U.S. Transportation Command is looking too integrate the KC-46 into operations as soon as June, following Air Mobility Command’s move to free up the troubled tanker for ops to relieve stress on legacy refuelers. TRANSCOM boss Army Gen. Stephen R. Lyons recently visited KC-46 officials at McConnell Air Force Base, Kan., and said he is “encouraged by recent (Air Force) efforts that will make the KC-46 available for limited mission requirements as soon as June,” the command said in a Twitter statement. The statement is an update from Air Mobility Command’s announcement Feb. 24 that it would clear the KC-46 to be tasked by TRANSCOM this year. AMC boss Gen. Jacqueline D. Van Ovost, in announcing the step, said it would be a conditions-based process, with the aircraft only tasked with missions it has been cleared to fly in operational testing.

Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin on March 9 approved an extension of the National Guard deployment to the U.S. Capitol complex for about two months. National Guard troops have been deployed to the building to help U.S. Capitol Police with security in the aftermath of the January 6 insurrection, and the police department has requested an extension of the presence as there are concerns about continued threats. The extension includes about 2,300 troops, about half the amount that had been deployed, according to a Pentagon statement.

A sharp increase in deterrence funding in the Pacific, at a time when defense budgets are expected to shrink, is needed to prove that the region is the Pentagon’s top priority and to address growing needs in surveillance and missile defense, the head of U.S. Indo-Pacific Command told lawmakers March 9. INDOPACOM Commander Adm. Philip S. Davidson recently announced he is seeking $4.7 billion in fiscal 2022 for the Pacific Deterrence Initiative, almost double the $2.5 billion allocated in fiscal 2021. While the Pentagon’s budget request is still in the works, Davidson told the Senate Armed Services Committee on March 9 he is “encouraged” by the draft’s emphasis on the fund. The $4.7 billion request, just under the $5.5 billion cap Congress put in place when the PDI was created in the fiscal 2021 defense policy bill, includes a large shopping list for INDOPACOM.

The Pentagon could know within about a week how many volunteer civilian advisers had their terms abruptly concluded by Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III effective Feb. 16, including a list of names. Austin cleared out an “several hundred” volunteer seats on the Pentagon’s 42-plus civilian advisory boards—every seat he has the power to appoint, according to spokespeople. He blamed the unprecedented purge on “the scale of recent changes” to board seats made in the final weeks of the Trump administration, according to Department of Defense spokesperson Susan Gough. She said Austin’s office won’t be able to provide a total count or full list of names until after March 15.

A B-1 Lancer assigned to the Air Force's 7th Bomb Wing supported training for foreign joint terminal attack controllers and integrated with Swedish Gripen fighters during a Bomber Task Force mission in Norway and Sweden on March 8, according to a U.S. Air Forces in Europe-Air Forces Africa release.