The Florida Air National Guard’s 601st Air Operations Center have taken the reins for a new $15 million, 37,000-square-foot facility designed to help 1st Air Force and the Continental NORAD Region direct strategic air and homeland defense air forces for NORAD and US Northern Command. The new center, slated to become operational in June, will be called America’s Air Operations Center. The former Southeast Air Defense Sector ended its 37-year run last fall as part of the switchover to the new AOC.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.