Workers began breaking ground near an old cruise missile facility at Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz., to make way for a new Falconer Combined Air Operations Center, scheduled to come online in July 2006. The new operations center will be the only continuously operational facility in the US, say Air Force officials. There are four Falconer CAOC weapon systems overseas. The $11.35 million facility will serve as the command and control location for Air Force South—the air and space element of US Southern Command.
Amid NATO’s continued push to ramp up air defenses in Eastern Europe, Secretary of the Air Force Frank Kendall swung by seven allied countries to boost relations last week, including those on Russia’s and Ukraine’s doorstep.