Missouri Congressman Ike Skelton, ranking Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee, paid a visit recently to the Norfolk, Va., headquarters of US Joint Forces Command to see just what the command leading the Pentagon’s transformation effort is doing. Skelton got the complete dog and pony round of briefings and demonstrations. He marveled at the “new age in warfare,” saying “futurist information-type thinking” must receive “additional attention and additional resources.” The veteran lawmaker said, “We don’t get much of this advanced jointness in our hearings back in Washington.”
If the Air Force is in line for a big budget bump from President Donald Trump’s proposed $1.5 trillion defense budget in 2027, the head of Air Combat Command said he would make aircraft spare parts his top spending priority—but cautioned that more money to buy parts won’t equal a…


