A recent US Air Forces in Europe news release describes a major thrill for most airmen, getting to fly a hot fighter of another air force. Maj. P.K. Carlton, who was participating in an exchange program at RAF Coningsby, Great Britain, got to fly solo in the RAF’s Typhoon. The USAF F-16 pilot called the flight characteristics of each aircraft similar. The biggest problem for him was the RAF’s different “rules to fly by.”
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
