According to Rep. Anna Eshoo (D-Calif.), the Air Force and NASA have agreed to a 50-year-lease that will allow the California Air National Guard’s 129th Rescue Wing to continue using Moffett Federal Airfield as its base of operations for the next 50 years. In a Feb. 3 statement, Eshoo said, “At long last the unit known for taking care of others is being taken care of with a permanent home in the heart of Silicon Valley.” She noted that this is the first long-term agreement for the wing and would afford its airmen “much deserved stability.” (Also see The Mercury News report)
While U.S. defense officials have spent much of the past decade warning that China is the nation’s pacing threat and its People’s Liberation Army represents an urgent threat in the Indo-Pacific, several defense researchers are skeptical that the PLA has the human capital, the structural ability, or the political appetite…