Three unresolved situations in Libya give Army Gen. Carter Ham, US Africa Command boss, the greatest concern. The first is that Libya’s stockpile of shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles will find their way into the hands of terrorists or insurgents in Afghanistan and elsewhere, Ham told defense reporters in Washington, D.C., Wednesday. He noted that the State Department is engaging with those countries in the region that the missiles might pass through on their way elsewhere, and these nations are “trying to craft a way ahead” to prevent that. “The countries recognize the risk this runs,” he said. Ham’s second biggest concern is that captured Libyan munitions likewise will migrate and be cobbled into improvised explosive devices. Thirdly, although Libya didn’t have weaponized chemical weapons, it did have the ingredients, and Ham is anxious to see that those precursor materials are rounded up and rendered safe.
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…