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 Pentagon has concluded a new agreement to buy laser-guidance kits that turn rockets into drone-killing weapons. BAE Systems and the Defense Department announced a framework deal of up to seven years for 25,000 Advanced Precision Kill Weapon System guidance kits annually for the U.S. military.