That’s the question asked rhetorically by National Guard Bureau chief Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley last week at a National Defense University seminar. McKinley said, “We’ve been at war now longer than at any time in our history” with an all-volunteer force complemented by reserve components that serve as “a shock absorber or rheostat that allows the active component force to stay steadily engaged.” His question, he said, will be answered by the ongoing 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review. McKinley said that whatever is next, it should not be a return to the strategic Guard he “grew up with.” He maintained that if that happened “a lot of young people that we’ve recruited over the last 15 years would probably vote with their feet.” (NGB report by Army SSgt. Jim Greenhill)
The Air Force and Boeing agreed to a nearly $2.4 billion contract for a new lot of KC-46 aerial tankers on Nov. 21. The deal, announced by the Pentagon, is for 15 new aircraft in Lot 11 at a cost of $2.389 billion—some $159 million per tail.