It now appears the Air Force is working with the Army to try to get Senate authorizers to restore funding the Senate Armed Services Committee cut for the Joint Cargo Aircraft, reports the Congressional newspaper The Hill. The Senate panel cut Army JCA funding from its markup of the 2007 defense authorization bill, opting to wait until the Army and Air Force both work out plans for the program. The Army, however, already has defined its needs and wants to field a new aircraft sooner than the Air Force.
Questioned by lawmakers on the state of the Air Force's maintenance depots, Vice Chief of Staff Gen. James C. "Jim" Slife said April 30 that the service is investing in IT and data infrastructure to better sustain new software-intensive platforms—while acknowledging that there is still work to be done to…