Air Force Gen. Lance Smith, head of US Joint Forces Command, and Marine Corps Gen. James Jones, chief of US European Command, told the Commission on the National Guard and Reserves last week that they do not support raising the status of the chief of the National Guard Bureau to a seat on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Congress Daily’s Megan Scully reports that Smith told the commissioners, who have been asked by Congress to study, among other things, the question of raising the rank of the NGB chief to four stars with a place on the JCS, that he believes such a move would create “another stovepipe.”
The nation needs a better-coordinated policy for dealing with unmanned aerial systems that threaten domestic bases, Air Force vice chief of staff Gen. James C. Slife told a panel of the Senate Armed Services Committee. He and Pentagon acquisition and sustainment chief William LaPlante co-chair a panel looking at counter-UAS…