The 380th Air Expeditionary Wing in Southwest Asia (not Iraq or Afghanistan) has been supporting war on terror operations for years. For about the same length of time, Air Force officials have been working to improve living and working conditions, and, come April, they plan a big move into what they term the Temporary Containment Area. But the TCA, officials say, will be a vast improvement over the existing tent city, where 13-year-old tents housed six to eight people. The hard walls of the new rooms will afford quite hours, so air and ground crews can get some well-earned rest. The move to new quarters, say officials, will not disrupt the 380th’s mission of aerial refueling and intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance operations.
As the Pentagon increasingly pivots its focus to strategic competition with China, the U.S. will look to expand its partnership with South Korea to increase security across the entire Indo-Pacific region, Defense Secretary Lloyd J. Austin III said Dec. 2 during a visit to the northeastern Asian nation.