Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, commander of US Joint Forces Command and NATO Supreme Allied Commander Transformation wants to retire come January, after serving some 37 years in the Air Force. NATO, in an Aug. 27 statement concurred, saying he had completed his term in the position. Now, it falls upon President Bush to nominate another US flag officer to take Smith’s place.
Today’s armament maintainers are tasked with performing flightline (O-Level) maintenance with an assortment of legacy test sets that greatly limit the ability to quickly and efficiently verify armament system readiness, diagnose failures, and ultimately return the aircraft to full mission...