The
2007 war supplemental bill agreed to by House and Senate conferees includes the five C-130J tactical airlifters the Air Force wanted—and DOD dropped at one point—to offset C-130s lost through war usage. The $124.2 billion supplemental doesn’t have the firm timetable for a US pullout from Iraq favored by the House, but it does include a redeployment goal, beginning no later than Oct. 1 and ending six months later. It still faces a threatened veto by President Bush. The measure, which now needs full House and Senate approval before it goes to the President, also includes funding for one CV-22 Osprey, additional Predator unmanned aerial vehicles, A-10 upgrades, defensive systems for C-5A airlifters, and other Air Force requests.
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.
