Speculation is flying around the Beltway, if not in middle America, about the impact on defense of a potential Democratic Congress. Government Executive’s Megan Scully reports that Democratic leaders would shy from dramatic cuts to war funding or “trim overall defense spending.” A Democratic majority probably would not target the Future Combat System or the Joint Strike Fighter, but would look more closely at the Missile Defense System. Scully’s sources also believe the Navy could get a boost. On the other hand, senior defense analyst Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute says in a new issue brief that research shows that “since 1976 Democratic control of the government has been a powerful predictor of declines in defense [research and procurement] outlays.”
The Air Force is on track to reach its annual goal of graduating 1,500 new pilots that had proved elusive to this point, one year after the service launched a sweeping overhaul of its undergraduate pilot training program, Air Education and Training Command said Sept. 14.
