Four members of the commission tasked with determining the Air Force’s best Total Force mix visited Michigan Air National Guardsmen at Selfridge ANG Base, northeast of Detroit, on Sept. 14 during drill weekend, according to a commission release. The commission members conducted a public hearing among their fact-finding activities. “We are the value for America,” Michigan Adjutant General Army Maj. Gen. Gregory Vadnais told the commissioners at the hearing. “As you travel the country and deliberate your findings, please keep one thing in mind: the structure of the Air Force and the military as a whole comes down to how much capability and readiness you are able to purchase,” he said. Brig. Gen. Leonard Isabelle, Michigan Air Guard commander, also addressed them. The commissioners also met with members of Selfridge’s 127th Wing, which operates A-10s and KC-135s, and with personnel from the state’s other Air Guard units. “If we don’t have the same equipment, we’re not relevant,” Col. Sean Southworth, commander of the 217th Air Operations Group in Battle Creek, told the commissioners when discussing the Total Force. The eight-member commission is required to make its recommendations to the President and Congress next February.
RTX, parent of Raytheon, Collins and Pratt & Whitney, is getting out of the space prime business and focusing on its "strengths" as a maker of space sensors, buses, and components, company COO Chris Calio said during an earnings call.