You should compare that with Flight's report from the event where a senior ACC commander said exactly what AW&ST reported in the first place.
The fact that there isn't one should be your first clue. It's news, I'm sure, to someone living in Mom's basement in Perth, but Pentagon politics can be hard to fathom sometimes. Remember a few years ago, when the Navy issued an RFI for 36 new Super Hornets and then said it was a clerical oops?