Connecticut state officials have filed a request for a permanent injunction barring the “illegal removal” of any aircraft from the Connecticut Air National Guard’s 103rd Fighter Wing. The ANG unit at Bradley Field stands to lose its A-10s under BRAC 2005. The state has been fighting removal of the aircraft since last summer’s BRAC deliberations, at one point getting a US district judge to bar the BRAC commission from including the cut in their recommendations. That didn’t last.
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.