Air Force U S

As the sun rises over the Mojave Desert, unmarked trucks from clandestine warehouses begin to make the day's deliveries of secret aircraft parts to Northrop's B-2 bomber plant in Palmdale. The trucks pass through several barbed wire security fences and a perimeter that is guarded by attack dogs and cameras. When employees arrive for work, they must punch in a secret code to pass through special locked turnstiles.

The F-22 Raptor is sex on carbon fiber wings. This is America's premier air superiority fighter, and it's a bad, bad monkey. At an F-22 demonstration at the Reno Air Show in September, I nearly passed out from testosterone poisoning. If you're at an advertising firm -- say, Keiler & Co. of Farmington, Conn., the agency of record for Lockheed Martin Corp. -- and the product you're promoting is this sky-shredding death kite, you might expect to knock off early.

The Air Force is quietly seeking a legal way to move its Ballistic Systems Division out of San Bernardino, The Times has learned, even though Congress enacted a law earlier this year specifically saying that it should remain at its present location.

The U.S. government must take steps to modernize how it keeps track of its nuclear weapons to help prevent mistakes, Air Force Chief of Staff Norton A. Schwartz said Tuesday on a visit to part of his service's nuclear force. Schwartz visited Barksdale Air Force Base, one of the installations housing the nation's nuclear-capable B-52 bombers, in a trip designed to emphasize the importance of reforms in how weapons are handled.

There were days, growing up in her family's New Jersey home, when the attic beckoned to Judy Palya Loether. That's where her mother had stored every mention of Judy's late father. Elizabeth Palya had no time for grieving or falling apart after her husband died in 1948. She remarried three years later, and after that didn't even leave photos around the house. She didn't talk much about Judy's father, either. Once on Veterans Day, Judy asked whether her dad was a veteran. "In a way," her mom said.

In a box delivered by rolling handcart on the morning of Feb. 26, 2003, the U.S. Supreme Court received 40 copies of a petition so unusual a clerk decided he couldn't accept it for filing. First, though, he turned through its pages. In a preliminary statement, he read these words: Three widows stood before this court in 1952. Their husbands had died in the crash of an Air Force plane. The lower courts had awarded them compensation.

The estranged husband of attorney Gloria Allred, his daughter and two other officers of his North Hollywood aircraft parts firm were ordered Friday by a federal magistrate to return to Texas to face an indictment charging them with selling counterfeit parts to the Air Force. U.S. Magistrate Ralph Geffen told the four to appear in U.S. District Court in San Antonio after attorneys for the defendants agreed to waive all proceedings here.

Air Force authorities launched an investigation Sunday into why a U.S. military cargo plane providing support for President Clinton slammed into a Wyoming mountainside, exploding into a fireball that could be seen for miles. The four-engine C-130 had been assigned to bring equipment from Jackson, Wyo., where the first family had been vacationing, to New York City for Clinton's 50th-birthday celebration.

An Air Force F-117A stealth fighter that was performing for crowds at an air show in a Baltimore suburb crashed Sunday into two houses on a Chesapeake Bay marina, injuring six people on the ground. Pentagon spokesman Ken Bacon said the F-117A's pilot, later identified as Capt. Bryan Knight, ejected safely and was treated for minor injuries at the scene of the crash near the Glenn Martin State Airport in Middle River, Md.

The Air Force and Army have disciplined 17 senior officers, including the three-star general in charge of logistics, for poor oversight in connection with the mistaken shipment to Taiwan of fuses for nuclear warheads. Saying he could not ignore the "breaches of trust that occurred on their watch," acting Air Force Secretary Michael B. Donley laid out Thursday what in some cases were career-ending punishments for six Air Force generals, ranging in rank from one to three stars, and nine colonels.

Lockheed Martin Corp. and the Air Force on Friday took the unusual step of publicly defending a $300-billion fighter jet program from recent criticisms of the plane's capabilities, including reports that it performed poorly in a simulated fight with a Russian aircraft. The Air Force and Bethesda, Md.

The Bush administration's nominee to become the next head of the Air Force is facing trouble in the Senate and will undergo an unusual second round of closed-door questioning today. Air Force Gen. Norton A. Schwartz is being called before the Senate Armed Services Committee for a second classified session focused on testimony he gave after the initial invasion of Iraq, said military and congressional staff members. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates and Navy Adm. Michael G.

Two defense officials nominated to take control of the Air Force promised Tuesday to work to restore trust after the reputation of the service was battered by accusations that it failed to properly oversee the nation's nuclear weapons and was insufficiently committed to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. Michael B. Donley, who previously served as a Pentagon administrator, and Gen. Norton A. Schwartz, head of Transportation Command, were nominated to replace Air Force Secretary Michael W.

The top Air Force leadership sought for three years to spend counter-terrorism money on "comfort capsules" for military planes to ease the travel of senior officers and civilian leaders -- with at least four top generals involved in design details such as the color of the capsules' carpet and leather chairs -- according to internal e-mails and budget documents.

The chronically troubled effort to build a new fleet of aerial refueling tankers for the Air Force was delayed yet again after Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates announced Wednesday that the competition that selected Northrop Grumman Corp. was flawed and would be opened for the third time in seven years. The decision is a blow to the Century City-based aerospace giant, which was the surprise winner of the $35-billion contract over archrival Boeing Co. in February.

A U.S. Navy spy plane and a Chinese fighter jet collided Sunday over the South China Sea, causing the American craft to make an emergency landing in China and the Chinese plane to crash, U.S. and Chinese officials said. The 24 crew members aboard the EP-3 U.S. reconnaissance plane were unhurt, but U.S. defense officials said they have been unable to establish contact with the crew since the craft came to ground on Hainan island, a Chinese province off the country's southern coast.

On a Texas spring day during the height of the Vietnam War, a fresh-faced young man about to graduate from Yale University walked into the office of the commander of the Texas Air National Guard. Col. Walter B. "Buck" Staudt listened to the 21-year-old, who had no military or aviation experience but seemed polite and presentable. "He said he wanted to fly just like his daddy," Staudt recalled.

Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates pledged to oversee a disputed $35-billion tanker contract after congressional investigators Wednesday detailed numerous mistakes the Air Force made in awarding the deal to Northrop Grumman Corp. and its European partner over Boeing Co.

Air Force representatives met last week with the chief executives of Boeing Co. and Northrop Grumman Corp. to voice concern about the vitriolic tone of public statements over a $35-billion program for aerial refueling planes, two sources briefed about the meeting said Monday. The Air Force surprised the industry by awarding the contract for new tankers to Century City-based Northrop and its European partner, EADS. The decision triggered protests from Boeing and its supporters in Congress.