The Air Force confirmed a news report in which Lt. Gen. Roger Brady, USAF’s top personnel officer, said the planned escalation of US forces in Iraq might entail an increase in the number of airmen who fill in for soldiers and marines on such “outside the wire” jobs as convoy duty and attending to improvised explosive devices. Air Force Secretary Michael Wynne late last year said that USAF would continue its “in lieu of” work for the time being, but it’s not an open-ended commitment. Air Combat Command leader, Gen. Ronald Keys has said that ILO work is costing his command money it doesn’t have to spare.
An important U.S. Air Force E-3 Sentry AWACS command and control plane was among the aircraft damaged in a March 27 Iranian missile and drone attack on Prince Sultan Air Base, Saudi Arabia, people familiar with the matter told Air & Space Forces Magazine.