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The US Department of Defense has approved the sale of 25 F-35 stealth-enabled Joint Strike Fighters (JSF) to the Israeli Air Force (IAF), Israel Radio reported Tuesday evening.

TAJI — The Iraqi Air Force training school held a combined Warrant Officer graduation ceremony on Sept. 29, 2008. 291 Airmen completed courses in Basic Military Training and Basic Technical Training at the Air Force Training School, and Communications Training from the Iraqi Army signal school. Iraqi Air Force Commander Gen. Kamal and U.S. Air Force Maj. Gen. (S) Bash, Coalition Air Force Transition Team commanding general, were in attendance. “This is your first step to a brighter future,” said Kamal in a speech to the new graduates. “You are now part of the Iraqi Air Force family.” The courses...

MINOT, N.D.—An Air Force supervisor says a Minot Air Force Base officer admitted taking a missile launch control device as a souvenir because he thought it would be "a cool thing to have."

New AF Dress Coat Left Flapping in the Wind It could just be that the Air Force is entering an era that, in part, will be defined by what will not be a hot-button issue: uniforms. "First things first," Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz responded Sept. 17 when asked by Military.com whether uniforms -- new ones or modifications to current dress -- will be relegated to the back burner during his tenure. Schwartz, who had just listened as his major command chiefs offered up a list of things the Air Force needs today-right-now-thank-you-very much -- including new...

The Spirit of Alaska sits quietly next to The Spirit of America (82-1066) and another B-2. Taken at Whiteman AFB, Missouri (Sept. 17, 2008)

Rep. Jack Murtha’s (D-Johnstown) opponent in this year’s congressional race -- Lt. Col. William Russell, a decorated Iraq war veteran who was in the Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001 -- has just released an ad titled “In Cold Blood.” So far, it is one of the most powerful campaign spots to hit the airwaves in the down- ballot races this cycle in the Keystone State.

It is not just the Indo-U.S. Civilian Nuclear Deal that has gained momentum in recent days, nor is it just the ever growing economic and business ties but the Armed Forces of the two largest democracies in the world are coming together at an unprecedented rate even as the Government of India has gotten rid of its Communist backers in the Indian Parliament. Operation Vajraprahar Indian and American armed forces are holding joint maneuvers on counter-terrorism in the famous Counter Insurgency and Jungle Warfare School at Vairangte, Mizoram - about 100 km from Mizoram capital Aizawl. The three week-long 'Operation...

Although it is the home of hulking C-130 cargo planes and scorching F-16 fighter jets, I headed out to the Selfridge Air National Guard Base in St. Clair, Michigan, for a drive in something more green than mean: electric Chevrolet S10 pickups. The transportation department at Selfridge has been constantly tinkering with alternative fuel vehicles (including a hybrid-electric tow tractor, CNG-fueled pickups and hydrogen fuel cell-powered SUVs), but the use of the electric S10s came by chance. When other military installations were finished with the trucks, they offered them up to Selfridge, who happily placed them on active duty around...

The Air Force is preparing for the Atlas V launch in December of the first U.S. robotic military spaceplane mission into orbit. The X-37B Orbital Test Vehicle flight will mark a fundamental technology milestone for the Air Force. It will carry on winged hypersonic space vehicle technology as the space shuttle is canceled. This work is designed to propel the Air Force mission more rapidly - to where the blue sky turns to black - using a reusable hypersonic craft serviced on the ground just like an airplane. In the future, this could lead to military spaceplane capability for the...

The debate over whether America’s Boeing or Europe’s Airbus should be given the contract to build America’s next generation of mid-air refueling tankers has focused on several important topics, including the embarrassing flaws a recent General Accountability Office report found in the Air Force procurement process, the reshuffling of Pentagon jobs in its wake, and the suitability of both aircraft for the mission, chronicled in an excellent series in HUMAN EVENTS. All of these are important topics, but Americans should also step back and ask some basic questions before outsourcing key defense systems to foreign firms. Specifically, we need to...

ANCHORAGE, Alaska -- Elmendorf's commander will be honored later this week in a memorial service on base. Brig. Gen. Thomas Tinsley was found dead in his home Sunday night. Tinsley died of what appears to be a self inflicted gunshot wound to the chest, according to Air Force officials. They say no note was found. Representatives of the Armed Forces Institute of Pathology will make a final ruling on the cause of death. A memorial service for the brigadier general will be held 2 p.m. Thursday at hangar one. The service will be open to the public.

Elmendorf general dies of gunshot on base Air Force: Incident under investigation Anchorage Daily News Published: July 28th, 2008 08:26 AM Last Modified: July 28th, 2008 08:26 AM The commander of the Third Wing at Elmendorf Air Force died of a gunshot wound in his on-base residence Sunday night, the Air Force said this morning. Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Tinsley was declared dead around 10:30 p.m., according to a statement issued by the Air Force early this morning. Elmendorf medical authorities responded, the statement says. The incident is under investigation, the statement says, and no further details were provided.

One of the more dangerous phenomena in aviation is an F-16 pilot whose marksmanship is better than his situational awareness. Two soldiers discovered this on the Utah Test and Training Range one night in April 2007. An F-16 pilot lost sight of his target while rolling into a strafing run using night-vision goggles, acquired their rented GMC Suburban instead, and converted it to Swiss cheese.

Duke Field Airmen from the 711th Special Operations Squadron dropped the last operational Bomb Live Unit-82 from an MC-130E Combat Talon I July 15 at the Utah Test and Training Range. Nicknamed "Commando Vault" in Vietnam and "Daisy Cutter" in Afghanistan, the BLU-82 is a 15,000-pound bomb, and because of its size, the bomb was dropped by parachute from the aircraft. "We in the Air Force Reserve Command feel fortunate to have been chosen to drop the last operational Daisy Cutter," said Col. Jon Weeks, the 919th Special Operations Wing vice commander and mission commander on the drop. "Our people...

Tonight ABC aired their interview with Sen. Barack Obama with correspondent Terry Moran conducting; here is a clip of the segment that ran on ABC's World News Tonight: Moran: If you had to do it over again, knowing what you know now, would you support the surge? Obama: No. Because, keep in mind that -- Moran: You wouldn't?

The Air Force's top leadership sought for three years to spend counterterrorism funds on "comfort capsules" to be installed on military planes that ferry senior officers and civilian leaders around the world, with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs, according to internal e-mails and budget documents.

If YouTube proved the natural home of anyone who happened to find himself in simultaneous possession of a camera phone, some Mentos, and a can of Diet Coke, then the not-yet-two-year-old LiveLeak.com is digging a foxhole for itself. It's become a meeting place for those who blow stuff up and those who like to watch it explode. Troops in the field in Iraq and Afghanistan are the most valued content providers on LiveLeak. The site's unsqueamish emphasis on raw video - it does have some rules, not that you would notice - makes it a destination spot for short...

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said yesterday that the Pentagon will hold a new, fast-tracked competition to replace the Air Force's aging fleet of aerial refueling tankers, a move that overturns the previous award of the contract to Northrop Grumman. The decision follows criticism of the selection process by the Government Accountability Office and underscores the sharp divisions over the contract. The deal to replace the Air Force's entire fleet could be worth up to $100 billion over the next two decades. Gates said he expects the Pentagon to choose a new winner by the end of the year. On...

WASHINGTON: John McCain, the presumptive Republican presidential nominee, is fending off charges that he pushed the U.S. Air Force into a faulty $35 billion deal for midair refueling planes. Democrats weighed in after the Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan arm of Congress, found last week that the air force had made "significant errors that could have affected the outcome of what was a close competition" between Boeing and a combination of Northrop Grumman and European Aerospace & Defense Systems, or EADS, which was awarded the contract. The Democratic National Committee accused McCain of "mimicking" EADS, the corporate parent of Airbus,...

WASHINGTON — Ever since the Army lost its warplanes to a newly independent Air Force after World War II, soldiers have depended on the sister service for help from the sky, from bombing and strafing to transport and surveillance. But the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have frayed the relationship, with Army officers making increasingly vocal complaints that the Air Force is not pulling its weight. In Afghanistan, Army officers have complained about bombing missions gone awry that have killed innocent civilians. In Iraq, Army officers say the Air Force has often been out of touch, fulfilling only half of...

SLOWLY AND painfully, the U.S. Army has adapted itself to the unconventional wars the country has faced since Sept. 11, 2001. Following a reorganization of forces, a rewrite of doctrine and the emergence of new commanders such as Gen. David H. Petraeus, American ground troops are winning counterinsurgency wars in Iraq and eastern Afghanistan -- and are recognized as state-of-the-art by NATO allies. In contrast, the U.S. Air Force, which dominated the 1990s with its smart bombs and stealth planes, has lost its way in the new century. Its top leaders have remained stubbornly focused on the production of advanced...

- The chemical concerns some, but an official says it's safe and effective. NEWPORT NEWS - That heart- stopping roar you may have heard overhead Monday could mean fewer mosquito bites for the next two weeks. Langley Air Force Base deployed C-130 planes over Hampton, Poquoson and York County as part of a three-day mission to spray Hampton Roads with an insecticide that kills mosquitoes on contact. The planes whiz by at 200 mph and 150 feet from the ground to diffuse about a half-ounce of the chemical Dibrom per acre, said Mitch Burcham, pest control supervisor with Langley Air...

The classic World War II-era poster reminded talkative dock workers that "loose lips sink ships." Well, loose nukes present an even more imposing problem, one with continent-cracking possibilities. Last week, when Defense Secretary Robert Gates requested and received the resignations of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and U.S. Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley, Gates' office cited as a reason a Pentagon investigation of lax standards in Air Force oversight of nuclear weapons. One incident involved a USAF bomber with cruise missiles over-flying a wide swath of the United States -- and the crew didn't know the weapons...

PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colorado (Reuters) - U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates stood alone on an empty stage in an Air Force auditorium, two spotlights throwing odd diminutive shadows of the Pentagon chief on the curtain draped behind him. Looking tired and worn out, he faced another cold crowd of officers whose force has fallen from grace and whose leaders Gates swept aside last week in a stinging rebuke of their management of nuclear weapons. He glanced over the gathering of uniformed personnel at Peterson Air Force Base in Colorado, took a breath and plodded slowly into a speech...

Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced Monday that he plans to “immediately stop” all further reductions in Air Force personnel. Gates made his promise while addressing airmen at Langley Air Force Base, Va., late Monday afternoon to discuss his ouster of Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. T. Michael Moseley. Along with the usual airmen lost through normal attrition, Air Force leaders had planned to cut an additional 6,800 airmen from the rolls in fiscal 2009, Capt. Michael Andrews, an Air Force spokesman for personnel matters told Stripes on Monday. Of those, 4,700 would have been enlisted...

WASHINGTON -- In a sign of how urgently he wants to shake up the Air Force, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced today he was appointing the first non-fighter pilot to become the service's chief of staff in more than 25 years. The nomination of Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, who is currently head of the Pentagon's transportation command and rose through the ranks as a pilot of military cargo planes, marks a significant break for the Air Force, which has been led by fighter and bomber pilots almost since its inception after World War II. In his announcement naming Schwartz,...

Nuclear arms mistakes were reason for dismissals, but deeper divide over service's mission was at play, officers and analysts say. By Bob DeansWASHINGTON BUREAU Saturday, June 07, 2008 WASHINGTON — In April, Defense Secretary Robert Gates traveled to Maxwell Air Force Base near Montgomery, Ala., to address an elite group of majors and colonels attending the Air War College in preparation for promotions to command positions. For months, Gates had been at odds with Secretary of the Air Force Michael Wynne and Gen. Michael Moseley, the Air Force chief of staff, over how to increase the use of unmanned aerial...

A word on today's purging of USAF leadership. Official line is that Air Force brass let the nuclear mission slip in the years since the Berlin wall fell. That's true, for a variety of reasons. Standing down Strategic Air Command, the post-Vietnam leadership handoff from nuclear bomber pilots to fighter pilots, the odd square peg that is the kinetic-effects-based Air Force in the round hole of the low-intensity war on terrorism, and the end of the Cold War... all contributed to an overall deemphasis on strategic operations. Still, this is a really old school way of doing business. Back during...

June 3, 2008: South Korean intelligence is trying to get their hands on North Korea's new GPS jammer. These items are used to spoil the aim of GPS guided bombs and missiles. The U.S., NATO, Israel and several Middle Eastern nations (friendly to the U.S.) are big users of such guided weapons. The North Korean device is being offered to Middle Eastern Nations (as in Syria, Iran and Hizbollah), and is touted as superior to the Russian model (which Iraq had, and used, without much success, in 2003). The Russians have since improved their technology, but the U.S. believes it's...

When the moment finally came to meet the most powerful man in the United States, Theodore Shiveley had just two words for him: "Chest bump." As the Richardson 22-year-old's class of Air Force Academy graduates streamed across a stage, many asked President Bush to do something unusual for them. Some stashed pens in their socks so he could sign their hats. One even called his parents and asked the president to say hello on a cellphone. Lt. Shiveley opened his arms and got the president to engage in a hearty chest bump with him. "Hey, it's a once-in-a-lifetime chance," said...

MILTON, Vt. (AP) — For fighter pilots, the difficulty in answering nature’s call is as old as flying itself. After all, there are no rest areas when you’re zooming through the sky at 500 mph. Over the decades, pilots have used bottles and bags — or just held it. Many avoid liquids, or make sure their last stop before climbing into the cockpit is a bathroom. Now a Vermont company has come up with a 21st-century solution that pilots can use without unstrapping themselves from their seats. The system uses special underwear equipped with a hose linked to a pump...

The war in Iraq has spawned a violent Shiite-Sunni showdown there and a rift between Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill — and now it’s heating up the long-simmering rivalry between the Army and the Air Force and their powerful patrons in Congress. A showdown is brewing, as the Senate Armed Services Committee kicks off the annual defense appropriations cycle this week. The issue is money and the control of production and basing for the unmanned aerial vehicles that are becoming central to U.S. operations in Iraq and Afghanistan and the subject of an increasingly heated tug of war between...

April 25, 2008 AFA Members, Congressional Staffers, Civic Leaders, and DOCA members, 2 weeks ago General Dave Petraeus testified before Congress - many times. Much of the testimony was carried on TV, and the press reported widely on his and Ambassador Crocker's words. Like many of you, I was too busy to catch but snippets of the testimony. So I sought additional information to better help me understand what his central messages were. I found the slides that he used to brief Members of Congress - and have put them on our website at: http://www.afa.org/PresidentsCorner/Other/Petraeus.pdf They contain a lot of...

WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business."Gates said in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth."Addressing officer students at the Air Force's Air University, the Pentagon chief praised the Air Force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to do more and to...

Highlighting reasons the U.S. Air Force selected the KC-45 Tanker as best for our men and women in uniform. WASHINGTON, April 21 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — The U.S. Air Force found Northrop Grumman's bid to build the next generation of aerial refueling tankers superior to Boeing's in four of the five most important selection criteria. Despite this fact, the losing bidder wants the Government Accountability Office to overturn the Air Force decision to award the contract to Northrop Grumman. Starting today and regularly in the coming weeks, “Why We Won� will provide detailed examples of why Northrop Grumman was selected, drawing...

Pentagon chief says Air Force should do more By ROBERT BURNS 16 minutes ago Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Monday the Air Force is not doing enough to help in the Iraq and Afghanistan war effort, complaining that some military leaders are "stuck in old ways of doing business." Gates complained in a speech at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., that getting the Air Force to send more surveillance and reconnaissance aircraft to Iraq and Afghanistan has been "like pulling teeth." The Pentagon chief praised the Air Force for its overall contributions but made a point of urging it to...

6th Annual Rally for the Troops will be held on Sunday April 20, 2008 at 11:00 PM in downtown Cleveland’s Public Square. Free Parking at Tower City Parking lots. Last year an estimated 5000 motorcyclist attended the Rally. Bikes will stage at 8:30 AM from Cleveland Harley Davidson Sales Company (W145 and Lorain), Lake Erie Harley Davidson (Avon Ohio); South East Harley Davidson (Bedford Hts. Ohio) and Western Reserve Harley Davidson (Mentor Ohio). Bikes will depart for downtown Cleveland at 9:30 AM. Jim Mantel of WGAR will MC the Rally and Monica Robins of WKYC will sing the National Anthem....

Colonel Raymond and Chief Master Sgt. Timothy Omdal, 21st SW command chief, visited the detachment, based at Moron Air Base, Spain, to get a first-hand look at how the unit contributes to U.S. Strategic Command’s space control mission of detecting, tracking and identifying all manmade deep-space objects.

A great inside look at a Pentagon after-action report on that embarrassing nuke flub where the Air Force flew a couple doomsday weapons across the US without even knowing it. Let's hope this report doesn't just collect dust on some general's shelf and that the recommendations are actually implemented. From our friends at Popular Mechanics: One might think that the United States' nuclear weapons -- the cornerstone deterrent in the country's arsenal -- would be treated with the utmost precision. This comfortable illusion was shaken on Aug. 31, 2007, when crews loaded six live nuclear warheads onto a B-52 bomber...

McCain was a POW when U.S. began to use laser-guided bombs TRIBUNE-REVIEW By Salena Zito Sen. Rockefeller got down and dirty today with colleague John McCain in an interview with the Charleston Gazette in West Virginia when he said: "McCain was a fighter pilot, who dropped laser-guided missiles from 35,000 feet. He was long gone when they hit. What happened when they [the missiles] get to the ground? He doesn't know. You have to care about the lives of people. McCain never gets into those issues." Obama spokeswoman Jen Psaki had this to say about the Rockefeller smack down: "Senator...

Like pensions and insurance, defence is one of those subjects to which too many people only pay attention when things go wrong. You might think, in the light of the past decade, that this would have changed. But you would be sadly mistaken. Even today, even after Iraq, few mainstream MPs without an immediate personal or constituency interest in the subject turn up in the Commons for defence debates. Many politicians who are thoughtful about a range of domestic issues still pass by on the other side when the conversation gravitates to the military. In this they reflect the British...

A few months ago, a day before one of the occasional marches the Capital sees demanding an end to the Iraq War, I began the descent into the Metro stop near my office, looked up, and saw a number of representatives of Code Pink standing at the railing overlooking the escalator. Or rather, I heard them first. They were screaming at the parade of commuters, at the top of their lungs and in a tone somewhere between simple frustration and righteous anger, "End the war!!!" Well, I thought, that ought to take care of things. Good work, hippies! I kid...

WASHINGTON - Borrowing a theme from the presidential contest, Vice President Dick Cheney said Tuesday that the possibility of a 3 a.m. emergency call to the White House is all the more reason for the next commander in chief to follow through on President Bush's plans for a national missile defense. "It's plain to see that the world around us gives ample reason to continue working on missile defense," Cheney told the conservative Heritage Foundation at a dinner recognizing the 25th anniversary of President Reagan's Strategic Defense Initiative, a proposed network of rockets capable of shooting down incoming intercontinental ballistic...

Subversives cook the books so the French can build our aerial tankers Being dependent on other nations for military hardware and allowing the French to build the next generation of Air Force refueling tankers is sheer lunacy but that’s what’s going to happen unless our politicians speak out. Subversive bureaucrats have already succeeded in giving away our jobs and hollowed out our industrial base. Cooking the books so the procurement specs favor the French is the last straw. Anyone with an IQ higher than a clam knows that our economy is slowing down. We can’t afford to lose the jobs...

9:40 p.m. Guam - Air Force officials are investigating the collision of a B-1 Bomber with emergency vehicles on the taxiway up at Andersen Air Force Base. Air Force Spokesman Capt. Joel Stark confirms that the B-1 Bomber was in transit from Singapore to Ellsworth Air Force Base, South Dakota and had landed at AAFB for an inflight emergency. Capt. Stark couldn't disclose what the emergency was but did say the B-1 Bomber apparently had rolled while on the taxiway and collided into the vehicles just after 12 p.m. Friday. Capt. Stark says there were no injuries since the crew...

Mildenhall is a major base for the US air force Confidential US Air Force (USAF) e-mails, some including flight plans for a presidential visit, have been mistakenly sent to a tourism website. The e-mails were meant to go to the US airbase at RAF Mildenhall, Suffolk, via its website. But instead they went to a town tourism website which had a similar address. The USAF said there had been no "verified security breach" and it had advised airmen and other staff to use the correct e-mail address. Gary Sinnott, of Mildenhall, set up the website "mildenhall.com" in the late...

SAN FRANCISCO, Actor Sean Penn and Peace Activist Cindy Sheehan will headline "Iraq: 5 Years Too Many", an event marking the fifth anniversary of the US invasion of Iraq. Also featured will be Reverend Gregory Stewart, Senior Minister of the Unitarian Universalist Church; Matt Gonzalez, former President of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors; and Justin Raimondo, Editorial Director of Antiwar.com. The program will begin at 5pm on Sunday, March 16th, 2008 at the Unitarian Universalist Church, 1187 Franklin Street (near Geary) in San Francisco. After the speakers finish, attendees will march to the War Memorial Auditorium on Van Ness...

Why return to the Air Force Academy after Winter Break? So after our sunburns have faded and the memories of our winter break have been reduced to pictures we've pinned on our deskboards, and once again we've exchanged T-shirts and swim suits for flight suits and camouflage, there still remains the question that every cadet at U.S.Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs has asked themselves at some point: Why did we come back? Why, after spending two weeks with our family would we return to one of the most demanding lifestyles in the country? After listening to our 'friends' who...

A pilots story about the SR-71 the Black Bird In April 1986, following an attack on American soldiers in a Berlin disco, President Reagan ordered the bombing of Muammar Qaddafi's terrorist camps in Libya. My duty was to fly over Libya and take photos recording the damage our F-111's had inflicted. Qaddafi had established a "line of death," a territorial marking across the Gulf of Sidra , swearing to shoot down any intruder that crossed the boundary. On the morning of April 15, I rocketed past the line at 2,125 mph. I was piloting the SR-71 spy plane, the world's...

WASHINGTON (AP) - The European refueling tanker that won a $35 billion Pentagon contract last week "was clearly a better performer" than its U.S. rival, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne told lawmakers Wednesday. Speaking at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, Wynne said the plane offered by European Aeronautic Defence and Space Co. and its U.S. partner, Northrop Grumman Corp., was determined to be less expensive and less risky than the plane offered by Chicago-based Boeing Co. The planes were judged on nine key criteria, he said, and "across the spectrum, all evaluated, the Northrop Grumman airplane was clearly a...