Brig. Gen. Leon Rice, assistant Adjutant General-Air in Massachusetts, met with some resistance as he discussed the Air National Guard’s plans to lower the ceiling for intercept training flights over the Condor Military Operation Area over Western Maine at the last of five planned public hearings, this one in Farmington, Maine, Tuesday evening, according to an Associated Press report (via Boston Herald). The plan calls for expanding the area in which Air National Guard F-15 and F-16 fighters, mainly from Massachusetts and Vermont, can fly as low as 500 feet but reducing the time at which they fly at that level. The Air Guard has not done a full environmental impact study, which Rice said it’s not required to do. Gov. John Baldacci of Maine has asked for a full study. Right now, the Massachusetts ANG expects to present the plan to the FAA next spring.
This year’s Association of the United States Army’s annual meeting buzzed with talk of countering the rapidly evolving drone threat facing the entire U.S. military, including the Air Force. Leaders and defense industry officials discussed the need for new approaches to procurement and employment of a new class of these…
