President Obama on Wednesday nominated Marine Corps Gen. James Mattis to head US Central Command. If the Senate approves his nomination, Mattis, would fill the void at CENTCOM’s top post left by the departure of Army Gen. David Petraeus in late June. Obama tasked Petraeus to take command of US and NATO forces in Afghanistan after the resignation of Army Gen. Stanley McChrystal from that position. In his new role, Mattis, current US Joint Forces Command boss, would oversee more than 200,000 US troops as well as the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan. In related news, Obama on Tuesday nominated Gen. James Amos to be the new Marine Corps commandant. If confirmed, Amos would be the first Marine aviator to lead the Corps. He would succeed Gen. James Conway, who is retiring. (Defense Department release on Mattis) (DOD release on Amos) (See also AFPS report on Mattis.)
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.
