The United States will engage “in expanded international cooperation in space” and pursue cooperative activities “to the greatest extent practicable” in areas like space exploration, according to the new National Space Policy issued by the White House Monday. In a...

Hollow Veto Threat: Any threat that President Obama would veto the Fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill over the inclusion of a competitive engine for the F-35 strike fighter is hollow, Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), Senate Armed Services Committee chairman, said...

Brig. Gen. Margaret Woodward on Monday assumed command of 17th Air Force (Air Forces Africa) during a change-of-command ceremony at Ramstein AB, Germany. Woodward was appointed for the position back in April. She replaces Maj. Gen. Ron Ladnier who led...

CMSAF James Roy visited the Air Force-led advisors of the Combined Air Power Transition Force and also met with members of the Afghan National Army Air Force in Kabul, Afghanistan, during a visit to the ANAAF base there June 23-24....

US Strategic Command has created a rapid-exploitation cell to increase the speed with which Tactical Satellite 3 imagery is processed and its products are passed on to the warfighter. On June 18, Tac-Sat-3 transitioned from being an Air Force-led on-orbit experiment to an operational asset under STRATCOM. The mini satellite's primary payload is a Raytheon-built hyperspectral sensor called Artemis. With the dedicated exploitation cell, Artemis is expected to provide 300 imagery products per month, with turnaround times of a few days or less, according to Lt. Col. Ryan Pendleton, chief of operationally responsive space integration for Air Force Space Command. During TacSat-3's experiment phase, there were only about 25 exploited Artemis images per month, with delivery times of weeks, he said. "This new capability will provide an unprecedented amount of spectral data to the warfighter on [intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance] targets worldwide," he said. (Peterson release)

The United States and South Korea have agreed to delay until late 2015 the transfer of operational control of military units on the Korean peninsula from the US to South Korea. Previously the two nations had planned the switch in...

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chair of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told reporters Monday that there are bigger issues over which President Obama might choose to veto the Fiscal 2011 defense authorization bill than the potential inclusion of a second...

Asked Monday if the Pentagon can realistically come up with another $100 billion in savings over five years, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.) said, “If anybody can do it, [Defense Secretary Robert] Gates can.” During a...

Members of the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing on June 25 celebrated the grand opening of a new sports lounge that they say rivals sports bars in US cities. In fact, wing officials said this Fox Sports Sky Box at the 379^th’s undisclosed forward base is "unlike any other in the history of the Department of Defense" as far as quality-of-life ventures are concerned. "Our service members are going to feel like they're back home in their favorite sports bar," said Lt. Col. Paul Kopecki, 379th Expeditionary Force Support Squadron commander. Inspiration for the lounge came after Fox sports broadcasters visited the base. "We all agreed that the guys and gals fighting for our country deserved something better," said Fox NFL Sunday co-host Terry Bradshaw. Fox donated all furniture and equipment, plus the franchise license. (379th AEW report by SSgt. Kelly White)

Air Sorties in Southwest Asia, June 22-23, 2010 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 44 112 156 11,467 CAS/Armed Recon 24 169 193 16,427 Airlift 363 363 29,843 Air refueling 104 104 7,717 Rescue 74 74 3,328 Total...