South Dakota Republican 
Sen. John Thune claims the Air Force misled the BRAC commission about a federal lawsuit affecting the B-1Bs that fly out of Dyess AFB, Tex. Residents near Dyess filed suit in 2000 over noise along training routes. (Read our story here.) Thune wants to save Ellsworth AFB, S.D., which, under the Pentagon’s BRAC proposals, would shift its B-1B bombers to Dyess and be shut down. He says the lawsuit is more threatening than the Air Force makes it out to be.
As the threat of Iranian-made drones grew, the Air Force rushed last year to equip F-15E Strike Eagles in the Middle East with a cheap, cost-effective way of defeating them. The service fielded the new capability in roughly a week.
