The Air National Guard already is an efficient organization and further cuts in the name of efficiency would take their toll on its readiness, Air Guard Director Lt. Gen. Bud Wyatt told lawmakers Wednesday. “The Air National Guard has been lean and mean before lean and mean was cool. We were efficient before efficiency was cool,” he said in testimony before the House Armed Service Committee’s tactical air and land forces panel. He continued, “I agree, we need to continue trying to find efficiencies, but in the Air National Guard, I think we have squeezed just about all of the blood out of this turnip that we can squeeze. We are at the point now that any further reductions, cuts, drawbacks will adversely affect our readiness.” Wyatt said he’s “committed not to sending airmen into harm’s way unless they are fully trained, fully equipped, very capably led, and we won’t back off that standard at all.”
The Space Development Agency says it’s on track to issue its next batch of missile warning and tracking satellite contracts this month after those awards were delayed by the Pentagon’s decision to divert funds from the agency to pay troops during this fall’s prolonged government shutdown.
