Air Force-Army cooperation has come a long with since Operation Anaconda in early 2002. [Read our coverage here and here.] In that Army-led action, ground force commanders failed to even notify the air component until shortly before the operation was to begin. The result was chaos, as ground forces ran into trouble and the air component was forced to improvise a protective response.
The Pentagon is counting on Congress to navigate a legislative tightrope and pass a party-line bill to fund nearly a quarter of its $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal 2027, including billions of dollars for top priorities like Golden Dome, the F-35, munitions, and unmanned systems. Experts and lawmakers from…