A top Pentagon official now says that the Quadrennial Defense Review probably won’t push the armed services too far away from new weapons systems they have planned. This, of course, is a very different tune from the one the Pentagon has sung most of this year. Ryan Henry, the deputy undersecretary of defense for policy and a senior QDR honcho, said the study is likely to suggest adapting current systems to new kinds of threats. Speaking at a conference of the Government Electronics and Information Technology Association on Oct. 26, Henry said no major decisions have been made in the QDR yet but that competition is emerging between systems that were designed to meet “state-type” threats and systems that were designed for non-state threats. Henry pointed out that conventional systems still are being used with success in unconventional combat. He noted specifically the role of the B-52 dropping precision munitions in Afghanistan.
F-35As from the Vermont Air National Guard have deployed to Puerto Rico in recent days, continuing a major buildup of U.S. Air Force assets in Latin America aimed at combating drug trafficking and pressuring the regime of Venezuelan leader Nicolas Maduro.
