The Missile Defense Agency enlisted lawmakers, Capitol Hill staff, and journalists this week in a war game demonstrating simulated missile attacks on US soil. According to Reuters news service, there was at least the semblance of some reality because the game planners allowed one of the US interceptor missiles to fail to launch, letting its intended target strike the Aleutian Islands. It remains to be seen whether the war-game gambit was successful in making missile defense system believers out of more legislators. We bet it will still be a tough budget sell.
The six-week government shutdown did not affect the hours flown by Air Force pilots, a service spokesperson told Air & Space Forces Magazine—avoiding what could have been a major blow at a time when flying hours are already lower than they have been in decades.
