Doing Battle in the Volunteer State: The last we heard the Tennessee Air National Guard’s 118th Airlift Wing would lose its C-130s but keep its people, per BRAC 2005. It seems, though, the state is slugging away, trying to keep everything. The Nashville City Paper reports that Gov. Phil Bredesen and the Justice Department on behalf of DOD are battling in the jurisprudence system, filing competing motions. The latest, filed by the governor just last week, requests the US District Court to sidestep a trial and simply rule the federal government’s plan for the 118th is illegal.
A record investment in research and development by the Department of the Air Force will help the United States win the long-term technology race with China, even while shrinking the fleet size before a possible mid-decade Taiwan contingency, Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall said May 17. “With the Air Force,…