Britain’s Royal Air Force will get a fifth C-17 airlifter and will purchase the first four that it has been leasing from Boeing. The British under-secretary of state for defense, Tom Watson, announced the news last week, according to Government News Network (UK). The lease arrangement gave the RAF the original four until 2008, at which time Britain could either buy or extend the lease. Buying the new airlifters, said Watson, “will give the RAF a guaranteed long-term capacity.”
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
