US Joint Forces Command is likely to fall victim to the Pentagon’s belt tightening, but that won’t affect the US relationship with NATO’s Allied Command Transformation, which is also based in Norfolk, Va. That according to NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen, who spoke to defense reporters in Washington D.C., Tuesday. Defense Secretary Robert Gates has recommended that President Obama close JFCOM, but “We have no plans to move ACT, and personally I do believe that it makes sense to have a NATO headquarters also in the United States, not only in Europe,” said Rasmussen.
Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. Kenneth S. Wilsbach told lawmakers Apr. 30 that the service’s biggest airlifter, the C-5 Galaxy, has a 37 percent mission capable rate—one of several challenges facing the mobility fleet.