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re are fighters to patrol North American skies, but they are not F-15 Eagles, the mainstay of the homeland air defense effort, because those aircraft remain grounded. Scott Lindlaw of Associated Press reports that NORAD officials have plugged the gaps, but resources are spread thin. For instance, in California, the F-16s of the Air National Guard’s 144th Fighter Wing are covering the entire West Coast, a first for a single state, according to the California Air Guard. The Oregon ANG F-15s would normally share the duty. The 144th FW has had to bolster its fleet with F-16s on loan from Arizona and Indiana.
B-52 Stratofortress bombers marked a new first in Operation Epic Fury when some of the BUFFs flew over Iran carrying JDAM-guided gravity bombs, according to people familiar with the matter. The development signals a weakening of Iranian air defenses and a new use for the venerable bomber in the nearly…