Kadena Completes Successful Deployment Test

Kadena Completes Successful Deployment Test: Most of the more than 100 airmen from the 18th Wing at Kadena Air Base, Japan, who had gone to Andersen AFB, Guam, on Aug. 31 in a test of the wing’s deployment capabilities returned home Sept. 8. During those eight days, tankers from Kadena's 909th Air Refueling Squadron and F-15s from its 67th Fighter Squadron trained alongside F-22s and B-52s deployed from stateside units to Andersen. “We don't do this often, but it's a good workout and it's a testament to the operations group and the 18th Wing's ability to organically operate and be successful in this environment,” said Capt. Tom Hunt, 67th FS project officer. The wing’s contingent overall was more efficient this time around compared to a similar test in 2006, flying the same number of sorties per aircraft despite with a smaller footprint. (Andersen report by TSgt. Mike Tateishi)

9/11/2009

Verbatim

No Dog, Just Concern
"You know it concerns me that we keep hearing, 'Well this is something that the military doesn't want. They didn't ask for,' and all that. Then I go over there [Southwest Asia theater], and that's not their attitude at all. They have needs over there. Our lift capacity is in dire straights. … Now on the F-22—just yesterday we read about the T-50 … a fifth generation [fighter] that the Russians have. … I'm concerned about this. And I guess, you know, if we're down to 187 F-22s, and I think out of that only—what 120 are actually combat ready and used for combat. … I look at our committee—the Senate Armed Services Committee—and on these two vehicles I mentioned—the F-22 and the C-17—in Oklahoma. I don't have a dog in that fight. We don't have any parochial interest there. But it's the capability that we're going to need."
—Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.), speaking during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on the Fiscal 2011 defense budget, Feb. 2, 2010.

Verbatim

Taming Expectations
"Every QDR disappoints those who look for radical reallocation of resources. The current fiscal environment is compounding that trend."
—Jim Thomas, vice president for studies at the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, briefing reporters in Washington, D.C., Jan. 26, 2010.