Buried within the 2007 defense spending bill is a notation that prohibits the Air Force from using any 2007 funds to transfer “any test and evaluation facility or test and evaluation activity” from Eglin AFB, Fla., currently located or conducted at Eglin. The Air Force this summer began drafting a plan to move some Eglin test assets to Edwards AFB, Calif., in what they say would consolidate like activities and save almost half a billion dollars. Despite assurances that Eglin actually is expected to grow in numbers of personnel, civilian employees complained to Florida lawmakers as rumors circulated.
A new Air Force plan for how many fighters it needs in the next decade marks a sharp upturn from what it thought it needed just seven years ago. But analysts worry that the aspirational plan now in Congress' hands doesn’t make a tight enough connection to national strategy.
