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.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.