The US Senate approved the 2006 defense appropriations bill, including an amendment designed to keep Cannon AFB, N.M., intact until the base gets a new mission. The Clovis News-Journal reports that Sen. Pete Domenici (R-N.M.) and Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) inserted a clause in the bill that prevents the Pentagon from withdrawing any assets from the eastern New Mexico base until the Secretary of Defense affirms to Congress that a new mission has been established. The base lost its F-16s under BRAC, but can stay open if it gets a new mission by 2009. According to New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, there’s a high-level team in the hunt right now. (DR, 10/05/05).
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.