Airlifting 39,000 pounds of cargo on Aug. 23 to soldiers and marines in the eastern region of Afghanistan was just another daily mission for airmen of the 745th Expeditionary Airlift Squadron, troops who fly and maintain the C-130s now deployed to Bagram Air Base there. USAF installed the C-130 unit in Afghanistan because the Hercules can handle such short haul missions into rough terrain.
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.

