Airmen are nearly done packing up operations at K2 air base, but the Pentagon now has to deal with the tab from the American tenure at the Uzbekistan facility. The bill is almost $23 million. The State Department and Congress both have protested the payment in light of the autocratic nature of the Uzbek regime, not to mention the fact the Uzbek’s threw us out of K2. The latest volley, according to the Washington Post, came in the form of a terse letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld that was orchestrated by Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) and signed by Joseph Biden (D-Del.), Mike DeWine (R-Ohio), Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), Patrick Leahy (D-Vt.), and John Sununu (R-N.H.). They want to hold the payment, pending a change of heart by Uzbekistan.
After years of experiments and tests, senior Air Force leaders say they're on the verge of using C-17s and other cargo aircraft to launch cruise missiles via airdrop, touting the development as a way to bolster the combat fleet and a major shift in the service’s mindset.