Until Operation Unified Protector shuts down on Oct. 31, NATO will continue to run missions over Libya, principally intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance flights and enforcement of the no-fly zone and arms embargo, according to NATO’s air commander, Lt. Gen. Ralph Jodice. He told the Daily Report in an interview Monday that NATO aircraft performed their last “kinetic” mission in Libya on Oct. 20, but the alliance continues to be “prepared to protect civilians if they are so threatened.” Jodice said he’s been gratified that NATO partners and four other coalition members have contributed “everything they could” in manpower and hardware to the operation. It’s been “a big success,” he said. Despite complaints of former Defense Secretary Robert Gates that NATO partners were short of munitions, Jodice said weapons availability was never a problem. “I never once had to cancel or postpone a sortie because I didn’t have the right munitions,” he said.
No matter what happens with the Nunn-McCurdy review of the Sentinel ICBM program, the nation must have a land-based element of its nuclear triad, Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante told the Senate Appropriations defense subcommittee.