Guard Association Decries ‘End Run’ To Push Cuts Through Conference – BREAKING

[Updated and corrected 11:45 pm] WASHINGTON: The powerful National Guard Association of the US today denounced an unnamed “handful of House Armed Services Committee members” who, it says, are trying to use the ongoing House-Senate conference on the National Defense Authorization Act to reinstate cuts to the Air National Guard. The Air Force proposed reducing…

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Incoming Air Force Chief Bows To Hill On Guard Cuts, Global Hawk; Warns On F-35 Costs

CAPITOL HILL: Gen. Mark Welsh, the next Air Force Chief of Staff, admitted that the service’s fiscal 2013 budget was “simply not executable” in the face of Congressional opposition over cuts to the Air National Guard. Welsh vowed to work with Congress, the Guard, and governors “so we never end up here again.” Welsh also…

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First Air Guard Pilot To Fly F-35 Gives A Positive Review: Slideshow

First Air Guard Pilot To Fly F-35 Gives A Positive Review: Slideshow
First Air Guard Pilot To Fly F-35 Gives A Positive Review: Slideshow

While the active-duty Air Force and the National Guard are at odds over budget cuts in Washington, the relationship seems smoother at Florida’s Eglin Air Force Base, where an Air National Guard officer assigned the an active-duty 33rd Fighter Wing became the first Guard pilot to fly the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter, the controversial product…

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Trust Us On Air Guard Cuts, Air Force Tells Congress

CAPITOL HILL: “Trust us.” That’s the last thing an irate Congress is ready to hear from the Air Force right now, but it’s the essence of what a three-star general told legislators today in a hearing on the administration’s hugely unpopular proposal to cut the Air National Guard. A Senate-proposed commission on the size and…

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