Maj. Gen. Roger Lempke, Nebraska’s adjutant general and president of the Adjutants General Association of the United States, has turned up the heat again in the ANG-USAF spat. Lempke’s latest move came courtesy of an op-ed in the USA Today, wherein he claims that recent Air Force decisions regarding missions, units, and bases could “permanently disable” the Air Guard. The disruption caused by unit movements, he avers, could lead 70 percent of Air Guardsmen to leave the force. No public reply from the Air Force yet. The service believes, however, that there won’t be any mass walkouts.
As Air Force leaders consider concepts of operations for Collaborative Combat Aircraft, sustainment in the field—and easing that support by using standard parts and limiting variants—should be a key consideration, according to a new study from AFA's Mitchell Institute of Aerospace Studies.