Workers began breaking ground near an old cruise missile facility at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., to make way for a new Falconer Combined Air Operations Center, scheduled to come online in July 2006. The new operations center will be the only continuously operational facility in the US, say Air Force officials. There are four Falconer CAOC weapon systems overseas. The $11.35 million facility will serve as the command and control location for Air Force South—the air and space element of US Southern Command.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
