Sequester Dampened Spirits in Fiscal 2013

The Air Force had hoped to send its B-2 stealth bombers on temporary training deployments worldwide in Fiscal 2013, but budget sequestration put the kibosh on those plans. Air Force Global Strike Command did deploy several B-2s once in Fiscal 2013 to US Pacific Command’s area of responsibility for three weeks, Col. Michael Tichenor, 8th Air Force’s director for plans, policies, and operations, told the Daily Report. That deployment began in late January. Otherwise, “we were unable to do any other deployments due to sequestration,” he said in his late September written response to a query. Last November, 8th AF Commander Maj. Gen. Stephen Wilson told the Daily Report that the goal was to dispatch B-2s “to forward operating locations all over the world in small numbers for a few weeks at a time, a couple of times a year.”