Sen. Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Sen. Saxby Chambliss (R-Ga.) introduced legislation that if approved would “prohibit a reduction in funding for the defense commissary system in [Fiscal 2015],” according to a March 5 joint statement. The Defense budget calls for “reducing the annual subsidy for these military stores by $1 billion, or almost 70 percent, by 2017,” states the March 5 release. The Senators are requesting the Pentagon wait until after a report on a comprehensive set of recommendations on military pay and benefits is released. The Military Compensation and Retirement Modernization Commission is working on this report, which is due next February. “These cuts to commissaries are an unfair burden on many of our military men and women,” Sen. Warner said.
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.
