Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm hopes to snag the new Joint Cargo Aircraft mission for the state’s Air National Guard unit at Battle Creek, the 110th Fighter Wing. She is joining a growing list of state governors who are trying to secure a new flying mission for Air Guard units that will lose their aircraft under BRAC 2005. (See this item from last week and below.) The 110th FW is slated to lose its A-10 attack jets to another Michigan ANG unit in Selfridge. Granholm touted the potential of Battle Creek during a visit to the facility by National Guard Bureau chief Lt. Gen. Steven Blum.
The United Kingdom’s Royal Air Force has unveiled a new electronic warfare drone designed to fly with fighter jets into contested airspace, including alongside its fleet of F-35s. RAF says it plans to develop models that draw on the U.S. Air Force’s approach of mating unmanned systems with crewed platforms.