A precious few new details about the Long Range Strike-Bomber program emerged at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said in a press conference on Friday the bomber program would be “a competition” and...

Personnel cuts weren’t—and won’t be—budget billpayers unless the Budget Control Act’s sequestration mechanism kicks in, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Friday. In a press conference at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Schwartz said “there won’t be...

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Friday current operations are eating away at the money available for future investment. Speaking at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Donley said the ratio of operations and maintenance spending compared to expenditures...

The Air Force submitted its proposal to reduce its nuclear-capable bomber fleet to 60 airframes in order to meet the overall ceilings on strategic launchers imposed by the New START agreement with Russia, said Lt. Gen. James Kowalski, head of...

While the United States is reducing the size of its nuclear arsenal, Russia and China are modernizing and developing their own strategic forces, according to Air Force Global Strike command boss Lt. Gen. James Kowalski. “It should be clear that...

Sixty-eight percent of all airmen entered service after 9/11, so they have never known an Air Force that was not involved in wars. The high operational tempo of the last decade is the new normal for today’s force, said CMSAF...

The Air Force is taking a hard look at how it can control costs in contractor logistics support. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, in a press conference Friday at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., said many capabilities “have...

While the Air Force has not gone into great depth for planning what it would do if there is a budgetary sequester of another half-trillion dollars from the defense budget over the next 10 fiscal years, top leaders hope that...

Air Force Space Command has successfully transferred 48 installations, including 34 main operating bases, 13 geographically separated units, and Air Force Reserve Command headquarters, to the service’s single, centrally administered computer network, the AFNet, said AFSPC Vice Commander Lt. Gen....

The positioning, navigation, and timing accuracy that the Global Positioning System provides means that the US military can take out enemy targets more quickly and with fewer munitions, said Lt. Gen. Michael Basla, Air Force Space Command vice commander, on...

The extreme austerity of the new defense budget demands “unity” from the “extended Air Force family,” said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz Thursday. In his keynote address to AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., Schwartz said that while...

The Air Force is bearing some of the cost to soften the blow of downsizing ground forces over the coming years, said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz Thursday at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. After his keynote...

Critical functions that the Air Force has long funded using overseas contingency operations funds will have to “migrate” to the base budget if the service is to remain ready, Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz said Thursday. “We are in...

“We need our industry partners on board,” with the new budget plan, said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz on Thursday at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla. He asked industry to get behind the service’s new budget proposal...

US Strategic Command has seen a significant evolution in its capabilities and responsibilities since the end of the Cold War, and is applying its capabilities on a daily basis across the spectrum, often in support of other commands, Gen. Robert...

Pacific Air Forces Commander Gen. Gary North said “places not bases” will be a key part of US strategy in the future. Speaking Thursday on a panel on contingency operations at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., North said...

Pacific Air Forces and several partners and allies in the Asia-Pacific region are closely tracking the steadily rising modernization of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army and its air forces, said Gen. Gary North, PACAF commander. Meeting with reporters on Thursday...

The Air Force will be able to meet the overarching requirement for intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance in the Pacific region with other information-gathering systems in the abscence of the Global Hawk Block 30 airplanes that the service intends to cease operating in Fiscal...

The reserve components’ views toward associations have changed dramatically in the last few years because of the need to minimize costs while maximizing capabilities, said their leaders on Thursday. “We have progressed from the days of forced marriages out of...

The Air Force will create active associations with every Air Force Reserve fighter squadron in the coming years as it looks to cut costs and maximize capabilities, said Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz on Thursday. At the same time,...

As Air Force Materiel Command consolidates its acquisition, sustainment, testing, and technology functions from 12 locations to five, it will reduce 1,051 acquisition positions at the management level, said AFMC chief Gen. Donald Hoffman Thursday at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium...

Pending military flight clearance, F-35s will begin flying syllabus-evaluation sorties from the joint schoolhouse at Eglin AFB, Fla., in the next few weeks, according to Air Education and Training Command chief Gen. Edward Rice. “We intend to do this in...

Replacing the T-38 training fleet is secondary concern to the Air Force’s more pressing procurement needs, according to Air Education and Training Command boss Gen. Edward Rice. “We’ve got some other things on the plate that are very important to...

The Canadian air force is considering putting all 65 of its planned F-35 strike fighters into its operational force, relying on simulators for training, said Maj. Gen. Y.J. Blondin, Canadian Forces’ assistant chief of the air staff. Speaking at AFA’s...

Lawmakers will receive a briefing Monday on the report by the Air Force Scientific Advisory Board task force that investigated the F-22’s on-board oxygen-generating system, said USAF officials on Thursday. While the exhaustive investigation never did find a “smoking gun”...

The Air Force's second Advanced Extremely High Frequency communications satellite, AEHF-2, arrived at Cape Canaveral AFS, Fla., from Lockheed Martin's assembly facility in California, announced Air Force space officials Thursday. Technicians will now prepare the satellite for its scheduled launch into orbit in late April aboard a United Launch Alliance Atlas V rocket, they said. AEHF-2 arrived at Cape Canaveral on Feb. 13 via a C-5 transport aircraft. Once on orbit, it will join AEHF-1, which reached space in August 2010, but didn't arrive at its intended operational perch until last October due to an anomaly with its onboard propulsion. AEHF satellites are designed to provide survivable and secure global communications to the US military. They will replace the constellation of Milstar satellites currently serving in this role.

The F-35 program flew more test flights and achieved more test points in 2011 than what was called for in the strike fighter’s master schedule, said Alan Norman, Lockheed Martin’s F-35 chief test pilot. “We exceeded the 2011 flight test...