The Senate has confirmed Lt. Gen. Stanley Clarke to be the Air National Guard’s next director, succeeding Lt. Gen. Bud Wyatt, who is retiring later this month. Senators voted in favor of Clark’s nomination on Jan 1, according to the...

Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh on Wednesday wished airmen a Happy New Year and expressed optimism about the coming year. "Despite the budgetary uncertainty, the fiscal cliff, or whatever else time and circumstances throw at us, I believe 2013 will be a great year for our Air Force!" he wrote in his Jan. 2 letter to airmen. Welsh reminded airmen that the service's demographics have changed, and "images, songs, stories, or 'traditions' that are obscene, vulgar, or that denigrate some percentage of airmen are not the things we value" and don't jibe with the service's proud heritage. He said last month's service-wide health and welfare inspection was meant "to get serious about eliminating environments conducive to sexual harassment or unprofessional relationships" and to drive home the point that "the Air Force succeeds because of the professionalism and discipline" of its airmen. Welsh said he'd be issuing a CSAF Vector for 2013 in a couple of weeks to share insights on topics like "what the Air Force values for promotion," performance reports, and any required adjustments.

Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Wednesday thanked Congress for temporarily averting budget sequestration and expressed hope that lawmakers would hash out a deficit-reduction plan that permanently removes the threat of these steep spending cuts. “My hope is that in the...

The Air Force awarded Lockheed Martin a $1.9 billion fixed-price contract toward the production of the fifth and sixth Advanced Extremely High Frequency military communications satellites, announced the company at its Facebook page on Wednesday. “This production contract affirms the...

Donald Warner, the Air Force’s fire chief, retired last month after more than 46 years of service, including 20 years in uniform. Warner stepped down on Dec. 29 as chief of fire emergency services in the Air Force Civil Engineer...

Members of the 97th Air Mobility Wing at Altus AFB, Okla., brought 137,000 pounds of food on a C-17 to Port-au-Prince, Haiti, last week, completing the largest single-day delivery of humanitarian supplies to the Caribbean nation since 1998, according to...

Lockheed Martin delivered the 13th factory-fresh MC-130J special-mission aircraft to the Air Force, according to an entry posted at the company’s Flickr page. Aircraft 5711 departed Lockheed Martin’s production plant in Marietta, Ga., on Dec. 20, headed for Cannon AFB,...

The Civil Air Patrol, the Air Force auxiliary, is now operating under its fully implemented new governance structure, announced CAP officials on Wednesday. The new set-up changed the role of CAP’s leadership and the relationship between its 61,000 volunteers and...