Air Force Security Forces are stretched thin by the need to defend forward based assets in Southwest Asia and that leaves USAF with a hole in its ability to secure permanent bases, says Gen. Ronald Keys, head of Air Combat Command. Service leaders have been looking at a “two-pronged attack” to provide expeditionary security forces and forces to provide “some sort of law and order on those cities that I call air bases,” Keys told defense reporters earlier this month. He oversees 17 such bases and says, “We’re not going back to Dodge City 1861.” However, leaders are not certain of the best answer. Keys notes that contracting a force “takes money.” However, with no solution in sight, he acknowledges, “We’re accepting a lot more risk at stateside installations right now.”
The crash of a T-38 trainer jet this May—which caused a weekslong pause in flights across the fleet—was caused by an improperly installed pin for one of the jet’s horizontal stabilizers, according to a new accident report released Oct. 30. When the pin disengaged midflight, it created the slightest amount…