Key House defense appropriator Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.) continues to back the split-buy approach as the only means to push ahead with the Air Force’s protest-plagued KC-X tanker program. His comments during a Feb. 16 visit to Boeing facilities in...

The Air Force’s new acquisition objective for the F-22 likely won’t be officially announced until President Obama decides whether to certify the airplane as a critical defense program that must be kept going, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton...

The Air Force is now on contract to buy 15 more C-17s, bringing the planned inventory up to 205 airplanes. That means the new “last day” of C-17 production, barring further USAF orders, will be in late 2010, according to...

That is the message Maj. Gen. Stephen Sargeant, head of the Air Force Operational Test and Evaluation Center, put forth for more than 400 government and industry acquisition professionals gathered in Albuquerque, N.M. last week for the 2009 USAF Test and Evaluation Days Conference. According to a Feb. 17 AFOTEC release, Sargeant said that achieving "acquisition excellence" requires early and continuous communication between testers and system program office personnel and major command requirements developers. "It is clear that integrated developmental and operational testing is the most efficient use of scarce resources and leads to early identification of issues that can be resolved with the least cost and impact on the [weapons program] schedule." He went on to say that such "early influence" already has saved the Air Force millions of dollars and sped up fielding of new warfighting capabilities. He urged "codifying and institutionalizing that approach."

Anyone hoping that export orders would rescue the F-22 program from potential near-term shutdown will get no cheer from the Air Force leadership. Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz told defense reporters Feb. 17 in Washington, D.C., that, for the...

Officials at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, prompted members of the C-17 Executive Program Management Review—including airmen from the US, Britain, Canada, and Australia, as well as Boeing industry representatives—to gather in Alaska earlier this month so the group could experience first-hand...

The aircraft maintainers at Luke AFB, Ariz., undoubtedly have done a magnificent job keeping F-16D No. 83-178 flying over the past 24 years, since it has accumulated some 7,238 flight hours—the average life expectancy is now 6,000+ hours. Now, the...

Speaker of the US House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on a Feb. 14 visit to Aviano AB, Italy, got to bestow a Bronze Star medal upon TSgt. Phoebus Lazaridis, a tactical air control party airman with the 8th Air...

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), speaking at a Montgomery Chamber of Commerce event on Feb. 16, said he does not believe Congress will go for another round of base closures since it is “still digesting the last BRAC,” reports the Maxwell-Gunter...

According to a Feb. 17 Pacific Air Forces photo release, Lt. Col. Robert Novotny, commander of the 67th Fighter Squadron at Kadena AB, Japan, surpassed 2,000 flying hours in the F-15 during a training sortie on Feb. 12. n The...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaFeb. 16-17, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 54 36 90 1,872 CAS/Armed Recon 80 158 238 4,803 Airlift 260 260 6,158 Air refueling 100 100 2,220 Total 688 15,053...