No Range, No Air Bases: If Asian news media accounts are true, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told South Korean defense officials during a meeting last fall that unless Seoul could provide suitable air training ranges, the US would remove its air bases from the peninsula. US Air Force pilots stationed in South Korea have expressed dissatisfaction with the situation, and the commander of US Forces Korea told Congress earlier this year that US air elements do not have adequate ranges to ensure day-to-day competence in air-to-ground operations.
The Department of the Air Force has identified 50 programs that will make up the core of its contribution to the Pentagon’s joint all-domain command and control effort, branding them part of the “DAF Battle Network,” according to newly-released budget documents. The DAF Battle Network programs span multiple offices and agencies…