During a background briefing Friday, a senior Air Force official revealed that the 2008 defense budget cuts the number of Combat Wing Equivalents—a 2006 Quadrennial Defense Review construct—from the 86 CWEs mandated in the QDR to 78 CWEs. It would seem that the lawmakers and defense analysts who decried the QDR as a cost-cutting exercise that used no strategic analysis to determine force structure requirements were right on the money.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
