Daily Report

Jan. 25, 2012

All Options on the Table

President Obama told the nation Tuesday evening that the United States remains committed to keeping Iran from crossing the nuclear threshold. “Let there be no doubt: America is determined to prevent Iran from getting a nuclear weapon, and I will...

Conaton Tapped for Top Pentagon Personnel Post

President Obama on Tuesday nominated Air Force Undersecretary Erin Conaton to be undersecretary of defense for personnel and readiness. Conaton has been the Air Force’s No. 2 top civilian leader since March 2010. She has had a large role in...

Obama Moves to Fill Senior Defense Posts

President Obama on Tuesday announced that he’s nominated James Miller to be undersecretary of defense for policy and Frank Kendall to become the Pentagon’s acquisition czar. Miller has been the principal deputy in the policy shop since April 2009. If...

Stealth Transition

Last month’s factory rollout of the Air Force’s last F-22 on order marked the end of the sophisticated stealth fighter’s production run, but also heralded the service’s shifting focus to modernizing the Raptor fleet. “This is only the beginning. The...

Investing For Iran

The US military needs to “rebalance” its forces to adapt to an increasingly well-armed Iran, said Mark Gunzinger, senior fellow at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, on Tuesday. US forces are too heavily weighted toward short-range systems and...

Killing Us with Kindness

As the United States re-evaluates its defense posture in a post-Iraq, post-Afghanistan world, it should re-think its approach to dealing with Iran, and guard against the possibility of a charm offensive with a sinister motive. So said Mark Gunzinger of...

Training Command Turns 70

Air Education and Training Command celebrated its 70th anniversary this week. The organization, headquartered at Randolph AFB, Tex., traces its roots to the Army’s Air Corps Flying Training Command that was created on Jan. 23, 1942, to meet the sudden...

Sather Memorial Dedicated at Lackland

Remembering the first airman to die in Operation Iraqi Freedom, combat controllers and pararescue personnel dedicated a memorial to SSgt. Scott Sather at Lackland AFB, Tex., a part of Joint Base San Antonio. The Air Force shipped the 12,000-pound granite...

Cosmic Guinea Pig

Preparing to decommission a Global Positioning System Block IIA satellite later this month, operators at Schriever AFB, Colo., are testing the spacecraft to characterize how similar satellites’ systems respond to shutdown. “The information we gain from testing will drive down...