Air
Force Secretary Michael Wynne told the Senate Appropriations defense panel Wednesday morning that USAF is requesting funding for five C-130Js tactical airlifters in the supplemental. “Right now we’re concerned that the C-130Js remain in the supplemental,” he said; from his perspective USAF will be engaged in Iraq for the foreseeable future and the C-130J Hercules cargo aircraft will be the backbone of the Air Force in five years. Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley called the C-130J “very important to us.” Lawmakers have expressed dismay that USAF had put F-35 Joint Strike Fighters in the supplemental, but little has been said about replacement Herks.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
