Officials at Warner Robins Air Logistics Center in Georgia are predicting that the 2008 defense spending bill, though slightly higher than last year’s, will find the center in a “little worse” position than in 2007. Gene Rector of The Telegraph reports that the center’s top financial official, Michael Mehrman, said, “We will have to prioritize things and stop doing other things.” Center leaders already are racking and stacking the workload that comprises support for key aircraft, including F-15s, C-5s, C-17s, and C-130s, all heavily used assets in the war on terror. Mehrman noted, for instance, that Air Force Special Operations C-130s are amassing around twice their programmed flying hours, meaning much more maintenance work is needed. He said, “Resources will go to the most pressing needs and must-pays.” The story is bound to be the same for the other two ALCs, Oklahoma City at Tinker AFB, Okla. and Odgen at Hill AFB, Utah.
Unlike nearly every other innovative technology throughout history, Maj. Gen. DeAnna M. Burt believes the space enterprise emerged backward. “Every other domain started with an entrepreneur who built something,” Burt, the special assistant to the Chief of Space Operations, told an audience at AFA’s Air, Space & Cyber Conference.