The Air Force will station seven T-38 Talons at Langley AFB, Va., for use as companion trainers for the F-22s of Langley’s 1st Fighter Wing. They will give Langley’s F-22 pilots additional flight hours and serve as Raptor adversaries in flight exercises. Capt. Shannon Collins, Air Combat Command spokeswoman, told the Daily Report that the T-38s are scheduled to arrive between March and September 2011. Dual-qualified F-22/T-38 pilots as well as pilots awaiting F-22 training will fly these T-38s, she said. No additional pilots will be assigned to Langley. These Langley-bound aircraft are reported to be ex-South Korean T-38Bs and not Air Education and Training Command T-38Cs. M1 Support Services of Denton, Tex., will maintain them. News surfaced at the end of November that the Air Force intends to base a T-38 contingent at Tyndall AFB, Fla., also home to F-22s, for similar purposes.
A new report from the Government Accountability Office calls for the Pentagon’s Chief Technology Officer to have budget certification authority over the military services’ research and development accounts—a move the services say would add a burdensome and unnecessary layer of bureaucracy.
