According to the Associated Press news service, the Bush Administration was about 2,000 troops shy of its goal to have 2,500 National Guardsmen on border duty by the end of June. National Guard Bureau officials told AP that there were at least 2,000 others within the Border States who were either in training or helping to plan the mission. AP reports that, so far, only 10 states had signed agreements with the Pentagon for their Guardsmen to deploy, some have been holding back because of floods and fires within their own states, while others wanted concrete assurances that the Pentagon would pay.
The rate of building B-21 bombers would speed up if the fiscal 2026 defense budget passes. But it remains unclear how much capacity would be added, and whether the Air Force would simply build the bombers faster, or buy more.
