Nine Air Force civil engineer units contributed airmen to form a Prime BEEF team sent to help improve conditions at Contingency Operation Base Speicher, some 100 miles northwest of Baghdad. The COB is home to airmen, soldiers, sailors, and marines. The Prime BEEF team is working on everything from fixing lighting to constructing new buildings. Complicating the job is some inherited equipment that’s old and hard to maintain, not to mention scant supplies and little problems like getting the wrong parts.
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…
