Free Republic

Could Lockheed Martin Skunk Works’ SR-72 hypersonic concept design fill the Pentagon’s need for a penetrating intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance (ISR) aircraft? The answer could be yes.

Even if B-52s have been used to test it, the B-2 Spirit stealth bomber is the only aircraft in the U.S. Air Force inventory currently capable to carry and release the heaviest U.S. bomb, the 30,000-lb GBU-57 Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP). The heavy GBU-57 is a 20-foot long GPS-guided bomb believed to be able to penetrate 200 feet of concrete before exploding, thus being capable to hit and destroy deeply buried targets. Like bunkers in Iran, Syria or North Korea…. There are not many images showing the GBU-57 and even less show the MOP next to its intended platform. ....

The air force has two programs, the B-1 and the B-2, aimed at replacing the aging B-52s but they were wracked with heavy cost overruns. The air force only bought 20 of Northrop Grumman's B-2s, the newest long-range bomber in its fleet.

The U.S. Air Force Academy may drop a religious reference from an oath cadets take to swear allegiance to the school's honor code. The Military Religious Freedom Foundation has protested the "so help me God" phrase that was added to the end of an oath that has cadets swearing they won't lie, cheat, steal or tolerate those who do. According to the Colorado Springs Gazette, the religious freedom foundation says tying the honor code to a religious test violates the U.S. Constitution. The full oath reads: I, (name), having been appointed an Air Force cadet in the United States Air...

HURLBURT FIELD, Fla. -- One by one, Airmen from the 23rd Special Tactics Squadron lined up at the back of a C-130, paused, then stepped off the aircraft Oct. 16, completing their free fall training jump into the picturesque water of Florida's Emerald Coast. For Staff Sgt. Johnnie Yellock Jr., this jump was two years and 28 surgeries in the making. In 2011, Yellock, a 23rd STS combat controller, was deployed to Afghanistan in support of Operation Enduring Freedom. While on a mission checking Afghan local police outposts, his vehicle was struck by an improvised explosive device. "When I opened...

The Air Force removed Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, a 35-year veteran, from his command of 20th Air Force, responsible for all 450 of the service's intercontinental ballistic missiles. Carey, who took his post in Wyoming in June 2012, will be reassigned pending the outcome of an investigation into personal misbehavior, the service said. The Air Force would not specify what Carey is alleged to have done wrong, but two officials with knowledge of the investigation indicated that it was linked to alcohol use.

<p>The top general in charge of the U.S. Air Force's entire arsenal of nuclear weapons has been relieved of his command due to loss of trust, defense officials told NBC News.</p> <p>The officials would not say what led to the firing of Maj. Gen. Michael Carey, but said it had nothing to do with his command of the nuclear stockpile or any form of sexual impropriety.</p>

There's nothing wrong with the C-27J, it's just that the Pentagon doesn't want it given budget constraints. The Pentagon is sending $50 million cargo planes straight from the assembly line to mothballs because it has no use for them, yet it still hasn’t stopped ordering the aircraft, according to a report. A dozen nearly new Italian-built C-27J Spartans have been shipped to an Air Force facility in Arizona dubbed “the boneyard,” and five more currently under construction are likely headed for the same fate, according to an investigation by the Dayton Daily News. The Air Force has spent $567 million...

Draken International Mig-21's Delivered Coast To Coast (Source: Draken International; issued October 1, 2013) LAKELAND, Fla. --- Draken International, a leading provider of commercial air services, continues to rapidly build up its supersonic fleet with the delivery of twenty-five MiG-21 aircraft. With MiG-21 assembly operations taking place on both coasts, Draken International is able to provide a safe, reliable, real-world "red-air" asset to the Department of Defense and Test Pilot schools across North America. Draken International maintains the largest fleet of privately owned tactical aircraft in the world. The fleet is composed of over 50 ex-military aircraft including Douglas A-4K...

Air strike with SU-25, from chechen war SU-25 used FAB 500 (1102.31 lbs) bomb, and NURS

Boeing has revealed that it has retrofitted retired fighter jets to turn them into drones. It said that one of the Lockheed Martin F-16 made a first flight with an empty cockpit last week. Two US Air Force pilots controlled the plane from the ground as it flew from a Florida base to the Gulf of Mexico. Boeing suggested that the innovation could ultimately be used to help train pilots, providing an adversary they could practise firing on. The jet - which had previously sat mothballed at an Arizona site for 15 years - flew at an altitude of 40,000ft...

Buried for more than 40 years inside the plane they were flying when they were shot down over Laos in 1969, Major James Sizemore and his navigator Major Howard Andre made their final journey home Monday to Arlington National Cemetery, where they were laid to rest just the way they flew: side by side. A single bugler played TAPS as the families of the airmen gathered and two horse drawn caissons made their way through the cemetery. Overhead, eight civilian pilots performed a tribute flyover at their own expense after the Air Force said it couldn’t perform a traditional flyover...

Renowned for its lethal striking power and rugged airframe, the Air Force’s A-10 Thunderbolt has proven its mettle on thousands of combat missions in more than three decades in service. But now it's future may be in question due to budget cuts and shifting missions. Here’s a look.

Retire B-1 Fleet to Save Future Bombers: Defense Experts A collection of defense think tank leaders said the Pentagon should retire its B-1 bomber fleet and cut near-term readiness money if it’s going to survive the next decade of sequestration. The Center of Strategic and Budgetary Assessments recently held a “strategic choices exercise” to look at possible ways to cut the defense budget by $500 billion over the next decade. Todd Harrison, a senior fellow at CSBA told an audience Tuesday at the Air Force Association’s Air & Space Conference and Technology Exposition, about the results. In addition to the...

Sequester may force USAF to retire entire fleets of aircraft The US Air Force will likely have to cut entire fleets of aircraft to comply with the Congressional sequestration law, says a top service official. In order to retain a force capable of operating across the spectrum of operations, the USAF will have to sacrifice single-mission aircraft in order to preserve multirole machines. “The only way you really save money is to make entire weapons systems go away,” says Gen Mike Hostage, commander of the USAF’s Air Combat Command. That is “so that the whole logistics train, the whole support...

Just announced on Fox

AVIANO AIR BASE, Italy (AFNS) -- They waited patiently each day, week and month checking the news, filing repeals and losing hope. But, Master Sgt. Angela Shunk and Tech. Sgt. Stacy Shunk received the news they had been longing for on Sept. 3, 2013, when the two Aviano Airmen were informed that they had received an assignment together under the join spouse program - the first of its kind in the Air Force since a Supreme Court decision about the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act. Prior to the June 26 decision, the Shunks were faced with the near...

Updating our earlier report on Senior Master Sergeant Phillip Monk, a Christian serving in the Air Force whose unit is now commanded by a lesbian: according to Monk’s complaint filed with his superiors, he was relieved of duty for refusing his commander’s order to say he supports gay marriage. Now the Air Force has taken the first steps to criminally investigate Monk for talking to the media about his situation. Despite the fact that earlier this year the Obama-Hagel Pentagon said they would never court-martial a service member for their Christian faith, they have taken the first steps to possibly...

A newly declassified CIA history from 20 years ago spills the story about Nevada's Area 51 and its secret mission — which was not to study UFOs, but to test the U-2 and other spy planes. The CIA's story about the legendary test site is contained in "The Central Intelligence Agency and Overhead Reconnaissance: the U-2 and Oxcart Programs." The document was approved for release in June, with just a few remaining redactions, in response to a Freedom of Information request filed by George Washington University's National Security Archive back in 2005.

MOSCOW, August 27 (RIA Novosti) – A firebrand Russian nationalist-turned-senior official said Tuesday that the West was acting in the Islamic world like a “monkey with a hand grenade.” Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin, Russia’s former envoy to NATO, did not elaborate on his comparison, made on his Russian-language Twitter page. But Rogozin, who used to head a popular nationalist political party and now oversees Russia’s military industrial complex, has previously lambasted on Twitter the alleged plans of “Anglo-Saxons” to attack Syrian government forces. The United States may launch missile strikes against the embattled regime of Syrian President Bashar Assad...