USAF F-16s and A-10s deployed to support operations in Iraq provided close air support—in spades—to coalition ground forces under attack near An Najaf on Jan. 28, according to a Feb. 3 US Central Command Air Forces release from Balad AB, Iraq. The F-16s operating out of Balad and A-10s from Al Asad Air Base dropped more than 3.5 tons of precision munitions 
and some 3,000-plus rounds of cannon fire over a five square mile area. The operation killed more than 200 insurgents and led to the capture of another 100. The F-16s are from the 510th Fighter Squadron, Aviano AB, Italy; 14th FS, Misawa AB, Japan; and 332nd FS, Balad. The A-10s are from the 74th FS at Pope AFB, N.C.
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth this week released strategies meant to focus the Pentagon’s “alphabet soup” of innovation organizations and proliferate artificial intelligence—moves that experts say could provide the structure needed to make the military’s efforts to integrate and field new technology more effective.
