USAF officials plan to return the airport terminal and air traffic tower at Kandahar AB, Afghanistan, back to Afghan control. But before they do, airmen at the facility have been installing more than a mile of copper and fiber optic cabling to keep communications lines open. Handling the need-this-done-now work are combat communicators of the 451st Air Expeditionary Group. It is not their stock in trade, but the job they did, say officials, saved a special team from Qatar about five days work. The combat communicators, who come from various active and reserve units, also expanded 10-fold the bandwidth capability for the facility by installing new network switches.
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.