The 86th Airlift Wing at Ramstein AB, Germany, slowly is shedding its old C-130E airlifters, sending off a 44-year-old recently, but the wing must maintain most of its elderly Hercules through the 2009-11 timeframe. The wing doesn’t begin to get the new J model until 2009 and expects to receive its full complement over the following two years. A1C Kenny Holston reports that the Ramstein folks got a preview as the Rhode Island Air National Guard’s 143rd Airlift Wing flew one of its C-130Js to the German base. The Air Guard wing was to get its eighth and final J model this year.
Pentagon officials overseeing homeland counter-drone strategy told lawmakers that even with preliminary moves to bolster U.S. base defenses, the military still lacks the capability to comprehensively identify, track, and engage hostile drones like those that breached the airspace of Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for 17 days in December…