PARIS PRESENCE: The U.S. Defense Department plans to display eight to 10 aircraft at the Paris Air Show in mid-June, according to Air Force Lt. Gen. Jeffrey Kohler, head of the U.S. Defense Security Cooperation Agency. The aircraft likely will include Apache and Black Hawk helicopters, C-130J and C-17 transports and the F/A-18E/F fighter. In addition, the Boeing Co. says it plans to send over the first KC-767A tanker, which it built for the Italian air force. "It's one of the most robust shows we've had in a long time," Kohler tells The DAILY. The general downplays suggestions that the U.S. presence, which appears to represent an increase over the 2003 show, is tied to U.S.-French relations, which were strained by the 2003 Iraq war but have improved since then. "People, I think, read too much into it," he says. "The ops [operations] tempo has just been tremendous over the last couple years. We're just now getting to the point where the crews are recovered and the airplanes are recovered and we've got the capability to support some of these things."
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