Echoing comments made by Air Force leadership this week, Pentagon acquisition executive Frank Kendall said Wednesday that Air Force contributions will be key in the coming international campaign “to degrade and ultimately destroy” the terror organization ISIS in both Iraq and Syria. “The Air Force will play a central role in ensuring our campaign success,” he said in his keynote address at AFA’s Air & Space Conference in National Harbor, Md. Already, Air Force platforms, ranging from remotely piloted aircraft to AC-130 gunships and B-1 bombers, have conducted two-thirds of the US air sorties and airstrikes against ISIL inside Iraq, said Kendall. C-17 and C-130s have dropped nearly 46,000 gallons of water, more than 121,000 meals, and more than one million pounds of supplies overall inside Iraq, he said. This engagement is just one example of the Air Force “responding in a moment’s notice to deal with emerging threats” and “a critical reminder that America’s airmen and women will continue to be called upon to confront terrorist insurgents in many years to come,” he said.
The Air Force’s study of possible links to elevated rates of cancer among personnel who worked on intercontinental continental ballistic missiles has begun, the commander in charge of the U.S. ICBM fleet confirmed March 28. The initial phase of that study will mine cancer registries for information and compile a…