Trying an End Run Around the Guard: Maj. Gen. Michael Haugen, the commander of North Dakota’s National Guard, like other Guardsmen, is having trouble rationalizing Pentagon budget woes with the proposed plan to cut the Army Guard and Air Guard. Haugen tells the Associated Press that the Pentagon is trying “to do BRAC by another name.” He wants the Guard to “guide [DOD] into the smart budget.” North Dakota lawmakers are among those who have sent a letter to Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld protesting Guard reductions.
The Air Force is placing Air Combat Command in charge of teaching combat tactics to fighter and remotely-piloted aircraft units, according to a May 12 announcement. Beginning this summer, the service will reassign the formal training units for the F-35, F-16, and MQ-9 from Air Education and Training Command to…