The Air Force on Thursday issued its list of 11 candidate bases that are the potential beddown locations for the first 250 to 300 F-35 Joint Strike Fighters that are scheduled to enter its inventory by 2017. On the short list of operational bases are: Hill AFB, Utah; Mountain Home AFB, Idaho; and Shaw AFB, S.C., as well as McEntire Joint National Guard Base, S.C., and the Air National Guard stations in Burlington, Vt., and Jacksonville, Fla. On the short list of training locations are: Eglin AFB, Fla.; Holloman AFB N.M.; and Luke AFB, Ariz., as well as the ANG stations in Boise, Idaho, and Tuscon, Ariz. The Air Force said it selected these candidate installations out of the pool of more than 200 USAF sites using the “deliberate, repeatable, standardized, and transparent” process that it outlined in September. Continue
Since President Donald Trump first unveiled his “Golden Dome” missile defense initiative in late January, much of the focus for it has been focused on space—how the Pentagon may deploy dozens, if not hundreds, of sensors and interceptors into orbit to protect the continental U.S. from missile barrages. But the Air…