and collided into the vehicles just after 12 p.m. Friday. Capt. Stark says there were no injuries since the crew...

ARLINGTON, Va., April 4, 2008 – The remains of Colorado Air National Guard Maj. Perry H. Jefferson, who vanished during an observation flight 39 years ago over the jungles of South Vietnam, were at last laid to rest yesterday at Arlington National Cemetery. Members of the U.S. Air Force Honor Guard carry the remains of Colorado Air National Guard Maj. Perry Jefferson into the Old Chapel on Fort Myer, Va., April 3, 2008, 39 years after Jefferson went missing in action in Vietnam. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Mike R. Smith, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Three days...

A spokesperson for the US Air Force Central Public Affairs Office, South West Asia, said: “The US Air Force B-1, while taxiing after landing at Al Udeid Air Base, Qatar, was involved in a ground incident and caught fire at 21.10 local time on April 4. “The crew evacuated the aircraft and is safe. The fire was contained. A board of inquiry has been appointed and will investigate the incident.” At the time of going to print, officials in Qatar were not confirming the incident and the Air Force Public Affairs Office was looking into local reports that a number...

Reporting it crashed at a military base. No further details.

22:08 Al-Jazeera: U.S. B52 bomber explodes on landing at Qatar base (DPA)

Members of the U.S. Air Force’s source selection group raised concerns about the performance of the EADS refueling boom design during the KC-X tanker competition, according to Mark McGraw, Boeing’s tanker executive. The Air Force officials were “speaking loudly” behind closed doors in meetings about their worries, and this information found during the discovery phase of Boeing’s protest of the award to Northrop Grumman/EADS is “very encouraging” support for the company’s protest, McGraw told reporters during an April 3 teleconference. [...] Air Force worries about the risk associated with EADS’ boom performance, however, weren’t included in the final assessment of...

April 3, 1996 Ronald H. Brown, the U.S. secretary of commerce, is killed along with 32 other Americans when their U.S. Air Force plane crashes into a mountain near Dubrovnik, Croatia. Brown was leading a delegation of business executives to the former Yugoslavia to explore business opportunities that might help rebuild the war-torn region.

In the midst of the firestorm that is the contested U.S. Air Force KC-45 refueling tanker program, the first of the new aircraft has been sent to Germany for its cargo conversion. Northrop Grumman/EADS North America officials have been coy about how much work they are doing with the $60 million provided by the Air Force before Boeing protested the team's win. The company has not discussed much about its work since Boeing's March 11 protest of the award. But, now Northrop Grumman has acknowledged that D-1, the first developmental KC-45, was sent to Dresden March 4. Work was scheduled...

Can Five Air Forces All Be Wrong? by Lt. Gen. Tom McInerney Jed Babbin announced recently that he is opposing the USAF's decision to buy the KC-45A air refueling tanker from Northrop Grumman and its European partner, EADS. He bases this on two main points: "First, the warfighters need a tanker that isn't so big and heavy that is unable to deploy on many of the world's airfields; and second, the Air Force is taking an unreasonably high risk on the NG-EADS aircraft." Jed who is a respected friend and colleague has been gracious in allowing me to respond in...

    Just had a B1 Bomber fly over my home at about at 1500 to 2000 feet above the ground.  This is a strange place to have one of them fly over that low.  There isn't an air-base nearby.  There are also some 2500 to 3000 foot mountains close by, that it would likely have had to travel over or around to come by our property.  It looked just like the one pictured here.     I am located in Glendale, California and the aircraft flew down the valley over the Oakmont Country Club, from the direction of La Crescenta...

BAGHDAD - A U.S. warplane strafed snipers in the southern city of Basra, killing at least 16 suspected militants after Iraqi troops came under heavy fire, the American military said Iraqi police earlier claimed eight civilians, including two women and a child, had been killed in a predawn airstrike in the Hananiyah neighborhood, a known Shiite militia stronghold. But Maj. Brad Leighton, a U.S. military spokesman, said U.S. and Iraqi special operations forces had identified snipers on several roofs before the strike was ordered. An AC-130 gunship then opened fire on enemy positions on three roofs. "Initial reports indicate 16...

The USAF Aircraft Commander of Hillary's C-17 that landed in Bosnia speaks about what all Hillary has said.

The United States Defence Department has developed a prototype of an aircraft armed with a laser gun that could destroy tanks 10 miles away. The Airborne Tactical Laser weapon is to be mounted on a Boeing aircraft and is capable of destroying targets up to 15km (10m) away, according to Defense Update online magazine. The ten-centimetre-wide beam will heat targets almost instantly to thousands of degrees and will slice through metal even at maximum range. It is intended both for battlefield use and for missile defense.