The Air Force has named Pacific Air Forces’ 17th Operational Weather Squadron at Hickam AFB, Hawaii, the best operational weather squadron for 2006. The 17th OWS covers 110 million square miles and 42 countries, the largest area of any of USAF’s eight operational weather squadrons, reports Capt. Yvonne Levardi. During 2006, the unit completed a merger with the 20th OWS, formerly at Yokota AB, Japan, two months early and about $50,000 under budget, and began work on a merger with 11th OWS at Elmendorf AFB, Alaska, in addition to handling mission planning requirements during Super Typhoon Ioke, among other tasks.
No sooner had the Defense Intelligence Agency issued its North Korean Military Power report, in which it predicted Pyongyang would resume ballistic missile tests, than North Korea did exactly that, lofting a submarine-launched ballistic missile Oct. 19. The test, in which an SLBM launched from the port of Sinpo into…