More than 190 members of the New York Air National Guard’s 174th Fighter Wing left Hancock Field ANGB in Syracuse yesterday (June 4) on the unit’s final F-16 deployment to the Middle East before transitioning to a new mission later this year. The four-month tour is the unit’s eighth to Southwest Asia since 1991 and its first since January 2007, Syracuse’s Post-Standard reported June 4. In all, about 500 wing personnel will rotate in and out of the combat theater on this deployment, the newspaper said. Upon returning, the wing will begin to convert this fall from flying F-16s to operating MQ-9 Reaper unmanned aerial vehicles, wing spokeswoman 2nd Lt. Greta Lewis told the Daily Report June 4.
A new Air Force organization is searching for counter-drone firms to participate in a dozen or more exercises to help create operating plans by the end of this year for defending the service’s U.S.-based installations from drone attacks.