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.
Members of Congress from both parties expressed frustration and dismay over the abrupt and still-unexplained firing last month of Air Force Gen. Timothy Haugh from his dual role as head of U.S. Cyber Command and director of the National Security Agency.