USAF’s
F-35 beddown decisions may affect where F-22s end up, according to the service’s installation czar. When the service unveiled it list of 11 candidate locations to host the F-35 next decade, Holloman AFB, N.M., was included as a potential training site. “Holloman scored very high on the training list,” Kathleen Ferguson, deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for installations, told reporters Nov. 2. However, she noted, the capacity does not exist “to support both the F-22 and the F-35” at Holloman, which is already in the throes of establishing two combat-ready F-22 squadrons. Ferguson said USAF may consider “the potential to relocate the F-22” as part of the next phase of F-35 beddown process. That news prompted Virginia lawmakers last week to ask USAF for more information on F-22 basing decisions, since they would like to get more Raptors at Langley Air Force Base. Continue
House lawmakers unveiled a new reconciliation package July 15 with $60 billion for defense, $290 billion less than the Pentagon has been seeking, a day after a Senate vote to advance the annual defense policy bill failed—developments that show the perilous state of the Pentagon’s ambitious plans for fiscal 2027.