Free Republic

A very entertaining and inspirational 6 minutes. Just wish I'd been there. Lucky the atheists weren't there with their lawyers to stop the show.

When former Air Force Academy cadet Eric Thomas faced a disciplinary board in August 2012, a special agent with the Air Force Office of Special Investigations said he would come to explain how Thomas worked dozens of cases as a confidential informant and had been of great service to the Air Force. The agent never showed up, and Thomas was expelled from the academy eight months later. On Friday, an active-duty member of the Air Force Academy with direct knowledge of the case said the agent, Brandon Enos, did not show up because he was told not to by the...

The US Air Force has secretly developed a new stealth drone for long-range reconnaissance missions that could be operational by 2015, according to a report Friday in an industry magazine. The unmanned drone, dubbed RQ-180, is currently in the testing phase at the top secret Groom Lake air base in Nevada -- the infamous "Area 51" where the Air Force tested the U2 spy planes in the late 1950s, Aviation Week said. The Air Force refused to comment when contacted by AFP. The new aircraft was reportedly built by Northrop Grumann, the company behind the Global Hawk and the X-47B...

Until Lockheed Martin finally builds the SR-72 Mach-6 spy plane it announced in November, the iconic SR-71 Blackbird, capable of flying three times the speed of sound, remains the fastest warplane ever flown operationally. So fast that no missiles fired at it had a chance of hitting. When the U-2 spy plane was built in the 1950s, its designer Clarence “Kelly” Johnson already knew that it would be vulnerable to enemy defenses.

Why does Santa need a fighter escort? Children's groups outraged as NORAD militarises Christmas Eve tracker • NORAD officials say the inclusion of jet fighters is a nod to the true mission of the agency - which is to track and intercept airborne threats Outraged child advocates are blasting NORAD's new 3D Santa Tracker program because it includes a fighter jet escort for jolly old Saint Nick. Some say the new online portrait could give kids the wrong impression about Santa Claus - associating him with the military and violence. But Pentagon officials argue the North American Aerospace Defense Command...

"Ultimately, the ORS-3 is about enabling the warfighter to perform his or her mission efficiently and effectively," ORS-3 mission manager Jeff Welsh, of the Space and Missile Systems Center at Los Angeles Air Force Base, told reporters on Nov. 14. "We support that critical effort through rapid response and reduced-cost space operations."

The Air Force is offering big bonuses to keep its pilots in the service, but they’re not taking them because budget constraints are forcing the service to limit both current flying hours and opportunities to fly the next generation of aircraft,...

A bipartisan group of senators and congressmen is fighting back against the U.S. Air Force’s move to prematurely retire all 350 of its A-10 Warthog attack planes between 2015 and 2018. But the flying branch is already strangling the A-10 force with budget cuts, upgrade cancellations and a reduced contingent of new pilots. The battle is intensifying in Washington, D.C. over the legendary warplane, which was originally meant to destroy Soviet tanks and has flown thousands of missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, saving scores of American lives with its overwhelming firepower.

Hello FRiends. I am going through my late father's papers from when he was in the Air Force (total of 17 years, active and reserve). I'd like to be able to decipher some of the acronyms and military terms used in duty assignments, etc. Does anyone know of a source online that would help me to decipher these things? Thank you. Examples: 2267th PerPron (CONAC) AFQT-1 I 98Mech 7 Cler 9 Tech 9

ALCON - FYI, the Air Force servers are back to not letting me log in to FR due to its "political and activist" nature. I thought we were through with this crap...

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