Brig. Gen. Steven Kwast, commander of USAF’s 455th Air Expeditionary Wing in Afghanistan, in a videoconference with reporters Tuesday confirmed that the investigation team reviewing the April 8 crash of the CV-22 tilt-rotor aircraft had destroyed the wreckage after getting “what they needed in order to do this investigation properly.” He said a decision on “the threat and the risk” would have been made by the investigation team to determine whether it was prudent to bring the “metal back home … [or] better just to destroy it there so it cannot be used against us.” There’s been at least one media report that brownout conditions likely caused the crash, but Kwast did not speculate about the outcome of the investigation, saying “that process is ongoing.” (The crash killed four and injured several others.)
The Pentagon is counting on Congress to navigate a legislative tightrope and pass a party-line bill to fund nearly a quarter of its $1.5 trillion budget request for fiscal 2027, including billions of dollars for top priorities like Golden Dome, the F-35, munitions, and unmanned systems. Experts and lawmakers from…