A-10s flew close air support for Marine ground forces during a live-fire Integrated Training Exercise held at Marine Corps Air Ground Combat Center Twentynine Palms, Calif., earlier this month. “Getting to work with live artillery, tanks, mortars, Cobras, and Harriers that are shooting real weapons is pretty rare,” said 354th Fighter Squadron pilot Capt. Matthew Barrett, from Davis-Monthan AFB, Ariz. “There’s a lot of pieces … you’ve got the ground forces moving in a very dynamic manner,” added pilot Capt. Ryan Rutter in the Feb. 22 release. Davis-Monthan A-10s, which staged from March ARB, Calif., cooperated with AV-8B Harriers, AH-1Z Vipers, and UH-1Y Huey helicopters from 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing to ready the Marine units for an upcoming expeditionary deployment, according to a release. HH-60G Pavehawks along with pilots, maintainers, and support personnel from Nellis AFB, Nev., also supported ITX 16-2, which wrapped up earlier this month.
In the face of Chinese war plans to disrupt U.S. command-and-control networks in the event of a conflict, the Air Force needs to focus less on its “connect everything” efforts and prepare its combat aviators to fight without a constant connection to higher-ups, according to a new report from AFA’s…
