By Pat Host |
11 years ago |
10/08/2013

Senate Armed Services Committee (SASC) member Kelly Ayotte (R-N.H.) is keeping her hold on the nomination of Deborah James to be the next Air Force secretary because she isn’t satisfied with responses she received from the service, according to an Ayotte aide.

Ayotte placed her hold on James’ nomination in late September due to her concerns that the Air Force is planning to divest the A-10 fleet before the service has a suitable replacement for close air support. Ayotte’s aide provided an Air Force briefing slide in September that suggested a fighter force structure with the A-10 fleet divested in fiscal year 2015.

The Air Force’s A-10 Thunderbolt.
Photo: Air Force.

The aide said yesterday in an email Ayotte found some of the responses to be insufficient and that she now awaits answers to several follow-up questions she submitted. 

Though James said during her Sept. 19 Senate confirmation hearing there had been no decision on divesting A-10s or “anything else for that matter,” she also said everything, including complete divestitures of aircraft fleet, are “possibilities” and “on the table.” The A-10 is a twin-engine aircraft that provides close-air support of ground forces and employs a wide variety of conventional munitions, including general purpose bombs. It is also equipped with large caliber machine guns capable of destroying tanks (Defense Daily, Sept. 27).

Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) last week lifted his own hold on James’ nomination, which he said was over the Air Force trying to cancel the Operationally Responsive Space (ORS) program against Congress’ wishes. Heinrich’s office said the Air Force initiated a de facto shutdown of the ORS program as personnel at the office, located at Kirtland AFB, N.M., began receiving notices of termination. The ORS office was created in the 2007 Defense Authorization Act to build an enabling infrastructure to support the rapid deployment of space capabilities at lower costs (Defense Daily, Oct. 2).

James currently serves as SAIC [SAI] sector president with responsibility for the deployment of employees, technology development and thought leadership for programs and business development efforts.