According to a new Congressional Budget Office report, the optimum way to help the Pentagon reduce deployment times for US forces in the early stages of a conflict is to develop and purchase heavy-lift airships. CBO notes that airships “would carry more than 10 times the average payload of a C-17.” However, it goes on to say, they would only travel at one-fourth the speed and “high winds could still present problems,” not to mention “uncertainty about technical feasibility, operational performance, and cost.”
Lt. Gen. Stephen L. Davis, the Department of the Air Force’s top internal watchdog, has been nominated to lead Air Force Global Strike Command, which oversees the service’s bombers and intercontinental ballistic missiles.