If what we heard late Thursday is accurate, the Senate Armed Services Committee has blessed Gen. Norton Schwartz to be Air Force Chief of Staff and Gen. Duncan McNabb to replace him at US Transportation Command. Early on Thursday, ABC News had reported that Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), committee chairman, planned to “postpone action” on the Schwartz nomination because of lingering questions over his Congressional testimony from 2003. Now, we hear, Schwartz and McNabb are cleared for full Senate confirmation, but that the nomination of Michael Donley to be Air Force Secretary is still on hold. Stay tuned.
The nation needs a better-coordinated policy for dealing with unmanned aerial systems that threaten domestic bases, Air Force vice chief of staff Gen. James C. Slife told a panel of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante co-chair a panel looking at counter-UAS…