According to a July 15 release from the New York State Division of Military and Naval Affairs, the Air Force has directed the renaming of the New York Air National Guard’s Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS) to the Eastern Air Defense Sector (EADS). The change, said the release, reflects the sector’s expanded East Coast mission. “In November 2006, the sector assumed responsibility for providing air sovereignty over the entire East Coast of the US, which includes more than one million miles of airspace,” states the release. The sector that covers US airspace west of the Mississippi River is the Western Air Defense Sector. Col. John Bartholf, EADS commander, said, “We are extremely grateful to be officially renamed the Eastern Air Defense Sector because it truly reflects our area of responsibility.”
RTX’s Raytheon unit was able to “significantly” extend the range of the AIM-120 Advanced Medium-Range Air-to-Air Missile using mostly software changes in experimental tests last year, expanding the reach and lethality of the standard U.S. dogfighting weapon, company officials said Sept. 15.
