The Air Force intends to station a detachment of 10 T-38 trainer aircraft at Tyndall AFB, Fla., announced Florida Sen. George LeMieux (R). The T-38s will serve there in a “dedicated adversary” role in support of Tyndall’s F-22s, he said. Tyndall is currently home to F-22 training but is also slated to receive a squadron of combat-ready F-22s under the Air Force’s F-22 basing consolidation plan. LeMieux said the first T-38s would arrive by the end of September 2011, and all 10 are expected to be in place by the end of March 2012.
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.