The Missile Defense Agency has declared full operational capability for its Combined Test Force, now located at Huntsville, Ala. The agency has been moving personnel from scattered test elements to Huntsville because it “recognized a need for an integrated approach to testing and analysis of the entire [ballistic missile defense system] not just separate elements,” states an MDA news release. The CTF consolidation and move predates the relocation of the rest of MDA, principally from the Washington, D.C. area, to Huntsville, per BRAC 2005.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
