After the Senate Armed Services Committee approved him by voice vote on Friday, the full Senate is expected to vote this week on the confirmation of Michael Donley to be Air Force Secretary. Donley has been serving since June as...

The Air Force and Navy earlier this month came to terms on how they will divvy up depot work on about 80 percent of the F-35 stealth fighter, and set the parameters on how they will decide on the remaining workload allocation. “This was truly a joint effort ... ensuring we will have depot repair capability up and running when we need it,” said Debra Walker, USAF’s deputy assistant secretary for logistics, in a release issued to Congress Sept. 22, but publicly only yesterday. The services laid out the terms of the agreement in a joint letter sent to the F-35 joint program office Sept. 16. F-35 airframe maintenance, scheduled to be up and running in 2012, will be located at the Fleet Readiness Center-East at MCAS Cherry Point, N.C., and Ogden Air Logistics Center at Hill AFB, Utah. Engine maintenance, which will also stand up in 2012, will be at the Oklahoma City ALC at Tinker AFB, Okla., to be joined in 2014 by the Fleet Readiness Center-Southeast at NAS Jacksonville, Fla. The F-35 engine lift system, which will be resident in Marine Corps F-35Bs, will be maintained beginning in 2014 at Cherry Point. A source-selection team, comprised of representatives from all the services and the JPO, will decide on the work for the remaining 20 percent of the aircraft, which includes software and some avionics systems. Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah) got the word out already in June that Ogden and Tinker would get some of the F-35 depot work.

The B-1B has joined the B-52H and the C-17 as the third aircraft certified for “unlimited use” of the synthetic fuel blend that the Air Force is working to clear for its entire inventory by early next decade. Formal approval...

The Air Force is addressing issues that arose this past summer with its two evolved expendable launch vehicles before it will launch them again, Gary Payton, USAF’s deputy under secretary for space programs, said last week. Speaking to reporters at...

Boeing has won a $15 million contract to develop advanced targeting capabilities for the B-52H bomber, the company announced Sept. 24. Included in this work will be software upgrades to improve upon how the flight crew transmits video and targeting...

Extensive bioeffects research completed recently by Air Force Research Lab scientists has shown that the Active Denial System, a millimeter-wave directed-energy weapon, can be used safely operationally in counter-personnel roles. Data showed that the millimeter waves “do not promote cancer...

Northrop Grumman announced yesterday that it has provided a compact, standalone, 15kW solid-state laser to the Air Force Research Lab’s directed energy directorate at Kirtland AFB, N.M. The system, called Vesta II, was developed with Defense Department sponsorship under the...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaSept. 25-27, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 81 42 123 9,701 CAS/Armed Recon 134 202 336 27,672 Airlift 377 377 34,665 Air refueling 153 153 13,665 Total 989 85,998...