Air Force C-17 airlifters fly nonstop from Pope Air Force Base, N.C., to Kazakhstan to airdrop 500 U.S. troops from the Army’s 82nd Airborne Division as well as 40 Asian troops during an exercise named Centrazbat ’97. Two aircraft airdrop cargo and vehicles. The C-17s are refueled three times en route during the 19-hour flight.
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…