Be Prompt

Be Prompt: The US military’s in-depth look at non-nuclear options circa 2020 for striking high-value targets quickly virtually anywhere on the globe is being briefed up the Pentagon’s leadership chain, Air Force Gen. Kevin Chilton, commander of US Strategic Command, told defense reporters on March 4. “It should come out to the joint requirements oversight council this summer,” said Chilton of the prompt global strike analysis of alternatives. “I look forward to seeing the results of that.” The AOA examined four classes of systems: CONUS land-based, forward-deployed mobile, sea-based, and air-breathing with a high-velocity delivery mechanism. The Pentagon wanted to convert some Navy Trident submarine-based ballistic missiles to carrying conventional warheads in the near term to serve in this role. But Congress did not allow the conversion to go forward, only some technology maturation work. Key PGS system attributes, Chilton said are “high accuracy” and a reentry vehicle that can perform “large cross-range maneuvering” so that the warhead or weapons payload can reach the target without overflying nations “that you are not interested in getting excited.”

3/6/2008

Verbatim

Preemptive Action
"Since the [Defense] Department's acceptance of the independent estimates last fall, we've been, in just about every respect, acting as if the program were in a Nunn-McCurdy breach. ... We've been taking all of the mitigating and corrective action that we would take as if there were a Nunn-McCurdy breach."
—Air Force Secretary Michael Donley, discussing with reporters the restructure of the F-35 strike fighter program announced in February 2010 and the probability that the program will soon exceed Nunn-McCurdy cost-monitoring thresholds that would necessitate, per US law, a program review and corrective steps, Washington, D.C., March 2, 2010.

Verbatim

Message for Grandma
"She has working for her as a citizen in the United States an Air Force Reserve that has some very talented, capable, patriotic, and willing individuals doing the business to keep this nation free. Just like her generation—the 'Greatest Generation'—was, I am very proud of the folks that we have got. If not the second greatest, then they are an extension of the greatest generation and they are ready, willing, and able to do the things that she would want them to do to make sure we keep our freedoms."
—Lt. Gen. Charles Stenner, Air Force Reserve chief, responding to a reporter's question on what the reporter should tell his 85-year-old grandmother to convey to her the importance of Air Force Reservists to the nation's security, Orlando, Fla., Feb. 19, 2010.