Air Force communications personnel took a hard look at their operations and made changes that took “help me” response times from 30 minutes to around “instantaneous,” says Capt. Jeff Devine Jr., information systems flight commander for the 386th Expeditionary Communications Squadron. The unit pulled all their customer service centers into one location and installed an overhead electronic display—with numerous screens visible to all technicians—showing every critical comm system. The result, says Devine, is that comm sometimes shows up before the customer knows there’s a problem. And that, he explained, means the chance of shutting down air operations is very low.
House lawmakers unveiled a new reconciliation package July 15 with $60 billion for defense, $290 billion less than the Pentagon has been seeking, a day after a Senate vote to advance the annual defense policy bill failed—developments that show the perilous state of the Pentagon’s ambitious plans for fiscal 2027.