Air Force

Air Force Chief Foresees Decades More of US Wars

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“We’ve been deploying now for 15 years, we’ve probably got 15, 20 years to go,”

And maybe in 15, 20 years the F-35 would be fully operational, were it not for planned WW3, which will prevent this from happening.

– Air Force Chief Foresees Decades More of US Wars:

air-force-chief-of-staff-gen-david-goldfein

In comments yesterday at a spouse and family forum, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein discussed the growing number of airmen being deployed abroad for longer periods of time, saying that this problem is going to continue for decades to come.

“We’ve been deploying now for 15 years, we’ve probably got 15, 20 years to go,” Gen. Goldfein warned.

This wasn’t just about the current wars, either, as the general laid out some of the new deployments against new enemies, citing a “resurgent Russia and China” as driving future deployments.

Read moreAir Force Chief Foresees Decades More of US Wars

“It’s Going To Take Years”: US Air Force Calls For Ground Troops To “Occupy And Govern” Iraq, Syria

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AirForce

– “It’s Going To Take Years”: US Air Force Calls For Ground Troops To “Occupy And Govern” Iraq, Syria:

 

One thing you might have noticed of late is that Washington seems to be preparing the US public for the possibility that the Pentagon is going to put “boots on the ground” in Syria and by “boots on the ground,” we mean more than 50 “advisors.”

Indeed, it’s the same story in Iraq and as we noted after the release of helmet cam footage depicting an ISIS prison raid in the northern Iraqi town of Huwija late last month, releasing battlefield GoPro shots is probably i) an effort to convince whatever partners the US has left in the Mid-East that Washington is still effective at “fighting” terror, and ii) a prelude to stepped up ground ops. 

Read more“It’s Going To Take Years”: US Air Force Calls For Ground Troops To “Occupy And Govern” Iraq, Syria

U.S. Air Force: HAARP No Longer Needed To Control Ionosphere

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– Air Force prepares to dismantle HAARP ahead of summer shutdown (Alaska Dispatch, May 14, 2014):

FAIRBANKS — The U.S. Air Force gave official notice to Congress Wednesday that it intends to dismantle the $300 million High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Gakona this summer.

The shutdown of HAARP, a project created by the late Sen. Ted Stevens when he wielded great control over the U.S. defense budget, will start after a final research experiment takes place in mid-June, the Air Force said in a letter to Congress Tuesday.

The University of Alaska has expressed interest in taking over the research site, which is off the Tok Cutoff in an area where black spruce was cleared a quarter-century ago for the Air Force backscatter radar project that was never completed. But the school has not volunteered to pay $5 million a year to run HAARP.

Responding to questions from Sen. Lisa Murkowski during a Senate hearing Wednesday, David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology and engineering, said this is“not an area that we have any need for in the future” and it would not be a good use of Air Force research funds to keep HAARP going. “We’re moving on to other ways of managing the ionosphere, which the HAARP was really designed to do,” he said. “To inject energy into the ionosphere to be able to actually control it. But that work has been completed.”

Read moreU.S. Air Force: HAARP No Longer Needed To Control Ionosphere

USAF Dismantling HAARP, Admits They Can Control Ionosphere (Video)

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– USAF Dismantling HAARP, Admits They Can Control Ionosphere (Video) (Before It’s News, May 15, 2014):

via ADN by Dermot Cole

The U.S. Air Force gave official notice to Congress Wednesday that it intends to dismantle the $300 million High Frequency Active Auroral Research Program in Gakona this summer.

The shutdown of HAARP, a project created by the late Sen. Ted Stevens when he wielded great control over the U.S. defense budget, will start after a final research experiment takes place in mid-June, the Air Force said in a letter to Congress Tuesday.

Responding to questions from Sen. Lisa Murkowski during a Senate hearing Wednesday, David Walker, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for science, technology and engineering, said this is “not an area that we have any need for in the future” and it would not be a good use of Air Force research funds to keep HAARP going. “We’re moving on to other ways of managing the ionosphere, which the HAARP was really designed to do,” he said. “To inject energy into the ionosphere to be able to actually control it. But that work has been completed.”

Read moreUSAF Dismantling HAARP, Admits They Can Control Ionosphere (Video)

Air Force Grounds Squadrons Of Fighter Jets, Drones Due To Shut Down

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– Air Force Grounds Squadrons Of Fighter Jets, Drones Due To Shut Down (ZeroHedge, Oct 2, 2013):

Hopefully Great Britain doesn’t get the idea of finally reclaiming its rebellious colonies lost over two hundred years ago, because the US certainly is making it easy. As part of the numerous non-essential services shut down in the current government funding crisis, Foreign Policy reports that the Air Force’s Air Combat Command (ACC) – home to the service’s fighter jets, B-1 bombers and most of its drones and spyplanes — has grounded squadrons that are not set to deploy abroad after January.

“If you’re on to the hook to deploy before January, we’re saying go ahead and train,” ACC spokesman Lt. Col. Tadd Sholtis told FP. However, if a unit is waiting until after that, its aircraft will remain on the ground. A striking example of this can be found at Mountain Home Air Force Base in Idaho. None of the 366th Fighter Wing’s squadrons of F-15E Strike Eagles are slated to deploy before January. This means the only fighters based at Mountain Home flying this fall are the F-15SGs of the Singaporean air force that are permanently stationed there. Interestingly, German and Canadian air force jets are also flying out of the Idaho base on training deployments of their own.

Read moreAir Force Grounds Squadrons Of Fighter Jets, Drones Due To Shut Down

Empty F-16 Jet tested By Boeing And US Air Force

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– Empty F-16 jet tested by Boeing and US Air Force (BBC News, Sep 24, 2013):

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.

Read moreEmpty F-16 Jet tested By Boeing And US Air Force

F-22 Fighter Jet Program Produces Few Planes, Costs Are Exploding

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From the article:

“The system is totally broken and everybody knows it”
– Sherman Mullin, retired former Lockheed F-22 program chief

The F-35 is also a total disaster:

– Test Pilots: F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Blind Spot Will Get It ‘Gunned Every Time’

– Pentagon Grounds F-35 Fighter Jet Fleet After Engine Crack Found

– F-35 (Ironically Known As ‘Lightning II’) Fatal Flaw: Lightning!

– Trillion-Dollar F-35 Joint Strike Fighter Jet Has Thirteen Expensive New Flaws

Delays, technical glitches and huge cost overruns in the Air Force’s F-22 fighter jet program highlight the Pentagon’s broken procurement process.


A Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptor in flight during flight tests. (Lockheed Martin)

– F-22 program produces few planes, soaring costs (LA Times, June 16, 2013):

When the U.S. sought to assure Asian allies that it would defend them against potential aggression by North Korea this spring, the Pentagon deployed its top-of-the-line jet fighter, the F-22 Raptor.

But only two of the jets were sent screaming through the skies south of Seoul.

That token show of American force was a stark reminder that the U.S. may have few F-22s to spare. Alarmed by soaring costs, the Defense Department shut down production last year after spending $67.3 billion on just 188 planes — leaving the Air Force to rely mainly on its fleet of 30-year-old conventional fighters.

“People around the world aren’t dumb,” said House Armed Services Committee Chairman Howard “Buck” McKeon (R-Santa Clarita). “They see what we have. They recognize that our forces have been severely depleted.”

Read moreF-22 Fighter Jet Program Produces Few Planes, Costs Are Exploding

U.S. Air Force One Step Closer To Global Strike Capability As Experimental Aircraft Exceeds Mach 5 (Video)

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– US Air Force one step closer to global strike capability as experimental aircraft exceeds Mach 5 (RT, May 3, 2013):

The US Air Force completed a nearly decade-long test program this week with the successful launch of an unmanned aircraft into hypersonic velocity, flying at more than five times the speed of sound.

Air Force officials announced Friday that the X-51A WaveRider flew for more than three minutes Wednesday, a one point hitting a speed of Mach 5.1, according to the Associated Press. The successful flight marked a turning point for the X-51A, which was designed with scramjet technology that’s capable of delivering weapons strikes around the world in only minutes.

The aircraft was designed to reach Mach 6 (six times the speed of sound) but the Air Force deemed Wednesday’s flight a success because the previous three attempts either ended in highly publicized failures or failed to reach the desired top speed.

Read moreU.S. Air Force One Step Closer To Global Strike Capability As Experimental Aircraft Exceeds Mach 5 (Video)

That’s No Train! U.S. Air Force Eyes Subway for Nuclear Missiles

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This subway tunnel in Japan carries commuters. The Air Force is eying one that carries nukes.

– That’s No Train! Air Force Eyes Subway for Nuclear Missiles (Wired, March 14, 2013):

The Air Force wants to upgrade its aging nuclear missiles and the hundreds of underground silos that hold them. One idea it’s exploring: the construction of a sprawling network of underground subway tunnels to shuttle the missiles around like a mobile doomsday train. As one does.

As first reported by Inside Defense, the Air Force Nuclear Weapons Center will award several study contracts next month worth up to $3 million each to research the idea. A broad agency announcement from the Air Force describes the hair-raising concept, intended to keep the weapons secure through 2075, as a system of tunnels where nuclear missiles are shuttled around on rails or some undefined “trackless” system.

The advantage of the world’s deadliest subway: During an atomic holocaust, mobile missiles are harder for an adversary to target than a static silo. Missiles could be positioned at launch holes placed at “regular intervals” along the length of the tunnels.

Read moreThat’s No Train! U.S. Air Force Eyes Subway for Nuclear Missiles