Congress has reached agreement on the Fiscal 2006 defense appropriations bill. There was no word yet on just what the final total would be, reports Congressional Quarterly. The Senate and House each cut the Administration’s defense request in their separate measures, $7 billion and $3 billion respectively. Rumsfeld has said he will urge President Bush to veto the spending bill if it comes in under the request. Of course, we are still waiting to see whether there will be a companion authorization bill. Apparently, the Senate has been too busy on other matters.
The military’s secretive new air-to-air missile has been publicly photographed for the first time during testing. The AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile, or JATM, was photographed being carried by an F/A-18F Super Hornet on May 13, shortly after taking off from Eglin Air Force Base in Florida.