W
ashington state’s Democratic Senatorial delegation—Maria Cantwell and Patty Murray—have put in play an amendment to the 2008 defense authorization bill to save the 36th Rescue Flight at Fairchild AFB, Wash. The amendment (S.A. 358) would restore some $4 million to the Administration’s budget—there was no money for the 36th—and would direct the Defense Secretary to “ensure that no action is taken to deactivate the 36th Rescue Flight or to reassign or reorganize any of the search and rescue capabilities of that unit.” In a joint statement, Cantwell commented that the unit’s UH-1 helicopters “train thousands of aircrews each year and provide critical search and rescue capabilities for Northwest communities and the nation.”
Current and near-term Chinese artificial intelligence capabilities could counter or replicate how the U.S. military plans and conducts operations, especially complex strike packages such as those seen recently in Iran, according to a new think tank report.