The National Reconnaissance Office took umbrage at a recent Government Accountability Office report (see above) in which the GAO claims NRO priority in hiring personnel has deprived Air Force Space Command’s Space and Missile Systems Center of personnel with the highest space acquisition certification level. (About 50 percent of the NRO workforce comes from the Air Force.) NRO responded that the “shortage of appropriately qualified individuals at the right levels is a result of workforce management decisions made in the 1990s.” It maintains that NRO’s hiring policies “are not the causal agent,” instead the “current problem is there are not enough qualified people to meet all requirements.”
The U.S., South Korea, and Japan flew an unusual trilateral flight with two U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers escorted by two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2s, and two ROK Air Force KF-16 fighters—both countries’ respective variants of the F-16—July 11. That same weekend, the top military officers of the three nations…