Okinawa residents expected to have enough people to ring Kadena Air Base on the Japanese island of Okinawa during a weekend protest, but their numbers fell short of their 20,000-person goal by nearly 5,000, reports Stars and Stripes. Many island residents have complained for years about the growing military presence and the noise generated by USAF aircraft. The latter complaint prompted the US Air Force to send Kadena F-15s to Japan for a recent exercise.
The Air Force is planning to award Northrop Grumman a contract that could allow the RQ-4 Global Hawk to keep flying into 2033. The Air Force Life Cycle Management Center posted a presolicitation notice Aug. 17 saying it plans to award Northrop a sole-source contract for development, modernization, retrofit, and…