Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are scratching their heads over the Air Force’s 2007 unfunded priority list which includes a request for seven additional C-17 airlifters. At a Wednesday House hearing on the budget, Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, attempted to answer why the service has added seven C-17s to its requirements, making a total of 187, when the 2007 budget shows the production line stopping at 180—a number they maintained would be sufficient. The answer, stated Moseley, is that the “wartime utilization rates” were “unforeseen.”
In the wake of a major Chinese military shakeup, the head of U.S. Space Command warned of China’s “breathtakingly fast” advances in space during visits to Japan and South Korea. Gen. Stephen N. Whiting’s trip to the Indo-Pacific is his first overseas visit since taking command of SPACECOM in January.