Deputy Defense Secretary Gordon England says the Pentagon will “take a look again” at the final number of Air Force C-17s to be purchased since the Administration now plans to increase the size of the Army and Marine Corps by a combined 92,000 troops. England was responding to repeated questions from lawmakers at a Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee hearing Wednesday. He would not acknowledge that the troop increase or, as Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii) pointed out, the “spiraling costs in the C-5 re-engining” program necessarily mean the C-17 number should go up. In fact, England maintained that because the number of C-17s to be bought grew last year by 10—Congress added nine and DOD one—the new total of 191 airlifters should be “more than adequate.”
Air Force Gen. Alexus G. Grynkewich assumed command of U.S. European Command on July 1, taking over the key assignment as the U.S. and its allies contend with a resurgent Russia and a grinding war in Ukraine.
