Daily Report

The AirSea Battle concept of operations is about the Navy and Air Force achieving “better persistence in contested spaces for both our services, with less risk,” summarized Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz Tuesday. Meeting with reporters after his speech...

Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz hopes the Long Range Strike aircraft will be defined and budgeted in the 2012 budget. Speaking with reporters Tuesday, Schwartz said the program still needs to receive “the approval and buy-in” of Pentagon leadership,...

The Long Range Strike platform won’t be a “lone wolf” able to perform all conceivable functions, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Tuesday. When reporters pointed out that various Air Force and DOD leaders have spoken about the need...

It’s not been determined when the Air Force will pursue a replacement for the HH-60 Combat Search and Rescue aircraft, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told reporters Tuesday. “We prefer not to SLEP [perform a Service Life...

The Air Force’s brightest days are still ahead of it, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told attendees at AFA’s Air & Space Conference Tuesday. While the service may not be the marquee player in today’s fight, its contributions in...

There is no doubt that airmen possess the creativity and inventiveness, coupled with bold leadership and commitment, to help overcome the challenges that the service faces in reshaping itself during a time of fiscal austerity, said Chief of Staff Gen....

USAF must start considering a replacement for its elderly T-38 trainer that is not only economical but will successfully bridge the gap between 4th and 5th generation aircraft, Gen. Stephen Lorenz, commander of Air Education and Training Command, told reporters...

Defense officials are exploring the realm of cyberspace much like past aviators explored the possibilities of flight a century ago, said Gen. Stephen Lorenz, Air Education and Training Command head. Speaking at AFA’s Air & Space Convention, Lorenz said: “Cyberspace...

With the air reserve components now irrevocably linked to the air expeditionary force construct, Air National Guard Director Lt. Gen. Harry Wyatt III noted Monday that the same recapitalization problems facing the active Air Force are now being faced by...

The Air National Guard must invest in its elderly F-16 Block 30 fleet to maintain the nation’s air sovereignty alert sites—16 of the 18 sites are operated by ANG—because it’s “difficult” to see how ASA units can recapitalize before their...

“It is important to understand that NATO is a trans-Atlantic organization, so it is very important to keep a NATO flag in the US,” said Maj. Gen. Jaap Willemse, a senior officer on the staff of NATO’s Allied Command Transformation....

Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, commander of Air Force Global Strike Command, told attendees Monday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference he had only 49 personnel and staff on board when AFGSC initially stood up in August 2009 at Barksdale AFB,...

With his command nearing full operational capability, Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz said he wants Air Force Global Strike Command to focus on modernization and sustainment. The AFGSC boss said Monday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference that he expects to...

With the New START treaty now under consideration of the US Congress, Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz said the Air Force Global Strike Command staff had submitted a detailed report—included with the Air Force portion of the Congressionally directed “1251 report”—to...

Air Force officials have always said that a light attack armed reconnaissance aircraft would be instrumental in building partnership nations’ capabilities, but until recently discussions on future requirements also addressed an organic capability, industry officials said at AFA’s Air &...

It wouldn’t make much sense to make the new long range strike aircraft a conventional platform first, then add the nuclear capabilities later, US Strategic Command chief Gen. Kevin Chilton told the Daily Report, Monday at AFA’s Air & Space...

A program to replace the Air Force’s Minuteman ICBMs should be underway by now, US Strategic Command chief Gen. Kevin Chilton said Monday. Addressing AFA’s Air & Space Conference, Chilton said the Congress has ordered the existing Minuteman fleet to...

Retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula said the Air Force needs a next-generation long range strike platform to maintain it’s role as the world’s sole superpower. “We have a geriatric bomber force. We have a geriatric fighter force. We have a...

The United State’s adversaries are looking to exploit the Defense Department’s dependence on space-based technology and cut-off communication necessary to conduct combat operations, said retired Lt. Gen. David Deptula, at AFA’s annual Air & Space Conference. “We are facing what...

Roughly a year’s time and $5 million have given Joint Surveillance and Target Attack Radar System the new ability to track “dismounted targets,” combining this new ability with a dramatically expanded capacity to transmit Ground Moving Target Information to “customers”...

Though the B-52 fleet has been one of the centerpieces of the Air Force’s reinvigorated nuclear mission, its capability to launch nuclear cruise missiles remains very much in doubt, as the service’s sole weapon left in its active inventory is...

The “single greatest finding” of the Air Force’s Technology Horizons science and technology vision document is that the service could reap “enormous increases in capability and manpower efficiencies and cost reductions” through much greater use of highly adaptable and highly...

In a climate of budgeting austerity and limited fiscal resources, the Air Force Reserve serves as an example of efficiency, potentially serving as a model for the force as a whole. Air Force Reservists currently maintain the same readiness, receiving...

Roughly 10 percent of the Air Force’s 70,000 Reservists are on active duty today, said CMSgt. Dwight Dale Badgett, command chief for Air Force Reserve Command, during a panel discussion Monday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. About 25 percent...

CMSgt. Dwight Dale Badgett, command chief for Air Force Reserve Command, said one suicide is “too many.” On average, about three Reservists a year take their own lives, but there have been two suicides just in the last month, he...

: “There’s only one that [Iran] will be stopped, if at all, and not even stopped but delayed, and that would be by military attack,” stated columnist Charles Krauthammer at the AFA’s Air & Space Conference, “and I think it...

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.) held a field hearing Sept. 13 in Grand Forks, N.D., to urge more speed by the Air Force and FAA in dealing with the issue of unmanned aircraft access to the airspace over North Dakota. Dorgan,...

Air Combat Command officials say the switch to a baseline 179-day deployment schedule only affects an "estimated 12 to 15 percent of aviation units" since the majority already deploy for more than 120 days. (See DR's Changing Tempo) According to ACC, some 71 percent of the Air Force currently deploys for longer than the existing 120-day baseline. That, said Gen. Norton Schwartz, Chief of Staff, in a Sept. 2 memo, provided "little in terms of predictability and stability." Gen. William Fraser III, ACC commander, said that the new baseline "increases continuity for combatant commanders and provides greater opportunities for airmen to reset when they redeploy to home station." Combat Air Force units, which operate on a 1:3 deployment-to-dwell ratio, will have their home station time increase from 12 months to 18 months. Schwartz expects the new baseline to remain in effect for the duration of Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan. (ACC release; CSAF memo)

The Indiana Air National Guard’s 122nd Fighter Wing flew its last F-16 sortie Sept. 11, according to a Journal Gazette report. The wing, which has flown Vipers for the past 19 years, learned in early 2009 that it would transition...

Lockheed Martin announced Sept. 13 that the first production C-5M Super Galaxy now has a newly painted tail flash. Lockheed’s Marietta, Ga., production facility painted tail No. 31285 with the new flash. The company expects to deliver this aircraft to...

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, Sept. 3, 2010 Sortie Type OND OEF OND/OEF Total YTD ISR 23 76 99 17,689 CAS/Armed Recon 14 77 91 23,707 Airlift 152 152 42,692 Air refueling 62 62 11,654 Rescue 26 26 5,422 Total...