Brig. Gen. Allison Hickey, director of Total Force Integration, told reporters at the Pentagon Wednesday that the Total Force Integration initiative list—some 140 items, will be released within the “next couple of weeks.” She said the list includes all of the BRAC-directed activities and looks “beyond just the BRAC … to extend this integration effort and transformation effort into where the Air Force is going.” She went on to explain that the Air Force wants to ensure mission opportunities are accorded to the Guard and Reserve. “We don’t want to have a separation of capability,” she said. Service officials have been working this Total Force package since 1997 to address both active and reserve recapitalization, recognizing that funding is getting scarcer. Hickey said the feeling was that “If we don’t do something now, to address this issue, we will find ourselves broken in the 2010 and beyond timeframe.”
President Donald Trump projected confidence Nov. 19 that a proposed sale of F-35s to Saudi Arabia will sail through the Foreign Military Sales process, an early test of the Pentagon’s acquisition reforms. The deal is also likely to face scrutiny from ally Israel over how it could affect the balance…
