An “end-to-end review is underway” to find the right balance in requirements, cost of depot maintenance, and supply chain, Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said Monday. “Effectiveness and efficiency must go hand in hand,” in program longevity, he said. Both requirements and costs have been rising in weapon system sustainment and materiel readiness, and “we must tend” to that reality by figuring out less costly means of sustainment, he said.
The Air Force in October carried out a homeland defense mission, with jets including F-16 Fighting Falcons, in Alaska’s remote Aleutian Islands to show a base there could safeguard the northern regions.