Montana State Sen. Edward Buttrey (R) said the Air Force’s plan to shift F-15s currently assigned to the Montana Air National to Fresno, Calif., squanders resources and leaves the state without a flying mission. That’s why he wants the Air Force to reconsider the move. “The infrastructure is in place, we have great Hays [military operations area] to fly in. . . . It’s not the time, or place, to move these” assets, said Buttrey, reported Great Falls’ KRTV News. Buttrey asserted that it would cost between $250 million and $500 million “of new infrastructure and wasted infrastructure” to transfer the 120th Fighter Wing’s mission at Great Falls to Fresno, and could cost the state as many as 1,000 jobs and $70 million in federal funds. The Air Force is slated to complete the environmental impact assessment of the move to Fresno in July.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. still “believes” in his mantra of “Accelerate Change or Lose”—and indicated the doctrinal changes it produced when he was Air Force Chief of Staff played a role in the service’s recent response to Iran’s aerial assault on Israel, he…