Illinois and Missouri took new legal moves last Thursday to stop the BRAC actions that would divest each state of its Air National Guard fighter aircraft. Missouri filed a preliminary injunction to protect the 131st Fighter Wing’s F-15s at Lambert Field in St. Louis. Illinois officials requested a restraining order to prohibit the BRAC commission from delivering its final recommendations to President Bush. (They are due Sept. 8.) The commission voted to remove the 183rd Fighter Wing’s F-16s, stationed in Springfield, Ill. A hearing in the Missouri case was slated for Tuesday.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
