A tentative timeline unfurled last week by Air Force officials calls for deactivation of the first squadron of KC-135 tanker aircraft at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., in April 2008, reports the Grand Forks Herald. Officials completed a survey of the base for its new UAV mission and presented a preliminary transition plan (see above). They said that the Air Force would release a final plan some time this fall.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.