Despite the challenges of operating over difficult terrain, Air Force mobility aircrews are setting records for airdrops over Afghanistan, US Transportation Command officials at Scott AFB, Il., announced Tuesday. Plus these airmen are maintaining a 97 percent rate of delivery accuracy, they said. During a recent 12-week period, about 500 bundles of supplies were dropped per week, which amounts to 450 tons dropped each week. April was a record month for bundles dropped, with more than 2,700 delivered, said Col. Keith Boone, 621st Contingency Response Wing commander at JB McGuire, N.J. On April 7 alone, 200 bundles were dropped, a single day record, he said. “We have been steadily increasing since sustainment airdrop operations began in 2005,” he said. He continued, “Undoubtedly, this is the longest aerial delivery sustainment in the history of military operations.” (Scott report by Bob Fehringer)
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
