Lawmakers want some assurance that USAF has not “prematurely ruled out” adding Transformational Satellite-like capabilities to the more mature Advanced Extremely High Frequency or Wideband Gapfiller satellites to satisfy the military’s global communications needs. (AEHF is slated to replace Milstar communications satellites, beginning in 2008, and to be replaced itself by TSAT. WGS is an interim, largely commercial product, bridging the gap between current high-data rate broadcast systems and TSAT.) The 2006 defense spending bill expresses Congressional concern that TSAT lacks “technical maturity.” Appropriators cut the TSAT program by $400 million, despite threat of an Administration veto. (President Bush has signed the bill into law.) Oh, lawmakers also want an independent review on this program.
The U.S., South Korea, and Japan flew an unusual trilateral flight with two U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers escorted by two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2s, and two ROK Air Force KF-16 fighters—both countries’ respective variants of the F-16—July 11. That same weekend, the top military officers of the three nations…