Military, Air Force | featured news

The military's small, top-secret version of the space shuttle rocketed into orbit Tuesday for a repeat mystery mission, two years after making the first flight of its kind. The Air Force launched the unmanned spacecraft Tuesday hidden on top of an Atlas V rocket. As if on cue, clouds quickly swallowed up the rocket as it disappeared out over the ocean.

The Air Force is investigating a growing sexual-misconduct scandal in its basic-training operations, with a dozen male boot-camp instructors under suspicion of assaulting, harassing or having sex with female recruits.

The new radar-evading aircraft, which cost the Air Force $15 million, has a maximum takeoff weight of 15,800 pounds and can fly at 460 mph. The drone, built near San Diego, is for testing purposes. The Air Force has bought a new hunter-killer aircraft that is the fastest and largest armed drone in its fleet.

Air Force officials are investigating a photo of 15 airmen posing with another airman pretending to be dead while lying in an open casket with a noose around his neck.

Star Wars is back! Sort of. The Air Force will launch a key satellite for its space-based missile alert system Friday, hoping to overcome years of developmental delays in the dogged pursuit of an eye-in-the-sky threat-warning system.

A U.S. Air Force F-15E fighter crashed in Libya overnight and one crewmember has been safely rescued and the other is "in the process of recovery," a spokesman for the U.S. military's Africa Command said on Tuesday.

The U.S. Air Force is denying its personnel access to websites carrying documents released by WikiLeaks, including those of some news organizations, a spokeswoman said Tuesday.

The Air Force mistakenly gave rival companies sensitive information that contained each other's confidential bids in a long-standing, multibillion dollar competition to build a new refueling tanker....

A federal judge says the Air Force violated the constitutional rights of a highly decorated flight nurse when it discharged her for being gay, and ordered that she be given her job back as soon as possible.