Japanese Air Self Defense Force officials say they have sent fighters aloft 30 times in the last seven months against encroaching Chinese aircraft. The rate is more than twice the scrambles in the same period last year. According to the Associated Press, Japan has tracked the scrambles against specific countries since 1995, and the record against Chinese aircraft was 30 during all of 1998.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
