Pacific Air Forces has started Cope Thunder 2006, an annual air combat training exercise that will run through Oct. 21. More than 1,000 active duty and Air National Guard airmen along with 87 aircraft will take part in PACAF’s largest air combat exercise, which is conducted out of Eielson AFB, Alaska, and nearby Elmendorf Air Force Base. This year’s exercises will focus on large force employment training as well as close air support, combat search and rescue, time sensitive targeting, and B-1B Lancer missions from overseas and continental US locations, according to Lt. Col. Eddie Osteen, director of operations for the 353rd Combat Training Squadron.
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…