The Combined Air Operations Center in Southwest Asia reports that an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle crashed Feb. 23 at about 1 p.m. some 60 miles northeast of Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Officials believe the crash was due to mechanical failure rather than enemy fire.
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…