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He is an award-winning combat photographer who stands accused of trying to pick up women in the public affairs office at MinotAir Force Base in North Dakota, and for that prosecutors wanted to put him in prison for 130 years. The prosecutorial zeal was so great that an Air Force officer appointed to investigate the case said the piled-up charges were combined to “artificially exaggerate the criminality of the accused,” who often was simply “socially maladroit and crass.”

Remember this? http://foxtrotalpha.jalopnik.com/hear-this-intense-declassified-recording-of-f-14s-shoot-1739696849

NEW DELHI, OCT.29, 2015: The Indian Air Force (IAF) is staging its biggest exercise, codenamed 'Live Wire', to test its preparedness to fight a two-front war in case of a simultaneous armed conflict with China and Pakistan. This exercise, which begins on Oct 31, involves the simultaneous activation of all airbases across the country from Leh in Jammu and Kashmir to Car Nicobar in Andaman and Nicobar Islands for about 15 days. "The most important part of Exercise Live Wire is to rehearse quick movement of air assets from one theatre to another," a top IAF officer explained to Arming...

WASHINGTON – The Air Force said Tuesday it chose Northrop Grumman Corp., maker of the B-2 stealth bomber, to build its next-generation bomber, a highly classified, $80 billion project designed to replace the aging bomber fleet with an information-age aircraft that eventually may be capable of flying without a pilot aboard. The loser of the high-stakes bidding contest was a team formed by Boeing Co. and Lockheed Martin Corp.

The Air Force just announced that the Long Range Strike Bomber contract has been awarded to Northrop Grumman.

LAS VEGAS - Private land overlooking the secret base at Area 51 has officially been taken from the owners and transferred to the United States Air Force. Last month, the U.S. Air Force condemned the Groom Mine property when the family who owns it rejected a government buyout they felt was unjust. The I-Team broke the story of the family's fight with the government. The Sheahan family, which until now owned the mine, knew they faced an uphill fight. They also expected the government would probably take the land through eminent domain even though the Sheahan's owned it since Abe...

Last month the Air Force announced it had received the final competing design submissions from Northrup Grumman and Boeing/Lockheed Martin for the Long Range Strike-Bomber (LRS-B), also known as the B-3. The Air Force will be reviewing the two submissions and in a few months will announce who has won the contract for its first new bomber in 25 years. At the low end, the contract will be worth some $55 billion. But factoring in development costs and the cost-growth patterns of the last 20 years for these types of projects, the value of the contract easily ends up exceeding...

In the 25 years since the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Pentagon has more or less taken air superiority for granted; but that complacency is coming back to haunt the Department of Defense. Neither Donald Rumsfeld nor Robert Gates took air power seriously, and as such, the U.S. Air Force is left with a tiny fleet of 186 Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors instead of the minimum 381 it needs. If that wasn’t bad enough, those F-22s have not received the upgrades that would keep them at the top of their game. The Raptor doesn’t even have a helmet-mounted cueing...

At approximately 9:15 a.m., after the peak of inbound morning traffic passed, the Defenders closed the entry control point on Vandenberg Drive to a single lane. In an instant, a calm situation turned chaotic when a person drove his car upwards of 80 miles an hour into the gate. Before ramming the gate, he hit a light post. At this moment, the Defenders reacted as if the person was seriously injured and immediately went to render first aid. That was until the person got out of the vehicle brandishing a rifle. The Defenders then went from first responders rendering aid...

As if they suddenly came to an epiphany, the United States Air Force brass is now admitting what many of us have been screaming about for so long: We didn’t build nearly enough F-22s, and the F-35 cannot simply pick up the slack.

A U.S. C-130 transport plane crashed near Jalalabad, Afghanistan, early Friday, two defense officials told NBC News. The crash happened shortly after midnight local time near Jalalabad Airport.

A U.S. airman who helped disarm a gunman on a Paris-bound train last month will receive a Purple Heart medal, the U.S. Air Force leader said on Monday, in an unusual award of the honor to a serviceman wounded while not in a combat zone. (snip) In addition to the Purple Heart, Stone will receive the Airman’s Medal, the Air Force’s highest non-combat award for bravery. The medals will be awarded at a ceremony at the Pentagon this week.

The Pentagon sank $400 billion into the F-35 stealth jet—only to have it come up way short. So they’re working on a secret new bomber to handle the job instead. Government officials and aerospace executives have met in secret. Engineers have drawn up blueprints, crafted components, and assembled prototypes, all under strict confidentiality agreements. Lobbyists are prowling the halls of Congress and the Pentagon, smiling, shaking hands, exerting influence. For the first time in more than three decades, the Pentagon and America’s aerospace industry are uniting to build a big, expensive, high-tech stealth bomber. And that’s a huge deal for...

LAS VEGAS – The U.S. Air Force is giving an ultimatum to owners of a remote Nevada property that over time has been surrounded by a vast bombing range including the super-secret Area 51. They're being told to take a $5.2 million "last best offer" for their property by Thursday -- or the government will seize it through condemnation. The owners include descendants of a couple who lost their hardscrabble mining enterprise after the Air Force moved in in the 1940s. Nuclear tests then began in 1951, their mine mill mysteriously exploded in 1954 and they ran out of money...

In the wake of Hurricane Katrina's calamitous effects, an image of U.S. Air Force Staff Sgt. Mike Maroney locked in a heartwarming embrace with a young girl he encountered during rescue operations became a symbol of hope and optimism. For the last decade, Maroney has been determined to meet the child he hugged in the iconic photo. In March, the Air Force Times launched the "Find Katrina Kid" campaign to help Maroney reconnect with the little girl.

Khobar Towers June 23, 2006 The Wall Street Journal Louis J. Freeh Ten years ago this Sunday, acting under direct orders from senior Iranian government leaders, the Saudi Hezbollah detonated a 25,000-pound TNT bomb that killed 19 U.S. airmen in their dormitory at Khobar Towers in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. The blast wave destroyed Building 131 and grievously wounded hundreds of additional Air Force personnel. It also killed an unknown number of Saudi civilians in a nearby park. The 19 Americans murdered were members of the 4404th Wing, who were risking their lives to enforce the no-fly zone over southern Iraq....

Last month we talked about some early flight test reports which hinted that the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter might be in trouble after years of development and hundreds of billions of dollars of funding. At that time the military was evaluating the jet in early tests against our own previous generation fighters and the results were mixed at best. Now that the aircraft has been at least initially approved, additional analysis is coming in. One such study is broken down by Martin Matishak at the Fiscal Times and, rather than stacking up the Lightning against our own Tomcats and...

A group calling itself the Islamic State hacking division has published the details of 1,400 mostly US military and government personnel, urging supporters to attack those listed. The spreadsheet, published online on Wednesday, exposes names, email addresses, phone numbers and passwords. Those listed include members of the marine corps, Nasa, the state department, air force and FBI. Supporters of Isis on Twitter seized on the breach, posting personal details of soldiers and government staffers and encouraging lone wolves to “act and kill”. A person claiming to speak for the group told the Guardian the information was obtained from military and...

Defense officials appear ready to ask Congress to repeal a law that commissaries must sell products at cost plus 5 percent, a formula that for decades has ensured commissary shoppers everywhere pay the same prices. Officials have drafted a replacement formula that would allow prices to vary from store to store to meet a new twin goal: reducing taxpayer support for commissaries while maintaining still attractive savings for patrons. Variable pricing would seek to keep savings consistent across the commissary system by pegging local commissary prices for a market basket of goods at some target percentage level below prices of...

A two-time recipient of the Bronze Star and a father of five were killed during military free-fall training in Florida, the Air Force announced late Tuesday. Tech. Sgt. Timothy Officer Jr., 32, and Tech. Sgt. Marty Bettelyoun, 35, were rushed to local hospitals after the accident at Eglin Air Force Base on Monday. Both were Special Tactics Airmen, a force made up of specially-trained air traffic controllers, pararescuemen specializing in rescue operations, and military weathermen and forecasters. ... Special tactics airmen are the Air Force's ground special operations forces. They often embed with Navy SEALs and Army Special Forces to...