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BEIRUT, LEBANON (1:45 P.M.) – The United States tested the new smart bomb, GBU-53 StormBreaker, using one of their modern warplanes. According to reports, the U.S. Navy’s FA-18E/F Super Hornet fighter and attack aircraft launched the GBU-53 StormBreaker all-weather bomb on a designated target. The new bomb can be used in all weather conditions, including poor visibility, Janes Defense reported last week. An RMD spokesperson told Janes that the U.S. Air Force determines the number of tests needed to validate the bomb, but did not specify when it would be available. “The USAF (US Air Force) program office, in co-ordination...

The federal government (Trump Administration) will not appeal a judge's ruling that revoked a grazing permit for Oregon ranchers Dwight and Steven Hammond..... The US Attorney for the Southern District of New York, Geoffrey Berman, resigning. Berman to be replaced by Jay Clayton, chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission. The US Attorney for New Jersey, Craig Carpentio, to take over as Acting US Attorney for Southern New York July 3rd..... Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said today that one of hte police officers involved in the March 13th killing of Breonna Taylor will be fired.... The Air Force Inspector General...

<p>WASHINGTON D.C. - America has now deployed its first female stealth fighter pilot into combat, the Air Force announced.</p> <p>Capt. Emily Thompson, call sign “Banzai,” made headlines after she became the first female to fly the F-35A Lightning II into combat. On June 9, the Air Force released a statement announcing that Thompson had deployed but did not specify when or where.</p>

Senators confirmed Air Force Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. as the first black military service chief in American history in a 98-0 vote June 9. Brown, the decorated four-star general in charge of Pacific Air Forces, will begin his four-year term as Air Force Chief of Staff once he is sworn in on Aug. 6. His confirmation comes as the military responds to nationwide protests over police brutality and systemic racism, spurred by George Floyd’s death in Minnesota last month. “There is no one I know who is better prepared to be Chief of Staff, no one who has the...

All stanzas of the Air Force song have been updated to better capture and represent the valor and heritage of the 73-year-old service while also recognizing the diversity and contributions of today’s Total Force regardless of gender. The announcement by Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David L. Goldfein, completes a two-step process in which male-only references were revised to capture the distinguished service, the high standards, and central role that women play in every facet of the modern United States Air Force. The first step focused on changing the song’s third verse, which also serves as the official song...

Who am I? I am a Black man who happens to be the Chief Master Sergeant of the Air Force. I am George Floyd…I am Philando Castile, I am Michael Brown, I am Alton Sterling, I am Tamir Rice. Just like most of the Black Airmen and so many others in our ranks…I am outraged at watching another Black man die on television before our very eyes. What happens all too often in this country to Black men who are subjected to police brutality that ends in death…could happen to me. As shocking as that may sound to some of...

Live stream of F-35 Demo Team

The near certainty the United States would be drawn into WW II prompted creation of an autonomous Army Air Force. Until the war in Europe began, standard doctrine gave an air corps no mission beyond supporting the ground forces. Now air power advocates fought for the authority to prove the theory that bombers could win wars. The B-24 Liberator and B-17 Flying Fortress carried 10-13 .50cal machine guns for defense and the Norden bombsight for precision daylight attack. Under combat conditions peacetime accuracy was never realized and bombers suffered horrendous losses until the P-51 Mustang could escort them all the...

An active-duty airman and an Air Force contractor who both visited the Pentagon in recent weeks have tested positive for the coronavirus, the Air Force said Friday, in the first confirmed cases of the virus inside the world’s biggest office building. The active-duty member works for the Defense Health Agency in Falls Church, Va., and was in the Pentagon “for less than an hour” on Monday, the Air Force said in a news release. The airman “has since received medical treatment and self-quarantined at home,” it said. Military health and local civilian officials have notified individuals who came into contact...

Two American service members were among three who were reportedly killed when rockets struck a base near Baghdad housing U.S. forces. Camp Taji, a base that houses U.S. troops, was targeted by about 18 Katyusha rockets on Wednesday. Three people were killed and 12 were injured in the attack. According to a statement from U.S. Central Command, the attack is being investigated by Iraqi Security Forces and the U.S.-led coalition. "Camp Taji is an Iraqi base that hosts Coalition personnel for training and advising missions," the statement read. "The Iraqi Security Forces found a rocket-rigged truck, a few miles from...

Strangers laid an unclaimed Air Force veteran to rest in her hometown of Dandridge, Tennessee on Saturday. More than 100 people, including veterans and community members, chose to pay their respects to a woman they never met. Charlotte "CJ" Birch was from Dandridge, but died from pancreatic cancer while living in Pennsylvania. Her remains weren't claimed by family for over a year and a half. One of Birch's close friends who lives in Illinois, Genie Wachter, decided her friend deserved a proper burial. She took the 81-year-old Air Force veteran's ashes down to Hills Union Cemetery in Dandridge, where she...

Military students from Saudi Arabia have resumed flight training at U.S. bases, nearly three months after a Saudi trainee shot and killed three U.S. Navy sailors at Naval Air Station Pensacola in Florida. The U.S. Navy said in a statement that flight training for the Saudi students resumed Tuesday. The training for about 850 Saudis at multiple U.S. bases was suspended December 10, four days after the deadly shooting. Operational training, such as flying and other non-classroom instruction, was allowed to restart once additional safety restrictions were put in place. The Navy said new policies prohibit the possession of personally...

WASHINGTON — SpaceX Starlink satellites will play a major role in an Air Force live-fire exercise in April, and a Virgin Galactic (SPCE) sister company is in talks to potentially join in as well. In December, the Air Force tested its experimental Advanced Battle Management System that will connect air, sea, land and space assets. The exercise was deemed an overall success, with SpaceX Starlink satellites used to link to a Lockheed Martin (LMT) AC-130 gunship. As a next step, the Air Force's April 8 event is going to be "massive," Air Force acquisition chief William Roper told reporters at...

If one overall concept drives national security decisions in Washington, it is that technology in the form of highly complex, and thus massively expensive, weapons along the lines of the F-35 stealth fighter, the B-21 Raider long-range strike bomber, and Ford-class aircraft carriers are needed to accomplish our strategic goals. We saw this with the president’s $705.4 billion defense budget request that includes $2.8 billion for the new bomber and $11.4 billion for the troubled fighter. The advocates of these programs often justify the cost associated with them by saying that their mere existence holds our potential adversaries at bay....

The United States Air Force updated its official dress code policy this month, in observance of religious practices, to allow military personnel to wear turbans or hijabs as a part of the uniform. The Air Force released an update to the “Dress and Personal Appearance of Air Force Personnel” code on Feb. 7, now permitting airmen to request a waiver to wear religious apparel while in uniform as long as they are “neat and conservative.”The material used for headwear must resemble the color of the assigned uniform. This includes camouflage, and must be worn in a fashion that presents a...

decorated U.S. Air Force colonel slated to take command of the base that hosts Air Force One has been sentenced to five years in prison for receiving child pornography. Mark Visconi, 48, of Fairfax, Virginia, was jailed on Friday after he plead guilty to receipt of child pornography in October. He was also sentenced to 15 years of supervised release in a federal court in Alexandria. Visconi used the anonymous Tor network to download child pornography, according to a news release from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). A forensic review of his laptop showed he had downloaded and...

The US Navy and Boeing announced Monday they had flown two fighter jets in exercises under the control of a third jet nearby, proving that multiple pilotless combat missions can be run from a separate aircraft.

Department of Justice Office of Public Affairs FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Friday, January 31, 2020 An Air Force colonel was sentenced today to five years in prison followed by 15 years of supervised release for receiving child pornography.Assistant Attorney General Brian A. Benczkowski of the Justice Department’s Criminal Division and U.S. Attorney G. Zachary Terwilliger for the Eastern District of Virginia made the announcement.According to admissions made in connection with his plea agreement, between November 2015 and June 2016, Mark Visconi, 48, received and attempted to receive child pornography using the Internet.  Visconi used an online bulletin board dedicated to...

The XQ-5A Valkyrie on a 2019 test flight AFRL ____________________________________________________________________ The jet-powered XQ-58A Valkyrie demonstrator drone has returned to the air three months after being damaged in a landing mishap. On January 23, the unmanned aircraft being developed by the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) and Kratos Defense & Security Solutions completed its fourth flight test at Yuma Proving Ground, Arizona. The fourth in a planned schedule of five flights, the most recent test was designed to push the performance envelope of the Valkyrie. In particular, the flight took the drone to its highest altitude yet as engineers collected...

On June 22, 1941, the Third Reich launched its ill-fated invasion of Russia. It was pestilential in scale; more than three million Axis soldiers swarmed Russia’s borders in a matter of hours, overwhelming Soviet defenses. Hitler regarded the peoples of the Soviet Union to be a subhuman rabble against whom victory was inevitable. But the supposed Untermensch turned out to be ferocious opponents, hardened by decades of deprivation and fueled by an unbending love of country. Among those supercharged patriots were eight hundred thousand women who volunteered for frontline action, in roles such as snipers, machine gunners, and tank drivers....