If an Associated Press report has it right, the US government may be close to working an arrangement with Colombia to host a new base from which the US military could launch its counter-drug missions. US Southern Command has been running counterdrug operations from Eloy Alfaro Air Base in Manta, Ecuador, since 1999 but Ecuador earlier this year signaled it wanted to end the lease arrangement by the end of September.
As the threat of Iranian-made drones grew, the Air Force rushed last year to equip F-15E Strike Eagles in the Middle East with a cheap, cost-effective way of defeating them. The service fielded the new capability in roughly a week.
