We reported that the head of US Transportation Command, USAF Gen. Norton Scwhartz, in testimony last week said that he could use additional C-17s—20 would be his number. That is correct. However, he also said that, from a “combatant command point of view,” he would get more benefit from a hybrid tanker. It would, he said, “give this nation greater payback than does the 181st C-17, the 201st, or certainly the 221st.” Schwartz then declared he could use additional C-17s, but he would like to see them purchased “as a cost of war” in a supplemental, so that the Pentagon could get on with a tanker buy.
This year’s Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting buzzed with talk of countering the rapidly evolving drone threat facing the entire U.S. military, including the Air Force. Leaders and defense industry officials discussed the need for new approaches to procurement and employment of a new class of these…
