Senate defense authorizers have laid down the proverbial gauntlet to the Army over the Joint Cargo Aircraft—we reported earlier that they want to move all 2008 funding into the Air Force line. In reading the Senate Armed Services Committee report on its markup of the 2008 defense bill, we find that lawmakers already have asked the Army to substantiate its claims that the Air Force can’t or won’t provide the intratheater the Army needs. To quote: “When invited to provide concrete examples that would give substance to the assertions, the Army was not forthcoming.” Further the report states: “If there were a pattern of the joint forces air component commander (JFACC) providing support that did not match the priorities of the joint forces land component commander (JFLCC), that would certainly argue for intervention of the joint forces component commander to correct the situation. It would not be a persuasive argument that the JFLCC should have his own air force.”
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
