Newly minted Air Mobility Command chief Gen. Arthur Lichte said Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in Washington that he hopes “within 60 days” to have final data from the Army and Marine Corps about how those two services plan to add a combined 92,000 troops over the next few years. The information will help AMC be precise in determining how many additional airlifters it will need to move the expanded ground force. Lichte said he’s also waiting on data about the Army’s Future Combat System vehicles, which need airlift for rapid deployability. That info, too, will drive strategic mobility requirements.
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.