The Dutch cabinet plans to sign the Netherlands up as a Joint Strike Fighter production phase partner sometime before that country’s November general elections. The Netherlands currently is involved in the development phase and will have the choice of purchasing the fighter aircraft, a decision the Dutch expect to make in 2009, according to a statement from the Netherlands Information Service. The Dutch cabinet plans to sign a memorandum of understanding with the US that it believes is “a logical step in the Netherlands long-lasting involvement in the JSF,” but it does not yet obligate the Dutch to purchase JSFs. Air Force Maj. Gen. Charles Davis, JSF program manager, said last week at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington that several countries, including Netherlands and Britain, were poised to sign MOUs and two others, Denmark and Norway, probably would follow soon after.
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.
