Starting today, the Air Force is realigning its headquarters staff into what it terms the “A-staff” construct to more easily communicate with sister services and the joint staff. Brig. Gen. Marshall Sabol, USAF’s director of manpower and organization, told reporters at the Pentagon on Jan. 31, that USAF functions will mirror the numerical organization of the Joint staff, that is J1 for manpower and personnel, J2 for intelligence, J3 for operations. Only the Air Force will replace the “J” with an “A.” Air Force major commands and warfighting headquarters will implement the new structure by May 1.
Pentagon officials overseeing homeland counter-drone strategy told lawmakers that even with preliminary moves to bolster U.S. base defenses, the military still lacks the capability to comprehensively identify, track, and engage hostile drones like those that breached the airspace of Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for 17 days in December…