Air Force modernization is “grossly underfunded” at a time when airpower is more important than ever for deterring and dissuading aggression in places like the Pacific, retired Army Gen. Barry McCaffrey, told a Capitol Hill audience March 12. “The tool...

The US military does not need more C-17s and seemingly has enough strategic airlift with those C-17s and its modernized C-5s, Pentagon acquisition czar John Young, told Congress March 11. “There is no argument,” Young asserted to members of the House Armed Services Committee, “to buy additional C-17s.” In fact, Young told the lawmakers during a joint session of the committee’s air and land forces and seapower and expeditionary forces panels, “use of funds for this purpose in a constrained budget environment will result in denying other capabilities to our warfighters.” The Air Force’s program of record is for 190 C-17s; it would like more, but cannot currently afford them. USAF also has 111 larger C-5s, 52 of which will get new engines and avionics under a restructured upgrade plan announced last month. The remaining 59 C-5s, all A models, will just get new avionics. Together those airlift assets, “meet” DOD’s standing requirement “with some margin,” Young said, noting that there is the capacity to enhance the maintenance of those airplanes “and overachieve that requirement” if the need arises. The Pentagon’s leadership is increasing the size of the Army and Marine Corps and is studying the extent to which the airlift requirement will change to support the larger ground forces. Implying that DOD already has the answer, Young’s written statement to the panels says “it is not clear that substantial changes have occurred” in DOD’s need for oversized and outsized cargo capacity. Further, its states that more airlift demand “can be substantially addressed” by the future KC-45A tanker. Accordingly, “the department believes that the C-17 production line should not be kept open,” he writes.

Upgrading the Air Force’s existing inventory of F-22s is more important than procuring additional aircraft beyond 183, the current program of record, John Young, the Pentagon’s chief weapons buyer, said March 11 on Capitol Hill. “Current Air Force plans do...

The Air Force plans to issue a request for proposals this summer to shut down the F-22 production line, two seniors service generals said March 11. Barring additional orders, Lockheed Martin will begin to shutter the Raptor line in November....

Taking its turn at the Air Force’s Fiscal 2009 budget, the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee met Wednesday, with the conversation quickly devolving into a back and forth on the tanker award to the Northrop Grumman/EADS team. Sen. Patty Murray (D-Wash.),...

Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.), long-time B-52 advocate, has concerns about the a presumed bomber gap and the future of the venerable bomber, which he reminded attendees at the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing Wednesday would be in the inventory for...

The Air Force is considering sending the CV-22 Osprey tiltrotor aircraft on its first deployment later this year, two senior USAF officials told the House Armed Services Committee March 11. Initial operational test and evaluation of the CV-22 began in...

The challenge of maintaining the nation’s Minuteman III ICBM fleet to 2030—as the Congress has asked the Air Force to explore—is more about the straightforward aspects of keeping a 1960s-era design viable that long as opposed to adding new bells...

The new Air Force Reserve Command A-10 unit forming at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., will be the 45th Fighter Squadron, according to a release from Barksdale AFB, La., the home of the new unit’s parent organization, the 917th Wing. Site activation...

The airmen of the Virginia Air National Guard’s 192nd Fighter Wing at Langley AFB, Va., reportedly don’t mind having to travel, in some cases, a hundred miles or more to their new Virginia base because their responsibility has broadened and...

March 10, 2008 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 24 10 34 1,846 CAS/Armed Recon 52 51 103 5,687 Airlift 146 146 8,431 Air refueling 42 42 2,662 Total 325 18,626 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...