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.
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
