Pentagon Assigns Drone Unit To Ohio Air Base
(From The Associated Press)
SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) - The Pentagon is assigning a unit of the unmanned Predator drone aircraft to a military base in Ohio.
The move helps retain 866 jobs at the Springfield Air National Guard. In addition, the base will take on expanded work by the National Air and Space Intelligence Center, which is headquartered at nearby Wright-Patterson Air Force Base in Dayton.
The base's future had been in question. An agreement to train military pilots from the Netherlands to fly the F-16 fighter ends in September.
U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown said Friday the base's new mission means it will no longer rely on temporary missions to remain open.
The MQ-1 Predator unmanned aircraft has been used by the Central Intelligence Agency to strike at al-Qaeda terrorists along the border of Pakistan and Afghanistan.
