Paul McHale, the Pentagon point man for Homeland Defense, said Tuesday in Washington that Noble Eagle combat air patrols are still necessary even in the now unlikely event that terrorists could take control of a civilian aircraft and turn it into a weapon as they did on Sept. 11, 2001. The stateside CAPs, predominantly flown by the Air National Guard, will continue, noted McHale, “with varying degrees of intensity.”
Members of the House Armed Services Committee say the AIM-260 Joint Advanced Tactical Missile program has been set back three months due to the ongoing government shutdown. The comment is noteworthy because the JATM's status has been kept tightly under wraps.
