Talk around the Beltway never strays far from spending puzzles—the latest, of course, how to pay for Katrina. Analysts project the cost for recovery efforts at nearly $200 billion. Thoughts naturally turn to cuts. Questioned if the Pentagon would have to cut programs to pay its share, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld opined, “There’s no point in speculating.” Of course, speculation already runs high that the Quadrennial Defense Review will be taking hefty cuts on its own.
The Air Force still needs more than 300 combat squadrons, but the biggest priority is not number of squadrons but capability, Chief of Staff Gen. Charles Q. Brown Jr. said Sept. 22. He also suggested the records set by the Next Generation Air Dominance prototype likely have more to do…