The Florida Air National Guard’s 601st Air Operations Center have taken the reins for a new $15 million, 37,000-square-foot facility designed to help 1st Air Force and the Continental NORAD Region direct strategic air and homeland defense air forces for NORAD and US Northern Command. The new center, slated to become operational in June, will be called America’s Air Operations Center. The former Southeast Air Defense Sector ended its 37-year run last fall as part of the switchover to the new AOC.
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.