Travis CRG Trains in Sierra Nevada: In California’s remote Honey Lake Valley, northwest of Reno, Nev., the 570th Contingency Response Group, based at Travis AFB, Calif., spent 10 days last month taking part in its first full-scale exercise, practicing a descent onto a remote runway and setting up air operations in a hostile environment. “We want to be able to rapidly supply soldiers on the battlefield and to do that we fly supplies and personnel into the most forward-operating locations available,” Lt. Col. Rick Matton, the 570th deputy commander, told the Contra Costa (Calif.) Times. He added, that the CRG airmen could open up an airfield anywhere “as long as we’ve got a radio and a forklift.” (Our article “The First-In Mobility Crowd” offers some background on CRGs.)
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
