President Kurmanbek Bakiyev of Kyrgyzstan on Monday reinforced his commitment to allowing the US military to stay on his territory and use the Manas Air Base to support operations in Afghanistan, according to the Associated Press. Bakiyev said the US is welcome to stay as long as it takes to bring stability to Afghanistan, but said that the rent for the base will increase.
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.
