Thursday afternoon’s hearing of the House Armed Services airland subcommittee on the KC-X tanker program started with testimony by the Government Accountability Office and didn’t pick up with John Young, the Pentagon’s acquisition czar, until after 5:30 p.m. Air Force acquisition executive Sue Payton was pulled from the original witness list for the open session; she was still expected to appear behind closed doors with the panel upon conclusion of yesterday’s public session. We will be updating the column on Friday morning with hearing coverage.
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.

