The House Armed Services air and land panel in its markup of the Fiscal 2008 defense authorization bill decided to recommend restricting funds for the Army-Air Force Joint Cargo Aircraft “until reports on intratheater airlift requirements are provided to the Congressional defense committees.” If this stands, it would severely hamstring the Army, which plans to field the JCA first, starting production this fiscal year. Just last week, we reported that Air Force and Army officials had resolved major problems and expected to get approval at the end of this month to start production. (We reported Friday on the panel’s recommendation to permit retirement of C-5As, which have been under Congressional restriction, and on its desire to sustain a second engine for the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program.)
After years of describing to lawmakers and Pentagon leaders the nature of that threat and the key role spacepower plays in deterring conflict in the domain and enabling the rest of the joint force, Chief of Space Operations Gen. Chance Saltzman told reporters during AFA’s Warfare Symposium here that the message appears to…