More Sorties, More Munitions

January 8, 2008— Airpower sorties climbed in 2007 for operations in both Iraq and Afghanistan. Close Air Support sorties reached nearly 20,000 in Iraq and almost 14,000 in Afghanistan, compared to about 16,000 and 10,500, respectively, the previous year. The increased air support in Iraq followed the ground-force surge. In Afghanistan, the data also show a marked rise in the number of munitions dropped over the past two years, evidence of the resurgence of Taliban activity. The number of airlift sorties, covering both operations, declined somewhat in 2007, compared to 2006, but the overall amount of supplies airdropped to troops went up considerably.

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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.