Daily Report

June 2, 2014

Moving the “Big Rocks” Forward

Air Force Global Strike Command is beginning a thorough Force Improvement Program with 8th Air Force bomber wings that will mirror its efforts in the ICBM mission, AFGSC boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson told Air Force Magazine. On May 27,...

Retooling Minuteman Tours

Air Force Global Strike Command is instituting some core changes in the way it develops ICBM airmen early in their careers, AFGSC boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson told Air Force Magazine. The command is going to get away from the...

Bergdahl Coming Home

Army Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl, the only known US military member to be held prisoner in Afghanistan, was released May 31 after nearly five years in captivity, President Barack Obama announced the same day. The US agreed to transfer five detainees...

No Time or Speed Limits

The Air Force will buy the 80-100 Long-Range Strike Bombers at whatever rate makes the most sense, service acquisition chief William LaPlante said in an interview with Air Force Magazine. Acknowledging that USAF will have a lot on its plate...

Feel Free to Do Better

Contractors proposing concepts for the Air Force’s Long-Range Strike Bomber can offer better than the Air Force’s minimum requirements and get paid for them if the price is right, service acquisition head William LaPlante told Air Force Magazine. Although USAF...

The 80 Percent Solution

The first version of the Long-Range Strike Bomber is “very deliberately” not the final version, Air Force acquisition chief William LaPlante said in an interview. LaPlante said the first version could be described as the “80 percent solution” to USAF’s...

Software and Live Shots

An Air Force F-35A Lightning II recently flew with the next iteration Block 3i software and hardware upgrades required for initial operational capability in 2016, Lockheed Martin announced. The software Block, flown for the first time at Edwards AFB, Calif.,...

The Origins of the FIP

When news first broke of the cheating at Malmstrom AFB, Mont., earlier this year, Air Force Global Strike Command boss Lt. Gen. Stephen Wilson reached out to a colleague from the US military’s nuclear community, Navy Vice Adm. Michael Conner,...

Keeping BACN in the Diet

Air Force officials are working to integrate the contract-operated Battlefield Airborne Communications Node fleet as permanent Air Force assets, officials said. The mixed fleet of specially modified E-11A business jets and RQ-4B Global Hawks have provided beyond line-of-sight networking to...

CAP Gets Congressional Gold

President Barack Obama signed S. 309 into law on May 30 awarding the Civil Air Patrol’s World War II veterans the Congressional Gold Medal. The Gold Medal is the highest honor Congress can bestow and is the “first major recognition...