With its expansion to Cannon AFB, N.M., Air Force Special Operations Command may want to move its two forward-based units—the 352nd Special Operations Group at RAF Mildenhall, Britain, and 353rd SOG at Kadena AB, Japan—to Cannon. AFSOC takes over ownership of Cannon on Oct. 1, a move that will give it much needed room to grow and a significant new training space. Stars and Stripes reports that Defense Secretary Robert Gates directed AFSOC through US Special Operations Command “to flesh out” a plan that would include moving the Mildenhall and Kadena units to Cannon. Such an unanticipated addition would probably suit the Cannon locals, who had feared that Cannon might have to close.
Raytheon, a division of defense giant RTX, recently announced a multiyear deal with the Pentagon to increase annual production of the Air Force’s primary dogfighting missile by more than 50 percent from two years ago.
