The airmen of Air Education and Training Command’s 36th Rescue Flight at Fairchild AFB, Wash., ply their trade primarily for USAF Survival School students, but they also get tapped for local area rescues. Earlier this month, the UH-1N helicopter unit performed its 613th save, rescuing a woman with a broken leg in rough terrain in Idaho. Just a few days earlier in another part of Idaho, they brought out a man and his teenage son stranded overnight when their snowmobiles got stuck in deep snow.
The emphasis on speed in the Pentagon’s newly unveiled slate of acquisition reforms may come with increased near-term cost increases, analysts say. But according to U.S. defense officials, the new weapons-buying construct provides the military with enough flexibility to prevent runaway budget overruns in major programs.
