Air Force to request funds for light attack aircraft demo: The Air Force plans to ask for additional funds for a light aircraft flight demonstration in its supplemental budget request, the service’s top general confirmed Thursday.
The Air Force and other military services are days away from their deadline to craft a supplemental request for fiscal year 2017, which Defense Secretary Jim Mattis has said would be delivered to the Office of Management and Budget by March 1. Although most of the items on the supplemental are still shrouded in secrecy, Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein acknowledged that an experiment of light attack aircraft is one of the items on its list.
"It's not a lot of money to do an experiment,” he said during an event at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Recent legislation gave the service chiefs the ability to authorize experiments, “so I exercised it."
Goldfein did not specify how much the service needs to conduct the flight demonstration, but the service’s most recent unfunded requirements list earmarked $8 million for the activities.
