Bruce Lemkin, point man for international affairs in the Air Force Secretariat since 2003 is retiring, according to USAF officials. No date was given for when Lemkin will leave. And there has been no announcement yet on his successor. Among his contributions, Lemkin played a key role in establishing the 12-nation Strategic Airlift Capability consortium that now operates a heavy airlift wing with three C-17 transports at Papa AB, Hungary. He was also instrumental in formulating the Air Force’s current global partnership strategy that stresses building partner capacity. Lemkin graduated from Annapolis in 1971 and spent time as a nuclear submarine commander.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.