Retired Gen. John P. Jumper believes the Air Force could shrink further. The former Chief of Staff was quoted in an Enid (Okla.) News & Eagle story as saying he expects USAF will have to become leaner and more flexible. He had a warning: Twenty years from now, the Air Force will still be operating 80 percent of the aircraft now in its inventory, so airmen “have to integrate what we have, keep putting things together in new ways.”
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.