Daily Report

April 8, 2013

Shaw F-16 Pilot Dies in Afghanistan

Capt. James Steel, an F-16 pilot assigned to Shaw AFB, S.C., died last week when his fighter crashed near Bagram Airfield, Afghanistan. Steel’s F-16 went down about 10 miles south of Bagram’s runway while he was returning from a routine...

A-10s Begin Leaving Barksdale

Air Force Reserve Command’s 917th Fighter Group at Barksdale AFB, La., is scheduled to start transferring its 24 A-10C ground-attack jets to other units on Monday as part of the reserve component’s force structure changes authorized by Congress in Fiscal...

Rodriguez Assumes AFRICOM’s Reins

Army Gen. David Rodriguez last week succeeded Army Gen. Carter Ham as commander of US Africa Command during a ceremony at the command’s headquarters in Stuttgart, Germany. Ham, who had led the command since March 2011, plans to retire after...

Twenty-Third Air Force Inactivated

Air Force Special Operations Command inactivated 23rd Air Force, its former warfighting headquarters, during a ceremony at Hurlburt Field, Fla., announced command officials. “We realized it would be more efficient to reunite the staff under AFSOC,” said Brig. Gen. Timothy...

The Pentagon’s Cap Games Are Not Helping

Sequestration has kicked in, but the fog of uncertainty that surrounded the Pentagon’s Fiscal 2013 budget will affect the Fiscal 2014 budget in similar fashion, said Todd Harrison, senior defense budget fellow with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments....

Boots, Billeting, and Civilian Hiring Boom Need Relook

If the trend lines continue, personnel costs and operations and maintenance expenditures will consume some 86 percent of the Defense Department’s budget in Fiscal 2021 under the Budget Control Act’s caps, said Todd Harrison, senior defense budget fellow with the...

US, Japan Release Okinawa Consolidation Plan

The United States and Japan completed the plan to reduce the US military footprint on Okinawa, while maintaining an “effective US force” in the area, announced Pentagon officials. The 29-page Okinawa Consolidation Plan, released on April 5, outlines the incremental...

Newest HC-130J Arrives at Davis-Monthan

The Air Force’s latest factory-fresh HC-130J rescue aircraft last week arrived at its new home at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., from Lockheed Martin’s production plant in Marietta, Ga., announced the company. Aircraft number 5719 touched down at the Arizona base on...

Potential Sale of F-35s or F-15SEs to South Korea

The Pentagon last week announced the potential sale of either 60 Lockheed Martin F-35A strike fighters or 60 Boeing F-15 Silent Eagle fighters to South Korea. The F-35 deal would be a $10.8 billion foreign military sale, while the F-15SE...