The Oklahoma City Air Logistics Center at Tinker AFB, Okla., has established an around-the-clock, one-stop service center to help get replacement parts to customers in the field. A visit of Lt. Gen. Terry Gabreski, Air Force Materiel Command vice commander, to see operations in Southwest Asia last fall prompted establishment of the new service center. She heard from deployed personnel that the difference in time zones meant that calls to the center for help often were being re-routed numerous times before being resolved. Officials say that since March, the center has seen a 70 percent decrease in unconfirmed shipments.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.