The struggle was most heated over the Air Guard’s fighter forces. Various press reports and public statements point to instances in which the BRAC panel sided with ANG and turned aside the Air Force’s plans. Examples: the Portland, Ore., ANG unit will not lose its F-15 fighters, as the Pentagon proposed, but will keep all of them and remain open; the Fort Smith, Ark., ANG unit wound up with 18 A-10 fighters, rather than none, as DOD proposed; the Great Falls, Mont., Guard unit will have 15 F-16s instead of none; the Duluth, Minn., ANG unit will keep 15 F-16s instead of none.
A Defense Department team on the ground in Ukraine has been assessing what the country needs to protect itself from air, naval, electronic, and cyber warfare threats as Russian troops have gathered on multiple fronts, a senior Ukrainian defense official told Air Force Magazine, describing an emphasis on what assistance…