Saved in Terre Haute: Indiana Air Guardsmen of the 181st Fighter Wing in Terre Haute still have to give up their F-16s (to neighboring Fort Wayne, no less) under BRAC 2005, but they get two new missions in exchange, reports the Terre Haute Tribune-Star. The Pentagon plans to put an intelligence-surveillance-reconnaissance data analysis unit (called a Distributed Common Ground Station) and an Air Support Operations Squadron (read that battlefield airmen) at Terre Haute. Combined, the two new missions will require about 420 Air Guardsmen.
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.