The rest of the Air Force’s top 25 unfunded priorities for Fiscal 2008 (see above) includes such things as new engines and night vision goggles for HH-60G combat search and rescue helicopters; six additional MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicles to spur Air National Guard transition to the new mission; money for permanent change of station moves for nearly 27,000 airmen; money to increase aircraft depot maintenance capability—considered a readiness issue; six more A-10 wings, without which the service will have to ground some Warthogs beginning in 2011; funds to jumpstart selection of a replacement for the service’s UH-1Ns, most of which cover Air Force Space Command’s missile fields; and assorted other priorities from space capabilities to homeland defense. There are also another 80 items in a non-ranked list of “remaining requirements” that are important but not funded in the Administration’s 2008 defense budget request.
B-1 bombers operated out of Naval Support Facility Diego Garcia for the first time in more than 15 years recently, as part of Pacific Air Forces’ Bomber Task Force missions. The B-1B Lancers, along with around 200 Airmen from the 28th Bomb Wing at Ellsworth Air Force Base, S.D., landed…