According to a brief report by the Honolulu Advertiser, Air Force and Hawaii Air National Guard officials are trying to resurrect construction of an assault landing runway at the joint use Kona International Airport. Pacific Air Forces believes it can save money by having active and Air Guard C-17 crews based at Hickam Air Force Base train at home rather than having the expense of sending them to continental US fields, where schedules often conflict. However, PACAF hadn’t yet been able to secure the money to construct the notional 4,000-foot assault tactics strip at the airfield shared by Hickam and the Kona airport.
A legislative standoff has led to a lapse in a $4.26 billion small business innovation contracting program widely used by the Air Force and could spell the end of it entirely, industry sources warned Air & Space Forces Magazine.
