The Air Force, Army, and Marine Corps recently concluded Joint Forcible Entry Exercise 06-03, dropping an estimated 2,700 82nd Airborne paratroopers and loads of equipment into a simulated war zone at the Ft. Bragg Military Reservation in North Carolina. Formerly known as Large Package Week, the exercise has evolved into a more advanced training concept that includes ground tactical plans and airfield seizure, involving a wide range of DOD assets. The Air Force provided the airlifters—C-17s and C-130s—and A-10 attack aircraft and the Marine Corps brought in F-18s. USAF’s 43rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at nearby Pope AFB, N.C., led an air-land mission, setting up a triage and simulating patient aeromedevac.
Air Force Secretary Frank Kendall doesn’t see great value in trying to break the Sentinel ICBM program off as a separate budget item the way the Navy has with its ballistic-missile submarine program, saying such a move wouldn’t create any new money for the Air Force to spend on other…