Air Combat Command is sticking with the same message that Gen. William Fraser, ACC boss, gave to reporters in February when discussing the Air Force’s F-35A strike fighter in-service date. In a statement provided to the Daily Report Monday, the command said it is working with the Pentagon’s acquisition community and the F-35 program office in “analyzing the implications” of the recently announced F-35 program restructure “on the previously estimated” Fiscal 2013 initial operational capability date. “The final decision on IOC will be based on operational capability,” stated the command. Air Force Secretary Michael Donley said this, too, during a meeting with reporters on March 2 and then told Senate lawmakers the same two days later. But unlike ACC, Donley also pointed out to the reporters that he did not see the F-35s ready to assume operations until late in 2015.
The Pentagon’s new counter-drone task force will play a direct role in arming Airmen with new weapons to defend Air Force agile combat employment, or ACE, air bases in austere locations against enemy drone attacks, the director of Joint Interagency Task Force 401 said Oct. 14.
