Daily Report

June 25, 2009

Hollow Threat

Just last week, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he was not yet ready to invoke a "veto threat" over the addition of 12 F-22 Raptors in the House Armed Services Committee's version of the 2010 defense authorization bill. Now, it appears he is ready. A just-released statement of administration policy on H.R. 2647 states the President's senior advisors would recommend a veto if the final bill still contains funds to take the F-22 program of record beyond 187 aircraft. Last week, Rep. Neil Abercrombie, chairman of the committee's air and land forces panel, said he believes the full House will find money for 20 additional Raptors in 2010. Talking with defense reporters in Washington, D.C., on Wednesday morning, the head of the House defense appropriations panel, Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), also lent his weight to the notion that Congress will approve buying more Raptors (see below). Saying it wouldn't be easy, Murtha pulled a list from an inside coat pocket that he would not share because it constituted “personal conversation” between himself and Gates, but which he said was a list of program decisions that Gates' considers "not negotiable," and from Murtha's subsequent remarks, we concluded the F-22 is on that list. However, the SAP and Gates' notional list are the not the last word. In Abercrombie's view, "The President is much too shrewd [not to realize] … that, should a veto come over adding a few planes into the defense budget, that that wouldn't be overridden in a nanosecond?" He added that a veto threat is "not a productive way to go about having this conversation."

Murtha for More F-22s

House Appropriations defense subcommittee chairman John Murtha (D-Pa.) supports further buys of the F-22 and is optimistic that more will be bought, but he said that it will take some wheeling and dealing in Congress to make it happen. Speaking...

F-35 Ready For Prime Time?

The F-35 is likely to have more growing pains, and as a result, Congress may slow the program down, according to Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), head of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee. Murtha on Wednesday told defense reporters in Washington,...

Tanker Verbiage

Rep. John Murtha (D-Pa.), chair of the House Appropriations defense subcommittee, said Wednesday he wants to introduce language during his panel’s forthcoming markup of the Fiscal 2010 defense spending proposal that would call on the Pentagon to acquire new Air...

The Sustainment Numbers Game

When Lt. Gen. Mark Shackelford, the Air Force’s acquisition military deputy, told lawmakers earlier this month that the smaller F-22 Raptor fleet would pose long-term sustainment challenges, he was referring to a wide range of issues, from depot requirements to...

What Else Caught Administration Eye?

Besides targeting additional F-22 fighters, the White House’s statement of administration policy on the proposed House version of the 2010 defense authorization bill had several complaints about Congressional plans for USAF aircraft programs. In addition to the purported veto threat...

Illinois Air Guard Visits Polish Airmen

The Illinois Air National Guard’s 182nd Airlift Wing sent some of its Air Guardsmen and aircraft to Poland, where the airmen are sharing airlift techniques with their Polish counterparts in a week-long visit under the State Partnership Program. The Polish...

Barksdale EOD Airman Receives Three Medals

SSgt. David Flowers received three medals—Bronze Star, Purple Heart, and Combat Action—from Chief of Staff Gen. Norton Schwartz during CSAF’s June 23 visit to Walter Reed Army Medical Center in Washington, D.C., where Flowers is undergoing care for wounds received...

Moving Army Cargo

Sixteen Air Force logisticians formed as the 22nd Movement Control Team have replaced the Army’s 258th MCT at Sather AB, Iraq, where they process and manage delivery of cargo and passengers throughout Iraq for the 49th Transportation Battalion. The 16...

Gorillas of the Past

A week-long reunion of former and current members of the 58th Fighter Squadron at Eglin AFB, Fla., enabled the airmen, who will see the end of the F-15 unit as an operational squadron as it gives way to the base’s...

Hunting Afghan Clinics

The USAF medical force working with the Nangarhar Provincial Reconstruction Team in Afghanistan has taken on a new task—other than running the PRT aid station and providing combat medical support—finding and assessing the status of Afghan clinics in the province....

U-2 Pilot Reaches 1,000 Hours

A June 19 photo release from the 380th Air Expeditionary Wing in Southwest Asia notes that Capt. Joshua Tull has amassed more than 1,000 flying hours in the U-2 Dragon Lady. Tull, who is deployed with the 99th Expeditionary Reconnaissance...

Former DC Guard Commander Killed in Metro Crash

Retired Air Force Maj. Gen. David F. Wherley Jr. and his wife Ann, both 62, were among nine persons killed in June 22’s deadly DC Metrorail crash, the DC National Guard announced Tuesday. Wherley had served as commanding general of...

Air Sorties in War on Terrorism, Southwest Asia

June 22, 2009 Sortie Type OIF OEF OIF/OEF Total YTD ISR 23 22 45 7,062 CAS/Armed Recon 20 79 99 16,717 Airlift 130 130 23,591 Air refueling 52 52 7,803 Total 326 55,173 OIF=Operation Iraqi Freedom OEF=Operation Enduring Freedom ISR=Intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance...