The Senate confirmed Lt. Gen. Paul Selva to receive a fourth star for his new assignment as Air Mobility Command boss at Scott AFB, Ill. An Air Force official on July 31 verified Selva’s new assignment to the Daily Report. Senators approved Selva’s promotion in rank on July 26, according to the legislative body’s list of confirmed nominations. Selva, Pacific Air Forces’ vice commander since October 2011, will replace Gen. Raymond Johns, who has led AMC since November 2009. President Obama nominated Selva in June for the promotion for the new post. Selva is no stranger to Scott or transport issues. From December 2004 to August 2006, he was operations director for US Transportation Command at Scott. For the 18 months prior to that, he ran AMC’s Tanker Airlift Control Center. The year before that, he was TACC’s vice commander.
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…