The Air Force recently “shot down” an ISIS drone using electronic measures, though the service won’t say specifically how it grounded the system. Air Force Secretary Deborah Lee James, speaking at a Center for a New American Security event Monday in Washington, D.C., said the Air Force was informed there was a drone in the vicinity, and “fairly quickly we were able to bring it down.” The small, cheap drones are proliferating in the Middle East and with explosives on them “they can do damage,” she said. A small drone with explosives recently killed two Peshmerga fighters in northern Iraq. James appeared at the event with Navy Secretary Ray Mabus and Army Secretary Eric Fanning, who said countering the small drones is quickly becoming a priority for him.
Happy Birthday US Air Force: 78 Today
Sept. 18, 2025
Seventy-eight years ago today, on Sept. 18, 1947, Supreme Court Chief Justice Fred Vinson swore in Stuart Symington as the first ever Secretary of the Air Force, and the Air Force officially became the first new military service since the Revolutionary War.
