The Pentagon announced Sept. 22 that Maj. Rodolfo I. Rodriguez, 34, of El Paso, Tex., died Sept. 20 in Islamabad, Pakistan, of wounds suffered from an improvised explosive device. The blast reportedly killed some 53 people, including two DOD personnel....

Air Force leaders and nuclear enterprise "mission partners" at a nuclear summit last week at Bolling AFB, D.C., reached several decisions that relate to organizational and management issues, according to a Sept. 20 Air Force release. For one thing, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center, an Air Force Materiel Command entity at Kirtland AFB, N.M., will expand its role to include "all nuclear sustainment … and all sustaining activities inside CONUS weapons storage areas." This will, according to the release, clear up "previously ambiguous chains of command." Second, the Air Force will develop "a stronger, more centralized inspection process" that engages "common policies and procedures" with the Defense Threat Reduction Agency. Third, Air Education and Training Command will consolidate and expand "lead-in and follow-on mission specific training for security personnel working in the nuclear field. And, last, the Air Force will create a new headquarters staff office (designated A10) to offer "singular focus on nuclear matters." Air Force leaders plan to continue the discussion and decision-making on nuclear mission issues during this fall's Corona conference.

Whatever you’ve read recently about the defeat of 5th-generation F-35 Joint Strike Fighters by 4th-generation Russian fighters during a simulated combat exercise in Hawaii, don’t believe it. That’s the word of F-35 program executive officer Maj. Gen. Charles Davis in...

Members of the Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center team at Tinker AFB, Okla., were instrumental to quick fielding of the Sniper pod on the B-1B bomber, which saw its first combat employment with the targeting pod last month in operations...

A broad agency announcement issued Sept. 19 by the Air Force Office of Scientific Research is a first step toward designation of three National Hypersonic Science Centers, according a Sept. 22 release from NASA, AFOSR’s hypersonic research partner. The BAA...

Lockheed Martin said Sept. 22 that the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile had successfully completed its product upgrade verification flight test on Sept. 18 at White Sands Missile Range, N.M. This particular PUV test focused on the missile’s employment of GPS...

According to a report in the State Journal-Register, the Illinois Air National Guard’s 183rd Fighter Wing this week will lose its final F-16 fighter, courtesy of BRAC 2005. Some of the Air Guardsmen that supported the F-16 mission, namely firefighters...

US Defense Secretary Robert Gates believes that Russia’s incursion into Georgia has prompted Europe, Central Asia, and the Far East to view Russia “through a different set of lenses” and will prove to be a “costly strategic overreach.” Speaking Sept....

The Air Force Personnel Center plans to refine the way in which the Air Force fills 365-day deployments. The net result, according to a Sept. 19 AFPC release, will be to give airmen destined to serve those year-long deployments more...

The Civil Air Patrol, USAF’s Auxiliary, has an at-large position coming open on its Board of Governors early next year. To fill that spot, CAP wants applications by Oct. 19, according to a Sept. 19 release. Among requirements for the...

Rep. Bob Filner (D-Calif.), chairman of the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, introduced a bill (H.R. 6939) that would ensure timely funding for VA health care. It’s a companion measure to one we reported had been introduced on the Senate side. Filner,...