The Air Force plans to include billions of dollars in the upcoming five-year defense plan for a new long range strike platform, which DOD wants to see fielded by 2018, an unnamed defense official told Reuters news service. John Young, defense research and engineering director, voiced his concern earlier this month that the Air Force might miss the program objective memorandum deadline, thereby making it impossible to meet DOD’s aggressive timetable. The nameless official told Reuters that the Air Force would earmark “substantial resources” in the 2008 POM to make the 2018 deadline.
Internationally known and respected Army Gen. Colin Powell died Oct. 18 at age 84 of complications from COVID-19. Powell served a 35-year Army career capped by duties as National Security Advisor to President Ronald Reagan and as Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff under President George H.W. Bush. He…