Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne and Chief of Staff Gen. Michael Moseley said Thursday afternoon at AFA’s Orlando symposium that there “undoubtedly” will be a Nunn-McCurdy breach on the C-5 Avionics Modernization Program and Reliability and Re-engining Program. Once that happens, the whole C-5 AMP and RERP effort must be re-assessed, and Moseley said it might not be worth it to do the mod on the older C-5A. That model, even with the improvements, will only get up to about a 60 percent mission capable rate, he said, and will only be available for another 25 years. “Five billion is a lot to spend on a 25-year airplane,” Moseley said. Wynne added, “We think there’s a better use for the resources,” such as tankers, more C-17s, more C-130Js or the yet-undefined Joint Cargo Aircraft.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
