Airmen are taking new and challenging billets in Iraq, and the job of the 732nd Expeditionary Mission Support Group’s Personnel Support for Contingency Operation team is to keep track of them all. While most of the “in lieu of forces” airmen are separate from the EMSG at Balad Air Base, the have to be in-processed. Supporting 30 forward locations and over 1,000 airmen in the wing who work outside Balad, the team’s office is manned 18 hours a day and another is on standby 24 hours a day. In addition to personnel assistance, the team liaison’s work, database support and emergency support assistance.
Bell Textron has won DARPA's contest for a no-runway, high-speed drone that will prove out technologies useful for special operations forces and possibly the Air Force's Agile Combat Employment concept. Bell's design converts a tiltrotor to a jet-powered aircraft able to fly at up to 450 knots.