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BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:45 P.M.) – The United States tested the new smart bomb, GBU-53 StormBreaker, using one of their modern warplanes. According to reports, the U.S. Navy’s FA-18E/F Super Hornet fighter and attack aircraft launched the GBU-53 StormBreaker all-weather bomb on a designated target. The new bomb can be used in all weather conditions, including poor visibility, Janes Defense reported last week. An RMD spokesperson told Janes that the U.S. Air Force determines the number of tests needed to validate the bomb, but did not specify when it would be available. “The USAF (US Air Force) program office, in co-ordination...

China makes a move to end imports of American agricultural products but first..... Speaking in a video posted Sunday Libertarian activist and People's Rights leader Ammon Bundy spoke about the present situtation across the United States noting among other things: "There's middle ground that's right...the police haven't been right they're not right, rioters are not right, they're in the wrong...... The owner of a Louisville, Kentucky business shot dead when Louisville Police and National Guard forces opened fire early this morning. They claimed they were fired upon. David McAtee's sister said: "My brother did nothing wrong. He was an innocent...

(CNN) — The US Air Force has removed its minimum height requirements for prospective pilots, doing away with a barrier that had disadvantaged women. Previously, aspiring Air Force pilots were required to have a standing height of 5'4" to 6'5" and a sitting height of 34 to 40 inches. Applicants shorter than 5'4" or taller than 6'5" had to submit a waiver. Though most height waivers were approved, the restrictions eliminated about 44% of the US female population ages 20 to 29, according to the Air Force.

Starting life before there was a town as four walls and some dry goods for fur trappers, it served its first beer just 19 years after the town was founded and near-half a century before it was incorporated.The story below is the third in a series on America’s small businesses, their struggles under the shutdowns, and what they’re doing to survive. Over two weeks, The Federalist is traveling the country to tell more stories like this one.HUNTSVILLE, UTAH — Across the Wasatch mountains from the county seat of Ogden, in a tony country neighborhood by the Pineview Reservoir, and around...

The U.S. Air Force is changing its song to be gender-neutral as the service grows more diverse and adds more women across its ranks. Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein made the announcement Thursday during the Air Warfare Symposium in Florida, alongside Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force Kaleth O. Wright. Goldfein said the change applies to the third verse of the U.S. Air Force Song, sometimes known as "Wild Blue Yonder," which is traditionally sung at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs and often performed independently of the other verses.~~~SNIP~~~ Verse III is now: Here's a...

The United States Air Force updated its official dress code policy this month, in observance of religious practices, to allow military personnel to wear turbans or hijabs as a part of the uniform. The Air Force released an update to the “Dress and Personal Appearance of Air Force Personnel” code on Feb. 7, now permitting airmen to request a waiver to wear religious apparel while in uniform as long as they are “neat and conservative.”The material used for headwear must resemble the color of the assigned uniform. This includes camouflage, and must be worn in a fashion that presents a...

The B-52H fleet, already nearly 60 years old, has been the recipient of a steady but slow stream of upgrades to keep the planes useful. The Air Force is now committing to flying the bomber into the 2050s, a feat that will require even more improvements. The U.S. Air Force ordered 102 B-52H bombers during the Cold War, with the first planes delivered in May 1961. The old eight-engined warhorse has been in continuous service ever since, flying combat missions over the former Yugoslavia, Iraq, and Afghanistan. The Air Force plans to keep flying the remaining 76 B-52Hs through 2050,...

The iconic A-10 Thunderbolt II will be flying into the late 2030s thanks to a re-winging project completed by the U.S. Air Force. Air Force Materiel Command said in a press release on Monday that 162 A-10s received new wings thanks to a $1.1 billion project that began in 2011. The contract, awarded to Boeing in 2007, required the creation of new parts for the plane’s fuselage. “At the end of the program, making sure we had all the pieces and parts that we needed to make that happen required a really significant team effort,” said Stephen Zaiser, director of...

The Air Force announced Friday it will soon deploy two ground-based laser weapons to an undisclosed location to test how they can be used against small drones, the service’s first “operational field test” of an experimental “directed energy” weapon. Because laser weapons could fire constantly without wasting ammunition, military technology experts have theorized they could one day be useful in combating the small, remotely operated quadcopter drones that ISIS has used. They are also expected to be an effective counter against swarming attack drones, a concept that a handful of countries are exploring.

Even the U.S. Air Force couldn't stop the Mighty Missouri River from flooding Offutt Air Force Base. Between Saturday night and early Sunday, the 55th Wing called off a 30-hour, round-the-clock sandbagging effort because the floodwaters were rising too fast. "It was a lost cause. We gave up," said Tech. Sgt. Rachelle Blake, a 55th Wing spokeswoman. By Sunday morning, one-third of the base was underwater, she said. About 60 structures have been damaged, mostly on the south end of the base.

TUCSON, Ariz. -- It's nicknamed the Boneyard. It sits on 2,600 acres of desert land, with more than 3,000 military aircraft on the Air Force’s Davis-Monthan Base. It's more than a retirement home for planes from all four branches of the military, NASA, and the U.S. Forest Service. It's a sort of memorial with multiple uses. Many of the planes are scrapped for parts and some completely refurbished. The 309th Aerospace Maintenance and Regeneration Group (AMARG) is the only place in the country authorized to store military-grade planes. “We’re looked at as a national air power reservoir…How do you make...

China hopes to build a modern air force that is so powerful and advanced it can essentially “defeat” the U.S. Air Force “without actually fighting,” according to a new report. A study by the Project Air Force team at the Rand Corporation concludes that the objective of the Chinese air force is to become so powerful that it could crush U.S. air power if they ever had to fight. The study says that the Chinese could accomplish it by copying U.S. military capabilities and through self-innovation.

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The U.S. Air Force is assessing what damage more than a dozen F-22 Raptor fighters suffered when Tyndall Air Force Base sustained a direct hit from Hurricane Michael. Up to $2 billion in fighter jets were trapped on the ground because of maintenance issues and forced to ride out the Category 4 hurricane. Photographs show the hangars where F-22s were parked suffered severe damage. First, the good news: Although Tyndall Air Force Base took a hard hit from the hurricane, all 3,600 military personnel and their families living on the base were successfully evacuated beforehand. The 93 Air Force personnel...

A Tennessee Air National Guard colonel was demoted and promptly retired after a video that shows him leading a re-enlistment ceremony where one member recites her oath using a dinosaur puppet garnered millions of views online. In the video, which was posted Saturday to an unofficial Air Force Facebook group, an unidentified colonel can be seen leading the re-enlistment ceremony for Master Sgt. Robin Brown, who delivers her oath while wearing a dinosaur puppet on her hand and has the puppet mouth the words as she reads them aloud. According to a statement from Army Maj. Gen. Terry Haston, posted...

By his own admission, Merrill “Tony” McPeak was the farthest thing from a faceless bureaucrat. The 14th chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, Gen. McPeak retired 23 years ago, capping a military career that began in 1957 after he graduated from San Diego State University. Recalled today as a gruff gadfly who tried to reshape the Air Force in the wake of the Soviet Union’s collapse, he recently returned to San Diego on a barnstorming book tour for “Roles and Missions,” the final memoir in a trilogy that began with “Hangar Flying” and “Below the Zone.” While those...

The US Air Force Academy has said racial slurs scrawled on dormitory doors of five black cadets were by one of the supposedly targeted students. An inquiry into the September incident found that one of the cadets admitted to writing "go home" with an epithet on dorm doors, the school told US media. The vandalism shook the campus and drew a stern rebuke from commanders. ...

As part of an overall force reduction due to federal budget constraints, the U.S. military has been forced to cut members. The Marines, Air Force, and Army have all been affected and have begun a significant Reduction in Force (RIF). Here’s what you need to know about what’s happening with the military regarding the reduction. The What Over the summer, the Pentagon released a plan detailing cuts to the military that were to begin in fiscal year 2016. The federal government’s fiscal year began on October 1st, so those cuts are currently underway. The Army was by far the hardest...

Happy Birthday, United States Air Force The United States Air Force was established September 18, 1947. The U.S. Air Force song "Wild Blue Yonder" (video) Birthday of the U.S. Air Force (video)

One week after the U.S. Air Force declared the F-35A Joint Strike Fighter ready for combat, the Pentagon's top weapons tester warned that the aircraft is still fraught with problems and that fully-capable planes might not be available before the deadline that marks the end of development and the beginning of realistic combat testing. The Pentagon's director of operational testing, Michael Gilmore, stated in a memo obtained by Bloomberg that the F-35 is "actually not on a path toward success but instead on a path toward failing to deliver" the plane's full combat capabilities on time. Gilmore also said the...