Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), incoming chair for the House Armed Services Committee, told reporters in a post-election conference call that the US military is losing senior captains and junior majors, who, he said, are “bailing out early.“ The losses appear to be mostly in the Army. Skelton signaled that he plans to focus some of his committee’s efforts on what he sees as a growing retention problem, one that has significant long-term impact.
The Air Force wants to pump more than $12 billion over the next five years into its new affordable long-range missiles program and recently asked industry to push the flights of some of those munitions beyond 1,200 miles.