Maj. Gen. Jack Weinstein, commander of 20th Air Force, told House legislators that appropriators who cut a new helicopter from his budget are worsening a bad situation. “These are 1960s, 1970s helicopters,” he told a House Armed Services panel Thursday of his fleet of UH-1s. “They don’t meet DOD requirements for payload, capacity, and range,” and they can’t get where they’re going at the requisite speed, especially if a missile silo was under attack. “Any delay” in replacing the helos that support the nuclear mission “is a real danger” to security forces being able to perform their mission, he said. He also noted that 20th AF needs a new ground vehicle because the Humvee is ill-suited to the mission. It travels on US roads, “has no anti-lock brakes,” and at idle can’t keep passengers warm when a North Dakota winter throws “minus 40 degrees” at the crew, Weinstein said.
This year’s Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting buzzed with talk of countering the rapidly evolving drone threat facing the entire U.S. military, including the Air Force. Leaders and defense industry officials discussed the need for new approaches to procurement and employment of a new class of these…
