In the opinion of several retired Air Force generals, the decisions announced April 6 by Defense Secretary Robert Gates do not bode well for the future of airpower. Indeed, Gates’ moves, including capping F-22 production at 187, appear aimed at...

A DOD spokesman said Wednesday that the Air Force did not recommend buying more than 187 F-22 aircraft in budget deliberations that concluded with the program announcements Monday by Defense Secretary Robert Gates. Geoff Morrell, Gates’ top spokesman, told the...

A glut of fighter aircraft plus the emergence of unmanned aircraft, especially the MQ-9 Reaper, as tactical air assets drove the decisions to retire 250 Air Force legacy fighters—mostly F-16s—next year, and halt F-22 production at 187 airframes, two of...

Georgia’s two Senators, Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R) and Sen. Johnny Isakson (R), along with Connecticut Sen. Joe Lieberman (D/I), have come out in strong opposition to Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ plan to halt F-22 production at 187 airframes. And, all three Senators said they would work to reverse the decision as Congress debates the Fiscal 2010 defense bills. “I am extremely disappointed in this decision,” wrote Chambliss, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, in a joint release with Isakson issued April 6 after Gates’ press conference earlier that day that announced the news on the F-22. Chambliss added, “Air Force leadership recommended procuring 60 additional F-22s. I am disappointed that the Obama Administration did not accept its recommendations.” Isakson said he was “severely disappointed” in Gates’ announcement, noting that, “The F-22 is vital to 21st century American military superiority.” Lieberman, who chairs the Senate armed services airland panel, said in a separate release April 6, he “strongly” opposes the F-22 decision. “If we stop the F-22 program now, our industrial base will suffer a major blow before the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter reaches full-rate production,” he stated.

Sen. Joe Lieberman (D/I-Conn.), head of the Senate Armed Services Committee’s airland panel, said earlier this week he disagrees with Defense Secretary Robert Gates’ decision to stop production of Air Force C-17 transports at 205 units. “Every combatant commander I speak to tells me that we need more of these aircraft and I will work to make sure they stay in production," Lieberman said in a release issued on April 6. Gates earlier that day had presented his major recommendations for DOD’s Fiscal 2010 budget to the press, which included completing the US military’s production run of C-17s at 205 aircraft. Gates said DOD’s analysis “concludes that we have enough C-17s.” In a separate statement April 6, Sen. Kit Bond (R-Mo.) also criticized the move, questioning the logic of rendering a decision on the C-17 before the results of the Pentagon’s mobility capability requirements study are known around June. In fact, he called it “premature” and “an example of ready, fire, aim. Interestingly, the Obama Administration’s own defense agenda characterized the C-17 as one of the “essential” Air Force systems warranting greater investment.

San Diego-based General Atomics Aeronautical Systems has finally flown its long-anticipated Predator C unmanned aerial vehicle, a stealthy, jet-powered model considered as a potential successor to the company’s MQ-1 Predator and MQ-9 Reaper UAVs. Stephen Trimble of Flight Magazine broke...

As a new battle heats up on Capitol Hill over the fate of the C-17 (see above), this we know: Boeing has delivered 185 of the 205 C-17s that the Air Force has ordered to date, Jerry Drelling told the...

The Air Force announced yesterday that it is poised to begin negotiations with representatives of a commercial land developer for the use of 334 acres of undeveloped prairie land on Beale AFB. Calif. The Air Force Real Property Agency is...

Members of the airborne networking division within the 653rd Electronic Systems Group at Hanscom AFB, Mass., are tacking the challenge of adding secure data-linking technology known as the multi-function advanced data link (MADL) onto the B-2, F-22, and F-35 so...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest AsiaApril 6, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 26 8 34 3,733 CAS/Armed Recon 28 79 104 9,505 Airlift 120 120 12,755 Air refueling 45 45 4,335 Total 303 30,328...