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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

BUDGETDefense News: Lawmakers: U.S. Air Force Numbers Lack Credibility (1)Defense Tech: Air Force Won’t Replace JSTARS Fleet (3)NUCLEAR ENTERPRISEOttawa Citizen: No Go On A Nuclear-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle? (4)WIN TODAY’S FIGHTAir Force Times: Corruption eyed as motive in Kabul shooting (5)CARING FOR AIRMENAir Force Times: 30 AFA cadets suspected of substance use (9)MODERNIZATIONFoster’s: Flying to Pease? Base's Air Guard mission tied to new tanker (11)Air ForceTImes: Lawmakers blast F-35 program at hearing (12)ACQUISITION EXCELLENCEUSNews: Military's Secret 'Space Plane' Mission Extended Indefinitely (14)AIN Defense: U.S. Air Force Tries Again for Combat Rescue Helicopter (15)GLOBAL ENVIRONMENTDefense Systems: Air Force on verge of awarding streamlined NETCENTS-2 (16)OF INTERESTAssociated Press: Air Force holds memorial in Ohio for military dog (17)Florida Today: Baffling Air Force crash still confounds families (20)

BUDGET

1. Lawmakers: U.S. Air Force Numbers Lack Credibility (Defense News, 25 Mar 12) … Marcus WeisgerberThree years ago, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that he was recommending Congress approve the termination or truncation of 33 programs.

2. Air Force extends probe of Afghan plane deal (Chicago Tribune, 23 Mar 12) … Andrea Shalal-EsaWASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Air Force on Friday said it was extending an investigation into an embarrassing mistake that prompted it to cancel a contract, valued at up to $1 billion, to sell Brazilian light attack planes to the Afghan government. Air Force General Donald Hoffman, commander of Air Force Materiel Command, granted investigators more time to look into the issue, said spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy. She said a decision was now expected in coming weeks.

3. Air Force Won’t Replace JSTARS Fleet (Defense Tech, 23 Mar 12) … Unattributed

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U.S. Air Force

Morning Report

Monday, 26 March 2012

It looks like the Air Force can’t afford to replace it’s fleet of E-8 Joint Surveillance Targeting and Attack Radar System (JSTARS) jets that are based on 40-year old Boeing 707s. (To be fair, the jets have been completely refurbished, as JSTARS prime contractor-Northrop Grumman will remind anyone who points out the ex-airliners’ age).

CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN THE NUCLEAR ENTERPRISE

4. No Go On A Nuclear-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle? (Ottawa Citizen, 25 Mar 12) … David PuglieseThere have been a number of articles lately about the U.S. developing a new unmanned aerial vehicle in secret. Dave Majumdar, at Air Force Times, recently had an article about how the U.S. Air Force’s decision to postpone development of a next generation unmanned combat aircraft suggests that service might be developing something else in the “black world.”

PARTNER WITH JOINT AND COALITION TEAM TO WIN TODAY’S FIGHT

5. Corruption eyed as motive in Kabul shooting (Air Force Times, 25 Mar 12) … Kristen DavisU.S. advisers had suspected misuse of aircraft by the Afghan National Air Force before an Afghan pilot, a colonel named Ahmed Gul, shot to death eight U.S. airmen and a contractor and then turned the gun on himself a year ago.

6. Serbia marks anniversary of U.S.-led bombing (Associated Press, 24 Mar 12) … Jovana GecBELGRADE, Serbia — President Boris Tadic of Serbia said Saturday the NATO bombing campaign that stopped his country’s onslaught on Kosovo 13 years ago was a crime, and he honored the hundreds of Serbs the alliance killed.

7. U.S., Pakistan plan supply route discussions (Air Force Times, 23 Mar 12) … Slobodan LekicBRUSSELS — The United States and Pakistan will resume talks about possibly reopening NATO and U.S. supply routes to Afghanistan once Pakistan concludes its debate about new terms of engagement with the U.S., an official said Friday.

DEVELOP AND CARE FOR AIRMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES

8. Drone technology can be emotional drain for crews (Los Angeles Times, 24 Mar 12) … David ZucchinoWASHINGTON -- Drone crews protect U.S. ground troops by watching over them 24 hours a day from high above. Sitting before video screens thousands of miles from their remote-controlled aircraft, the crews scan for enemy ambushes and possible roadside bombs, while also monitoring what the military calls "patterns of life."

9. 30 AFA cadets suspected of substance use (Air Force Times, 23 Mar 12) … Unattributed

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AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — An Air Force Academy official says about 30 cadets are suspected of using banned substances, which is double the number of cadets the school said it was investigating in January.

10.Military leaders assert zero-tolerance for hazing (Federal News Radio, 26 Mar 12) … Jared SerbuFollowing some highly-publicized hazing-related deaths and injuries in the nation's armed services, some members of Congress are pressing the military to do more to end a culture that they say allows servicemembers to be mistreated by their colleagues.

MODERNIZE OUR AIR, SPACE AND CYBERSPACE INVENTORIES, ORGS AND TRAINING

11.Flying to Pease? Base's Air Guard mission tied to new tanker (Foster’s, 25 Mar 12) … Jim HaddadinNEWINGTON — With the guts of a Boeing 767 commercial airplane, the new KC-46A air refueling tanker, under development by the Air Force, will present a significant advancement in refueling technology when it rolls off the assembly line in four or five years.

12. Lawmakers blast F-35 program at hearing (Air Force Times, 24 Mar 12) … Brian EverstineThe budget season has given lawmakers ample opportunity to criticize the beleaguered F-35 program, telling Defense Department and Air Force officials that the fighter jet’s procurement has become an example of what not to do.

13. USAF fields first upgraded F-22 Raptors (Flight Global, 23 Mar 12) … Dave MajumdarThe US Air Force has begun to deploy Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors upgraded with enhanced air-to-ground strike capabilities to the operational fleet, starting with the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.

RECAPTURE ACQUISITION EXCELLENCE

14. Military's Secret 'Space Plane' Mission Extended Indefinitely(USNews, 23 Mar 12) … Jason KoeblerLittle is known about the Air Force's X37-B or its mission. The military's mysterious, experimental unmanned space plane is doing such a good job that its mission has been extended indefinitely—if only anyone knew what its mission was.

15. U.S. Air Force Tries Again for Combat Rescue Helicopter (AIN Defense, 23 Mar 12) … Bill CareyThe U.S. Air Force has released a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the combat rescue helicopter (CRH) program, a successor to the ill-fated CSAR-X competition to replace the service’s Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk search-and-rescue helicopters.

GLOBAL AIR, SPACE, and CYBERSPACE ENVIRONMENTPage 3 of 37

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16. Air Force on verge of awarding streamlined NETCENTS-2 (Defense Systems, 23 Mar 12) … Kimberly JohnsonAfter a string of contracting delays, the Air Force is poised to make good on its promise to complete the award of $24 billion in contracts for the much-anticipated Network Centric Solutions-2 (NETCENTS-2) in April, according to a top service official.

ITEMS OF INTEREST

17. Air Force holds memorial in Ohio for military dog(Associated Press, 25 Mar 12) … UnattributedDAYTON, Ohio – A memorial service in southwest Ohio honored an Air Force dog that died this month after a military career, which included serving in the Iraq War and helping federal authorities with more than 500 arrests.

18. BC edges Air Force, advances to final (ESPN, 24 Mar 12) … Brion O’ConnorWORCESTER, Mass. -- Sweet 16. In the NCAA's opening round of the Northeast Regional, it was the top-seeded Boston College Eagles who came up smelling like roses, netting their 16th straight victory with a hard-fought 2-0 win over the Air Force Falcons at the DCU Center.

19. Air Force Academy Gets $3.6M Aritificial Turf Airstrip(CBS Denver, 23 Mar 12) … UnattributedAIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — The Air Force Academy has a new landing strip for its glider planes carpeted with more than 1.3 million square feet of artificial turf. The school unveiled the $3.6 million installation on Tuesday.

20. Baffling Air Force crash still confounds families(Florida Today, 23 Mar 12) … UnattributedROCKLEDGE — Six decades after his brother’s plane with 53 airmen aboard ditched in the Atlantic Ocean and disappeared after survivors were spotted in rafts, Keith Amsden and other family members clamor for answers.

21.U.S. Army Launches App Marketplace Prototype(eWeek.com, 25 Mar 12) … Darryl K. TaftThe U.S. Army has launched a prototype app store known as the Army Software Marketplace that will enable Army personnel to access apps for their smartphones and tablets.

HEADLINES

CNN at 0530Official: North Korea moves long-range rocket to launch padIn Afghan killings, victim No. 17 remains unknown7.1-magnitude earthquake strikes central Chile

FOX News at 0530

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ObamaCare Hits the High CourtSantorum: 'Bad Math' Inflates Romney LeadAfghan Shooting Suspect's Wife: 'He Wouldn't Do That'

NPR at 0530Along Korea's DMZ, No Sign That Tensions Are Easing4 Questions Could Make Or Break The Health Care LawSome Cuban-Americans Wary As Cuba Welcomes Pope

USA Today at 0530Obama urges N. Korea to "pursue peace"Another Japan reactor shuts down; only one leftPapal visit offers hope in Cuba

Washington Post at 0530Muslim Brotherhood asserts strength in EgyptSupreme Court to hear arguments on timing of health-care rulingGSA looking for bidders for energy retrofits

FULL TEXT

BUDGET

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Lawmakers: U.S. Air Force Numbers Lack Credibility(Defense News, 25 Mar 12) … Marcus Weisgerberhttp://www.defensenews.com/article/20120325/DEFREG02/303250001/Lawmakers-U-S-Air-Force-Numbers-Lack-Credibility

Three years ago, then-U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates announced that he was recommending Congress approve the termination or truncation of 33 programs.

With total contract values in the hundreds of millions of dollars, the programs collectively touched just about every state, sending lawmakers on both sides of the aisle into a frenzy over the possibility of losing jobs in their districts.

“[I]t was basically a blitzkrieg on the Hill because everybody’s ox was getting gored,” Gates said on March 14 after accepting the Elliot L. Richardson Prize for Excellence in Public Service from the National Acacemy of Public Administration as he reflected on his 2010 budget proposal. “And that prevented [lawmakers] from forming alliances, and ultimately we were successful.”

It’s unclear whether Gates’ strategy for killing or shrinking programs will apply to the Pentagon’s 2013 budget proposal, which the Defense Department sent to Congress in February.

The Air Force, for example, has faced stiff opposition in Congress for decisions to cancel two programs, the C-27J cargo plane and the Block 30 variant of the Global Hawk UAV.

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At congressional hearings over the past two months, Republicans and Democrats have argued against both decisions. Moreover, they’ve called into question the Air Force’s analysis and rationales used to justify those decisions.

This could cause what Air Force and other Pentagon leadership have called a “strategy driven” budget proposal to unravel.

Critics of the plan to cancel the Alenia Aermacchi C-27J have questioned the Air Force’s life-cycle spending estimates, or how much it will cost to purchase and operate one aircraft over a 25-year period.

That argument has been raised not only by the Air National Guard, which is slated to lose at least 21 planes, but also by lawmakers and congressional staffers.

Numerous Air Force documents state the aircraft’s life-cycle cost is somewhere between $111 million and $308 million per aircraft, a broad margin that has created skepticism in both chambers of Congress.

“There’s a big gap there that I don’t think they adequately explained at all here today,” Sen. Carl Levin, D-Mich., chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said after a March 20 hearing with Air Force leaders.

As for the Northrop Grumman Global Hawk, the Pentagon changed its requirements for high-altitude reconnaissance, which favored the venerable U-2 spy plane over the UAV. The Air Force also says problems with the Global Hawk sensor drove its decision to cancel the Block 30 version.

The Air Force still plans to buy other versions of the Global Hawk, but plans to retire 18 Block 30s.

The decision puzzled many because last summer top DoD acquisition officials expressed their support for the program to Congress.

“It’s completely inconsistent with what [these officials] said just a few months earlier, that there was no substitute for the Global Hawk,” said Todd Harrison, an analyst with the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments. “I think on some of these decisions, at least the way they’ve communicated them publicly, is creating a credibility problem.”

Also complicating matters: The Air Force had to make “not only some of the most politically controversial decisions but more than any other service,” said Mackenzie Eaglen, an analyst with the conservative American Enterprise Institute.

“Congress is sensitive to these Air Force decisions in particular because they don’t just impact programs,” she said. “They affect entire units and bases around the country and therefore livelihood. This means job loss and future base closure.”

Asked about the Global Hawk decision, Eaglen said it is “equally as flimsy and goes out the window depending on which assumptions or tweaks” are made to the requirement.

The Air Force’s “service cost position” is that one C-27J will cost $308 million over its lifetime. This number is the sum of procurement, development, military construction, operations, personnel and spare parts costs over 25 years divided by the number of aircraft, in this case 38.

The $308 million number, Air Force budget officials said, was finalized in May 2011.

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“It’s based on actually how the airplane is laid in; four airplanes per base, nine bases, the number of personnel at each location … all of the things that were essentially the plan for the service, to include the Guard, to base, man, employ, operate the C-27J,” an Air Force official said. “Anything beyond that is an excursion that changes the set of assumptions associated with how we plan to operate, employ, base the C-27J.”

But if you change the assumptions, the life-cycle cost estimate could plummet.

Air Force budget and analysis officials have acknowledged that, when based similarly to the C-130H, using Guard or reserve crews, the C-27J life-cycle cost could fall to $166 million per plane. But this lower number comes into play only if the Air Force buys more than its 38-plane program of record and excludes sunk costs, such as development, military construction and depot standup.

The Air Force argues such a comparison of the C-27J and C-130 was not “appropriate” during the budget process because the basing, manpower and employment factors were what the Air Force would have been required to fund for the existing fleet of C-27J aircraft, according to a senior Air Force official.

Because the C-27J — used to shuttle troops and supplies around the battlefield — will be operated only by the Air National Guard and based at numerous locations in small four-plane squadrons, its costs are more than the C-130s, which are typically part of larger squadrons and spread across the active and reserve components, the Air Force officials said.

The Air Force also notes that the Pentagon’s new strategic guidance, which DoD officials say drove their budget decisions, justify the decision for canceling the C-27J program. Because the strategy calls for fewer ground troops and not fighting two land wars simultaneously, demand for intratheater airlift is less. That also led to the Air Force’s decision to retire 65 C-130s. Both aircraft perform the intratheater airlift mission.

“If you didn’t reduce [the C-27J], you would have to reduce more C-130s or some other intratheater airlift asset,” the Air Force official said.

Since the C-27J costs more, the Air Force opted to eliminate all of the aircraft from the fleet before reducing C-130s.

Further confusing lawmakers is that numerous draft Air Force reports state that the C-27J life-cycle cost is $111 million. The number appeared in at least two draft reports to Congress that have yet to be delivered to lawmakers. The Air Force claims the number is not accurate and was dismissed last fall.

“I challenged it against these guys [other service analysts]a little bit because it wasn’t a good number,” the Air Force official said. “It was a draft report that we were having some pretty vigorous discussions inside the Air Force about and eventually ... people got around to it and said: ‘No, that’s not the right number.’”

But the lower number has raised suspicion in Congress and among analysts.

“There must have been some assumptions that you could plug into their model that result in that number,” Harrison said. “What went into that to make that number and how does it differ because maybe those assumptions are realistic.”

What will ultimately happen to these two programs over the coming months is anyone’s guess.

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“This is a classic show-me-the-money issue,” said Gordon Adams, who oversaw defense budgets in the Clinton administration. “It gets very dicey if you’ve made a policy decision that you haven’t backed up with a cost analysis.”

Congressional staffers and think-tank analysts say until they are able to replicate the Air Force’s cost estimate modeling, they will remain skeptical.

Lawmakers have stopped short of saying they will introduce legislation to block the Air Force’s decision. Levin said his committee will seek answers as it continues its review of the Pentagon’s budget submission.

“We’re not going to take any actions until we’ve had a chance to mark up the bill,” he said.

RETURN

B2

Air Force extends probe of Afghan plane deal(Chicago Tribune, 23 Mar 12) … Andrea Shalal-Esahttp://www.chicagotribune.com/business/sns-rt-us-afghanistan-planesbre82m1b9-20120323,0,506963.story

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Air Force on Friday said it was extending an investigation into an embarrassing mistake that prompted it to cancel a contract, valued at up to $1 billion, to sell Brazilian light attack planes to the Afghan government.

Air Force General Donald Hoffman, commander of Air Force Materiel Command, granted investigators more time to look into the issue, said spokeswoman Jennifer Cassidy. She said a decision was now expected in coming weeks.

The Air Force had no immediate comment on why it decided to extend the investigation, which is being conducted by Air Force legal officials along with some representatives of the Pentagon's chief weapons buyer, Frank Kendall.

The problem began in January, when privately held U.S. defense contractor Sierra Nevada Corp and Brazilian planemaker Embraer SA beat out Hawker Beechcraft to win an order for 20 light attack planes. The Air Force was procuring the planes behalf of the Afghanistan government.

That contract was quickly challenged by Hawker.

The incident has generated headlines in Brazil, where government officials were caught off guard by the military's cancellation of the plane order, and have said it would not be helpful to bilateral defense relations. The issue may come up when Brazilian President Dilma Rousseff visits Washington next week.

While preparing for the Hawker lawsuit, the Air Force discovered that its decision had been inadequately documented, prompting Air Force Secretary Michael Donley to scrap the contract, which had an initial value of $355 million to Sierra Nevada and its subcontractor Embraer.

Air Force officials have described the incident as embarrassing and disappointing, especially given a series of other acquisition problems over the last decade. They had hoped to investigate the matter

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quickly and move forward with a new competition to ensure that the Afghan government could still receive the initial order of 20 light attack planes soon.

David Van Buren, the acting assistant secretary for acquisition who is retiring this month, told Reuters earlier this month that he did not believe the case revealed a systemic problem with the Air Force acquisition process.

Sierra Nevada is pressing the Air Force to redo the contest quickly, without lowering the requirements set for the original competition, from which the Hawker AT-6 plane was disqualified. Sierra says the Embraer Super Tucano is in use by six militaries around the globe.

Hawker insists that its AT-6 plane is the most capable, affordable and sustainable light attack aircraft on the market. The company is urging the Air Force to revise its requirements for the light attack planes, arguing that not even front-line U.S. fighter jets could meet the requirements as written.

Van Buren earlier this month said he was not aware of any plans to revise the requirements for the plane, which Afghanistan needs to provide close air support for its army and as a turbo-prop training plane.

The cancellation of the Super Tucano contract is one of several U.S. orders Embraer has lost over the last 20 years. In the 1990s, the Super Tucano and Embraer in partnership with U.S.-based Northrop Grumman lost out as the joint fighter training aircraft for NATO after heavy lobbying from U.S. competitors.

In the mid-2000s, the Air Force also canceled a contract with Lockheed Martin Corp for an aerial reconnaissance plane that was to be based on the Embraer ERJ-145 regional jet.

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B3

Air Force Won’t Replace JSTARS Fleet(Defense Tech, 25 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://defensetech.org/2012/03/23/air-force-wont-replace-jstars-fleet/

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Air Force’s proposal to cancel a decades-old program that finds rides to orbit for promising space technologies was a product of the final deliberations on the Pentagon’s 2013 budget request and was not widely coordinated with the affected government organizations, a top service official told lawmakers March 8.

Testifying before skeptical members of the House Armed Services strategic forces subcommittee, Air Force Gen. William Shelton, commander of Air Force Space Command, defended the planned cancellation of the long-running Space Test Program (STP) as well as the newer Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) program. He said the moves are necessary as part of the Air Force contribution to the $487 billion in planned reductions in defense spending over the next decade mandated by the Budget Control Act of 2011.

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Rep. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) characterized the cancellations as “penny-wise and pound-foolish” considering the minimal investment involved. He said it does not make sense to try and lower costs by canceling the programs that were specifically established to find ways to save money.

Heinrich asked Shelton whether the proposed STP cancellation had been coordinated with other U.S. government laboratories and organizations that have benefited from the program.

“I think the coordination that maybe we would have wanted to occur did not occur,” Shelton said. “And the reason for that was as we got to the final balancing at the end of the president’s budget exercise we flat just didn’t have the time, plus there was a lot of closed door sessions that finalized that submission. That coordination is going on now. We are determining how we will spread the work. We are determining how we will gain the same sorts of advantages we got from the Space Test Program, albeit by other organizations.”

Shelton said a lot of space-related research is taking place in the Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL), the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, in the Naval Research Laboratory and within the Army. The STP has been used for decades to match high-priority space experiments with rides to orbit, usually as piggyback payloads but occasionally aboard dedicated rockets. These payloads are prioritized each year by the Pentagon’s Space Experiments Review Board.

Shelton said Air Force officials felt the risk in canceling the STP was acceptable, adding that the AFRL will spend $370 million this year on space-related research. He also said concepts developed by the ORS Office, created in 2007 to develop quick-reaction space capabilities in response to emerging needs, will find their way into other programs.

Lawmakers did not seem convinced. Rep. Mike Turner (R-Ohio), chairman of the strategic forces subcommittee, said that he is not satisfied with the justification provided for closing the ORS Office and canceling STP. The ORS Office, he said, responded to urgent military requirements and promised to shorten the lengthy space acquisition cycle.

Rep. Loretta Sanchez (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the subcommittee, noted that the STP program was critical to the development of the Air Force’s now-ubiquitous GPS satellite-based positioning, navigation and timing system.

The Air Force’s 2013 request calls for a $10 million allocation for STP, funding that would be used to close out the program, according to budget justification documents. The program received $44 million in 2011 and $47 million in 2012. STP has flown hundreds of experiments since 1965, nurturing Defense Department expertise in mission design, spacecraft bus acquisition, payload integration and on-orbit operations, according to an Air Force fact sheet.

Funding for the planned Space Test Program Satellite-2 is being transferred to the Advanced Spacecraft Technology research account, budget documents show. The Air Force is requesting $65 million for Advanced Spacecraft Technology in 2013, a $9 million drop from this year, according to budget documents.

The Air Force’s latest budget request does not include any funding for the ORS Office. Congress appropriated $110 million for ORS programs in 2012.

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“The Space Development and Test division that is there continues to work ORS concepts on behalf of all of Space and Missile Systems Center, which is headquartered in Los Angeles,” Shelton said. “That linkage, which has always been tight, will continue. It is just that we won’t have a dedicated office.”

RETURN

CONTINUE TO STRENGTHEN THE NUCLEAR ENTERPRISE

N1

No Go On A Nuclear-Powered Unmanned Aerial Vehicle?(Ottawa Citizen, 25 Mar March 12) … David Pugliesehttp://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2012/03/25/no-go-on-a-nuclear-powered-unmanned-aerial-vehicle/

There have been a number of articles lately about the U.S. developing a new unmanned aerial vehicle in secret. Dave Majumdar, at Air Force Times, recently had an article about how the U.S. Air Force’s decision to postpone development of a next generation unmanned combat aircraft suggests that service might be developing something else in the “black world.”

The article quoted USAF intelligence chief Lt.-Gen. Larry James who said that there is no immediate need for a next generation replacement for the General Atomics MQ-9 Reaper. And the Predator-C Avenger UAV the USAF is buying will be used only as a test plane, he added. Those comments have started speculation among some analysts that the U.S. already has plans for an advanced UAV to be built in secret….but others say the Pentagon will make due with the current systems.

Then the Federation of American Scientists had this last week:A certain technology that could extend the mission duration and capabilities of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) was favorably assessed last year by scientists at Sandia National Laboratories and Northrop Grumman Systems Corporation. But they concluded regretfully that “current political conditions will not allow use of the results.”

The assessment was carried out to explore the feasibility of next generation UAVs. The objective was “to increase UAV sortie duration from days to months while increasing available electrical power at least two-fold,” according to a June 2011 Sandia project summary.

And that objective could have been achieved by means of the unidentified technology, which “would have provided system performance unparalleled by other existing technologies,” the project summary said.

“As a result of this effort, UAVs were to be able to provide far more surveillance time and intelligence information while reducing the high cost of support activities. This technology was intended to create unmatched global capabilities to observe and preempt terrorist and weapon of mass destruction (WMD) activities.”

But it was all for nought.“Unfortunately, none of the results will be used in the near-term or mid-term future,” the project summary stated. “It was disappointing to all that the political realities would not allow use of the results.”

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Not only that, but “none of the results can be shared openly with the public due to national security constraints.”

On close reading, it seems clear that the Sandia-Northrop project contemplated the use of nuclear technology for onboard power and propulsion.

The project summary, which refers to “propulsion and power technologies that [go] well beyond existing hydrocarbon technologies,” does not actually use the word “nuclear.” But with unmistakable references to “safeguards,” “decommissioning and disposal,” and those unfavorable “political conditions,” there is little doubt about the topic under discussion.

Furthermore, the project’s lead investigator at Sandia, the aptly named Dr. Steven B. Dron, is a specialist in nuclear propulsion, among other things. He co-chaired a session at the 2008 Symposium on Space Nuclear Power and Propulsion at the University of New Mexico.

RETURN

PARTNER WITH JOINT AND COALITION TEAM TO WIN TODAY’S FIGHT

P1

Corruption eyed as motive in Kabul shooting(Air Force Times, 25 Mar 12) … Kristen Davishttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/air-force-corruption-eyed-as-motive-in-kabul-shooting-032512w/

U.S. advisers had suspected misuse of aircraft by the Afghan National Air Force before an Afghan pilot, a colonel named Ahmed Gul, shot to death eight U.S. airmen and a contractor and then turned the gun on himself a year ago.

Days after the deadliest attack by an Afghan serviceman on coalition troops, a U.S. lieutenant colonel told Air Force special agents that Afghan leadership at all levels didn’t want transparency in the scheduling and execution of missions.

“I suspect it is because they see the [Afghan air force] aircraft as a way to make money and garner influence by flying around passengers and cargo for a select few influential and connected people,” the lieutenant colonel said in the investigation report made public in January. “I think this is the way they kept a handful of aircraft flying during the ’90s and want to continue these nefarious and profitable activities with the billions of dollars worth of aircraft we’re buying them and the hundreds of millions of dollars we spend every year on maintenance and fuel for these valuable aircraft.”

The first two killed in the shooting — Maj. David Brodeur and Lt. Col. Frank Bryant — were trying to make changes in their role as air advisers, the report said. Bryant had suggested cutting off ANAF fuel so they could fly only scheduled missions.

Now the U.S. is investigating a possible link between the mass shooting and the Afghan air force’s alleged abuses of aircraft to transport drugs and weapons around the country, the Wall Street Journal reported this month.

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The Air Force investigation determined Gul acted alone but could offer no specific motive for the shooting last April 27.

The investigation “does not rule out insurgent connections to Col. Gul, but indicates that none have been definitively established thus far. Additionally, there are multiple reports that indicated Col. Gul may have had mental issues that were possibly compounded by alleged financial problems,” said Air Force spokesman Todd Spitler, in an email.

Lt. Col. Tim Stauffer, spokesman for the NATO command that trains Afghan troops, told CNN that the allegation of improper use of Afghan air force aircraft “is being looked into.” Stauffer referred Air Force Times’ questions to the International Security Assistance Force, which would not confirm the investigation.

“ISAF takes seriously any allegation of impropriety on the part of its forces or those of the afghan National Security Forces we mentor and partner with” and investigates them fully,” said Lt. Col. Jimmie Cummings Jr.

Troubling signsThe Air Command and Control Center where the shooting took place set flight rules and controlled cargo flown in and out of the Kabul airport — and could cancel flights that did not meet mission requirements, according to those interviewed as port of the Air Force investigation.

But a call to a high-ranking Afghan could restore a canceled flight at the last minute, a master sergeant said. The Afghan would get paid for authorizing the change, added the master sergeant, who called it a business among the Afghans. “… the standup and monitoring of flights … would have hurt some Afghan’s monetary gain and cause them tensions.”

A petty officer first class from San Clemente Island Naval Base, Cal., told a similar story: The Ministry of Defense had “optimum authority to override any sortie” depending on the level of importance of the Afghan leader who requested an impromptu flight.

Some personnel, including Gul, “may not have favored the idea of dealing with change in the scheduling after being accustomed to a certain way of doing business. Further, Gul was a “cargo movement officer whom could be significantly impacted if the change in scheduling occurred,” according to the report.

Others interviewed as part of the Air Force investigation described questionable practices by the ANAF: They did not plan ahead and did not like to screen passengers or their bags for weapons, drugs and explosives, especially when those passengers were senior officers or VIPs. Nor did they use printed schedules, relying instead on cellphones to task last-minute missions.

One U.S. serviceman who worked on the flight line at Kabul International Airport months before the shooting described to Air Force Times junior-level Afghans who filled water bottles with jet fuel they would take into the city and sell; all-Afghan crews would show up on the flight line and insist they had an emergency mission. They would return several days later.

Two days before Gul went on his rampage, U.S. mentors were pulled off Afghan air force flight missions because the flights were not properly scheduled and did not comply with a process for tracking flight hours and maintenance, a lieutenant colonel told Air Force special agents. The officer

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said a new process at the air command and control center was underway to replace customary practice by the Afghan air force leadership of “dictating what flights go where, possibly directing flights for personal gain or illegitimate purposes.”

Bryant and Brodeur “worked hard to turn the ACCC into a functional command center that could and would enforce disciplined policies and procedures while being able to track the movements of every [Afghanistan National Air Force] aircraft through Afghanistan,” the report said.

Taliban connection?Though the Taliban took responsibility for the April 27 shooting, the Air Force could establish no link between Gul and the organization. Those who knew the shooter offered contradictory depictions of him: a drug addict who watched pornography and a religious radical who forced his views on others; an Afghan trusted by his U.S. mentors and a man who wanted to kill the Americans he considered invaders.

Few disputed Gul’s financial problems; he had sold his home and was living in his car at the time of the shootings. An Afghan colonel who graduated from the country’s Air Force Military Academy with Gul described him as irresponsible, stubborn and short-tempered. Despite Gul’s unprofessionalism at work — he would come and go as he pleased, the colonel said — he kept his job. Gul also got a pistol right away while others in the Afghan air force had to wait. The colonel said he suspected Gul may have had protection from a high-ranking officer in the Ministry of Defense.

Gul, a pilot for 20 years, was thoroughly vetted and had no known ties to al-Qaida or the Taliban, Spitler said.

“Under most circumstances the detailed vetting process has proven successful as it includes biometrics (checks for history of criminal or drug activity), and endorsements from at least three village elders (a powerful social norm in Afghan culture),” Spitler said in the email.

Gul was a regular at the morning meetings at the air command and control center. There was no reason to suspect anything out of the ordinary when he walked into a room, smiled and said hello to a group that had gathered there around 10 a.m. on April 27.

Brodeur was in the middle of a conversation with the Afghan counterpart who had not passed along a flight task to the center. The Air Force has insisted there was no disagreement prior to the shooting, and one witness account described an interaction that was not confrontational. Brodeur “tried to see what he could do to ensure” the Afghan did not repeat the error.

After several minutes, Gul’s expression turned angry. He pulled a 9mm Smith and Wesson from the top of his uniform and shot Brodeur, the witness said. Gul went on to execute Bryant, Maj. Jeffrey Ausborn, Capt. Charles Ransom, Tech. Sgt. Tara Brown, Maj. Philip Ambard, Maj. Raymond Estelle II and Capt. Nathan Nylander, who was killed when he left a nearby conference room to try to take down the shooter. Also killed was a contractor, James McLaughlin.

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Serbia marks anniversary of U.S.-led bombing(Associated Press, 24 Mar 12) … Jovana Gechttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/ap-serbia-marks-anniversary-nato-bombing-032412/

BELGRADE, Serbia — President Boris Tadic of Serbia said Saturday the NATO bombing campaign that stopped his country’s onslaught on Kosovo 13 years ago was a crime, and he honored the hundreds of Serbs the alliance killed.

In many ways, Tadic’s comments reflect a prevailing sentiment in Serbia that the nation was unjustly vilified during the Balkan wars of the 1990s, and that the 78-day air war by NATO forces in 1999 was wrong.

“That was a crime against our country and our people, and I have nothing to add to that,” Tadic said during a wreath laying ceremony in the central Serbian town of Aleksinac.

It was one of several public ceremonies held in Serbia on Saturday to mark the 13th anniversary of the NATO campaign, which destroyed much of Serbia’s infrastructure and ended its rule in Kosovo.

Serbian authorities say at least 2,500 people were killed in the NATO bombings and 12,000 wounded. Independent assessments have put the number of civilian casualties far lower.

A glass and iron monument honoring all those killed in the 1990s Balkan wars was unveiled in Belgrade, the capital, on Saturday amid protests by both liberal groups and victims’ families.

Altogether, about 10,000 people were killed during the Kosovo conflict, which erupted when independence-seeking ethnic Albanians launched a rebellion against Serbian rule. The brutality of Serbia’s response to the rebellion prompted the NATO bombing to force it to withdraw its troops from Kosovo, which later declared independence in 2008.

Late Serbian leader Slobodan Milosevic, government officials, top army and police officers have been tried over Kosovo crimes by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Despite all that, many Serbs still view the events of the 1999 as proof that the Western military alliance unjustly sided with their enemies.

For instance, Serbian media on Saturday vilified the NATO bombings as an “aggression,” and state-run TV blamed those attacks for a growth of cancer victims in the country.

Still, liberals used the 13th anniversary to say politicians have done too little to face up to Serbia’s wartime past and that could jeopardize the nation’s bid to join the European Union.

“The politicians never really tried to explain things, to clearly say who was who,” said Maja Micic of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights group.

Micic criticized the new monument in Belgrade, saying it should only honor the people Serbian forces killed during their warmongering in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo in the 1990s.

But not everyone agreed.

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Gacic Rosa, whose son, a soldier, died in the fighting, joined other Serbs in preventing a group of officials from approaching the new monument.

They said it should contain the names of all the Serbian soldiers who died.

“This is a humiliation,” said Rosa.

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U.S., Pakistan plan supply route discussions(Air Force Times, 23 Mar 12) … Slobodan Lekichttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/ap-us-pakistan-plan-supply-route-discussions-032312/

Islamabad - Despite President Barak Obama’s advise of restraint the ground realities are suggesting otherwise in the region and fears of a confrontation are growing day by day.

As a top U.S. Air Force general has described the biggest conventional warhead – the 30,000-pound bunker buster bomb – as “great” for a military strike on Iran, the Iranian Ambassador to Lebanon was quoted as threatening that “Iran has prepared itself to launch about 11,000 missiles at Israel and U.S. bases in the region if they do a strike on country’s nuclear facilities.”

Lieutenant General Herbert Carlisle, the US Air Force deputy chief of staff for operations was quoted as saying that “The Massive Ordnance Penetrator (MOP) is a great weapon,” and suggested that the bomb might be used in any attack on Iran ordered by Washington.

The MOP also referred to as “The Mother of All Bombs” is designed to drill through 200 feet of reinforced concrete before detonating its massive warhead.

According to defence experts the biggest conventional, non-nuclear, weapon in the American arsenal is most fearsome explosive weapon among a range of massive-blast ordnance developed by the Pentagon over the past decade.

Meanwhile Iranian MehrNews quoted Tehran’s ambassador to Lebanon Ghazanfar Roknabadi as saying “We have prepared ourselves and currently have 11,000 missiles ready to launch at the U.S. and Israel and their interests in the world,”

“We are in a defensive position and if we are attacked we will give a tough and painful response,” the Iranian envoy warned.

The U.S. general made clear that “a 30,000-pound (13,600-kg) bunker buster bomb designed to smash through some 200 feet of concrete before exploding is a “great weapon” that could be used by U.S. forces in a clash with Iran over its nuclear programme.”

Meanwhile U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta told the National Journal in an interview on Thursday that planning had been going on “for a long time.”

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Carlisle also told the Credit Suisse-McAleese defense conference that a conflict with Syria or Iran could see U.S. military operations influenced by new tactical thinking at the Pentagon known as Air-Sea Battle.

That approach aims to take advantage of highly networked and integrated U.S. forces.

General Carlisle reportedly added that the tactics focus on operating in multiple domains, from air and sea to space and cyberspace, while networking and integrating information from the different areas, like satellites and sensors on stealth fighters and unmanned aircraft.

“There’s a space capability, there’s a cyber capability, there’s fifth-generation low-signature force capability,” he said.

“All those things are on the table and being thought about as we do this operational planning,” Carlisle added, noting that Syria and Iran have developed significant defences aimed at keeping potential attackers at a distance, a strategy Air-Sea Battle was designed to circumvent.

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DEVELOP AND CARE FOR AIRMEN AND THEIR FAMILIES

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Drone technology can be emotional drain for crews(Los Angeles Times, 24 Mar 12) … David Zucchinohttp://www.standard.net/stories/2012/03/24/drone-technology-can-be-emotional-drain-crews

WASHINGTON -- Drone crews protect U.S. ground troops by watching over them 24 hours a day from high above. Sitting before video screens thousands of miles from their remote-controlled aircraft, the crews scan for enemy ambushes and possible roadside bombs, while also monitoring what the military calls "patterns of life." Only rarely do drone crews fire on the enemy. The rest of the time, they sit and watch. For hours on end. Day after day. It can get monotonous and, yes, boring. It can also be gut-wrenching. Crews sometimes see ground troops take casualties or come under attack. They zoom in on enemy dead to confirm casualties. Psychologically, they're in the middle of combat. But physically most of them are on another continent, leading to a sense of helplessness. "That lack of control is one of the main features of producing stress," said Air Force Col. Hernando Ortega, who discussed results of a survey of Predator and Reaper crews at a recent conference in Washington, D.C. They ask themselves, he said: "Could I have done better?" The Air Force is only now becoming aware of the toll -- which Air Force psychologists call combat stress -- posed by drone crews' job, even as the drone workload is growing. In recent years, the Air Force has trained more drone pilots than conventional pilots, and the Pentagon is increasingly relying on drones to fight wars and terrorism overseas. Drone crews flew 54

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combat air patrols a day over Afghanistan and Iraq last year, up from five a day in 2004. The goal is 65 patrols a day by 2013. The military is changing its terminology accordingly. What the Air Force used to call UAVs, for unmanned aerial vehicles, are now called RPAs, for remotely piloted aircraft. "They are not unmanned at all," Ortega said. "They're manned to the hilt." The Air Force considers drone crews "deployed" in combat, even though most of them fly planes from U.S. bases. "The most dangerous part of their day is their commute," said Peter W. Singer, a Brookings Institution scholar who studies robotics in warfare. The three-member crews typically work 12-hour shifts. They monitor the landscape and events on the ground -- what the Air Force calls ISR, for intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance -- often through the early morning hours. "Humans don't work well at 3 in the morning ... we're not nocturnal," said Ortega, a flight surgeon. "And that builds fatigue, which decreases human performance, which leads to more stress." "It's really kind of a boring job ... it's kind of terrible," Ortega said, paraphrasing comments from the survey. At the same time, the crews can develop strong emotional bonds with ground troops via text messages and radio, Ortega said. "These guys actually telecommute to the war zone," he said. "The band of brothers is built online." That contributes to the sense of helplessness when their colleagues are in physical danger. "There can be guilt even if no shot is fired, just from the fact that you don't feel you can help," said Col. Kent McDonald, an Air Force psychiatrist who helped conduct the recent survey of 900 drone crew members in 2010 and 2011. In the survey, 46 percent of active-duty drone pilots reported high levels of stress, and 29 percent reported emotional exhaustion or burnout. The data included Air Force crews who have flown drones over Iraq and Afghanistan, but not crews who fly drones over Pakistan, Yemen and Somalia in the CIA's programs.

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30 AFA cadets suspected of substance use(Air Force Times, 23 Mar 12) … Unattributed http://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/ap-30-air-force-academy-cadets-suspected-of-substance-use-032312/

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. — An Air Force Academy official says about 30 cadets are suspected of using banned substances, which is double the number of cadets the school said it was investigating in January.

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Academy spokesman Lt. Col. John Bryan says the inquiry involves substances other than alcohol, tobacco or drugs prescribed to cadets. He says the review could wrap up in a few months.

The Gazette reports some cadets under investigation are intercollegiate athletes.

Bryan didn't know if any cases have resulted in charges or discipline yet. Other details haven't been released.

In 2011 the academy investigated suspected use of banned substances including Spice, which mimicks the effects of marijuana. Twenty-one cadets resigned, five were kicked out, and one went to a court-martial. Results of the court-martial weren't immediately available Thursday evening.

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Military leaders assert zero-tolerance for hazing(Federal News Radio, 26 Mar 12) … Jared Serbuhttp://www.federalnewsradio.com/?nid=407&sid=2801619

Following some highly-publicized hazing-related deaths and injuries in the nation's armed services, some members of Congress are pressing the military to do more to end a culture that they say allows servicemembers to be mistreated by their colleagues.

Uniformed officials told lawmakers they are moving aggressively to stamp out the problem, and that they've already made "night-and-day" headway compared with the practices that permeated the military a generation ago.

"We have put several corrective measures into place," said Rick West, Master Chief Petty Officer of the Navy. "We are constantly talking about this." The House Armed Services Committee heard from the top enlisted officials from all five of the military services Thursday. Each testified to a zero-tolerance stance toward hazing in their services. "Hazing is a war-fighting issue, destroying the confidence and trust Marines place in each other and in our leadership and undermining unit cohesion and combat readiness," said Michael Barrett, the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps. "It does not promote loyalty, does not build espirit de corps and does not prepare Marines for combat." Military officials say most of the hazing cases they track are rites-of-passage type incidents connected to a promotion or another significant event. Fraternity-style initiation acts are still commonplace, but they're prohibited by all the services when they go beyond the bounds of voluntary team building exercises and extend into inflicting pain, forced drinking or demeaning or humiliating a servicemember. Several recent incidents appear to have been in another category altogether. The Navy discharged eight sailors from the U.S.S. Bonhomme Richard in a case where they were accused of assaulting and choking a shipmate. Army Private Danny Chen took his own life in Afghanistan last year after

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allegedly being beaten by fellow soldiers and harassed because of his race. Earlier in the year, a young Marine in Afghanistan committed suicide after enduring severe physical abuse. Rep. Judy Chu (D-Calif.) has a very personal connection to the issue. That Marine was her nephew, Lance Corporal Harry Lew. He took his life shortly after an episode in which she says he was subjected to hours of physical abuse when his sergeant caught him sleeping on duty. "They took it upon themselves to administer justice and corrective training," she said. "They berated him, ordered him to dig a foxhole, to do push-ups and crunches with his full body armor and a 25-pound sandbag. They stomped on his back, kicked him, and poured the full contents of a sandbag into his mouth and onto his face. It lasted a full three hours and 20 minutes. Twenty-two minutes after it stopped, Harry climbed into a foxhole and killed himself with his own gun. He was 21 years old." Chu said following her nephew's case closely led her to the conclusion that there's a disconnect between the hazing policies military leaders prescribe and how hazing is actually viewed in the military ranks. She claims the gap between how the outside world views hazing and how it's seen in the military is miles wide. "The outside is horrified. Meanwhile, the top brass says, ‘We prohibit hazing and these are isolated incidents, we are perfect,'" she said. "But the rank and file soldiers tend to think hazing is necessary to keep soldiers strong. They think it's better to have one person die, even at the hand of his fellow servicemembers, than to compromise the unit's safety. Why do I know people say this? Because I heard them say it at the jury trial over and over again as a defense for those marines. I saw it in the letters to the editor. I saw it in the blogs. This is the attitude in the military, and it's pervasive." Rep Mike Coffman (R-Colo.), who served in both the Army and Marine Corps, said Congress is right to be concerned about hazing, but he thinks the problems are more fundamental. "At the end of the day, this is a failure of small unit leadership," he said. "When you're in a small ground combat team, there's no stronger interdependent bond. Somebody who's never been in that situation will never be able to realize how difficult that is when you've been rejected by that team, but you're still there. You're there. If we think we can solve this by just getting rid of physical hazing and we don't deal with the psychological component of this, we've really missed the mark. This about much more than hazing. This is really about a failure of leadership at the most basic levels." Raymond Chandler, the Sergeant Major of the Army, disputed the notion that hazing is pervasive in the military. But he said it's also an issue his service takes it extremely seriously. "I'm personally appalled and disgusted by the actions of soldiers who do this," he said. "When a young man or woman is hazed, it's not corrective training. It's abuse. And there's a significant difference. From the Army perspective, from my perspective, this is not something we're going to tolerate. I am committed, along with the Army leadership to solve this problem. It is against who we say we are. And if any one of our brothers or sisters dies because of our own actions, that is not okay with me. I am committed to this." Barrett, the Sergeant Major of the Marine Corps, had much the same message.

"We are taking an aggressive stance toward all the disgusting societal issues that plague our services, and I'm not just talking about hazing," he said. "It's drugs, alcohol, domestic violence,

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criminal mischief, sexual misconduct, hazing and suicide. I refer to them as the insurgents inside of our wire, and it affects all our services. We are constantly taking and making assessments, and we're going after problems wherever we see problems." With regard to the specific case of Lance Corporal Harry Lew, Barrett said, "What happened to Lance Corporal Lew is disgusting. The small unit leadership that the congressman was speaking of, he's absolutely spot-on. The small-unit leadership failed. I wish I could take it all back. We should have done better." The Marine Corps is trying to do better. Last month, Gen. James Amos, the Marine commandant, issued new guidance emphasizing the zero-tolerance policy, and the Marines will begin tracking hazing cases through its internal criminal investigative system. The Air Force, Army, Marine Corps and Coast Guard each do at least some tracking already, but they all face a common challenge in assembling that data: There's no single offense called "hazing" in the Uniform Code of Military Justice. Because of that, any statistics compiled thus fat should be approached with caution, military leaders said. Still, some numbers have emerged since various measures to track hazing began: •The Air Force has flagged 21 hazing incidents since 2005, with only one being substantiated by commanders. •The Navy identified 46 reported cases since 2009, 20 of which led to disciplinary action. •The Army has labeled 71 cases as hazing since 2006, involving 139 alleged perpetrators, and 65 of those soldiers were punished in some way. •The Coast Guard has had nine hazing-related courts martial since 2009. Seven were from one unit.

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MODERNIZE OR AIR, SPACE AND CYBERSPACE INVENTORIES, ORGS AND TRAINING

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Flying to Pease? Base's Air Guard mission tied to new tanker(Foster’s, 25 Mar 12) … Jim Haddadinhttp://www.fosters.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20120325/GJNEWS_01/703259935

NEWINGTON — With the guts of a Boeing 767 commercial airplane, the new KC-46A air refueling tanker, under development by the Air Force, will present a significant advancement in refueling technology when it rolls off the assembly line in four or five years.

Because of its design, the craft can be used for a variety of purposes beyond air refueling, like evacuating people and moving cargo, according to Col. Paul Hutchinson, Wing Commander of the 157th Air Refueling Wing, which is headquartered at Pease Air National Guard Base in Newington. Receiving the next-generation aircraft will allow bases to expand their mission, he said.

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But for Air National Guard installations such as Pease that fly refueling missions, there's more riding on the wings of the KC46-A tanker than a technological upgrade.

Bases across the country are facing budget cuts, as well as the potential for a new round of base closures. Therefore, being one of the first military installations to receive the KC-46A — the Air Force's premier refueling craft — could be consequential.

"In order for a great refueling unit like Pease to continue to be strong, and to make sure that Pease is not vulnerable at all to any kind of future BRAC (base closure) round, I think it's really important that they receive the latest tanker," said U.S. Sen. Kelly Ayotte, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

Part of an attempt to recapitalize the fleet, the KC-46A will replace aging KC-135 stratotankers, which were built in the late 1950s and 1960s. Pease houses eight of the tankers, which are the only aircraft at the site.

Aircraft manufacturer Boeing received a multi-billion dollar contract to produce 179 KC-46A tankers, which are based on the Boeing 767. The first new KC-46A's are scheduled to be ready by 2017, and production of the remaining craft will continue for about a decade after that.

Next month, the Air Force is expected to release a set of criteria for selection of where the new KC-46A tankers will be based. Each eligible base will receive a score, and scores will be used to determine a list of candidates to receive the first tankers that roll off the assembly line.

Spokeswoman Ann Stefanek said the Air Force will rely on "criteria-based analysis and military judgment" to determine which bases are ultimately selected.

There are 17 Air National Guard bases in the country that house air refueling tankers. Air refueling tankers are also stationed at four active-duty military bases in the country and a few more overseas, Hutchinson said, and a handful of other tankers are housed at reserve bases.

In total, there are approximately 415 KC-135's in use at those bases today, Hutchinson said. However, if that inventory is replaced with 179 tankers, simple math suggests fewer bases will be flying refueling missions in the future, he said.

"We believe that when there's an open and transparent process to determine where the basing goes, that Pease Air National Guard Base will be at the top of the list," Hutchinson said.

One advantage Pease holds in the basing process is its proximity to the "refueling track," or travel path, that more than 90 percent of all fighter aircraft use to reach operations in the Middle East. Planes carrying cargo and personnel to Europe and Africa also pass within a few minutes of Pease.

Another argument in favor of bringing KC-46A's to Pease is the base's track record of putting planes to use, Hutchinson said. Pease has remained open 24 hours a day since the Sept. 11 attacks. With refueling missions scheduled at all hours, guard troops at Pease flew more hours per airplane last year than any other Air National Guard unit in the country, logging an average of 895 hours of flight time per craft, he said.

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"If we get that airplane — the first ones out — we have the capability to utilize that airplane at a high rate," Hutchinson said. "We have the ability to train on it quickly."

Some fear the Air Force has plans to base newer craft solely at the active-duty bases around the country, Hutchinson said. Currently, only about 40 percent of the KC-135's in the country are stationed at active-duty bases, while about 60 percent are distributed at Air Force Reserve and Air National Guard bases.

"We would advocate that the new airplanes should be fielded concurrently with the active duty, and in proportional amounts to where the airplanes are stationed now," Hutchinson said.

In addition to metrics like the base's proximity to air refueling tracks, Ayotte said criteria should include the experience of pilots at the base, among other things. During meetings with Air Force officials, Ayotte said she's been stressing the importance of using objective criteria, which protect against political influence.

"Obviously I haven't been in the Senate that long, but I think the concern is that yes, if it's objective and it's transparent, then we know what the criteria is, and you can measure it very clearly with metrics, as opposed to just having it based on politics, or, 'I like this person,' or, 'I don't like this person.'"

New Hampshire's other Senator, Democrat Jeanne Shaheen, is also a member of the Armed Services Committee, and like Ayotte, she's been pushing for transparency and accountability in the base selection process. Shaheen said at a recent committee hearing she enumerated some of the base's strategic advantages, such as an on-site aircraft simulator, one of the longest runways on the East Coast and access to a railroad and port.

Representatives from the Air Force and the Department of Defense have been "fairly non-committal about the process," she said.

"As we were talking to the representative from the Air Force who was there, he acknowledged that most of the things that were mentioned would be part of the criteria, without actually giving us a list of what the actual criteria will be," she said.

Another unknown is how cuts in defense spending and the potential for base closures will factor into basing of the KC-46A. Defense spending will be cut by at least $487 billion over the next 10 years, under the budget passed by Congress last year.

In the short-term, that spending cut doesn't call for significant cutbacks at Pease, according to Hutchinson. It also doesn't take away funding from production of the KC-46A, which has been flagged as a priority by the Air Force.

However, another 10-year spending cut, which will lop off $500 to $600 billion more, will take effect in January, unless legislators reach compromise on a bill to avoid the so-called "sequestration" cuts.

Last year, Congress tried and failed to come up with a plan to slash $1.2 trillion from the federal deficit. The failure means budget cuts hard-wired into the Budget Control Act passed last year are on target to hit the military in 10 months. If the sequestration cuts go in effect, nearly all military programs will be subject to reductions, military officials say.

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Defense Secretary Leon Panetta has advocated for Congress to authorize two rounds of base closures, one in 2013 and another in 2015, to help absorb the defense cuts.

However, following developments at a meeting of the Senate Subcommittee on Readiness and Management Support on Wednesday, the chance of Congress authorizing a new round of base closures next year appears slim.

Sen. Claire McCaskill, a Missouri Democrat who chairs the subcommittee, said on Wednesday she'll block any attempt to initiate a closure study next year, according to multiple published reports. The Senate committee and another in the House must give their consent to start the base closure process.

Several senators have expressed opposition to new BRAC rounds, including those with bases to protect back home. Shaheen, a member of the subcommittee, said there are unanswered questions about how much money the process would save. The last BRAC round required a large investment up front to smooth the transition, and it's unclear when savings would materialize. The Senate is also awaiting information from the Department of Defense about potential base closures in Europe.

"I think there has been real skepticism and opposition expressed at the armed services committee of the Senate about another round of BRAC so soon," Shaheen said.

The Air Force's long-term plans call for the KC-135 to remain in service for up to another 20 years, Hutchinson said. That means even if Pease doesn't receive a single KC-46A, it won't be relegated to the back bench right away.

But the base would likely shift its mission in the future. And, while lawmakers have mounted stiff opposition to base closures this year, it's unclear whether the same opposition would exist further down the road. Should a future BRAC round occur, Pease would be in a significantly stronger position to remain open if it's in line to receive KC-46A's, Ayotte said.

"If it's not received in the initial round, it's not, certainly not, dire for Pease," she said, "but I think it's really important that we make the case objectively for why Pease should receive the KC-46A."

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Lawmakers blast F-35 program at hearing(Air Force Times, 24 Mar 12) … Brian Everstinehttp://www.airforcetimes.com/news/2012/03/air-force-f35-lawmakers-blast-at-hearing-032412w/

The budget season has given lawmakers ample opportunity to criticize the beleaguered F-35 program, telling Defense Department and Air Force officials that the fighter jet’s procurement has become an example of what not to do.

“I hope that when you are pursuing this program that you will keep your records so that when we do a post-mortem when it’s finished [we will know] how not to do this in the future,” said Rep. Roscoe Bartlett, R-Md.

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A Government Accountability Office report states that the F-35 program has a cost overrun of more than $1 billion, about $660 million of which is the government’s share, and production has been delayed by six years.

Air Force Secretary Michael Donley told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee that the service is committed to the F-35, but delayed procurement because Lockheed Martin is not ready for full-rate production.

Acting Pentagon procurement chief Frank Kendall told a House Armed Services Committee hearing on Wednesday that many of the problems the program faces come from early production that began while the jet was still in testing.

Senate Armed Services Committee ranking member Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said that such simultaneous testing and production has caused costly design changes and retrofits, and was “doomed to failure.”

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USAF fields first upgraded F-22 Raptors (Flight Global, 23 Mar 12) … Dave Majumdarhttp://ww http://www.flightglobal.com/news/articles/usaf-fields-first-upgraded-f-22-raptors-369886/

The US Air Force has begun to deploy Lockheed Martin F-22 Raptors upgraded with enhanced air-to-ground strike capabilities to the operational fleet, starting with the 3rd Wing at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.

"The 525th Fighter Squadron was the first Combat Air Forces squadron to receive an [Increment] 3.1 modified aircraft," says squadron commander Lt Col Paul "Max" Moga. "The capabilities this incremental upgrade brings are a complete game-changer for the F-22, making it even more lethal and survivable in combat."

The unit's flagship, tail number 4115, is the first aircraft to be equipped with the modifications, which add a synthetic aperture radar (SAR) capability, electronic attack, better geo-location capabilities to find enemy radars, and the ability to carry eight 113kg (250lb) GBU-39 small diameter bombs (SDB).

The Increment 3.1 upgrade allows a pilot manually to designate two ground targets at a time using two weapons each, according to Lockheed, enabling an F-22 to hit four separate targets with its eight weapons. By contrast, the USAF's previous Increment 2 configuration enabled each aircraft to strike two fixed targets using its two 454kg Joint Direct Attack Munition satellite-corrected, inertially guided bombs.

"A four-ship of Increment 3.1 aircraft can successfully find, fix, track, target and engage targets in the most challenging of anti-access environments," Moga says. "Stealth and speed, combined with an advanced electronic attack capability, allow pilots to operate with impunity while achieving their mission objectives."

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The Northrop Grumman APG-77 radar's SAR mode creates black and white photo-quality images of the Earth's surface, allowing pilots to pick their own targets, while the new electronic attack capability allows the F-22 to jam enemy radars using the sensor.

A future Increment 3.2 upgrade has been split into smaller packages called A, B and C. The first is scheduled for fielding in 2014, while the second would begin retrofits in 2017. The third has not yet been fully defined, but the USAF is trying to add open-architecture hardware and software.

Further elements of the future upgrade package include adding Raytheon's high off-boresight AIM-9X and AIM-120D Amraam missiles, and the ability to independently retarget up to eight SDBs against eight separate targets. The Raptor will also gain an automatic ground collision avoidance system and electronic protection to defend it from enemy jamming.

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RECAPTURE ACQUISITION EXCELLENCE

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Military's Secret 'Space Plane' Mission Extended Indefinitely(USNews, 23 Mar 12) … Jason Koeblerhttp://www.usnews.com/news/articles/2012/03/23/militarys-secret-space-plane-mission-extended-indefinitely

Little is known about the Air Force's X37-B or its mission.

The military's mysterious, experimental unmanned space plane is doing such a good job that its mission has been extended indefinitely—if only anyone knew what its mission was.

Details on the mission involving the X-37B are virtually nonexistent. The official U.S. Air Force fact sheet says the vehicle is being used as an "experimental test program to demonstrate technologies for a reliable, reusable, unmanned space test platform for the U.S. Air Force."

In November, the Air Force announced that the X-37B's mission was being extended beyond its planned 270 days. At a breakfast with reporters Thursday, General William Shelton, head of the Air Force Space Command, said the mission, whatever it is, has been extended indefinitely.

"We don't have an exact re-entry date for it, but we've had a successful mission and we're very happy with its performance," he said. "That vehicle is performing a great service."

Asked to give adjectives for the X-37B, he offered up "spectacular," and "game-changing."

In January, Spaceflight magazine reported that the vehicle is closely following the orbit of China's spacelab, Tiangong-1, leading the magazine to suspect that the X-37B is spying on that satellite.

"Space-to-space surveillance is a whole new ball game made possible by a finessed group of sensors and sensor suites, which we think the X-37B may be using to maintain a close watch on China's nascent space station," Spaceflight editor David Baker told the BBC in January. China is expected to send manned missions to Tiangong-1 later this year.

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Other experts have refuted Baker's claims, speculating that the X-37B could be used to covertly deploy smaller satellites, while conspiracy theorists have wondered if the X-37B could deliver weapons from space.

Here's what is known about the X-37B: The 29-foot ship was built in a Huntington Beach, Calif., lab by Boeing. It looks like a miniature, solar-powered version of a space shuttle, and it's the second "orbital test vehicle" the military has launched into space—the first was launched in 2010. The Air Force calls it the "newest and most advanced re-entry spacecraft," and it has the ability to land autonomously. Technologies being tested "include advanced guidance, navigation and control, thermal protection systems, avionics, high temperature structures and seals, conformal reusable insulation, lightweight electromechanical flight systems, and autonomous orbital flight, reentry and landing."

Beyond that, the X-37B has been shrouded in secrecy—from its mission to its budget. Thursday, Shelton repeatedly dodged questions about what the military is up to with the ship.

"I think there's a good reason to keep [the budget of the X-37B] as quiet as we possibly can," he said. "If you reveal budgets, you sometimes reveal the capabilities, the amount of technology inserted into a program. It's a good, strategic national security decision."

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U.S. Air Force Tries Again for Combat Rescue Helicopter(AIN Defense, 23 Mar 12) … Bill Careyhttp://www.ainonline.com/aviation-news/ain-defense-perspective/2012-03-23/us-air-force-tries-again-combat-rescue-helicopter

The U.S. Air Force has released a draft request for proposals (RFP) for the combat rescue helicopter (CRH) program, a successor to the ill-fated CSAR-X competition to replace the service’s Sikorsky HH-60G Pave Hawk search-and-rescue helicopters.

The CRH will be a scaled-back version of the $15 billion CSAR-X program. The Pentagon settled on Boeing’s HH-47 Chinook in 2006 for the program but ultimately cancelled the order in 2009 after successive protests, amended proposals and delays. The platform sought for the CRH, earlier known as the HH-60 Recapitalization Program, “will be an existing production helicopter with modifications using existing mature technology with only limited integration of existing subsystems as required,” the Air Force said in a request for information (RFI) last November for an associated training system. A previous RFI was issued last August seeking comment on draft system requirements for the aircraft.

In a posture statement submitted to Congress last month, the Air Force said its Fiscal Year 2013 budget request includes $184 million for the helicopter operational loss replacement (OLR) and CRH programs. Research, development, test and evaluation funding for the CRH was reprogrammed to support the acquisition of two test aircraft. The service said the program “remains on track” to replace the HH-60G through an open competition, with initial operational capability planned for Fiscal Year 2018. As of last October, it reported an inventory of 67 of the twin-engine Black Hawk derivatives operated by the active Air Force, 17 by the Air National Guard and 15 by the Reserve.

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GLOBAL AIR, SPACE, and CYBERSPACE ENVIRONMENT

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Air Force on verge of awarding streamlined NETCENTS-2 (Defense Systems, 23 Mar 12) … Kimberly Johnsonhttp://defensesystems.com/articles/2012/02/28/program-brief-2-netcents-2.aspx

After a string of contracting delays, the Air Force is poised to make good on its promise to complete the award of $24 billion in contracts for the much-anticipated Network Centric Solutions-2 (NETCENTS-2) in April, according to a top service official.

NETCENTS-2 is the second iteration of the Air Force’s network-centric acquisition program aimed at services and supplies, networking hardware and software, system development, integration and security.

“Right now, we have five source selections that are underway simultaneously,” said Stephen Davis, chief of the Enterprise Systems Branch of the Air Force Program Executive Office-Enterprise Information Systems (AFPEO-EIS). “We’re projecting awards for those beginning in April, with the last one in September of this year.” Following those awards, there are plans for an additional competition for an advisory and assistance contract, but that is on hold due to resource constraints, he added.

The follow-on to NETCENTS has been plagued with contracting delays. The Air Force made initial NETCENTS-2 awards for advisory and assistance services (ANAS) in November 2010, more than a year after the service’s original program was set to expire but was extended to cover the gap.

Agile approach

Despite the delay, NETCENTS-2 stands to make Air Force contracting more agile, Davis said.

The original program had eight contracts working against a single, broad scope of requirements that gave the Air Force the opportunity to buy IT hardware, and acquire services for developing and managing networks and infrastructure, Davis said. “It also has some requirements for development of software applications associated with that other work on the contract,” he said.

“In NETCENTS-2, what we did was we took that scope set and we broke it down into separate contracts and then we added in more requirements for application development, and we added two ANAS efforts for both enterprise and project-level support,” Davis said. “What this is going to do is allow Air Force units to go directly to the best offers in each of these IT areas that we’ve got under the contracts.”

The strategy will allow greater focus in requirement categories, which could help reduce security vulnerabilities and help enhance reliability and maintainability, in addition to helping boost compliance with government and industry standards, he said. “That is a critical piece right there – we will put more attention in a focused sort of way on those things with the guidance that we provide over time and with the wording in the work statements,” Davis said.

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ITEMS OF INTEREST

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Air Force holds memorial in Ohio for military dog(Associated Press, 25 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://www.foxnews.com/us/2012/03/25/air-force-holds-memorial-in-ohio-for-military-dog/

Gari-Lynn Smith would like to be able to remember her husband–a soldier killed in Iraq–for his smile and goodness, his laugh and love.

Instead, when the New Jersey widow thinks about Sgt. 1st Class Scott R. Smith, her memories take her to the King George County Landfill.

Smith, who goes by Lynn, was the primary force in uncovering the disturbing treatment at Dover Air Force Base of some cremated remains of service members. She learned that portions of her husband’s remains were incinerated and disposed of with medical waste–then tossed in the garbage.

AF letter

A letter from the Department of Air Force, naming the King George landfill as the dumping ground, is one of many documents she’s collected in her search. It started after his death in July 2006 and continues still, even after news of the practice broke on Veteran’s Day.

The answers she’s gotten have robbed her of “my perfect memories” of her husband, she said this week during phone and email interviews.

“When I think of him now, it always leads to thinking of the additional trauma and nightmare that’s happened, the landfill, the dishonor, the struggle to get answers, the anger, the hurt, the betrayal, the deplorable actions by so many who were sworn to honor him and respect our fallen,” she said. “It’s something else they’ve managed to steal.”

She says there's more

Smith has been interviewed by dozens of national media outlets since November. She says several key points about the Dover practice haven’t been reported completely.

She believes that small, cremated remains of thousands, not hundreds, of fallen service members, ended up in the garbage with yesterday’s meat loaf. She cites the military policy that says remains weighing 500 grams or less (a little more than a pound) weren’t even tested for identification. They were automatically burned and disposed of with medical garbage.

Also, stories have reported that the practice of sending pieces of cremated remains to the landfill lasted from 2003 until 2008.

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Smith has many emails from Trevor Dean, who was the deputy to the commander of Air Force mortuary affairs operations until he was reassigned after the military’s investigation.

In one email, Dean said said the disposal practice was in place when he started at Dover in 1996.

Smith, a government worker since 2000 and currently stationed at a military base in New Jersey, insisted on getting everything in writing.

“I work for the government; I know about documents” and the importance of a paper trail, she said.

Smith submitted numerous Freedom of Information Act requests for copies of policies and disposal practices. She also asked for records about contractors that disposed of the waste and where.

Only one company and landfill was ever named: MedTrace of Maryland and the King George County Landfill.

Smith believes portions of cremated remains from 9/11 victims killed at the Pentagon ended up in King George.

She also suspects some of the pieces of body parts belonged to terrorists who hijacked Flight 77.

“There’s probably a 100 percent certainty there’s a terrorist lying there with my husband,” she said. “When you think they can’t get any more disrespectful, they surprise you.”

Mixed messages

Smith, who lives in northwestern New Jersey near the Pennsylvania border, started asking questions soon after her husband was killed in a roadside bombing.

She was told she couldn’t see his body and that an open casket wouldn’t be appropriate. She assumed there was nothing left of him.

But as she started talking to the medical examiner, her husband’s commander and his parents, she got mixed messages. His parents had been told his body was intact; that’s why they signed a form stating, if any other pieces of him were found, they didn’t want to be notified.

They assumed there weren’t any, Smith said.

When Smith asked, before her husband’s funeral, what would happen if a sliver of a finger were found, she was told remains would be buried in a national cemetery with full military honors.

Then, Smith got a copy of the report about her husband’s fatal injuries. She read five pages of details about his loss of limbs, the damage to his torso and that his carotid artery was sliced.

She sensed there were pieces of him that weren’t contained in the casket.

So, she started asking about the remains and where they were buried. Throughout the process, she got different answers depending on whom she talked to, and she had to ask repeatedly for responses she’d been promised.

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At one point, a chief warrant officer from Dover had left more than a dozen phone messages in one day, asking for confirmation of her address.

Smith got on the phone, and again, started asking about the additional pieces of her husband’s remains and where they were buried.

The officer cut her off and blurted: “No one wanted your husband, so he was cremated with the rest of the medical waste and thrown in the trash.”

‘A complete disaster’

Smith enlisted the help of her congressman, Democratic Rep. Rush Holt of New Jersey, and eventually turned to the media. Holt credited her persistence as the key to exposing how remains were handled and getting the policy changed. Such remains are now disposed of at sea.

“This story came to light only because Gari-Lynn had been relentlessly questioning the Air Force about what happened to the remains of her husband,” Holt said in a press release.

Smith started her quest because she didn’t want other war widows to endure the treatment she did.

She wanted to bring attention to the unpleasant experience she had with a casualty assistance team, the people who are supposed to comfort the grieving family.

The day she was notified of her husband’s death, the team came to her office and wouldn’t let her leave, which she understood. But they wouldn’t take her home, either. She had to call a friend to come get her.

Within an hour or so after delivering the news that Smith’s husband had died, Smith said the casualty team was doing shots of tequila in her office and asking her to join them.

“It was a complete disaster,” she said.

About a memorial

Smith was contacted through Facebook by King George Supervisor Ruby Brabo about the possibility of a memorial at the King George landfill. Brabo and Rich Lorey, who is organizing the effort, wanted to know if Smith thought it was appropriate.

Smith called it a great idea and appreciated the thought behind it. She said she’d definitely attend a memorial service, if one was planned.

Not everyone on the King George Board of Supervisors agrees with her and Brabo. Because the county owns the land, supervisors would be the ones to decide if a memorial goes there.

Chairman Cedell Brooks Jr. wondered if there might be a more appropriate place and Joe Grzeika suggested a memorial at Arlington National Cemetery.

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“A memorial at Arlington does nothing for me,” Smith said. “My husband wasn’t honored at Arlington, he was desecrated at a landfill in King George County, Va. A memorial at Arlington would 1/8be3/8 another slap in the face to families as it’d be like saying, ‘We did nothing wrong. Look, we put a nice memorial here.’”

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BC edges Air Force, advances to final(ESPN, 24 Mar 12) … Brion O’Connorhttp://espn.go.com/blog/boston/colleges/post/_/id/2229/bc-edges-air-force-advances-to-final

To advance, the No. 1 Eagles (30-10-1) had to do something no other Air Force opponent has done this season, and that was shutting out the 16th-ranked Falcons (21-11-7). But the game wasn't decided until a late Chris Kreider power-play strike, his second of the game, as the Falcons proved they were no slouches in the defensive zone.

"We didn't give them a lot of Grade A chances, and we didn't give them a lot of second shots," said Falcons coach Frank Serratore. "We executed our game plan. We knew we weren't going to beat BC 7-6, or 6-5, or 5-4. If we're going to beat them, it was going to be 1-0, or 2-1.

"We put ourselves in a position to win a 2-1 game. We just didn't convert the goal," said Serratore. "We needed a low-scoring game. We got that. We got into that third period right where we wanted to be, and it just didn't happen. Give our kids credit for doing what we needed to do to put ourselves in that position, and give BC all the credit in the world for doing what champions do. They found a way to win."

In a tightly played match that was hard-hitting but clean, the Falcons employed a tight-checking scheme and were able to constantly thwart BC's vaunted offense. But the Eagles proved they could win a low-scoring match, taking care of business in their own end.

BC goalie Parker Milner (20 saves) kept the Falcons at bay, making several game-saving stops to propel the Eagles into the Northeast Regional final game on Sunday. There, Boston College will take on either Maine, in a rematch of the Hockey East championship game played last Saturday, or Minnesota-Duluth, in a match pitting the past two national champions.

The Eagles used their superior speed to take the play to the Falcons from the start, showing an extra gear against their Atlantic Hockey foe. That difference was evident on BC's first goal, when Kevin Hayes got a step on his defender behind the Air Force net, and curled a picture-perfect wraparound feed to linemate Kreider. The New York Rangers draft pick tapped the puck past Falcons goaltender Jason Torf at 7:39 for the goal that would stand as the game-winner.

For long stretches of the game, BC enjoyed a distinct territorial advantage, but the Falcons kept hanging around, implementing a bend-but-don't-break defense while answering with several quality bids of their own. Air Force played disciplined defense, with active sticks that constantly flustered BC's passing attack. And when the Eagles did get a shot, Torf (32 saves) stood his ground.

The game turned at 18:07 of the third, when the Falcons’ Dan Weissenhofer was whistled off for a borderline crosschecking call, which prevented Air Force from pulling Torf for the extra attacker. Just

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32 seconds later, Kreider picked up his own rebound by the right edge of the crease and tucked it behind Torf for the insurance marker, sending the Eagles to the regional final on Sunday.

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Air Force Academy Gets $3.6M Aritificial Turf Airstrip(CBS Denver, 23 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://denver.cbslocal.com/2012/03/23/air-force-academy-gets-3-6m-aritificial-turf-airstrip/

AIR FORCE ACADEMY, Colo. (AP) — The Air Force Academy has a new landing strip for its glider planes carpeted with more than 1.3 million square feet of artificial turf.The school unveiled the $3.6 million installation on Tuesday.

It’s the equivalent of about 23 NFL football fields or 16 MLS soccer fields.

The gliders don’t have landing gear but skid to a stop on their bellies, so they can’t use hard-surface runways. Officials say the previous natural grass landing strip was bumpier and harder on the gliders.

Artificial turf eliminates the cost of watering and mowing, and pilots can see markings more easily.

Officials say the new surface is expected to last 25 years.

Last year the academy replaced its glider fleet with 19 new aircraft and 11 trailers at a cost of $4.8 million.

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Baffling Air Force crash still confounds families(Florida Today, 23 Mar 12) … Unattributedhttp://www.floridatoday.com/article/20120323/NEWS01/303230008/Baffling-Air-Force-crash-still-confounds-families

ROCKLEDGE — Six decades after his brother’s plane with 53 airmen aboard ditched in the Atlantic Ocean and disappeared after survivors were spotted in rafts, Keith Amsden and other family members clamor for answers.

The airmen on the C-124 Globemaster II were pilots, bombardiers and nuclear weapons technicians from the 509th Bomb Group, along with a brigadier general and senior staff who were headed from Walker Air Force Base in New Mexico to Mildenhall Royal Air Force Base in Lakenheath, England.

Staff Sgt. Robert Amsden, a navigator, was among the crew of 13 on the aircraft on March 23, 1951.

A fire apparently broke out in the cargo hold of the large plane, but it apparently landed safely in the ocean about 700 miles west of Ireland. Those on board apparently got out, boarded rafts and were seen from the air. But by the time rescue ships arrived, neither the men nor the rafts were anywhere to be found.

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“I want to put it to bed,” said Keith Amsden of Rockledge, the navigator’s brother. “I want to know what happened to these people.”

It was during the early years of the Cold War — a time of military and political tension between the U.S. and its allies and the Soviet Union and its satellite communist states. U.S. troops were fighting in the Korean War.

Soviet submarine and surface ships were active in the area. Some questioned whether the men might have been taken prisoner. Among the passengers was Brig. Gen. Paul T. Cullen, deputy commander of the U.S. Second Air Force.

There have been theories and speculation about what happened, from how the plane went down to the fate of the airmen. But even after official reports were released, many questions remain unsettled.

“It was definitely sabotage,” said Don Wagner, a retired Marine aviator whose father, Walter A. Wagner Jr, was a pilot on board the plane. “The thing that brought that plane down were two incendiary devices.”

An investigative report kept secret until the late 1990s indicated the cause of the crash was unknown: “Final report of analysis received from the Douglas Aircraft Company. They reported they had analyzed sixty-two samples of parts of material recovered from the subject aircraft, but were unable to determine the cause of the crash.”

The weather along the aircraft’s planned flight path was “reasonable,” the investigation report said. The airplane was fairly new and the crew was experienced.

Wagner, 64, of St. Petersburg, who was a toddler when the plane went down, has for years been investigating. He is poring over thousands of pages of a Soviet gulag reports that he says show evidence that the men may have been picked up and held prisoner.

Keith Amsden was stationed at the same New Mexico base with his brother, though they were in different units. Keith, then 19, was training as a B-50 gunner. His brother, Robert, was two years older and was a navigator.

The night before the flight, Robert Amsden told his brother that he was going on a mission, and he could not tell him about the details. He said he would be in England for a few days and asked his brother what he could bring back for him. It was the last time Keith would see or hear from Robert.

“I’m thinking today that he’s been a prisoner of war for 60 years,” Amsden said. “They said they never had prisoners. Baloney. These are questions we are still trying to find answers to.”

Lawrence Rafferty, an attorney in Woodstock, Ill., has learned bits and pieces concerning the incident in which his father Air Force Capt. Lawrence Rafferty, a pilot who was a passenger on the C-124.

“We’re constantly searching for leads,” said Rafferty, who was born six weeks after his father’s plane went down. “A lot of this has been held behind closed doors.”

Rafferty said, once the government classifies something as secret, it’s hard to overturn the decision and get that information released to the public.

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“My first reaction is that there was a major screw up by somebody and it had to be covered up,” he said.

Rafferty speculates that there may have been nuclear material, something else sensitive or someone important on the plane. He said his family knew little about where his father was headed or what his mission was about.

“I think my mom knew he was going to England and he was going for a short period of time,” Rafferty said.

Despite the fire, reports indicate the aircraft landed in the ocean and the survivors managed to get off into rafts.

“The aircraft was evidently, more or less, intact when it hit. This is indicated by the small number of pieces recovered, as well as the fact that two inflated aircraft tires carried as part of the cargo were never found,” the publicly available accident report states. “Also, the debris found was burned by fuel fire from fuel in the wing fuel cell, which indicates that the wing fuel cells were still attached to the fuselage.”

A government report of a radio transmission said “Recommend Coral Sea (ship) plus two plane guards be diverted to scene forced landing USAF transport aircraft. Positive sighting raft with several survivors...”

Though survivors were seen from a B-29, by the time ships reached the scene March 25, the men had disappeared. Only small pieces of debris and a valise belonging to Laurence Rafferty, a pilot who was a passenger on board the plane, was found.

“They landed, ditched safely,” said Amsden, 80, who retired from the Air Force as a master sergeant. “They were spotted in rafts, then they disappeared. The next morning they were gone.”

At the time, Robert Amsden had already been offered a job as a flight engineer with KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, but couldn’t leave to take it because of the Korean War was still going on.

Last year, Amsden and his family held a memorial service and put up a marker at Arlington National Cemetery. It wasn’t until after that memorial ceremony that new questions arose and Amsden found that other families still had a lot of questions.

Now Rafferty and his family will hold a memorial March 26 at Arlington for his father, who was decorated for his service of more than 50 combat missions flying a B-24 in World War II.

“To me this is his parade,” he said. “This is his final flight.”

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I5

U.S. Army Launches App Marketplace Prototype(eWeek.com, 25 Mar 12) … Darryl K. Taft

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http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/US-Army-Launches-App-Marketplace-Prototype-701251/

The U.S. Army has launched a prototype app store known as the Army Software Marketplace that will enable Army personnel to access apps for their smartphones and tablets.

A recent article on www.army.mil, the official homepage of the United States Army, also reported by Engadget, said the newly launched Army Software Marketplace prototype delivers 12 mobile training applications for soldiers to use on personal phones or tablets. The apps were developed by Army training schools in the Connecting Soldiers to Digital Apps, or CSDA, initiative, the Army said.

When fully implemented, the marketplace will deliver web-based and downloadable applications to all devices approved for use within the Army's Common Operating Environment on the Army network, according to the Army

Army officials said the marketplace prototype currently supports apps that run on iOS-based devices and will soon support apps on Android devices. Among the apps available now are: The Soldiers Blue Book (initial entry training guide), Army Values, Army Social Media Handbook and Developing a Performance Work Statement, according to the Army’s website.

"The Apps Marketplace is at the center of Army efforts to radically reduce the time to deliver applications across the force," Lt. Gen. Susan Lawrence, the chief information officer/G-6, told www.army.mil. "This prototype is a first step in establishing and exercising new submission and approval processes that will eventually enable Army members, organizations and third-party developers to release applications for Army-wide distribution."

Army officials also said the new marketplace prototype brings together key Army stakeholders to focus on implementing agile software-development practices such as increasing collaboration early on between end-users and developers, and delivering software to users in short release cycles, according to the Army’s site.

Meanwhile, not to be left behind in enabling its staff with the latest and greatest of gadgets and technology, the U.S. Air Force earlier this month made an initial order of 63 iPad 2 tablets, which represented the first batch in what could be as many as 18,000 Apple tablets ordered off of a contract potentially worth $9.36 million.

The U.S. Air Force's Air Mobility Command signed a $9.36-million contract to buy as many as 18,000 iPad 2s for use by pilots, navigators and trainers. The competitive bid went to Phoenix, Ariz.-based Executive Technology Inc. The Air Force will pay the firm $520 per iPad2, which is $79 less than the $599 list price for the devices.

In an article about the bid, Capt. Kathleen Ferrero of the Air Force’s Air Mobility Command Public Affairs wrote:

Improved safety, operational effectiveness and efficiency are just a few reasons Air Mobility Command officials are looking into using tablet devices such as electronic flight bags for aircrew members reference materials in the cockpit during in-flight emergencies.

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"Moving from a paper-based to an electronically-based flight publication system will not only enhance operational effectiveness, it can also save the Department of Defense time and money," said Maj. Gen. Rick Martin, the AMC Director of Operations.

The iPads will replace traditional paper-based flight bags, which consist of bulky manuals and navigation charts.

In another move tapping into the convenience of smartphones, U.S. Air Force software developers have created a new mobile Web application that enables the service’s personnel to account for themselves and family members from their smartphone during a crisis or natural disaster.

An article on www.af.mil, the official web site of the U.S. Air Force, explains that during a crisis, the Air Force uses the Air Force Personnel Accountability and Assessment System to account for and assess the needs of the Air Force's Total Force -- active-duty Airmen, selected Reserve members, Department of the Air Force and non-appropriated fund civilian employees, Air Force contractors (assigned overseas) and family members.

The article further noted that AFPAAS becomes operational, or active, at leadership request during crises to allow the total force to account for themselves and their family's safety and whereabouts. Now individuals have improved access through certain smartphones to the accountability and assessment features of AFPAAS.

"The Air Force is taking AFPAAS to the next level to align with what is used in the private sector every day," Brian Angell, the Air Force Personnel Center Personnel Readiness Cell operations chief, told www.af.mil. "This wireless capability enhances Air Force accountability during crises and natural disasters."

According to the article:

In the case of an active AFPAAS event, members can use a smartphone to log into the application via their user identification and password. The application is accessible on iPhones, Androids and certain touch-screen Blackberry phones; however it is not available on iPads or non-touch-screen phones.

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