Daily Report

Sept. 25, 2013

The Ultimate Guarantee of National Sovereignty

The world isn’t moving to zero nuclear weapons anytime soon, making it imperative for the United States to proceed with modernizing and recapitalizing the nation’s nuclear deterrent force, said Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, Air Force Global Strike Command boss. Not...

Rethinking Mission Lines, Maybe

Despite a historic convergence of strategic factors—the end of a long war, a new strategic posture, and historic budget uncertainty—the Quadrennial Defense Review will likely not be “transformational,” said Maj. Gen. Steven Kwast, the Air Force’s QDR office director. Some...

Think Tank Outlines Defense Spending Plan

The Stimson Center, a national security think tank in Washington, D.C., issued a report on Sept. 24 outlining a defense strategy designed to cut about $50 billion from the Defense Department’s annual budget, yet still advance US national security. The...

Changes in ICBM Infrastructure Sustainment

The Air Force is planning to shift the sustainment of its Minuteman III launch facilities and launch control centers to a depot-maintenance model by 2017, said Maj. Gen. Sandra Finan, commander of the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center at Kirtland...

Unconventional Thinking

The Air Force aims to have the Long Range Strike Bomber available for the nuclear mission shortly after it enters the fleet for conventional roles, said Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, head of Air Force Global Strike Command. The Air Force...

Seven Summits Conquered

Maj. Robert Marshall and Maj. Mark Uberuaga, co-founders of the Air Force’s Seven Summits Challenge, assembled Air Force-led military teams that climbed to the highest point on each continent. Over the course of eight years, these teams scaled the summit...

F-35A Depot Gets First Aircraft

The first F-35A strike fighter destined for depot maintenance arrived at the Ogden Air Logistics Complex on the grounds of Hill AFB, Utah. This airframe touched down at Hill on Sept 20, according to a base release. Assigned to the...

Orion Takes Flight

Aurora Flight Sciences’ Orion remotely piloted aircraft recently completed its first flight, announced the company. The test of the long-endurance RPA took place on a range in the western United States on Aug. 24, states the company’s Sept. 17 release....