Trying an End Run Around the Guard: Maj. Gen. Michael Haugen, the commander of North Dakota’s National Guard, like other Guardsmen, is having trouble rationalizing Pentagon budget woes with the proposed plan to cut the Army Guard and Air Guard. Haugen tells the Associated Press that the Pentagon is trying “to do BRAC by another name.” He wants the Guard to “guide [DOD] into the smart budget.” North Dakota lawmakers are among those who have sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld protesting Guard reductions.
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.