House and Senate conferees completed work on the 2008 defense appropriations bill, providing about $460 billion in spending authority. Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the defense panel of the House Appropriations Committee, said in a statement that the agreement “achieves a balance” between near-term deployment requirements and modernization to meet future threats. The measure is almost $40 billion more than enacted for Fiscal 2007 and does not include funding for Operation Iraqi Freedom. And, here’s the Senate Appropriations Committee summary.
The Air Force is launching an effort to develop a new stand-off missile with a range of 1,000 nautical miles, or 1,150 miles, that would eventually be used for both air-to-air and air-to-surface missions.