The Air Force confirmed a news report in which Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, USAF’s top personnel officer, said the planned escalation of US forces in Iraq might entail an increase in the number of airmen who fill in for soldiers and marines on such “outside the wire” jobs as convoy duty and attending to improvised explosive devices. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne late last year said that USAF would continue its “in lieu of” work for the time being, but it’s not an open-ended commitment. Air Combat Command leader, Gen. Ronald Keys has said that ILO work is costing his command money it doesn’t have to spare.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
