Cannon Could Host AC-27 Gunship

Cannon Could Host AC-27 Gunship: Cannon AFB, N.M., Air Force Special Operation Command’s second home since last October, could host the new mini AC-27 gunship that the Air Force wants to develop, Gen. Michael Moseley, Chief of Staff, said during a Congressional hearing March 12. The Air Force is exploring a “Gunship Light” concept with US Special Operations Command that would be based on a modified version of the C-27 transport aircraft, which is smaller in size than Air Force Special Operations Command’s current AC-130 gunships. The AC-27s would carry a 30 mm gun, Moseley said. Cannon gives AFSOC’s 27th Special Operations Wing access to the vast range space of nearby Melrose range as well as White Sands Missile Range and Fort Bliss, Tex.., so that it can conduct realistic gunnery and bombing training with AC-130s, Moseley told the Senate Appropriations defense committee in response to a question posed by Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.). This could also apply to AC-27s. “We now have some opportunities to do some very, very creative training,” including in concert with the Army, he told Domenici. Already the 27th SOW has certified areas of the Melrose Range to receive cannon fire from AC-130 gunships, he said. (For more on AFSOC at Cannon, see Marc V. Schanz’s piece Special Operators Head West.)

3/14/2008

Verbatim

To Be Clear
“Just like in my business, the issues that go badly get all of the attention. I think, to be clear with you, there are many things that are managed well every day in the Air Force.”
—John Young, Pentagon acquisition executive, speaking to defense reporters on the state of Air Force acquisition, Washington, D.C., Nov. 20, 2008.

Verbatim

F-22 Options
“They have two choices. On January 21st, they can obligate the $90 million and decide there's some chance ... that they will buy the airplanes and they'd rather preserve the option to buy [them] at no additional cost to the taxpayer. Or, they could chose not to obligate the $90 million and accept that they still have a decision to be made between then and March 1st. But that decision may cost the taxpayer more money.”
—DOD acquisition czar John Young on how releasing only $50 million of the $140 million authorized by Congress to keep the F-22 production line active until March 2009 still preserves options for the new Administration, Capitol Hill, Nov. 19, 2008.