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Never-ending Vigil 

 

May 19, 2008—The Continental US NORAD Region flew 200 fighter sorties last month for Operation Noble Eagle coverage of the continental US, doubling the number of fighter sorties from March. Civil Air Patrol also flew 48 sorties as part of the April ONE tally. New to the airborne-threat alert role, the District of Columbia Air National Guard's 113th Wing on May 6 conducted its 2,000th scramble since 9/11, according to a May 19 wing release. "Thankfully, as has been the case in  most of the preceding 1,999 event, this one, as well as numbers 2,001 and 2,002 that followed later that same day, were resolved before the jets became airborne," said Lt. Col. David Miles, commander of the wing's 121st Fighter Squadron Air Sovereignty Alert Detachment. In March, however, wing F-16C aircraft intercepted and escorted three unidentified aircraft from the restricted zone around Washington, D.C. (113th Wing report by TSgt. Adrianne Wilson)

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. 

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