Th
e Air Force’s KC-135 tankers are busy covering operations in Southwest Asia, where officials say they fly three times as often as in the states. And, keeping them flying 24/7 are some 140 airmen deployed from five stateside bases to form the 340th Aircraft Maintenance Unit. Unlike stateside where a unit might prepare 60 percent of its tankers for flight on any given day, allowing a slower pace for maintenance on the remainder, the 340th must turn nearly every tanker every day. In July, says Capt. James Wall, the unit’s officer in charge, the 340th maintainers achieved a 94.6 percent utilization rate.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.