There’s no need to increase USAF’s organic airlift capability—that is buying more than 180 C-17s—because the existing force is handling the current wartime operating tempo well and was even able to handle the no-notice hurricane relief effort with aplomb, Gen. Norton Schwartz, head of US Transportation Command, told reporters in Washington. In fact, Schwartz said the addition of the hurricane airlift requirements had little affect on deployed commanders’ needs. And, the TRANSCOM chief thinks operating tempo, while now on a wartime footing, will decline in the coming years. Others may have a different view of what the near- and mid-term future holds, he said, but that’s his “professional assessment.”
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
