Stories related to: Air Force

The investigation that resulted in the dismissal of top US Air Force brass two weeks ago also found that hundreds of nuclear-missile parts remain missing, the Financial Times reports. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said the Pentagon needed "to re-establish positive control of these sensitive, classified components" in announcing the firings June 5; the report's conclusions present further embarrassment. More »

The Government Accountability Office must rule by next Thursday on Boeing’s appeal of an Air Force deal granting European rival Airbus a multi-billion dollar tanker contract—and CEO Jim McNerney has a tough call ahead if Boeing loses, the Seattle Times reports. He can ground the appeal, or draw more attention to political concerns neither the military nor GAO was allowed to consider. More »

President Bush said today the US is "learning as we go" in trying to bring democracy to Iraq and urged Americans not to lose faith. Delivering the commencement address at the Air Force Academy, Bush likened today's campaign against Islamic extremism to the fight against fascism of last century, the Washington Post reports. He also noted that while Germany and Japan could rebuild under peaceful conditions, the same is not true of Iraq. More »

The US is preparing for a potential military action against Iran, the nation’s top military official said today. Such an attack would be “extremely stressing” on the military, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said, but it is on the table if a diplomatic solution can’t stop Iran’s alleged hunt for nuclear weapons and involvement in Iraq, the Washington Post reports. More »

Robert Gates chided the Air Force today for being slow to change and for not providing enough help in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Addressing American and international student officers in Alabama, the defense secretary said getting the USAF to adapt, particularly in the use of drone aircraft, has been "like pulling teeth," the Washington Post reports. More »

Has President Bush done irreparable damage to our armed forces? Not necessarily, Phillip Carter and Fred Kaplan write in Slate, offering a to-do list for the next president to tackle as he or she begins the process of fixing a military "in strange shambles." Overhaul the budget: "We don't have the money to stay this course." More »

Boeing isn't taking its loss of a $35 billion military contract to Northrop Grumman and Airbus lying down, Reuters reports. A company vice president said he was "as confident as he could be" that Congress would overturn the Air Force's decision to buy refueling tankers from Boeing's European rival. The firm charges that the Air Force broke federal and military rules in the decision-making process and ended up choosing a riskier plane than Boeing was offering. More »

Boeing vowed today to appeal a controversial $40 billion contract to build refueling tankers for the Air Force, the Wall Street Journal reports. "Our team has taken a very close look at the tanker decision and found serious flaws in the process," Boeing CEO Jim McNerney said. The Air Force awarded the contract to Northrop Grumman and Airbus, which ruffled US feathers by planning to build its tankers in France. More »

There’s fury on Capitol Hill (and the campaign trail) over a $40 billion Air Force contract going to a European team, Mark Thompson notes in Time , but it’s entirely appropriate for the military to get the best technology it can. Indeed, anger over the snub to Boeing shows lawmakers at their worst, worrying about hometown pork instead of defense needs. More »

Boeing is calling for an “immediate debriefing” on the Air Force's choice of a foreign company to build its fuel tankers, Bloomberg reports. The selection of Airbus and Northrop Grumman is to be the subject of a scheduled March 12 meeting, but Boeing says that isn’t protocol. “We would expect this briefing to occur within days, not weeks, of the announcement,” said a company rep. More »

Years of careful strategy and an alliance between executives was the key to Airbus nailing a $40 billion deal to build Air Force planes, reports the Wall Street Journal . The Pentagon’s decision last week is “a transformational shift in the way weapons systems are acquired. It’s an acknowledgment that globalization is real," said Ralph Crosby Jr., the top US executive for Airbus parent EADS. More »

From lawmakers to Boeing workers, Washington state is outraged today that the Air Force handed a $35 billion contract to foreign firm Airbus and Northrop Grumman, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer reports. One worker called it "a sad day for Boeing," and a senior senator  blasted the Air Force for planning to "put an American sticker on a plane and call it American." Boeing and lawmakers are each considering formal complaints. More »

Those mysterious lights flitting across the Texas sky earlier this month were military jet fighters, not alien ships, the Air Force said today. The lights prompted dozens of reports of UFO sightings, and the mystery grew when the military initially said it had no aircraft in the area. Today, the Air Force backtracked and said it made a mistake—but true believers aren't buying it, the Dallas Morning News reports. More »

When a bird smacks into a military plane, it is not a pretty picture, neither for bird nor plane. It is, however, a serious, if messy, problem, and one that jeopardizes the safety of pilots and some very expensive Air Force hardware. The Wall Street Journal visits a base in Afghanistan and provides a glimpse of how the Air Force is fighting back—a process that involves methodically scraping up bird remains and shipping them to the Smithsonian. More »

After the Virginia Tech massacre highlighted the issue of student safety, more colleges began risking legal action by telling parents when their kids suffer from mental health problems, the Wall Street Journal reports. Cornell University, battling a reputation for stressed-out students, is now training staff to seek out and report signs of anxiety. The approach skirts a student privacy law on a technicality. More »

The US Air Force has grounded all 676 F-15 fighter jets after a plane flown by a member of the Missouri Air National Guard crashed last week during a training exercise. Investigators believe the crash may have been caused by a structural defect.  A pilot whose name was not released safely ejected from the aircraft when it crashed. More »

Maggie, Alaska's only elephant, is leaving Anchorage for California, where the 25-year-old is expected to enjoy warmer climes and the company of fellow pachyderms. With no commercial plane large enough, the US Air Force will handle transportation. Zoo officials were initially loathe to give her up, but acquiesced after two incidents when she couldn't get back on her feet. More »

Max McGee, the Green Bay Packer legend who scored the first touchdown in Super Bowl history, died yesterday after falling from the roof of his Minnesota home. McGee played 12 seasons with the Cheeseheads and served two years in the Air Force, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel says. The Nevada native remains the tenth-highest scorer in NFL history with 306 points on 51 touchdowns. More »

Nearly 2 months after a B-52 loaded with nuclear warheads took an unauthorized flight from North Dakota to Louisiana, the Air Force has relieved four officers of duty, CNN reports. After a 6-week investigation, 70 airmen will be disciplined for what the Air Force secretary called an "unacceptable mistake and a clear deviation from our exacting standards," the AP reports. More »

The Air Force's second-ranked procurement official was found dead in an apparent suicide Sunday night, the Washington Post reports. Charles Riechers was under investigation for pay he received from a private consulting firm for which he apparently did no work, as well as a potential conflict of interest in a $1.2-billion contract he awarded to Boeing. More »