Gen. Robert Magnus, assistant commandant of the Marine Corps, told Washington-based defense reporters Thursday that all the military services are “shaping or reshaping” the roles of the National Guard and Reserves as they are increasingly called upon to serve overseas in Iraq and Afghanistan. The Marine Corps is trying hard to make the Marine Reserve a “mirror image” of the active force to better meet the needs of the post 9/11 environment, said Magnus, noting that the Corps for the first time had to mobilize a Reserve F/A-18 squadron. Marine Reservists, who comprise one third of the Marine force in Southwest Asia, now also receive better training and equipment inside and outside the combat zone.
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.
