If Congress has its way, the Pentagon will have to return to the tried-and-true method it used for more than 45 years to measure airlift capability—the million ton miles per day metric. The Joint Staff eschewed the MTM/D metric when it prepared last year’s Mobility Capabilities Study, saying it had proved inaccurate against actual needs and there were better models to come. The MCS 2005, you may recall, rebutted the 2001 Mobility Requirements Study, which found an airlift shortfall. And, that was before 9/11 and subsequent heightened mobility needs. The 2007 defense authorization bill now directs the Pentagon to include in its 2006 MCS a determination of “intratheater and intertheater airlift mobility requirements (stated in terms of million ton miles per day)” for scenarios modeled in both the MCS 2005 and MCS 2006. Congress also wants a delineation of low, medium, and high levels of risk covering a variety of conditions. It expects the mobility requirements report by Feb. 1, 2007.
U.S. Air Force F-15C Eagles have roared out of Barnes Air National Guard Base, Mass., for the last time. The 104th Fighter Wing’s last three F-15Cs departed the base Oct. 23 for the “Boneyard” at Davis-Monthan Air Force Base, Ariz., ending the aircraft's era on the frontlines of homeland defense.
