Gen. Ronald Keys, ACC commander, thinks the $50 billion requested by the Air Force for the Fiscal 2008 emergency supplemental would be used for force recapitalization—primarily to offset loss and wear from operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. He told defense reporters in Washington Thursday that the Air Force has “lost a lot of airplanes” and needs to replace them, but there’s no money. Keys said ACC by itself expends about $2.6 billion a year in supplemental funding for the war on terror. When asked about USAF’s revised supplemental for Fiscal 2007, Keys maintained that discussions are ongoing and would provide no details.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.