The full Senate Armed Services Committee backed the push by its Air-Land subcommittee to shift all money for the Army-Air Force Joint Cargo Aircraft into the Air Force funding line. In their markup of the 2008 defense authorization bill, Senate defense authorizers added a provision to assign “fixed-wing intra-theater airlift functions and missions to the Air Force.” The Army has maintained its own in-theater troop supply small fixed-wing aircraft—currently the C-23 and C-12—for years, although the Air Force ostensibly covers both the strategic and tactical airlift roles. The Army and Air Force had been pursuing separate small cargo aircraft programs until DOD mandated that they combine forces on the JCA. House defense authorizers have called for a complete roles and missions scrub, but so far they decided simply to withhold JCA funding until the Pentagon completes ongoing intratheater airlift requirement reviews.
While the Sentinel ICBM program writ large is undergoing a major restructure due to cost and schedule overages, prime contractor Northrop Grumman is touting progress on milestones with the missile itself.
