The North Dakota Congressional delegation managed to add money in the latest war supplemental funding bill just signed by President Bush that would accelerate the addition of unmanned aerial vehicles at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., according to a release from Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-N.D.). Earlier this month, the Air Force sent a team to the base to size up the task. The base plans to deactivate the 911th Air Refueling Squadron next week as the first step in eliminating the base’s KC-135 tanker mission per BRAC 2005. The Air Force has yet to say whether Grand Forks will get the KC-X follow-on tanker.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…