The Alabama National Guard’s Red Tails deployed to Romania for training with its host country as part of the National Guard’s state partnership program. About 150 airmen and eight F-16s from the 100th Fighter Squadron deployed in early October, reported the Montgomery Advertiser. The jets stopped at Lajes Field, Azores, on the way to Campia Turzii, Romania, on Oct. 9, according to base public affairs. Alabama has been partnered with Romania since 1993 as part of the Guard’s State Partnership Program, which couples state guard units with countries across the globe for training. The 187th Fighter Wing last trained with Romania in 2012, and the state’s Army Guard sent more than 1,000 soldiers to Romania earlier this year, according to the Guard.
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.
