The Senate Intelligence Committee voted on March 9 to approve Dan Coats—a former Republican senator and President Donald Trump’s nominee—to become Director of National Intelligence. The closed hearing vote favored Coats 13-2, according to Reuters. Coats still needs to be confirmed by the full Senate to take on the position, which oversees the Office of the Director of National Intelligence and the nation’s Intelligence Community. That community consists of 17 agencies and includes the CIA, FBI, and 15 other members of the intel community. We’ve broken them out in this infographic, which will also appear in an upcoming issue of Air Force Magazine.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.