May 23 2012

- At a hearing today of the Senate Appropriations Defense Subcommittee, on the fiscal year 2013 budget for the National Guard and Reserve, U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) asked Lt. General Harry Wyatt, director of the Air National Guard, about the impact of the House Defense Authorization Bill's one-year delay on the Air Force restructuring plan, which includes a new unmanned aerial guard mission in Nashville and replacing the C-5As in Memphis with C-17s.

Alexander said: "I want to ask about the announcement in February about replacing the C-5As with C-17s [in Memphis], which was part of a comprehensive reorganization of Air Force resources. The House Defense Authorization bill includes a provision that would put that restructuring plan on hold for a year. I want to understand from you, General Wyatt, what the consequences of that would be."

Alexander also asked General Wyatt: "In Nashville, the Guard's preparing for a new unmanned aerial vehicle mission, which I understand the Air Force needs for the facility to assume. How will the one-year delay affect our military capabilities and the timeline for moving UAVs into Nashville?"

Alexander added: "I hope as we move through the process that we would be respectful of your stewardship of scarce dollars, and that we would see what that delay would do is really waste money, or take money that could be used in other places to maintain planes that we know we're going to get rid of."