President Obama tapped Lt. Gen. Gregory Biscone to serve as the Air Force’s next inspector general, announced the Defense Department. Biscone has been chief of the Office of the Defense Representative-Pakistan at the US embassy in Islamabad since January 2013. If the Senate approves his nomination, Biscone would replace Lt. Gen. Stephen Mueller, who’s been serving as inspector general since May 2012. Obama also nominated Maj. Gen. Thomas Trask to receive a third star for assignment as US Special Operations Command’s vice commander, according to the Pentagon’s Feb. 28 release. He would succeed Lt. Gen. Bradley Heithold, who’s held that position since July 2011. Trask has been director of SOCOM’s Center for Force Structure, Requirements, Resources, and Strategic Assessments at MacDill AFB, Fla., since October 2011.
In a nighttime ceremony contrived to continue concealment of many of its features, the new B-21 bomber rolled out of Northrop Grumman's Palmdale, Calif. plant Dec. 2. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said the aircraft's advanced technology represents "deterrence, the American way."