Daily Report

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said USAF had conducted “several strategic reviews inside the Air Force” as preparation for its 2010 budget deliberations, including for the F-22 decision “a broader strategic look at the total combat Air Force’s capability that...

Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.) pointed out during the May 19 House Armed Services Committee hearing on USAF’s 2010 budget request that the national military strategy calls for 2,250 fighters, whereas the accelerated retirement of some 250 legacy fighters would cause...

The Air Force’s wish-list of some 20 additional items not included in its Fiscal 2010 budget request landed on Capitol Hill Monday evening. Noteworthy is the fact that the list adds up to slightly more than $1.9 billion, less than a tenth of last year’s $20 billion list of unfunded priorities. Chief of staff Gen. Norton Schwartz, in a cover letter, said the 20 items either support the current "joint fight, accelerate programs to achieve national security goals, or identify programmatic disconnects"—the last referring to things that inadvertently got left out of the budget request due to the “rapid close” of the process. Last week, Schwartz told reporters that the list doesn’t involve “new starts or things that are not otherwise in the budget, but rather need to be accelerated or robusted for some good cause.” He labeled it an "underfunded" priorities list. Topping the items is $180.2 million for a Battlefield Airborne Communications Node, labeled as a “Joint Urgent Operational Need.” The program is a BD-700 aircraft the Air Force now leases, but wants to buy to save money. Some of the items listed are “a few so mission critical to the Combatant Commanders that we would provide offsets to ensure their funding,” Schwartz wrote to Congress. Last year’s list had many big-ticket items and was crafted to draw attention to the long neglect of USAF capabilities. Defense Secretary Robert Gates asked the then-Chief of Staff and Secretary of the Air Force to resign within weeks of their promoting the list on Capitol Hill. He instructed service chiefs to meet with him last week before they sent their UPLs to the Hill. (The UPL list)

The other top items on the Air Force’s list of 20 priorities not funded in its 2010 budget request (see item above) are modifications to EC-130H Compass Call aircraft, funding of Operationally Responsive Space satellites, spares and support gear for the first 10 F-35 fighters, and a forward-looking infrared system for the HH-60G Pave Hawk rescue helicopter. Also on the list: countermeasures for the A-10 attack aircraft, five more active electronically-scanned array radars for F-15C fighters, $331.1 million for two classified programs, 50 more air-to-air missiles, attrition replacements for three Pave Hawks, 11 military construction projects, two additional HC-130J refueling aircraft, modifications to the B-52 bomber, and gear to detect nuclear weapons detonations high in the atmosphere. (Air Force 2010 UPL)

The Air Force wants to separate the forward warfighting element from the rear day-to-day oversight element of 9th Air Force/Air Forces Central, so Gen. Norton Schwartz told lawmakers Tuesday during a House Armed Services Committee hearing on the 2010 Air...

It took 21 jacks to lift a venerable B-52 bomber 36 inches off the hangar floor so members of the 5th Maintenance Group at Minot AFB, N.D., could repair a one-fourth inch crack—it was an unheard of feat and one...

Active Again: The 525th Fighter Squadron at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, is on its first deployment since reactivation last fall as one of two F-22 Raptors units at the Alaska base. The squadron sent 12 Raptors to Andersen AFB, Guam, last...

Airmen of the 43rd Expeditionary Electronic Combat Squadron flew the unit’s 3,000th EC-130H Compass Call sortie May 19, a feat accomplished during five years of continuous deployment to operations in Iraq. The unit rotates airmen from its home base at...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaMay 16, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 26 18 44 5,448 CAS/Armed Recon 27 52 79 13,261 Airlift 150 150 18,514 Air refueling 42 42 6,007 Total 315 43,230...