Besides being a contender for USAF’s new battlefield airman training facility (see above), Barksdale AFB, La., is in line for the service’s new Cyber Command. It now serves as host to the provisional headquarters and, this week, is hosting a cyber warfare symposium for some 1,650 people from academia, industry, and government. An editorial in The Times calls the event a “key building block in this crucial military and promising economic mission.” Both local and state governments in Louisiana have made significant monetary investments in setting the stage to win Cyber Command. Other states making pitches to become the permanent home to the new command include California, Colorado, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia.
The U.S., South Korea, and Japan flew an unusual trilateral flight with two U.S. B-52H Stratofortress bombers escorted by two Japan Air Self-Defense Force F-2s, and two ROK Air Force KF-16 fighters—both countries’ respective variants of the F-16—July 11. That same weekend, the top military officers of the three nations…