USAF SECRETARY - The Air Force Global Strike Command held a 3-day symposium in Shreveport this week. Among the special guests was Secretary of the Air Force Dr. Heather Wilson. She had press conference Wednesday and addressed plans for the new Air Force bomber and how it may affect Barksdale Air Force Base in Bossier City. "B-21 bomber is moving forward, they're in the phase of engineering design and development" explained Wilson. "We need a minimum of 175 bombers or so in the fleet, a hundred of them are the B-21." Wilson added that the anticipated number is not a huge bomber force considering the history of the US but that the new bomber capabilities would likely surpass existing B-52's. "But with 175, we're not going to need a lot of new bases, with bombers we need access to bases with long, wide runways.
Doesn't make a lot of sense to change the infrastructure all around with a force that's a little bit larger than the force we have now." Wilson alluded to the future of existing bomber bases "Chances are if you have a bomber base now, you'll have a bomber base in the future." When asked what the Air Force was doing to avoid failure of reporting military felony convictions as happened in the case of the discharged airman who murdered people at a church in Sutherland Springs, Texas recently; she replied "We launched a full scale review of what happened in this case and in every other case like it. That event should've been reported to the national databases." She added, "That review is moving forward quickly. I expect to have a draft on that case either later this week or early next week. We also have a task force that stood up to review the databases back as far as we can as far as our databases exist to review other cases. That task force is about 30 people working round the clock to make sure that all cases in Air Force jurisdiction are properly reported." Wilson concluded by saying that the Air Force investigation is coordinating the results of their investigation with other branches of the military and that the Department of Defense Inspector General is also looking across the department in concert with the investigation.
