A Pentagon report on the strength and progress of Iraq’s security forces delivered to Congress two days before the countrywide constitutional referendum notes improvement in the overall ability of security forces. More than 192,000 Iraqi security forces are trained and equipped, which is a 12 percent increase from July. According to Air Force Lt. Gen. Victor E. Renuart Jr., the joint staff’s director for plans and policy, the number has increased since the report’s cutoff date and now the total numbers of security forces are between 199,000 and 200,000. Renuart notes that the “insurgency is a fight that will continue.” The Iraqi people seem much more willing to aid that fight; they have provided a “dramatic increase in intelligence tips” over the past few months, according to the report. (See the tip chart here.)
With the Air Force in the midst of its biggest testing boom in decades, the Maintenance Operational Test (MxOT) Division at Nellis Air Force Base, Nev., is making sure those tests include an often-overlooked perspective: that of maintainers.