The rest of the Air Force’s top 25 unfunded priorities for Fiscal 2008 (see above) includes such things as new engines and night vision goggles for HH-60G combat search and rescue helicopters; six additional MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles to spur Air National Guard transition to the new mission; money for permanent change of station moves for nearly 27,000 airmen; money to increase aircraft depot maintenance capability—considered a readiness issue; six more A-10 wings, without which the service will have to ground some Warthogs beginning in 2011; funds to jumpstart selection of a replacement for the service’s UH-1Ns, most of which cover Air Force Space Command’s missile fields; and assorted other priorities from space capabilities to homeland defense. There are also another 80 items in a non-ranked list of “remaining requirements” that are important but not funded in the Administration’s 2008 defense budget request.
Navy Adm. Samuel J. Paparo Jr. assumed leadership of the U.S. Indo-Pacific Command, succeeding Navy Adm. John Aquilino at a change of command ceremony, urging action amid China's “increasing intrusive and expansionist claims,” on May 3