Lt. Col. Dirk Smith, commander of the 94th Fighter Squadron at Langley AFB, Va., and Maj. Kevin Dolata, flew the squadron’s first two new F-22A stealth fighters to the Air Combat Command base from Lockheed Martin’s Marietta, Ga., production facility on March 3 The 94th FS flew its final F-15 flight in December 2005 and expects to be ready to deploy operationally with the F-22A by May 2007. Lockheed is delivering two aircraft per month to the 94th.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
