A 71-member team of airmen with the 5th Combat Communications Group, Robins AFB, Ga., flew into Manas AB, Kyrgyzstan, to await their call to set up communications capability for the Pakistan earthquake relief effort. These combat communications specialists—battlefield airmen—are trained to go into austere environments to set up air traffic control, radio, telephone, and computer capability. (Read our article here.) They came prepared to fan out in Pakistan in small teams of three to four people with backpack satellite radios and wireless computers to coordinate helicopter landings.
The Air Force’s Kessel Run software factory is launching an effort to create the “next generation” of the service's Air Operations Centers, used to command, control, and coordinate aircraft movements around the globe.
