The Army will beef up its Redstone Arsenal with lots of workers from the Washington-based Missile Defense Agency, if the Pentagon’s BRAC recommendations survive. That’s the word from USAF Lt. Gen. Trey Obering, MDA Director, as reported in the Huntsville Times. The MDA jobs total around 2,000, but the actual increase could be up to 5,000, if MDA contractors shift their jobs from Virginia to Alabama. Redstone could also pick up the headquarters for Army Materiel Command and Army Space and Missile Defense Command, both currently in northern Virginia.
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.