The Air Force’s emergency experts deployed to Tyndall AFB, Fla., to help coordinate Air Force response to Hurricane Wilma. Known as Emergency Preparedness Liaison Officers, the cadre of experts provides command and control capabilities for any Air Force relief efforts in the days ahead. The EPLOs provide Air Force support—airmen, equipment, and supplies—to FEMA and state and local officials. During Hurricanes Katrina and Rita, the service deployed 67 EPLOs to 18 local state and federal agencies.
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.
