Army Gen. Carter Ham, US Africa Command boss, praised the “very strong and professional relationship” between the US military and Botswana Defense Force at the ceremony marking the conclusion of three weeks of aeromedical evacuation training at Thebephatswa AB, Botswana, as part of exercise MEDLITE 12. US personnel, including Air National Guardsmen, instructed their Botswanan counterparts and provided assistance to several villages around the base, such as constructing roads, building ponds, and providing dental and medical care to local residents. “Medicine has a diplomatic value that sometimes you just don’t see,” said Lt. Col. Matt Peterson of the Minnesota Air Guard’s 109th Aeromedical Evacuation Squadron in St. Paul. As part of the exercise, which concluded on Aug. 16, North Carolina Air Guardsmen provided hands-on training for some 30 BDF medical personnel in classroom and simulated evacuation settings. (Thebephatswa report by TSgt. Chad Thompson)
A new Navy missile could fill a long-range air-to-air need for the U.S. Air Force’s fourth-, fifth-, and sixth-generation fighters. The Navy’s portfolio acquisition executive for munitions posted information on the AIM-424 Long Range Air-to-Air Missile online on Aug. 22, the same day it unveiled the project at the service’s…