While CH-53 helicopters were unloading Marines in the Now Zad valley in Afghanistan's Helmand Province on Dec. 4, history was being made a short distance away. Two MV-22B Osprey tiltrotor aircraft were disgorging Marines from the reconnaissance unit Task Force Raider in three landing zones at the opposite end of the valley, kicking off an assault on the Now Zad area to eliminate Taliban influence.

The V-22 Osprey's range and speed, the twin talents of the aircraft most heavily promoted by the U.S. Marine Corps, are revealing themselves in Afghanistan, as readiness and reliability numbers begin to climb steadily throughout the fleet.

The cost of war -- on veteran's-- health and taxpayer wallets -- will loom a little larger in the new year when the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) issues a final rule to claim adjudicators to presume three more diseases of Vietnam veterans, including heart disease, were caused by exposure to Agent Orange.

Should military pilots who have been reassigned from cockpits to ground-based computer consoles to fly remotely piloted vehicles continue to draw the same flight pay as pilots who still fly jets and helicopters?

Positive reports are streaming in from U.S. Marines flying newly remanufactured AH-1Z Cobra and UH-1Y Huey helicopters, but the program office is not losing focus on its substantial legacy fleet.

The Pentagon is considering adding more flight test assets and software engineers to the $300 billion F-35 Joint Strike Fighter (JSF) program to avoid major delays to fielding the stealthy, single-engine aircraft.

Aetna Government Health Plans of Hartford, Conn., appears to have gained an unfair advantage in competing for TRICARE?s North Region support contract, valued at $16.7 billion, by hiring a former chief of staff at TRICARE headquarters to help the company draft its winning proposal.