At an unnamed forward location, airmen from several different specialties come together to ensure the arrival of new airmen goes smoothly, handling everything from prepositioned C bags and chemical warfare gear to beds and airlift passenger processing. During an Air and Space Expeditionary Force rotation, services airmen bedded down more than 1,400 over a five-day period when they normally would accommodate about 300, reports SrA. Clark Staehle. Over the same five days, air mobility airmen processed more than 5,000 passengers, compared to a typical 2,200.
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…

