AMC Airmen Get Lighter Load: Air Mobility Command’s airmen participating in the latest air and space expeditionary force rotation (AEFs 9 and 10) get to travel about 50 pounds lighter as part of phase 2 of the new mobility bag pre-positioning initiative. The program lets the airmen in the current AEFs travel to Southwest Asia with only their gas masks, the other standard gear—general purpose equipment (A-Bag at 14 pounds), cold weather gear (B-Bag at 17 pounds), and chemical warfare gear (C-Bag at 19 pounds)—already is in place in SWA. USAF officials believe the bag drop effort will save about $32 million a year in airlift costs.
Pentagon officials overseeing homeland counter-drone strategy told lawmakers that even with preliminary moves to bolster U.S. base defenses, the military still lacks the capability to comprehensively identify, track, and engage hostile drones like those that breached the airspace of Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for 17 days in December…