Senator Kelly Ayotte (R-NH) has lifted her hold on the nomination of Ms. Deborah Lee James to the position of Secretary of the Air Force:

An Ayotte aide told Defense News on Thursday that Ayotte will no longer stand in the way of Debroah Lee James’ nomination after carefully reviewing data provided in response to question she submitted to the Air Force.

Part of that data included responses from the Air Force that it could save “billions” of dollars by cutting an entire fleet, rather than “millions” by reducing it or making cuts elsewhere.

General Mark Welsh, Air Force Chief of Staff, provided some personal insight: 

“A-10 was my first fighter … I love the airplane,” Chief of Staff Gen. Mark Welsh said in response to questions from Ayotte at a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing last month. “It is the best airplane in the world at what it does. It is not the best at a lot of other things. It’s capable in many areas. If we’re going to look at what we must divest, not what we want to divest, but what we must divest, we have to be very honest with ourselves inside the Air Force about how much we can afford.”

(Purists will note that the A-10 isn’t technically a “fighter,” it is an attack aircraft.)

Previous articles had noted Senator Ayotte’s husband had likewise flown the A-10.

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