If an Associated Press report has it right, the US government may be close to working an arrangement with Colombia to host a new base from which the US military could launch its counter-drug missions. US Southern Command has been running counterdrug operations from Eloy Alfaro Air Base in Manta, Ecuador, since 1999 but Ecuador earlier this year signaled it wanted to end the lease arrangement by the end of September.
Two F-15EX Eagle II fighters arrived for training at Kadena Air Base, Japan, July 12 as the base gears up to receive a permanent fleet of the jets.