USAF mobility airmen from stateside and European air bases—and even the US Air Forces in Europe outpost at Lajes Field, Azores—rotate in and out of NAS Rota, Spain throughout the year to manage the flow of mobility aircraft transiting Rota to support war on terrorism operations. Air Force journalist A1C Jimmy McGuffin reports that 50 airmen on average are on temporary duty at Rota at any one time. For the airmen from Lajes, the duty provides an opportunity to work on the service’s strategic airlifters, the C-5 and C-17, aircraft they don’t routinely see in the Azores.
A top Pentagon tech official called on industry this week to help the military develop “lighter, more efficient” directed energy weapons designed to go on aircraft and conduct special operations missions or down drones—areas where the Air Force’s directed energy efforts have been quiet as of late.