In a new diatribe on Pentagon foibles, the Lexington Institute’s Loren Thompson hammers the decision to stop producing C-17 airlifters. He calls it the “dumbest weapons decision of the decade.” (He may be right.) In describing how the Pentagon could be so wrong about airlift, Thompson asserts that Pentagon officials simply made up assumptions to produce desired results for last year’s so-called Mobility Capabilities Study. He then says, “And, just to be on the safe side, you keep almost everybody from the Air Force’s mobility community out of the room.” Ouch.
After nearly a yearlong vacancy, the Air Force has a Vice Chief of Staff once more. The Senate confirmed Gen. John D. Lamontagne to the service’s No. 2 job on Jan. 30 in an uncontroversial voice vote, along with a new head of U.S. Southern Command and five Air Force three-stars.
