As much expertise as the National Guard has compiled in homeland defense missions, Air Force Gen. Craig McKinley, National Guard Bureau boss, said he is not receptive to suggestions that would separate the Guard from the total force to serve solely in domestic missions. “This heads you down the road of being a constabulary force and won’t serve the nation as effectively,” McKinley said Tuesday at AFA’s Air & Space Conference. To dedicate the Guard—Army or Air—to domestic missions would erode capability across the total force.
The 14th Weather Squadron is taking on a new mission performed by no other unit in the military: predicting what the climate might look like 10 years from now, with calculations that include the effect of greenhouse gasses.