If the military personnel panel of the House Armed Services Committee has its way with the 2008 defense authorization bill, Congress, once again, would bar the Pentagon from raising Tricare enrollment fees. Rep. Vic Snyder (D-Ark.), panel chair, noted that the Pentagon’s own task force on the future of military health care and the Government Accountability Office will not have their reports ready until late this year. Without those “careful, comprehensive, unbiased” reviews, Snyder said the Defense Department’s “premature proposals” would unduly burden military retirees and “not really address systematic cost drivers within the system.”
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.