The Army for the first time has invited the Air Force to participate in its annual “Unified Endeavor” exercise at Ft. Drum, N.Y. The goal is to talk airpower capabilities with senior members of the 10th Mountain Division, which shortly will rotate into the lead force of Joint Task Force-76 in Afghanistan. Airmen provided the training work for coordination with the theater air and space component. The lessons covered items ranging from working with USAF’s tactical air control party airmen in the field all the way up to coordinating major ground movements with the theater’s air operations center.
The U.S. supports “a stronger and more capable” European defense, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said during an Oct. 22 press conference in Brussels—but that defense should not duplicate the functions and capabilities of the NATO alliance.