Rumsfeld bristled when one reporter asked for a comment on critics who maintain the war on terrorism limited the ability of the National Guard to repond to this natural disaster at home. His answer: “That’s just flat wrong.” Earlier in the Tuesday briefing, Rumsfeld noted that there are more than 300,000 Guardsmen who are not deployed overseas right now. “They are available for relief and security efforts in the United States, should they be necessary,” he said.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.