US Air Forces in Europe plans to deactivate a wing it created in May 2004 to oversee disparate units around the command. Scott Schonauer of Stars and Stripes reports that USAFE will eliminate the 38th Combat Support Wing at Ramstein AB, Germany, because it found that bases closer to the geographically separated units could in fact provide better support. The personnel cuts go toward USAFE’s share of the 40,000 airmen the Air Force plans to shed by 2009. We haven’t heard from USAFE whether it plans to eliminate the 501st CSW it activated at RAF Mildenhall, UK, in May 2005. As far as we know, these are the only two CSWs in the Air Force.
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…
