At least one Air National Guard unit’s aircraft boost, courtesy of BRAC 2005, is creating problems because the additional aircraft didn’t come with the money to support them. KOTV news reports that the additional nine F-16s gained by the Oklahoma Air National Guard’s 138th Fighter Wing in Tulsa have exceeded the unit’s capability. The unit can only house and maintain 15 not the 26 Vipers it now has. The unit needs money to resurface its crumbling ramp and add parking space for the new aircraft and to recruit and fund additional aircraft maintainers.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
