The Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday took up Michael Wynne’s nomination to be Secretary of the Air Force. Though Sen. Carl Levin, the ranking Democrat, thought Wynne’s involvement in the tanker controversy would be a non-issue (DR, 10/06/05), Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) couldn’t pass it up. McCain, who led the attack on the Air Force over the propriety of a tanker-lease deal, also demanded assurances that Wynne had a plan to overcome cost overruns in several major USAF programs. Wynne assured him that he planned to balance technology, requirements, and schedules. He emphasized the need to give program managers more authority to say “no” to add-ons to control costs.
Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.