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Boeing accidentally allowed employees without the proper security clearance to work on presidential planes like President Biden's Air Force One. Roughly 250 workers were reportedly allowed to work on presidential jets, as well as future versions of Air Force One, even after their top security clearances had expired for months, or sometimes even years. [Snip] A Boeing spokesperson said the company caught its mistake earlier this month and quickly reported it to the Air Force. As a result, the Air Force pulled the affected workers off the schedule until their clearances were back up to date. Both the Air Force...

The U.S. Air Force this month launched an effort to hire a handful of senior-level diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) managers and is hoping to place these officials in posts across the country, from Washington, D.C., to Alaska. Each post pays at least $82,000 per year, and the top position at the Pentagon could pay more than $180,000 per year. The Air Force declined to respond to questions for Fox News Digital about how many senior-level DEI officials work for the Air Force or how many more positions it’s looking to fill this year. But the Air Force has put...

Six US Air Force personnel were fired for failing to ensure the safety and security of the country’s nuclear stockpile. Two commanders and four subordinates were relieved of duty at Minot Air Force Base in North Dakota after their units failed an inspection, according to CNN. The base houses strategic bombers and missile silos, two branches of America’s “nuclear triad” military structure. Both Commanders were part of the 5th Mission Support Group and the 5th Logistics Readiness Squadron. The news organisation says that the security inspection is a pass/fail test and that the results are classified. There is no suggestion...

The U.S. Air Force relieved six leaders from their positions at a nuclear base in North Dakota but offered few details about why they were removed. A brief press release said Maj. Gen. Andrew J. Gebara, commander of 8th Air Force, removed two commanders from their positions of leadership at Minot Air Force Base on Monday. Task and Purpose identified the these leaders as Col. Gregory Mayer, who led the 5th Mission Support Group, and Maj. Jonathan Welch, commander of the 5th Logistics Readiness Squadron. They were removed “due to a loss of confidence in their ability to complete their...

Small pico balloons typically range between $12 and $180 while an F-22 Raptor is estimated to be around $200 million ... Sen. Ted Cruz took to Twitter Thursday to criticize Joe Biden for ordering an F-22 fighter jet to shoot down what may have been a hobby club’s science project off the coast of Alaska earlier last week. Cruz, R-Texas, joked that Biden’s decision to authorize the $200 million fighter jet to use a $400,000 missile to shoot down what may have been a $12 balloon serves as a "powerful deterrence" to high school students interested in creating their own...

It's been days since President Joe Biden directed the Pentagon to shootdown a number of "objects" he claims were a threat to U.S. airspace and commercial aircraft. There are no photos of the "objects," which White House officials say cannot be classified as balloons, and still no recovered debris after they were reportedly taken out by F-16 pilots using $400,000 missiles. As officials drag their feet on providing details about what exactly the objects were, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre won't say whether Biden scrambled fighter jets to shoot down benign and routine weather balloons. REPORTER: "If it turns...

Between buying up valuable American farmland and flying surveillance crafts over the country without consequence, China’s footprint in the United States has become far too large for many Americans, and some have decided to take a stand. After a long, drawn-out process that lasted over a year, Mayor Brandon Bochenski of Grand Forks, North Dakota, was finally able to obtain answers from the U.S. government regarding whether or not a Chinese-backed corn mill project, slated to be operational concerningly close to Grand Forks Air Force Base, was a national security risk and overall bad idea. The government finally agreed that...

The US Air Force is moving up its timeline for scrapping a small fleet of surveillance planes used to help take fentanyl pills off the streets, telling National Guard pilots they must fly their aircraft to the boneyard by the end of the month so they can be stripped for parts, according to documents obtained by CNN. The new plan to eliminate the twin-engine RC-26 aircraft months earlier than anticipated marks an escalation in the service’s quest to phase out the small yet heavily used fleet of planes despite its contributions to counter drug and border missions. It also comes...

The Air Force has grounded its entire fleet of B-2 stealth bombers following an emergency landing and fire earlier this month, and none of the strategic aircraft will perform flyovers at this year’s college bowl games. A bomber experienced an in-flight malfunction on Dec. 10, forcing it to make an emergency landing at Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri, where it caught fire. The fire was extinguished and there were no injuries. The standdown is significant in that there are fewer than 20 stealth bombers in the entire fleet and the aircraft provides, along with the B-52 Stratofortress, the air...

The Air Force has grounded its entire B-2 Spirit fleet and will inspect each stealth bomber after one of the aircraft caught fire during an emergency landing earlier this month. The multi-role bomber, which was first unveiled in 1989, is capable of delivering both conventional and nuclear munitions. The 20-aircraft fleet is based out of Whiteman Air Force Base in Missouri. A B-2 Spirit experienced an undisclosed in-flight malfunction that resulted in an emergency landing at Whiteman on Dec. 10. No one was injured. …

412th Test Wing at Edwards AFB executed the ARRW test flightThe Air Force successfully fired an air-to-ground hypersonic missile that reached speeds more than five times the speed of sound in a test off the southern California coast, officials said Monday. The test of the All-Up-Round AGM-183A Air-launched Rapid Response Weapon on Friday was the first launch of a full prototype operational missile, the Air Force said in a press release. The missile was released from a B-52H Stratofortress and detonated in the terminal area, showing "all objectives were met," according to the release. "The ARRW team successfully designed and...

Inter-agency body says it will not block company’s US$700 million corn milling plant in city of Grand Forks.. Residents who object to the project say it is too close to air force base and could be a ‘smokescreen’ for espionage .... A US inter-agency body charged with assessing national security risks involving foreign investments announced on Monday it will not block a Chinese agribusiness subsidiary’s proposed US$700 million corn milling project in North Dakota. After completing a 45-day review, the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States (CFIUS) concluded that Fufeng USA’s purchase of 150 hectares (370 acres) of...

An Army captain was separated from the service for refusing to take the COVID-19 vaccine as the GOP attempts to roll back Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin’s military vaccine mandate. Capt. Stephen Rogerson (a pseudonym) has served in the Army for 17 years, and on Dec. 6, a three-person administrative board voted to separate him from service. On the same day, the House passed an $858 billion defense funding bill, the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA) for the fiscal year 2023, that included a provision to rescind the military’s COVID-19 vaccine mandate. But soldiers like Rogerson are “falling through the...

BEAST week has been a major part of basic military training since 2006, and offered airmen the chance to go on a mock-deployment where trainees sleep in cots, go on ruck marches, work on security protocol and weapons training, and fight simulated threats. But Pixley, who assumed command of Basic Military Training in 2021, decided that BEAST week was outdated for some of the modern Air Force's needs. As the Department of the Air Force pushes its new philosophy of establishing "multi-capable airmen" -- meaning it wants to have troops able to take on more responsibilities so they can carry...

On Veterans Day we remember from WWII the hazards faced by the young men who became our fathers, grandfathers, and great-grandfathers. For example, the 8th Air Force suffered over 26,000 dead compared to the Marine Corps losing nearly 20,000 killed in the Pacific. Their bombers were mainly crewed by teenagers and men in their early twenties, but of all crew members the ball turret gunner confronted the most dismal fate.The emerging certainty the United States would be drawn into WW II promoted creation of an autonomous Army Air Force. Until the war in Europe began, dominate Army doctrine gave the...

The US air force plans to replace its entire fleet of F-15 fighter jets based in Okinawa, Japan, with a “rotational” force, a shift that some American and Japanese officials worry will send a dangerous signal to China about deterrence. The air force intends to retire two squadrons of ageing F-15 Eagles that have been permanently based in Okinawa, according to six people familiar with the situation. The decision has triggered alarm in some parts of the Japanese government and the Pentagon because the air force does not intend to replace them with a permanent presence in the near term....

Military’s top brass once embodied self-sacrifice and patriotism, but now they’re just virtue-signaling bureaucrats. In September, the United States Air Force Academy class of 1972 met for its 50th year reunion. Compared to our experience, the Academy of today is virtually unrecognizable. America’s foundational institutions are under assault. For decades the siege progressed incrementally, imperceptible to most observers. But recently the pace has accelerated, avoiding all pretense of subtlety. In the case of USAFA, activist generals serve as a vivid example of how a few influential individuals are able to implement President Obama’s call to fundamentally change American society. Nowadays,...

U.S. Air Force and Space Force officials released a climate action plan Wednesday that includes a goal of operating bases at net-zero emissions by 2046, an ambitious effort to rein in the sizable carbon footprint of the U.S. military’s air wing. The plan released Wednesday is the first of its kind in Air Force history and joins a growing list of acknowledgments from U.S. armed forces that they will have to make changes as climate change intensifies. The plan also aims to include, within the next two years, climate considerations into the way it educates and trains Air Force and...

The Air Force is unable to fly 116 of its 128 C-130H cargo planes due to issues with how the propellers on the craft were assembled, Air Mobility Command confirmed Friday. The 116 affected planes, which consist of the C-130H model and variants, were initially grounded Tuesday. Inspections continue to figure out which of those aircraft have defective propeller barrels. “[The] propeller barrels in question had been installed in 100 C-130Hs, as well as the entire inventories of eight MC-130H Combat Talons, seven EC-130H Compass Calls, and one TC-130H,” according to Defense News. Air Mobility Command told Defense News that...

The United States Air Force Academy recently circulated promotional information among its cadets for the Brooke Owens Fellowship, which specifically bans 'cisgender men' from applying. The email sent on September 14, encourages cadets to apply to the program, which states: 'If you are a cisgender woman, a transgender woman, non-binary, agender, bigender, two-spirit, demigender, genderfluid, genderqueer, or another form of gender minority, this program is for you. 'If you are a cisgender man, this program isn’t for you...but we encourage you to check out our spinoff programs, the Patti Grace Smith Fellowship and the Matthew Isakowitz Fellowship Program.'