Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.) is taking exception to the Pentagon premise that fielding a new long-range strike platform sooner is more preferable to upgrading the B-2 stealth bomber. At a House hearing on Wednesday, Skelton said, “In my view, a great deal of new capability can be achieved by continuing to modernize our most advanced bomber, the B-2.” He did admit that the B-2 might not fill all requirements “contemplated in the QDR” but maintained it could “satisfy a large percentage of those requirements.”
With the Air Force in the midst of its biggest testing boom in decades, the Maintenance Operational Test (MxOT) Division at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is making sure those tests include an often-overlooked perspective: that of maintainers.