Officials in Richland County, Ohio, secured a Labor Department grant for nearly $145,000 to help search for a new mission for Air National Guard’s 179th Airlift Wing at Lahm Airport in Mansfield, reports the Mansfield (OH) News Journal. The 2005 BRAC spared the wing but took its C-130s, so it must find a new mission. Local officials plan to use the money to compile information on skills and training levels of employees to market them for a new military mission and to research how to attract private sector development. An Ohio ANG spokesman tells the paper that a new mission could be assigned to the 179th within weeks. We should never underestimate the power of positive thinking.
The use of a military counter-drone laser on the southwest border this week—which prompted the Federal Aviation Administration to abruptly close the airspace over El Paso, Texas—will be a “case study” on the complex web of authorities needed to employ such weapons near civilian areas and the consequences of agencies…
