One of the weapons getting a lot of use—and little attention—in Iraq and Afghanistan, is the good old gun. The A-10 Warthog has been doing a lot of strafing with its 30 mm cannon, which is often just the right amount of firepower the ground troops need, said Gen. Ronald Keys, head of Air Combat Command, at AFA’s Air Warfare Symposium in Orlando, Fla., last week. He also noted that F-15s and F-16s have been doing more strafing with their 20 mm cannons than they’ve ever done.
U.S. Southern Command recently announced its first lethal strike on a suspected narco-trafficking vessel in two months, and the first under a newly formed permanent counter-cartel task force. The U.S. is also reportedly planning to transfer MQ-9 drones to Colombia to bolster its counter-cartel efforts.