The Combined Air Operations Center in Southwest Asia reports that an MQ-1 Predator unmanned aerial vehicle crashed Feb. 23 at about 1 p.m. some 60 miles northeast of Jalalabad, Afghanistan. Officials believe the crash was due to mechanical failure rather than enemy fire.
A three-month continuing resolution that ended in December inflicted less pain on the Department of the Air Force than it had expected, as procurement and construction continue in the new year. The federal government operated under a stopgap spending measure that stretched from the beginning of the fiscal year on…