Daily Report

June 2, 2011

Change of Plan?

Both Congress and the Defense Department might benefit from making the Congressionally mandated 30-year aircraft procurement plan less frequent, less far reaching in scope, and better timed, said Vice Adm. Stephen Stanley, principal deputy director of the Pentagon's Cost Assessment and Program Evaluation office, Wednesday. Stanley, whose office plays a big role in preparing the APP, told members of the House Armed Services Committee's oversight panel that he favors the plan coming out only once every four years vice annually, being tied more closely to the Quadrennial Defense Review, and only looking 20 years into the future. "It's not clear to me that the last 10 years do either you or me much good," he noted. He also sees merit in having the APP timed to appear one year after the QDR, so that a new Administration has had time to formulate its national security strategy. Stanley said these same suggestions apply to the Navy's 30-year shipbuilding plan, which, as of this year, already is a quadrennial document. (2011 Aircraft Procurement Plan)

START Counting

The State Department on Wednesday released the aggregate numbers of US and Russian strategic offensive arms. According to the data, current as of Feb. 5, the United States has 1,800 nuclear warheads on 882 deployed launchers (i.e., ICBMs, submarine-launched ballistic...

House Appropriators Release Draft Fiscal 2012 Defense Bill

The draft copy of the Fiscal 2012 defense appropriations bill, released by the House Appropriations Committee’s defense panel, includes some $530.5 billion in baseline funding (excluding military construction) and $118.6 billion for operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. According to the...

Wright-Patt Gets New Facility for Med School, Research

Officials at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, held a ribbon cutting ceremony Wednesday, opening the doors to the 711th Human Performance Wing’s new 680,000 square-foot complex. The $239 million facility will be home to the Air Force School of Aerospace Medicine, the...

JASSM Contract Adds Distance

The Air Force has awarded Lockheed Martin some $208.5 million for Lot 9 production of 200 JASSM cruise missiles. Of the order, 170 missiles will be in the baseline configuration and 30 will be in the extended-range format, said Lockheed...

Maintenance Association Rising

Air Force officials activated the newly formed 414th Maintenance Squadron in a ceremony at Seymour Johnson AFB, N.C. The unit is one of two Air Force Reserve Command squadrons that will partner with the active duty 4th Fighter Wing at...

Coming Soon to a Theater Near You

Air Combat Command officials anticipate that the Miniature Air Launched Decoy will be ready for operations “in the near future,” according to ACC spokeswoman Capt. Jennifer Ferrau. There has been a delay in MALD reaching this milestone—known as initial operational...

Soldier to Receive Medal of Honor

On July 12, President Obama will award Army Sgt. 1st Class Leroy Arthur Petry the Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest military decoration, for his conspicuous gallantry in Afghanistan. Petry, a native of Santa Fe, N.M., will be the second...

Superhero Solutions for Combat Rescue

Pararescuemen of the Kentucky Air National Guard’s 123rd Special Tactics Squadron performed a live demonstration for engineers and scientists at Wright-Patterson AFB, Ohio, who are looking to improve the equipment that the combat rescuers use. Extracting a mock victim from...

First Australian Tanker Delivered

EADS delivered the first A330 Multi-Role Tanker Transport to the Royal Australian Air Force, at RAAF base Amberley in Queensland on Wednesday, according to a company release. “This is a very major and long awaited milestone for the A330 MRTT...