At Ft. Dix, N.J., students with Air Mobility Command’s Mobility Warfare Center participated in the Phoenix Raven course recently, helping to improve their security forces skills. Taught by the 421st Combat Training Squadron, the course started in the 1990s to improve the protection of military aircraft in an expeditionary environment. Completion of the course earns an airman the coveted Raven patch, which shows the airman is prepared to travel anywhere in the world to protect DOD assets for as long as necessary, according to TSgt. Kelly Tabor. Students get nearly 130 hours of instructional training during nearly three weeks, with more than 50 hours of classroom instruction, including focus on topics from anti-terror training to mastering the collapsible baton.
The Pentagon's research labs are ramping up their search for munitions that can be mass-produced—an effort likely to be buoyed by billions of dollars in the department's new fiscal 2027 budget request and tens of billions in the upcoming years. While the topline information shared about the President’s defense budget…