Members of the Connecticut Air National Guard’s 103rd Airlift Wing at Bradley ANG Base in East Granby in early March broke ground at the site where the unit’s new centralized intermediate repair facility will be erected under an $8.3 million construction project. This work will add 17,000 square feet of workspace—giving the wing roughly 30,000 square feet of room overall—to repair and overhaul TF-34 engines used on the A-10 ground-attack aircraft. The CIRF will employ about 80 technicians who will be responsible for the T-34s on 78 Air Guard A-10s and additional engines for A-10s in active duty units. The CIRF will be the last remaining part of the wing’s A-10 legacy. Under BRAC 2005, the unit relinquished its A-10s and took on C-21 VIP transports. (Bradley report by TSgt. Joshua Mead)
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
