“I would hope we’ll see some decisions about how to move out soon” on the long range strike system, Pentagon acquisition chief Ashton Carter said Wednesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. He called the LRS a “complex mosaic of electronic attack, ISR, strike, stand-in, standoff, manned, unmanned [capabilities]” requiring a lot of work in cost tradeoffs that is going on department-wide. “In so many places in the department, we’ve lost the knack for doing that. Not in the Air Force, in connection with this project. And that’s the work that [Defense Secretary Robert Gates] deserves to see before he makes decisions on that.
The U.S. has approved a $310.5 million Foreign Military Sale to provide Ukraine with maintenance and training for its F-16 fighter jets, the State Department announced May 2. Meanwhile, the U.S. Air Force has been sending retired F-16s to Ukraine to be used for spare parts.