The 
new Sniper XR targeting pod, used first on fighters, will soon go on bombers, too. The B-1 Systems Group at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, are engaged in adapting the B-1B so it, too, can use the Sniper. The big advantage: It provides positive identification capability. The current radar system that was used to hunt Scuds in Iraq did not provide sufficiently clear resolution. The B-1B pilots had to call on fighters to ID the target. Full integration is projected for FY 2009.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach told lawmakers Apr. 30 that the service’s biggest airlifter, the C-5 Galaxy, has a 37 percent mission capable rate—one of several challenges facing the mobility fleet.