In addition to the Air National Guard and Air Force Reserve Command Modular Airborne Firefighting System-equipped aircraft sent to help battle California wildfires, the Air Force is providing airlift, aircraft command and control, and medical evacuation assistance. The 97th Air Mobility Wing at Altus AFB, Okla., dispatched a C-17 to San Antonio to pick up Army North personnel and Army equipment for transport to California. Air Forces North at Tyndall AFB, Fla., sent an eight-person air component coordination element to Air Force operations. News 14 in North Carolina reports that the Air Force has sent airmen from the 43rd Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron at Pope AFB, N.C., to set up a hospital and help medevac patients elsewhere, if necessary.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.