The Air Force used the new Joint Precision Airdrop System with a C-17 airlifter for the first time, dropping 21,000 pounds of supplies using the JPADS screamer steerable parachutes to ground forces in Afghanistan. The 437th Airlift Wing airlift crew, deployed from Charleston AFB, S.C, then flew on to another location, where they dropped another 8,000 pounds using the Improved Container Delivery System. And, that, according to an Air Mobility Command release, is the beauty of the C-17—it can haul about 40 delivery system bundles and drop at multiple locations. As for the screamers, loadmaster SSgt. Derek Howard, says: “The system was amazing to watch. When the bundles departed the aircraft and the chutes deployed you could instantly see them turning in what appeared to be a formation as the guidance system began steering the bundle directly over the drop zone.” (The first use of JPADS in Iraq took place in February; the first JPADS combat air drop was in Afghanistan in August 2006.
The U.S. military is maintaining a beefed-up presence in the Middle East, including fighters and air defense assets, following the U.S. strikes on Iranian nuclear facilities June 22 and subsequent retaliation by the Iranians against Al Udeid Air Base in Qatar.
