Tale of the Tape on Air Mobility: USAF air mobility forces have been working overtime ever since the war on terror began in 2001. In recent Congressional testimony, Gen. Norton Schwartz, commander of USTRANSCOM, quantified the magnitude of the 2005 effort. Airlift support of operations in Afghanistan and Iraq: 1,188,084 passengers and 457,670 tons of cargo moved. Air tanker ops: 508,000 tons of fuel offloaded. Force rotation of units to and from Iraq and Afghanistan: 250,000 passengers and 11,000 tons of cargo in the first three months of 2005.
House lawmakers are encouraging the Air Force and U.S. Special Operations Command to work together as each pursues long-range, long-endurance reconnaissance drones. Both entities are investing in unmanned assets that can slip into highly defended areas, loiter over a particularly valuable target for days at a time, and traverse multiple…