Air Force airlifters have flown more than 200 sorties, hauling some 3,000 tons of relief cargo and 700 responders to East Coast communities damaged by Superstorm Sandy, as of Nov. 6, announced Air Mobility Command officials. C-5s, C-17s, and C-130s from sixteen Active Duty, Air National Guard, and Air Force Reserve Command units across the nation have been engaged in relief efforts since the storm struck on Oct. 30, they stated. “Air Force Reserve wings from as far as California . . . have stepped up and volunteered to help,” said Col. Greg Webster, AFRC advisor in the Tanker Airlift Control Center at Scott AFB, Ill. “Without this type of Total Force integration, we would not have been able to immediately respond to this immense effort as effectively as we have,” he noted. The transport airplanes have ferried everything from utility repair trucks, generators, and water pumps, to power company personnel and blankets in support of the recovery efforts. (Scott report by Capt. Mauri Slater)
The White House announced its United States Space Priorities Framework in a document released concurrently with Vice President Kamala Harris' first National Space Council meeting. Listed among five U.S. priorities is to “defend its national security interests from the growing scope and scale of space and counterspace threats.”