Congressmen Neil Abercrombie (D-Hawaii) and Solomon Ortiz (D-Tex.), writing in an op-ed in the Christian Science Monitor Monday, sounded an increased readiness alarm, citing a classified briefing they had received last month. They said it provided “disturbing” details and the “jaw-dropping” implication that the US armed services are “literally at the breaking point.” They call upon the new Democratic Congress to stop the Administration’s “second-class funding” approach, but they also want to ensure that emergency supplementals do not fund developmental programs. At Pentagon urging, the Air Force and the other services took a broader look at war costs in the latest supplementals, but lawmakers have targeted such Air Force requests as F-35 Joint Strike Fighters to replace legacy aircraft lost in the war.
The Air Force has finished resurrecting a B-1B Lancer, completing a yearslong process to transform a bomber that had been stored for parts in the Arizona desert into the new flagship of the 7th Bomb Wing at Dyess Air Force Base, Texas.