Five Air Force Pave Hawk helicopters are parked or landing in the high desert east of Tucson, Ariz. They are transporting victims of a mock earthquake as part of a training exercise called Operation Angel Thunder.
Todd Harrison, who analyzes the Defense Department for the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments, a nonpartisan Washington think tank, says programs such as Angel Thunder are probably safe."You could cut them, you could even eliminate them, but it doesn't free up enough money to be worth your time as a budget cutter," he says.
When you need to cut money, he says, you go where the money is."The largest program right now in DOD is the Joint Strike Fighter," he says. "So just by the fact of its size, it's going to come under increased scrutiny."