The Air National Guard’s 183rd Fighter Wing, Springfield, Ill., loses it F-16 fighters under BRAC 2005, and, like other states that got BRACed, it wants to line up a new mission. Illinois has one advantage over many other states because BRAC made the Springfield facility the site of a new Centralized Engine Repair Facility for F-16 engines. Still, Col. Michael Meyer, the 183rd’s commanding officer, told the State Journal-Register that possible missions include operating Predator UAVs (we’ve heard this before), training foreign pilots, trading their F-16s for F-15s (that would be sour news to reserve units giving up their F-15s under BRAC), or building bombs.
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.