WASHINGTON About halfway through its year-long deliberations, the U.S. Aerospace Commission plans to issue an interim report urging the government to restore what industry thought it already had gained—a financially healthy 10-year aviation system modernization program at the FAA, and export control reforms adopted in 2000.

WASHINGTON U.S. Air Force officials still hope to jump-start replacement of the service’s KC-135 tanker fleet with a 10-year lease agreement with Boeing, but they believe the odds are against their being able to seal a deal. “It is going to be a tough road ahead to make this work.

WASHINGTON After five months of the war on terrorism, munition stocks are running low, aircraft are aging rapidly, and military aviation’s safety record is deteriorating. “Global tasking and the war against terrorism continue to stress our aviation force readiness,” Navy Secretary Gordon R. England told the Senate Armed Services Committee last week.