The Montana Air National Guard’s 120th Fighter Wing kicked off its conversion from F-16 to F-15 fighters with a staged “demolition” of an aircraft hangar last week, reports Peter Johnson of the Great Falls Tribune. The wing is to receive $20 million in the next two years for five more construction projects. The Air Force targeted the unit to lose its F-16s, but the BRAC 2005 commission overruled that in favor of swapping F-16s for F-15s. USAF plans to put upgraded “Golden” Eagles with the 120th FW. MANG officials say they have received $1.2 million for the first two of seven projects, since the commission authorized the conversion. The MANG pilots will have strictly an air-to-air role once they get the F-15s from a Missouri Air Guard unit.
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.