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Raising Hope with the Rising Sun
Raising Hope with the Rising Sun: According to various news reports, Sen. Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), who heads the Senate Appropriations Committee, may be working to prolong the F-22 production line, including enabling a potential export version. According to a New York Times report, F-22 supporters "took heart" when Inouye removed production line shutdown dollars from the 2009 defense supplemental last month. Reuters news service has reported that Inouye's committee might add language to the Fiscal 2010 defense spending bill that would require the Pentagon to study the viability of creating an export version. No doubt there is heightened interest with North Korea’s recent antics have stoked the fires. According to the Reuter's report, Japan remains interested in the advanced stealth fighter and is willing to shoulder the cost burden of modifying the F-22 for export. Lawmakers would have to agree to overturn the ban on exports under the Obey amendment. Defense Secretary Robert Gates recently allegedly told the Japanese that the F-22 was not for sale and that they should set their sights on the F-35 instead. However, Michele Flournoy, who heads the Pentagon’s policy shop, said the topic of F-22 exports to close allies would be discussed during the Quadrennial Defense Review.
6/3/2009
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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. |
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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.
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