The National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform is recommending that the Pentagon cancel the Marine Corps’ version of the F-35 strike fighter and halve the Air Force and Navy F-35 buys out to 2015. Canceling the Marine Corps’ F-35B would save $3.9 billion in Fiscal 2015 and $17.6 billion from Fiscal 2012-15, according to the panel’s newly released draft findings. This move makes sense because the F-35B has had “technical problems, cost overruns, [and] schedule delays,” reads the draft document. The panel would also substitute F-16s and F/A-18Es for half of the planned Air Force F-35A and Navy F-35C buys. “DOD does not need an entire fleet with the stealthy capabilities of the [F-35], and could rely instead on upgraded F-16 and F/A-18E aircraft for half of their fleet, a ‘high-low’ mix,” states the document. These moves are part of the panel’s recommended $100 billion in defense cuts in 2015 (see above).
The National Guard Bureau is working with states to drawdown “close to 15,000” of the nearly 26,000 troops still in the nation's capital following President Joe Biden’s Jan. 20 inauguration. Of that total, about 10,600 were still on duty as of the evening of Jan. 21, NGB wrote in a…