The Air Force will shed some $34 billion over the next five fiscal years under proposed measures that are part of the four services’ broader efforts to cut $100 billion in overhead, Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Thursday. Among the...

Of the $100 billion in savings collectively identified by the Air Force, Army, Marine Corps, and Navy, the four services will apply $28 billion of that over the next five fiscal years “to deal with higher than expected operating expenses,”...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Thursday a new “long-range, nuclear-capable penetrating bomber” will be “a major area of new investment for the Air Force” and gave every indication that funding to start this acquisition would be included in the President’s...

Lt. Gen. Jim Kowalski on Thursday took command of Air Force Global Strike Command at Barksdale AFB, La., succeeding Lt. Gen. Frank Klotz, who is retiring. Kowalski accepted the command’s guidon from Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz during the...

The Pentagon’s base budget request for Fiscal 2012 will be about $553 billion, according to Defense Secretary Robert Gates. That’s about $13 billion less than the Defense Department had estimated it would receive in Fiscal 2012 at this same time...

The Marine Corps' version of the F-35 strike fighter escaped the chopping block Thursday, but Defense Secretary Robert Gates placed it on "the equivalent of a two-year probation," giving its developers that amount of time to get it performing well, or else. "If we cannot fix this variant during this timeframe and get it back on track in terms of performance, cost, and schedule, then I believe it should be cancelled," he said during a Pentagon press briefing on the Defense Department's efficiency initiative and Fiscal 2012 budget matters. Gates said the marines' F-35B short takeoff and vertical landing model "is experiencing significant testing problems," unlike the Air Force's F-35A and Navy's F-35C, which "are proceeding satisfactorily." The F-35B's issues "may lead to a redesign of the aircraft's structure and propulsion, changes that could add yet more weight and more cost to an aircraft that has little capacity to absorb more of either," he said. As a result, he said he's pushing the F-35B to the "back of the overall [F-35] production sequence." (Gates-Mullen transcript) (See also DOD's new F-35 fact sheet with detailed description of changes)

Air Force officials reported that, for the second consecutive year, there were no airman fatalities from personal motor vehicle mishaps between Christmas Day and New Year’s Day. “There is no doubt that this success is due to airmen being not...

TSgt. Leonardo Cepero Febres and TSgt. George Nikolakakos are making history by being the first two USAF airmen to attend the Inter-American Noncommissioned Officers Academy (INCOA) at Lackland AFB, Tex. The NCO school is a part of the larger Inter-American...

The Navy’s intelligence shop judges that China’s new J-20 prototype will be both stealthy and have supercruise capability, and is “likely designed to counter US F-22 and F-35 capabilities.” These comments came in response to press requests for an analysis...

Cyber warfare is starting to take some resources away from traditional, “kinetic” weapons, according to Vice Adm. David Dorsett, the Navy’s chief of information dominance and intelligence. Dorsett said that the so-called “Stuxnet” cyber weapon that apparently disabled some of...

The National Aviation Hall of Fame in Dayton, Ohio, has announced its Class of 2011 inductees. They are: the late Capt. Iven Carl Kincheloe, a record setting jet age test pilot hailed as “the first man in space;” retired Col....