US Air Force maintainers finished work early—way early—on some mighty unusual aircraft for USAF airmen. A 16-member project team, comprising airmen from Edwards AFB, Calif., Hill AFB, Utah, Robins AFB, Ga., and Tinker AFB, Okla., stripped down and rebuilt four Iraqi Air Force Comp Air 7SLX aircraft at Edwards over 41 days. The job was supposed to take 130 days. Once they had that done, they removed the wings and packed all four aircraft, which Iraq got from the United Arab Emirates, and their parts and tools on a C-17 to fly to Kirkuk AB, Iraq, where they set to work on four more of the aircraft, which the Iraqis plan to use to check oil pipelines. (Read more here.)
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
