The Pentagon is withdrawing most US troops from Syria as Turkey’s invasion across the border to fight the Syrian Democratic Forces has created an “unacceptable level” of risk for American forces, Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Oct. 15. About 1,000 Americans are leaving as the US military faces being “engulfed in a broader conflict,” Esper said on Twitter. The Pentagon and White House previously said withdrawal would affect around 50 troops. Some will remain at the al-Tanf base near Syria’s border with Iraq and Jordan. F-15 fighter jets on Oct. 15 flew in a show of force over Turkish-backed fighters that drew near to American troops by the Syrian village of Ain Issa, where US forces were stationed with Syrian Kurdish forces, Fox News reported. Read the full story by Brian Everstine.

JBSA-LACKLAND, TEXAS—The RQ-4 Global Hawk enterprise has more work ahead to grow into its new wing headquarters at Grand Forks AFB, N.D., four months after it split from the 9th Reconnaissance Wing at Beale AFB, Calif., to form the 319th Reconnaissance Wing. While that shift hasn’t affected how RQ-4s operate out of Beale, Grand Forks, or other installations, Air Combat Command boss Gen. Mike Holmes noted that 319th RW headquarters staff needs to grow in order to manage its responsibilities. The wing is fleshing out new capabilities for its remotely piloted aircraft as well. Read the full story by Rachel S. Cohen.

Air Force Chief of Staff Gen. David Goldfein told reporters Oct. 11 that his service and the Navy are trying to connect combat assets in new ways as the Defense Department ramps up its effort to improve joint, software-driven warfare. “We did some pretty cool experimentation with space linked to [intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance] linked to [command and control] linked to shooter, and then wrote the algorithms, put the common architecture in place, and then worked the kill chain machine-to-machine, where the only human that was actually on the loop was the shooter.” Read the full story by Rachel S. Cohen.

Civil Air Patrol is now using small drones to aid in search and rescue missions, according to an Oct. 10 release. Unmanned aerial systems already capture images to support local, state, and federal emergency management agencies, but a recent search in South Dakota marked the first time the drones were used in a “real-world SAR mission,” Austin Worcester, CAP’s senior program manager for small unmanned aerial systems, or sUAS, told Air Force Magazine on Oct. 11. CAP’s South Dakota Wing in late September deployed sUAS to help track down a lost hiker, according to the release. CAP used small drones again in October when searching for a missing hunter. CAP now owns and operates about 1,500 sUAS stations across the US and Puerto Rico, Worcester said, making the organization “the largest civilian owner of [Federal Aviation Administration]-registered sUAS in the country.” Read the full story by Jennifer-Leigh Oprihory.